"Nobody Laughed...So It's Not A Clown Number."

Auto-course showing today. Simone and I are showing on Monday so I had a bit of an easy day! But many people were full of nerves!

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Philippe started the class by reminding us to enter to the clown/circus music and circle around the stage running. When the music stops, look at the audience (and your partner as well) and then "something has to start...otherwise you enter in a big deep hole and can't get out easily."

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Philippe also introduced the idea of Monsieur Loyale - the director of the circus. His job is to present the acts and build up the anticipation for what's coming next. "He gives a lot of sauce...The more the number is ridiculous the more he speaks of their genius." To play him you have to have a good costume, you have to smile ("be commercial") and "you have to be charming, charming, charming!"

Nicko had a go, and so did I. It's not easy. You have to be a great host. And if a number is bad you have to come on stage and kill the act before the audience leaves! It's fun to talk up the act though!

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Mark and Michaela started. Their idea was to have trouble introducing their show - correcting each other and having personal problems. But it wasn't funny at all. We saw their idea loud and clear but not their idiocy or humanity at all. "Three minutes we don't laugh...you have to change...you have to do something to save the show."

"You don't look at each other...the more the show is bad the more you have to be together."

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Rosemary, Katie, Tessa and Liz presented something abstract related to a girl drowning (the autocourse was supposed to be based on a play about a woman who drowned in Gibraltar) but we didn't laugh again. Philippe said what they did was very complicated. "It's much easier than that."

"A clown has something to surprise us. Always."

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Miluka and Sophie did something abstract with buckets on their head.

"Nobody laughed...so it's not a clown number."

Philippe then said "we want to see the problem of the bucket on the head" and he got Sophie to put her bucket on her head (go figure) and wander around the room banging into things and falling over. (This reminded me of my scene in Vaudeville, and made me think I could have gone a lot further with it physically! Falling over, banging into walls. I could have really milked it!) That was very funny! 

And with Miluka standing in the middle of the room trying to do the show, with Sophie with a bucket on her head, it worked and we laughed. They were a nice pair two. "You could work [together]...these two bodies have something good."

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Boris presented a number by himself in which he swung a banana on a string around his neck whilst trying to read something from a book to us. It was kind of funny when the banana hit his book so he could never actually read anything, but it didn't quite work.

Philippe said that clowns don't play with the prop of their costume. i.e. Boris in his King Kong costume shouldn't play with a banana or Jane (a doll on his shoulder). They are part of his costume, not toys. He said he Boris could swing a toy airplane around his neck and it would be okay. But then later he contradicted himself saying "BUT if you love it [the prop] you can play with it." 

He also said to Boris "you can't do two things at the same time"  - as Boris had started the game of having troubles with hair getting in his eyes whilst doing the banana gag.

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Hannah presented a number in which she danced around the music and said "in Gibraltar" after certain lines. But there was an unintentional mistake with the music (Michiko then continued to make mistakes intentionally). It's fun to watch a clown try and deal with a problem - in this situation the wrong music - whilst trying to keep the show look like it's been rehearsed this way. The clown shouldn't go into the audience to fix it either. Always stay in the light. Hannah was great later on too when Philippe got her to yell optimistically. "One day...when the music will come...I will be a genius!" This optimism is a great loveable idiotic quality.

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Steph and Nicko presented something that flopped immediately, but Nicko saved it a bit by yelling "this show is funny!" optimistically. They weren't playing major and minor though - Steph tried to get in Nicko's game - to which Philippe said: "If your friend is good let him [continue]...if he's bad then it's your time to save the show."

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Kat and Paula presented a number, starting with Kat coming out and eating a banana and then dying. She was kind of funny - she had good audience connection and we liked her - but when Paula entered it fell apart quickly. Philippe wanted to see the couple together though, so let them come out again and just play. What came from it was a fantastic improvisation. We absolutely loved them. Philippe said to Kat "your game timing and your humour is fantastic" and said "it's beautifully idiot" about their scene. "A bit private...I'm not sure it's a show...but we love them."

He named them Beauty and the Beast.

"It's difficult to find someone with who you could play...It's very difficult."

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Philippe ended the class by saying "A clown doesn't change...he's always the same...Buster Keaton...Charlie Chaplin...The situations change but not the clown."