"The Best Friend Of A Clown Is His Costume."

Everybody came in costumes today! Very exciting! 

First thing we did in class was in groups of five stand on stage with our backs to the audience, and when Philippe beat his drum we had to turn to the audience as if we had arrived at a dress up party in costume but weren't feeling completely sure/confident about it, and walk forwards.

Philippe then asked what costumes people had and checked whether their costume really looked like what they'd been assigned. Many did (Jonathan's Goofy was amazing!), some weren't very clear (Sophie's costume didn't look anything like Madame King Kong but she can keep it - it's funny to have a clown who thinks she looks like Madame King Kong when really she has no idea), and other's weren't anything.

Philippe said my Tintin outfit is exactly the costume. Now all I need is a dog that looks like Milou/Snowy. I said to him I thought about buying a 15€ robotic dog that sings and walks - or maybe one of the flipping ones - but thought it could be a bad gag. But he said I should do it: "If it's a bad gag but the actor has great pleasure then it can work." And the potential of all the ridiculous problems I could have with a little dog that keeps walking all over the place could be fantastic!

"The best friend of a clown is his costume." Take care of it!

"The clown doesn't have to have a clue about the costume."

~

We then did an exercise in which two clowns came on stage and spoke to each other - trying to subtly get them to say they like your costume. We had to do this as if the audience were their family and they wanted to show them that they were all grown up now ("Look dad! Now I am a woman!").

It wasn't very clear for a long time, but it turned out Philippe meant just the pleasure to say Oooh! Aahh! and to pretend: Did I see you somewhere?

"The pleasure to be with the family is the engine of this number."

Pretty much everybody bombed in this exercise, including Mark and I. But Philippe helped out a bit - to show what he means by the clown being full of pleasure whilst being with his family.

He got me to repeat a line I had said in our first try, which was "Ça fait longtemps Marky Mark!" This time with an accent, and as if I heard it once but don't really know what it means. Say the text - smile - and look to the audience. It didn't work because I didn't have pleasure. So he asked me who I'd like to kiss me. I chose Miluka, who stood on a chair behind me and nibbled and kisses my ear as I repeated the same line of text. This time I was smiling and laughing and blushing and full of pleasure. 110%. Everybody was laughing when I said the text and even when I didn't. And I was completely with the audience. And everything I did and said was for them.

Philippe said like this we see my eyes and we see me. Whereas as a character we don't see my eyes. And clown is not a character. It's not acting. It's just me, full of pleasure. "That is the most difficult point." So much pleasure that you fall on the floor you are so happy.

Philippe spoke about when we are kissed we show our beautiful pleasure which reveals the child within.

~

Sophie was fantastic today as a defensive idiot: "I'm not a monster!"

"Who says he was looking at me?" - Always look to the audience. Really look. Don't pretend look.

"You gave to write in your head… When we love you and when we laugh."

"You are bad… But you have to pretend there is no problem."

"I am bad… I am ridiculous… Don't worry… You know me… they are going to love me!"

"You play too fast… We don't have time to look at you… We don't have time to see your pleasure… The timing with us has to be much more important."

"You have to feel – ah! – now they love me, and – ooh la! – now they don't love me."

~

We also got our first Auto-course of the term: Make a clown number inspired by Jacques Deval and the play he wrote in 1923 about a woman in lake Gibraltar.

Nobody had any idea what he was talking about...which is good. It doesn't matter. It's better for clown to not know.

"The clown says no problem! ... Difficult...but...possible!

"What are you going to do with this stupid idea? ... If you are fantastically generous we love you. If you play too much, if you push too much, if you want too much to be clown, we kick you away."