Studio B

Back in the day I was lucky enough to discover clowning and improv while raising my daughter in Seattle. Once, not that long ago, there was a blossoming improv and theater scene in Seattle and it was lovely to be a part of, in my own way. I learned a lot and grew a lot and played a lot. One day while skating at Delridge, I started thinking about clowns and people and the world and thought how awesome it would be to just see clowns out on the town everywhere. Clowntown. Yeah. it stuck. So, in the interest of keeping the ball rolling, keeping this whole practice going, keeping things you know, from ending in total collapse where no one laughs at all…

Below are some clips from a practice I’ve kept over the last few years at Studio B. Just vids practicing some things because, why not, I mean what are we doing here, anyway?

I’ve included blurbs about where these exercises came from. Usually they were inspired by workshops I’d taken. So if something cracks you up, awesome, if you see an exercise that works for you, that’s awesome too!

Getting Ready for Baby

An excited soon to be mom updates her youtube channel with news about baby’s room, as it is important to have everything just right before baby comes.

“Build, Build, Break”

Holly wants everything to be just right. There she is working it all out. The room, the windows, the special chair, the heater for baby’s bum. So we’re building and building and building this world and this character and this intention, and it’s all so real and so important, and then it breaks. You dig in and build, and then you break it. You can break it gradually. Or you can break it right away. In this case, all Holly cares about is everything being just right before baby comes, so how much fun would it be for baby to pop out and her to not even realize baby is there? Pretty fun if you ask me. She built it, and then it got broken. Was broken? Broke. Now, you break break break more and more and just see where that heads.

If you want to see a much longer version of this, watch Wednesdays at the Community Center in Season Three of Fred and Marco. Sean and Dad really want to work things out. Dad is determined. Sean opens up to him about his dreams of winning the father son throw and catch football competition. And it breaks. Pretty fun.

I first encountered this idea in a workshop with Aitor Basouri. I was doing a scene with a few other clowns in a scene in a yoga studio that was supposed to be all about peace and love and togetherness. That feeling was grounded in the lead clown’s seriousness with the moves this day, because we were all there to record a fitness video. Me and the other clown sucked at yoga and he also sucked at playing the guitar, but wanted to provide some good vibes for the yoga relaxation. It broke when I couldn’t do yoga, because in real life I can’t do yoga, and then it just went from there, with the lead clown yelling at me and getting worked up and then for some reason the two of them started having sex in the back while I was out there by myself with the cameras rolling.

Build it, then break it. It’s fun!

Here’s a later take of that gets pretty nutty. It’s the second installment, where Holly plays with her baby.

Here’s a longer take of Holly playing with her baby that is messed up. You can watch it if you want. I mean we’re just practicing here, just playing with things, so…you know…what?

“What wouldn’t this be?”

In one of David Razowsky’s workshops I took a few years ago, he did an exercise where someone gets up, sits in a chair, assumes a shape, finds some text, holds their pov, and grows it.

For example:

A lady sits down, sort of huffy, looking angry, arches forward on her chair, ready to attack:

I don’t like the way you’re talking to me, she says, and then she grows it: That’s right, you need to change your tone, you need to relax, you need to calm down and chill, now, because I do not like this one bit.

So while this person is sitting up there, having assumed this tone and text and shape, David then asks people to throw out suggestions of who she WOULD NOT be talking to. A waiter, yeah maybe. Her kid, okay. Maybe. Her spoouse while he is sweetly delivering the vows at their wedding. That would be fun. Or Buddha. Oh yeah, Buddha. Okay, so David assumes the part of Buddha, and Buddha speaks all nicely and sweetly, and she keeps her pov. Hey, Buddha, you need to chill out. But I come in peace and seeking nirvana. Now that tone is not going to work here!

Fun. What woudn’t they be doing, who wouldn’t they be talking to, where would this scene NOT be set. Fun.

By the way, I asked David if he minded if I shared any of his exercises and he said no, that he wasn’t proprietary about any of that, that he came from second city where if anything worked for anybody, awesome. I thought that was pretty rad. And share the same view. So have at it.

Well, I took this idea and turned it into a warmup at Studio B. They have a piano there, so I started playing some kind of song, whatever. Then, in all honesty and sincerity I did some kind of movement. Really trying to dance to the piano. Meanwhile, I brought from home some thing to put on my head or carry with me. And, not at all thinking about the thing I was wearing or carrying, I just did this movement, sincerely and honestly. Inevitably, upon watching it, I could find some kind of example of what wouldn’t they be doing, etc…an embodiment of both Buddha and the pissed of lady, or to put it another way, a clown moment. Okay, cool, so this turned into my “bad idea” warm up.

This “bad idea” thing coincides a little bit with something Aitor Basouri talked about, “the stupid idea”, looking for a stupid idea, to play. In a workshop of his I attended, a woman came out and quite sincerely, and well professionally, performed a song and dance that was sexy and lovey. Aitor was looking for suggestions to sort of clown it up, and I thought, hey, what wouldn’t she be doing, who wouldn’t she be singing to, and I said, well, maybe she’s a drama teacher performing this at the school talent show for her favorite student, maybe she’s a middle school drama teacher, and the student was the foreign exchange student who just left. Everyone laughed, Aitor stood there for moment, then nodded, yes, that is a stupid idea. Fun.

Another way of thinking of this is the whole idea of small thing big, big thing small. Treat something small as really big, or treat something big as really small. Take from it what you will. I surely have, and continue to do so.

“Clown without a problem. Clown plays with the worst text. “

From George Lewis’s Unsuccessful Clown workshop, way back in the day, and man I miss those freehold workshops very much. Bonjour, monseur Lewis, como se va? The clown without a problem is dead. Get yourself a problem. Done and done. Play it. Anything can be a problem. As George Lewis says, the clown plays with the worst text. So it can be anything. Get up, have a problem, grow it, play it.

So here is this guy who can’t get his glove off. Now the fight’s on.

A Muay Thai pro ends up in a knockdown drag out brawl with a surprise opponent.

It helps if the problem is something really stupid and you’re supposed to be something really great, or vice versa. But it doesn’t have to be like that. George Lewis said those words to me and other clowns, though, in 2015 at a freehold clown workshop that I loved very much. The clown without a problem is dead. Find a problem. Play it. Dumb lines. Dumb set ups. Gags. Simple statements like It’s my birthday. Whatever. It doesn’t matter. It’s about how it is played. This is supposed to be silly, and it is okay if it is stupid. Play it honestly and have fun. This is one thing I like very much about clowning. It’s all good. Have a problem. Play it. Grow your response. Be honest. Put it in your body get physical and see where it goes. Fun.

Now if you watched the above video, a question for you:

Is the Muay Thai thing any good? Not really. I don’t think I played it as well as I could have, and I also don’t think all the extra additions help. They distract from the problem, from the thing being played, which probably could have been played more. Which brings up to another point — hey, sometimes it sort of sucks. Oh well. Big deal. Moving on. Got to take it to level six bud, keep your pov, grow that shit, and don’t try to be funny, asshole.

Or as I like to remind myself –it’s a process.

After all, if I had nailed it, I wouldn’t have flopped, and then I wouldn’t have a problem to respond to right now, sucky dumb ass.

And this is something to seriously consider: If you go out and do something and everyone laughs, awesome. You’re off and going. If you go out and do something and it flops, awesome, you’re off and going. You just flopped. You are in the shit. Play that. Grow that. The audience will love you. As Aitor said at the end of my last day in his class: If you have fun, and play the situation, and play with your friends, the audience will love you.

“Get yourself in trouble, don’t solve the problem, clown logic”

Someone says don’t do something. That thing is going to happen. The fun is in watching the person try not to do the thing they are told not to do. That’s where all the tension and suspense and fun is. Watching them twist and cavort and fight with themselves. If you can add in some clown logic, as Peter does here, or Marco does in a scene cut from episode eight, well that’s quite a bit of fun too. A very old clown turn revolves around a clown told not to eat any pie. By the time he’s finished, the whole thing is gone, and the fun comes in watching him struggle to not eat the pie, and then once he has started, watching him convince himself to keep going. In the scene with Marco, Marco sits there smelling the beans and cheese, says to himself something like this:

oh man that the sauce smells delicious, maybe too delicious, the couch rabbits would eat the sauce and die because it is so delicious, and then the epa guy would come back pissed, seeing all these couch rabbits having heart attacks from such a delicious sauce. I should put my finger in it and try, test it out, after all, if it is too delicious, then I’d be saving them, and if it is so delicious, and I know it will kill them, then I’d be a hero who saved the couch rabbits by eating all of it myself, maybe even get a medal or something, yeah, that would be a nice thing to do.

I ended up cutting that moment from the episode because it took too much time and didn’t feel like that was what Marco would do (we’re talking about beans and cheese here, get em!), but the idea holds anyway. Get yourself in trouble. Don’t solve the problem. Always fun to watch someone use “logic” to convince themselves of it. It’s like watching a kid stare at a cookie jar or my daughter’s dog salivate over elk poo he knows he is not supposed to eat. River will watch me, see where I go, wait, stare, whine, try to slink toward, act like he is not going…turn back and give me a big lick, hey everything is fine, what…yeah right, pal. What do you think, I’m stupid?

“Funny Things Are Everywhere”

Taken from Dr. Seuss and a script I’ve just finished. Funny things are everywhere. It’s true. Keep an eye out for them. You’ll find all sorts of things to laugh at.

Yes I did this at a PCC in Issaquah.

So there’s some stuff for now. If something works for you, great, if it doesn’t, great. These are things I’ve come across that have inspired me and so in the name of keeping the whole thing rolling, passing it on, building up a town of clowns, where clowns are out on the town, there you go.