Angels can Fly - A Modern Clown User Guide
Clown is not an easy topic to learn from a book, because it requires hands on experience, and Alan Clay has overcome this in his book, Angels Can Fly, through a mix of a fictional tale, following the adventures of ten clown characters, some anecdotes from personal experience, and some theory on the art form. Like any good user guide, it also includes 50 practical clown exercises.
Often a story of personal experience will convey information better than theory, and so Alan is including an anecdotal section in each chapter and twenty clowns from around the world have submitted anecdotes for inclusion.
Check out the Angels Can Fly Blog where you can read many of the anecdotes and exercises.
And while you are here, why not check out Alan Clay's new clown film, Moontan, which was shot in October 2006 in Wanganui, New Zealand, staring Annette Devick from Canada and Mark Hudson from Australia.
Example Anecdotes
3. Bliss - Trunk Fools
"Merriment and madness have infected the mid-north of New Zealand over the past few days through the first ever Kaikohe Festival of Fools organised by the itinerant Imperial Trunk Fools Company Unlimited.
"Living gipsy style, this group of young people are traveling the world, giving performances of clowning, juggling, nuclear physics, mime, fire-eating, story-telling and magic.
"The Trunk Fools are a happy-go-lucky and unpretentious group of people who have chosen theatre as their way of life and they do not perform to make money but merely to enjoy themselves and share their pleasure with others.
"At schools the fools were cheered on by hundreds of children from kindergarten to college.
"There is a fool in everybody," they say, "and we want to help people find their fool, and see the funny side of life."
"And see the funny side people did!
"Wednesday's programe, for instance, promised an evening of mime and madness, and the very talented musicians, mime artists, dancers, fire-eaters and altogether crazy entertainers gave their audience just that.
"The people who make up this company are an interesting mixture of talents, and an array of nationalities, who explain that their unique life-style enables them to turn their ideals into reality.
"We have chosen theatre as our way of life," they say. "We learn, create, and give through theatre, and we hope to share this experience with others."
"As in regular theatre, the Trunk Fools have a producer - known as captain - Captain Krook, a wildly enthusiastic character, devoted to the cause.
"The other company members are referred to as the family, and as well as magic-makers, puppeteers and fire-eaters, they include a resident philosopher, an astrologer and a masseur.
"The Trunk Fools will be heading off sometime this week, but they have left their mark of madness on the town and they won't be forgotten for the merriment they spread." NZ Northern Advocate, 1978
Alan Clay, holding daughter Manuka, and Bogdan Szyber with the Trunk Fools road-train in Northland, New Zealand, 1978.8. Interact - Needing an Audience
When I performed for the first of three times at the Linz Street Theatre Spectacular in Austria, it was with a duo called 'The Untouchables' in 1996. My partner, Amanda, and I had worked festivals and events for a couple of years, but as a duo we had not busked and earned our income from the hat.
The Pflasterspektakel is a well organised three day busking
festival, with over a hundred acts doing three shows a day. The festival provides a hotel, living and travel costs to the selected acts, and you take the hat.
We arrived broke in Linz, a stern elegant Austrian stone city, a week before the festival, thinking that would give us time to practice our show, and earn a bit of money to live on.
With a festival like that, we figured, Linz was obviously a city that was into street theatre, but we spent the first day sitting in the grand main square which had no people in it what so ever.
We didn't know it then, but the festival is like a magnet, and hundreds of thousands of people pour into town for the event, but otherwise the square is dead.
So we asked the organisers to reimburse our travel costs early, so we could live until the festival started. But their system was that you had to do all three days to be eligible for the full amount, so they didn't want to pay travel till the last day of the event.
The director, thinking no doubt that a little pre-festival entertainment might warm up the square, suggested that since we were professional street performers we could just go out and do a show.29. Teaching - Clown Classes
Alan Clay, centre, teaching a street clown workshop at the Fools 3 Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1982.People often wonder what you do in a clown class. "Do you put on make up or costumes?" the new one's ask as they enquire about classes.
It tends to be that you do a lot of physical, and emotional and vocal warm up, and play lots of games, and I often sit in a clown class feeling blessed with my occupation as teacher, because it is so much fun.
Over many years I taught a Street Clown workshop, and later I
have continued the street exercises within my clown teaching practice, because the street gives us the other half of the equation, the audience, and they are fun to play with.
Street exercise in getting attention. Only the guy in the nose is part of the class, but this walking street in Copenhagen gives an
ideal opportunity to test reactions to this basic statue
exercise. Copenhagen, 1982.Chapters 1. Go Your Own Path
2. When to Start
3. Bliss
4. Breath
5. Play
6. Explore
7. Observe
8. Interact9. Learning
10. Trust
11. Growth
12. Laughter
13. Emotions
14. Body
15. Mind
16. Mistakes
17. Games
18. Fool
19. Self
20. Others
21. Expression
22. Communication
23. Audience
24. Rapport
25. Vulnerability
26. Spontaneity
27. Process
28. Practice
29. Teaching
30. Theatre
31. Story
32. Character
33. Structure
34. Tension
35. Patterns
36. Expectations
37. Risk
38. Release
39. Failure
40. Perception
41. Normal
42. Taboos
43. Freedom
44. Acceptance
45. Change
46. Creativity
47. Art
48. Love
49. Spirit
50. FaithCheck out the Angels can Fly - Blog, which tells the inside story of the publication of Alan's new book, and includes a range or revently posted anecdotes from the book. You can also subscribe to an xml feed, and get it syndicated to your news reader, or to your 'My Yahoo' account.
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Last updated 05 December 2008
