Syllabus
The Art of Clown
Mondays & Thursdays 4:10pm - 5:35pm
Lab: Thursdays 6pm-9pm (NOTE: Donna will not be present for lab. This is optional time set aside in Gates for you to practice your own stuff if you want to take advantage of that).
Email: doblongata@coa.edu
Phone: 845 594 8540 (Note: Email is by far the best way to reach me. Communicating by text makes me extremely grumpy, so text me at your peril.)
Course description:
The archetype of the clown exists in many cultural contexts throughout time - those individuals whose role it is to turn society on its head, poke fun at the powerful and make literal fun of our own flaws and vulnerabilities – society’s pressure-release valve. Contrary to common pop-culture depictions, clown is a form that requires tremendous vulnerability, self-knowledge and the ability to respond spontaneously in any performance context. The work in this class will be derived from a sequence of games and exercises geared toward the discovery and development of blahblahblahblahblah.
Why take this class?
If you signed up for this class, you probably already have some ideas (or even just questions) about the mystery and power of humor. Great! Maybe you’re also hoping to come out of this class being able to articulate some Grand Universal Truths about these things so you can impress people and make this seem like a legitimate field of study. Good luck with that.
In my opinion, the thing that makes clown/humor endlessly fascinating as an area of study is that you can only learn it by doing it. No amount of reading or watching or figuring can teach you how to be funny or how to be a clown or how to be on stage. You cannot learn this shit from a book. Likewise, there’s no absolute value or formula for clown/humor. In fact, as we will surely see in class, attempting to apply those things to clown/humor is often the kiss of death. In other words, to have any real understanding of this stuff, this is the fieldwork required.
But what are we going to actually do? Is this going to be so fun and blow my mind?
It might blow your mind, but it’ll probably also be pretty confusing and stressful a lot of the time. If you aren’t already aware, the world is often a confusing and stressful place. Humor is one important way we as human beings metabolize that confusion and stress.
Each class we’ll mostly play games and do exercises. They’ll range from simply playing with a ball to writing comedy bits to miniature performances. It’s a lot of being on your feet and trying stuff out and also watching your classmates try stuff out. Some of it will be fun and hilarious and silly and some will be cringy and excruciating and not fun/funny at all. Most important is keeping an open heart/body/mind, with the understanding that every exercise is an experiment. And some experiments fail to yield the results you were hoping for.
We’ll also watch some clips of videos that will (hopefully) be funny. Some might be offensive or bad. We’ll talk about them all and see if we can dissect what makes something work or not work. What makes something clown or not clown. We will likely disagree on the answers to these questions, because, once again, there’s no formula or text book for this stuff.
About sensitive material:
If you want to make a life studying alligators, you’re likely going to have to spend a bunch of time in swamps, near alligators, and very likely putting yourself in dangerous situations (Snakes! Mosquitoes! Heat exhaustion! Drowning! The elements!). You might even get bitten/maimed/eaten by an alligator. The very thing you’re trying to study and preserve!! But why would they do that to you?
Do you understand that this is an extremely obvious metaphor?
Humor can also be dangerous! It can hurt, offend and burrow into you in unpredictable ways. Nobody’s denying that. But it cannot literally bite/maim/devour you. It cannot rip your arm off. Is there a difference between these types of harms?? Moving on!
This is all to say, we will surely be venturing into some dangerous territory, because the nature of what we’re investigating is dangerous and powerful and ancient (like an alligator). But that’s necessarily linked to what’s so compelling about it.
Be prepared! Save the alligators! (JK, they don’t need our help, they’re doing fine).
If you can only learn this stuff by doing it, it stands to reason that you have to come to class in order to do it, in order to learn it. So:
2 unexcused absences, max. If you miss more than 2 classes without sufficient explanation (sickness, &c.) you’ll receive a No Credit grade for the class. I may seem fun-loving and easily persuaded by charm, but I will give you a No Credit grade if you cross this line.
Arriving more than 5 minutes late is considered tardiness. One tardy arrival = I will be annoyed. Three tardy arrivals = one unexcused absence.
Note: Any unexcused absence will result in a special in-class assignment where we get to make fun of you for missing class. This is true and is not a joke.
As a studio class, participation is 100% of how your work will be evaluated. For the sake of this class, participation means:
- Arriving to class on time and ready to work
- Participating fully in all games and exercises
- Asking questions when you don’t understand something
- Sharing feedback on your peers’ work in a constructive, open-hearted way
- Completing all homework assignments, including reading, watching, writing and rehearsing
- Taking personal risks and being willing to fail
Covid Policy: Don’t get covid.
This class is mask-optional and there will be some exercises where I’ll ask folks to remove masks if they’re wearing them. Why? Faces, breath and facial expressions have a tremendous amount to do with clown and humor, and having most of a face covered makes it much more difficult to do the kind of investigations we’re after here. It is just the situation, and we’ll talk about that at some point. If this is raising major alarm bells for you, please talk to me ASAP and I’ll see what we can do.
If you test positive for covid (or are otherwise sick), obviously don’t come to class. Zooming in isn’t an option here, so just hope for the best and join us when you’re well again.
What else?
No phones in class, no food in class. Drinks are okay. Please don’t arrive drunk, stoned, or otherwise intoxicated. If you’re stressed out or freaked out about something, please let me know by email or in person as soon as possible. We might be wading around in dangerous territory but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take basic safety measures!
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