Acting isn't always about telling the saddest, most dramatic tale possible. In fact, even in Shakespeare's most tragic stories, such as Macbeth or Othello, a fool or lighthearted character is inserted to keep the audience's spirits up and chuckling in between the oh-so-frequent death scenes. During my study at LAMDA, I have two classes that specifically focus on creating a game with the audience, or adding a humorous take on even the darkest subjects. Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen, to Clowning class and Improv class.
1) Clowning.
Job: PLAY.
The playful entity an actor creates with a large red rose and innocent manner, commonly known as a clown, is really a manifestation of that actor's individual impulses and habits. Some basic rules: the clown always tries its best to follow instructions and feeds entirely off of the audience's response to its behavior. The common theme of maintaining contact with the audience or people you're working with also continues here, and will thread throughout all of my classes. So, in fact, a clown is simply another character the actor must become. The large red nose, the most famous accessory of a clown, creates a barrier between the audience and the clown through costume and conceals the identity of the performer. The clown's job is simply to play, innocently but inherently incorrectly. Whatever the clown does, it sincerely thinks it is doing what you've asked of it. For example, if my clowning teacher, Michael (a native American and lighthearted fellow), instructs us (we have our big red noses on) to be as quiet as possible, we all may begin to bang on the ground or speak to one another loudly. Thus the clown's accidental prank is meant to have good intentions, but fails so miserably it transforms into humor. During clowning, all topics lose their seriousness and depressing content, and instead are funny since we know the clown is playing a harmless game with us. Important: the clown never makes us (the audience) into the fool, all jokes and laughs are done at the clown's expense.
Now to discover your own personal clown personality:
You'll need a semi-circle audience (we had 12 people watching), a simple chair or preferably a flat piano bench, and behind the bench you'll put a drapery/door/hidden place for exits and entrances. One person goes behind the door and puts their red nose on. As they come out from behind the door, they find their way to the bench and should maintain eye contact with the audience the entire time, not acting. It's important that the clown has an honest response to the audience's response; if the clown should accidentally stumble into the bench, and the audience snickers a little, the clown should be open to responding honestly (whether that's looking ashamed, giving an embarrassed chuckle, or blushing). Just from these natural impulses and behaviors, Michael will ask the clown to investigate something further. For instance, the French guy in our class happened to respond to the audience's responses with his fingers first, almost like his fingers got hit with a wave of energy before the rest of his body did. Michael picked up on his energetic fingers and would give simple instructions, "Hadrian, now fall in love with someone in the audience through your fingers." So Hadrian played along: he made eye contact with one of us in the audience and his fingers gave a little flutter and hovered above his heart, doing a kind of "jazz fingers" dance. Michael continued to play with this clear trait and habit, and thus the beginning of Hadrian's clown's personality began to form. Going back to the idea that all topics lose their seriousness in clowning: in our class one girl's clown personality was that of a killer. When she was just organically responding to the audience, her eyes continually darted back and forth, sometimes zoning in on one person. Therefore, Michael asked her to do everything like a killer (laugh like a killer, sit like a killer, fall in love with someone like a killer, and then ultimately get up and exit behind the door like a killer). However, since the performer and the audience were invested in the playful manner of the clown, we all laughed at her killer demeanor instead of being frightened of it. Interestingly, an actor's clown may change from day to day, since certain days we will have different reactions to things.
2. Improv
Job: Commit.
"Improv can either be hilarious or amazing, just commit."
These wise words were said by our substitute improv teacher, a young, small wiry man (he attempted to bulk himself up with a very puffy winter vest), who has a passion for the side-splitting humor of improv but also the deeper, more serious stories that can be told. Let's see if you can avoid the trap he set out for us: "Alright, here's the scenario: two people are in a raft. Go! Make a scene!" Let's see which scene you prefer:
1) So two of my classmates got up in front of us and were in the supposed raft. They spent the first minute of the scene in the raft and arguing about which way land was. They eventually decided upon paddling North.
OR
2) GET OFF THE RAFT, and find an ISLAND!!! This island happens to be filled with a magical fruit, and is surrounded by mermaids, and also cannibals.
Hopefully you prefer option #2, or your sense of entertainment may have been dulled by years of bad TV shows. As an actor, picking the right way when you come to the fork in the road between these scenes is dependent on knowing what the audience wants to see. Chances are, the audience would prefer to see two people discover a magical island via their raft instead of watching two people bicker on a raft. This leads us to another magical quote:
"If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there."
Basically, don't tease the audience and then never get to the climax of the scene. In one of our scenes in class, a man and his daughter wanted to purchase the Eiffel Tower. I repeat: they wanted to BUY the fucking Eiffel Tower. Therefore, in the scene the purchasing of the Eiffel Tower should happen. The man and his daughter shouldn't just mention, "I'd love to buy that and put it in the backyard" and then decide that they want to buy a croissant instead. Knowing that the audience wants to see the climax of buying the Eiffel Tower (the crazier the idea, the more important the idea is to the audience), don't backpedal towards safer ground! Take the risk! Either it'll be hilarious if it fails ("Improv is 95% failing") or it'll be amazing when the man who sells the daughter and father the Eiffel Tower goes around with a tiny hand wrench unscrewing the massive structure's bolts from the ground and then offers to fly it to their backyard in Ohio (this happened in our scene). Usually when Improv scenes are ridiculous and hilarious this implies a large circle of expectation, or basically the number of possibilities is greater. For instance, wanting to buy the Eiffel Tower increases the circle of expectation, and even more ridiculous ideas, like the offer to fly it across the ocean, enlarge that circle even more. However, you can also have Improv scenes that have a smaller circle of expectation, and tend to be a bit more realistic in their story lines. For example, we could have a scene centering around a nursing home and the seniors who inhabit it. Maybe a nurse has to take care of an elderly man who just lost his wife, and he looks to the nurse for comfort. Both of these scenes, the one about the Eiffel Tower and the one about the elderly man, are plausible and legitimate in Improv.
I feel like people in general tend to have a misconception about both of these arts. People assume that improv must be hilarious and void of anything serious, and people assume that clowns are just creepy (Okay, that is sometimes valid--Krusty the Clown, anybody?).
See, he is kinda creepy.
Improv and Clowning can be used to address serious issues, but they often turn to a veil of humor to make the topics more palatable for the audience. Then again, nothing is wrong with buying the Eiffel Tower either.
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