Introduction to Clowning

* Sword and Shield 5 Mins

Aims: Energy, partner work, being serious about silliness, making mistakes.

1. Have them play this game in character as their clowns.
2. Everyone has one hand behind them, placed at the bottom of their back with their palm facing outwards. The other hand is in front.
3. The aim of the game is to get people out by tapping the hand that is behind their back.
4. Make sure players don’t move that hand to avoid being tapped!
5. Last person standing wins.
6. They can partner up and form alliances to help each other, but at any time those people can turn on you!

Discussion:

Ask participants how their clowns feel when they get someone out – what might they do? How do they react to being caught out? Are they gracious losers or do they go in a huff?

Scale Up 1: You can also do this in partners as an exercise in tension and concentration. Get everyone to make a circle and they battle in the middle. They must attack each other without laughing – the first one to laugh is out. Encourage them to do this as their clowns. Do they try and distract the other person? What tactics might your clown use?

* Clowns Keep Off 15 Mins

Aims: Responding to an audience, analysing, physicalising an idea, experimenting with new ideas, making mistakes, being serious about silliness.

1. Stand in a circle with a chair in the middle.
2. The clowns are told not to touch the “special chair” in the middle of the circle. But, remind them that sometimes clowns break the rules!
3. One at a time, encourage the clowns to have a turn in the middle of the circle.
4. Ask them to think about whether their clown would touch the chair or not. We see them battling whether to touch it or not.
5. Once they have touched it, they might then choose to sit in it or engage with the chair in some way. For example: maybe they pick it up, hide under it, stand on it, invite someone else to touch it with them.
6. How does that make them feel? Scared, happy, relieved, alarmed?
7. They then need to find a way of leaving the chair (or the circle if they didn’t touch it).

* Taskmaster 20 Mins

Aims: Trying and failing, experimenting, responding to the room, being in the spotlight.

1. Ask everyone to make an audience and choose one person to go out of the room.
2. Put a chair and an object such as a bottle on the “stage.”
3. Ask the audience what they want the performer to do. For example: sit on the chair and put the umbrella under the chair.
4. Choose something really easy to begin with.
5. The person comes back in and must experiment with the objects.
6. We cheer/clap when they get close to what we want them to do and boo when they get further away.

Scale Up: If they are getting good at this, you can add a few more props such as a hat and a phone.

* Make ‘Em Laugh 20 Mins

Aims: Quick thinking, improvising, physicalising an idea, failing at something and trying again.

1. An object is placed downstage centre e.g. a bottle or an umbrella.
2. The task is for the clown to pick it up, however , they can only move towards the object if the audience is laughing.
3. They enter the room from the back. They cannot speak but you can give them props or let them perform with a partner.
4. If the audience stops laughing, encourage them to try something different.