Clown Lab. – Clownmommy

Cirque du Soleil Reverie

I spent so much time with clowns and art this week that when the younger single people sitting at the table in the diner after the late night Clown Lab after Downtown Clown Revue started talking about putting their tapes together to apply for the upcoming Cirque du Soleil auditions I thought I was one of them.

They say there is lots of work. New shows are in development and existing shows need replacement cast. My friends have studio time booked and video cameras ready to complete their applications.

Riding the A train back to Brooklyn I was mentally cataloguing the video I have of myself in performance, what was recorded during the last production and what I might still need. Cirque du Soleil is to circus people what Broadway is to musical comedy triple threats. It is both the summit of all aspirations and the kind of high calibre gig that leads to more work. Who knows, maybe The Husband will be transfered to Las Vegas. Maybe another Cirque show will set up in New York. Maybe I could become attached to something that has a long development process and touring doesn’t become a reality until My Kid is in middle school or high school.

I walk through the door to our apartment. It is nearly 3 am. The lights are on and the TV is blaring because My Kid had fallen asleep in the front room watching the Disney Channel while waiting for me to come home.

She has written a note: “Tonight I was going to go to sleep with mom but she had to do something like see a clown show. So I tried to stay from going to sleep.”

Jeff Raz said the hardest part about touring with Cirque du Soleil was being away from his family.

So…

Never mind.

ClownLab show- Feb 13, 14 (NY)

Jef Johnson is a principal clown in the international touring company of Slava’s Snowshow. As Clown, he has also toured with Cirque du Soleil. Jef has more than 20 years of experience working in a wide range of physical styles. His approach is rooted in subjective expression, physical expression of condition through impulse and reflex. He has studied corporeal expression from disciples of Grotowski, Suzuki, Marceau, Decroux, Lecoq, Meyerhold, M. Chekhov, Vakhtangov.

He teaches a Clown Lab in NY on a fairly regular basis. The product, or clinical trial, as he prefers to call it, of one of those Clown Labs will be coming up on Feb 13 & 14.

I haven’t studied with him, so can’t really say what his teaching style is like. His website and (clown journal) was a bit too impenetrable for me to figure out exactly what he is all about.

With most things like this, the best way to figure out if you want to study with him is to go see some of his work. Here are the details to check it out for yourself.

Clownical Trials
In situ modulation using perception action coupling and combined object vectors.

THEATERLAB
137 West 14th Street
New York, NY
February 12-13 at 8 pm
$10.00 Reservations: 212-929-2545
Featuring: Golan, Kathie Horejsi, Julie Josephson, Michaela Lind, Andrew Valins

Jef Johnson’s CLOWN LAB is dedicated to the exploration of the mechanisms underlying the nature of clown through behavior, experience and creative association. This is a clinical trial. Real humans will be used.

To find out more about Jef’s work, visit his website listed below:

http://www.nyclown.com

Went to Clown Lab…

I am always conflicted; playing with my child vs housework. Writing vs performing. Exercising vs volunteering at My Kid’s school. Creativity vs getting a real job and on and on and on. So it wasn’t out of character for me when Jef started to talk about being in the theatrical space, I caught my mind wandering and had to bring it back into the room three times. The first time I realized I had gone off topic was when my mind came back into the room after I learned that Saturday’s workshop is 3-6 instead of 11-2 as I had thought. This lead to a working out of numerous scenarios for My Kid’s weekend schedule as I had made tentative plans with another mother to take the kids to see a movie on Saturday afternoon. The second time I lost concentration was when in the course of developing an improv I fell into a bit of a reverie about Bush falling through a trap-door at the swearing in ceremony and Obama coming down from the sky in an airline pilot’s uniform… The third time my mind wandered away from the studio work at hand, I thought about a handbag I used to own and wondered if I could use any found object to develop a relationship with up to and including grief and loss and weather that would be a good clown piece for me to work up. I’m tired and wide awake from several cups of coffee and several cups of green tea and my mind is still full of meaning of life, good work, and competency vs heroism thoughts that arise from the safe landing of a disabled plane in the Hudson River and timely rescue of all the passengers by local boat crews and the preparations for the upcoming Obama Presidential Inauguration. There’s a clown lab scheduled for Tuesday, but I will not go. I already know that my head and my heart will be in Washington, DC where I would rather be at this historic time. I moved from Montana for a post-graduate job in my congressman’s office on Capitol Hill and I auditioned for Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in the center ring of the arena between shows while the Circus played Washington DC. I hope to spend Tuesday evening drinking champagne at home with my husband and watching the recap of the Inauguration Day on TV.

Just another manic Monday

After The Husband and My Kid left for work and school I drank coffee and thought about laundry, but I dressed for the gym and unlike other days when I put on sweats I actually made it to the Y. I didn’t get there in time for the class I had intended to take but I swam laps and took two other classes in addition so I’m feeling a little bit proud of myself. It counts as clown work because I’m not really in shape or have the stamina (to perform a full-length solo stage show) that I would like to have. On the way to pick up My Kid after school I stopped at a grocery store to buy some things for dinner, which I them proceeded to carry from Manhattan to her school in Brooklyn and then to the Barnes and Noble on Court Street and then to the Modells on Atlantic and through Atlantic Mall and the rest of the way home. Next time I’m going to the expensive corner store near our apartment. After supper I took the subway back into Manhattan to catch the last hour of Clown Lab because it was the first one in several months. Jef is back in town for the Broadway run of “Slava’s Snowshow” and I wanted to touch base with him and the regulars. “Snowshow” was reviewed by Charles Isherwood in the New York Times today. I found his description of the show as a “delightful kiddie curio” offensive even though it was a positive review.

Wake up-pack lunch-take the kid to school-come back home pack a case with costumes and props-take train to Times Square-rehearse at the Producers Club-take the train to Lower East Side-eat a bagel-meet the family-my kid goes to Japanese-My husband and I take advantage of the time and go to pub across the street to talk through the week: Tomorrow-I-am -going-to-see-the-matinee-of-Gypsy-we-will-have-dinner-in-Greenwich-Village-with-our-friends-from-India-and-his-former-boss-and-wife-my-Kid-has-a-field-trip-on-Thursday-and-I-may-have-more-studio-time-Friday-the-kid-and-I-will-go-on- the-Girl-Scout-campout-My-husband-will-fly-to-Seattle-Saturday-my-parents-will-arrive-in-New-York-on-Tuesday-but-not-in-time-to-see-my -perfomance-on-Tuesday-maybe-husband-will-return-to-New-York-on-Thursday-The Kid-will-make-her-First-Communion-on-Saturday-(I-still-need-to-make-dinner-reservations)-The-Kid-will-have-a-Japanese-Closing-Ceremony-on-Sunday-On-Monday-my-parents-will-return-to-Montana-and-my-husband-will-start-his-new-job…

After sushi after Japanese we all walk down 14th Street. They take the train home to Brooklyn and I go to Theatre Lab for a Clown Lab.