Clown for Live Performance
Weekend Workshop with Bim Mason

Join Bim Mason for this weekend course aimed at developing your clown for live performance.

As we are amused by children we can be amused at the foolishness of adults – their clumsiness, their lack of understanding, their pretensions and denials.
This brief intensive aims to identify the ridiculous aspects of ourselves, both our physicality and the way we behave, and to harness them for controllable comic effect. By acknowledging them we come to accept our failings and so become more confident as people.

Using a range of strategies we can establish in what ways you are individually funny. We can then develop your clown persona and put them into different scenarios to give them more depth and range. We’ll also explore the differences between direct audience contact and theatre clowning and also understand how and when to switch between rehearsed sequences and improvisation.

OUR FOCUS:

• Establishing a visual appearance especially suited to you, exaggerating existing features
• Amplifying emotional expression and using physicality to express trains of thought
• Developing an appearance of vulnerability by using ‘teetering’ between contrasting internal states
• Improvising situations where you try to look more important, more successful or cleverer than your clown is
  
• Developing an appearance of clumsiness using basic slapstick techniques
• Identifying which kind of world and style your clown is best suited to and see if there are any partnerships or alliances that might work well with you

WHO'S THIS FOR?
This short course is mainly for those who want to make comic pieces for live, public performance using some aspects of clowning. You might have done quite a bit already and want to focus on creating some new material or you might just want to open yourself up to different possibilities or a different style. We won’t be using the classic red nose and we’ll be referencing comic film and TV actors rather than the traditional circus tropes.
If you’re not sure if your level of experience would support you to join this workshop, please email [email protected] and we will be happy to help identify if the workshop would be right for you.

WHAT PREVIOUS PARTICIPANTS SAID:
★ "As well as teaching his class with great mastery Bim also takes time to coach each individual student in the right direction"
★ "Really brilliant how much came out in such a short time"
★ "It gave so many sparks for characters and devices that could be folded into creating clown shows and comedy characters"

How it works

Dates & times:
Saturday 26 - Sunday 27 October 2024
10am - 5pm

Venue:
Windmill Hill Community Centre
Vivian Street
Bristol
BS3 4LW

Application & investment:
To apply please fill in this form by Friday 11 October 2024:
https://forms.gle/G8bCnpNeen4ue6bq8
Once invited; the course investment is:
£190 - Supporter/ High earner
£175 - Full Price
£150 - Concession (low/no income, student)
EARLYBIRD DEAL: get £20 off if you pay before 30 September

Apply to take part

About the facilitator

Bim Mason has been teaching various forms of clown and physical theatre since 1986, firstly at Fool Time, the first circus school in the UK and then at Circomedia which he co-founded in 1994 and led for 25 years. He has also taught internationally in Brazil, Israel and Europe. He has directed four award-winning shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has authored two books on street theatre and provocative performance as well contributing chapters to books on physical theatre, popular theatre and the teachings of Jacques Lecoq. After achieving his doctorate he launched and directed the only Masters degree in the UK on Directing Circus.

Before becoming a teacher he was a comic performer with his own solo shows as well as in theatres and TV. He is also one of the UK’s leading mask-makers, nowadays mainly for the purposes of climate activism and other political events and festivals.