Amsterdam Vondel Park offers up SAcred Mischief

of sorts one could say…a bicycle ride through the park, finding a quiet stretch of green to stretch out next to a small canal and a willow tree, and what should I see?

A performer taking in some practice with metal objects….

not your average juggler…especially when he was swirling these major metal massage tools around…

that proved to be of interest to the woman making the abstract film across the way…

she moved her operation across the way to be filmed sleeping on her big pillow with the juggler swinging his sticks neaby….

now how often do you see that?
yoowho

Amsterdam 4.23.08

A short look at Clown and Zen

here’s a short piece about parallels between these disciplines written in October, 2005

About Clown and Zen.

It might seem a complete paradox to offer up for consideration that there are strong parallels between the world of clown and Zen. One first might have to be a little more specific by narrowing it down to the world of European or Contemporary Clown, one who engages in performance in complicity with the audience.
It might seem like a paradox to search for similarities as Zen Buddhism is such a serious endeavor and clowning, well isn’t that about joy and laughter. The first clue that leads beyond the paradox is the sheer good natured ness of many Zen practitioners. The second clue might be how serious many clowns can be when they are off stage. The true nature of the similarities however lies more in the practice than in the practitioners.

One might say in general is that the main similarity between clown and Zen is that if you are you are thinking, then you are not where you want to be. In metaphysical terms one might say that it is an activity led by heart and spirit rather than intellect. There are several ways to break this down:

Listening. Attention, concentration. One major parallel between clown and Zen is the practice of listening and hence focus and concentration. In the world of Zen meditation, the practice involves placing ones attention on breath, on listening to one’s breath, and whenever thoughts arise, letting those pass so that one can bring one’s attention back to listening to one’s breath. In clown, one’s attention is also placed on listening, in this case to one’s performative energy and to the audience’s response to it, listening to how the audience is reacting to one’s actions, or inactions. If there is more than one person on stage, one is also listening to what one’s partners on stage are doing, or not doing, and how the audience is reacting to that.

In the moment. In Zen, and Buddhism in general, there is a strong emphasis on being in the moment, in other words not thinking about the future or the past but to live what is happening in the moment. Clowning has a similar emphasis the focus is to play what is happening in the moment. Whether it be something being generated by the clown or by the audience, the focus and potential humor is what is happening for everyone, audience and clown (s).

Light-Enlightenment . On a more esoteric level one might consider the goals of the two practices. The Clown seeks to bring lightness into the hearts and spirits of their audience. This is most often interpreted as laughter, however poetry, charm, beauty are also a form of light that the clown seeks to share with their audience. In their most powerful moments, the clown brings light into the darker emotions such as anger and sadness. One goal in the practice of Zen is reaching enlightenment, which perhaps could be interpreted as being full of light? En-lighten, to bring in the light. Could one be so bold as to suggest that these are similar paths?

Of course there are many differences in the practices, perhaps the most obvious being that where the meditator will let what arises dissipate, the clown may well seize that as an opportunity for action.

where is my cellphone?

well i hardly use the thing

but just

when it’s time

to go out

and i want to take it with

the phone is not to be found

i look everywhere

hi and low

finally

i give up

i go to put on my hat

and on my head…

a few words from Leris Colombiani

Nani and Leris Colombiani at Anjos Do Picadeiro Festival, 2002. Photo Celso Pereira

Extract from an interview with Leris at the Anjos do Picadeiro festival in Rio de Janeiro in 2007.

Leris: Clown seeing everything like a child, is a parody of life.

Moshe:  What do you think about Tortell’s words, that Clown is a provoker of sentiments, his  language is that of feelings?

Leris: Eco , Si.  To offer human feelings, human generosity….Clown it is not only the show, the performance.  The clown has to give to the audience, I don’t know why.  If the performer doesn’t give something from inside, Ok the show is swell, but after a few days, nobody remembers; if there is no soul, no heart.

Buddha’s Birthday. BohdiSong’s ClownZen Moment.

Please enjoy a description of what BhodiSong (a.k.a. LooneyTune) created as a Humor-full performance ritual to follow the Zen Center of Los Angeles’ celebration service of Buddha’s Birthday….

LooneyTune on the right. (from Buddha’s Bday. 07.Temptation of stealing flowers)

From egyoku@zcla.org
PS Buddhas Birthday was terrific – Bodhi-Song did a routine, which was quite funny!

To: jsgraham@
From: yoowho@yoowho.org
Subject: what did you do?

Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:21:06 -0700
what did you do??

From: jsgraham@ (a.k.a LooneyTune, BhodiSong)
Ah,
Balanced the elephant on one finger.
Oh wait, that was the week before.

Hmm…
During meditation (since I already had the enlightenment thing happening) I was pondering some possibilities for sacred mischief. The story goes that when the Buddha was born he pointed one finger at the sky and one at the ground and said something profound. So the statue that we pour tea over has a finger in the air. A lot like the famous shot of Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. I thought a little disco dancing might be fun.

During the story of the baby Buddha, I snuck over to the apartment and I put on a flowered komono, and grabbed some percussion instruments. I noticed a black bag with a strap, that if slung in front, looks like a rakusu, so I put a few things inside, and went back out. I gave Reeb, Katherine and Darla the drums and tambourine, and told them to be ready for a little disco beat.

Everyone had presented flowers already, except me, because I was playing the taicho drum, so after the story, Senshin in her big voice announced that there was someone who didn’t offer a flower yet. I had yanked a huge leaf off a squash plant, so that was my offering. People seemed to get it that there was mischief afoot, perhaps it was the nose.

I went to the flower bower and goofed with the incense box, removing the lid etc. Then I went around to the back of the Baby buddha alter so I could play the audience. I had to figure out a way to offer the big leaf, that took some solving. Then I picked up the spoon and poured some tea over the statue, but wasn’t satisfied with the volume I was getting. So I reached into my “rokusu” and found a nice sized ladle. (At this point someone, I think Egyoku muttered “oh no”) The major ladeling of tea was strangely attractive to the kids who came up close to watch.

The statue has it’s finger in the air pointing up, which I deemed a safety issue, so I carefully placed my nose over the dangerous digit, as a protective cover.

At that point I started imitating the skyward point then moved into the disco move. It got a chuckle, and the band, who had started playing from the beginning, didn’t pick up the back beat, so I went to plan B. I went to my rokussu and brought out a nice wine glass. I proceeded to ladle some tea into it and played with the notion of having a sip. I offered it to the kids, who were quite close, but no takers. Then I was inspired to offer the water wisdom, (from Jukai and Tokudo ceremonies) I found a choice bit of foliage to simulate the pine needle whisk Egyoku uses. I dipped it in and got immediate recognition from the crowd. I did the swirling and the spritzing, to great delight. Then got carried away dipping my finger in, using it for cologne, then flicking it on the kids. Finally I ran out and started flicking tea on the crowd, who clapped and cheered, indicating that I had come to the end of their attention span.

Good fun, about 10 minutes worth.
Keeping the pump primed for next time

Z ya Zoon,
Looney Tune

Buddha’s Bday. April 07.

Sayings by Marc Jondall

Marc Jondall and Judy Finelli, from Juggler’s World, 1987.

My upstairs neighbor, Marc Jondall, former performer with the Pickle Family Circus, gave me these comments as we quipped about clown and zen. We were in the midst of cleaning off construction dust on big sheets of plastic as the artist’s collective we live in, Developing Environments, is undergoing building code upgrades.

Here’s what he says:

What’s the sound of one clown laughing?

To the clown, the present is to be present.

The clown that can be named, is not a true clown.

Wavy Gravy discusses Sacred Clown and a few of his experiences

Wavy Gravy on Sacred Clown

Wavy Gravy (a.k.a. Hugh Romney) is a social activist clown who also is the director of the circus and performing arts summer camp Camp Winnarainbow. He likes to be known sometimes as a ‘Temple of Accumulated Error’. Much more about him at his website: www.wavygravy.net

Wavy: “You want me to speak on the sacred clowns. Some clowns were discovered as in the early churches, especially then a clown or a fool…and we have to separate somehow the fool and the clown. I think that the clown is elevated and more formal sacred clown than the fool, although their sacricity… I mean sacred is sacred is. But they would choose a pope, and it was written on the money in Notre Dame “the number of fools is infinite”. The number of clowns i think is a little more restricted.”

Sacred Clowns. Of course, my first dealing with the sacred clown was in the Native American vector, first through the Hopi, their Sacred Clowns, both with the Mudhead, muddy looking dudes with the round heads, and the Koshare, which are black and white striped with triangular pointy ears going off the top of their head.

I’ve never been a Koshare but I have been an honorary Mudhead with some Hopis that the Lama Foundation… What I was asked to do is to make fun of the stuff that is sacred and I guess if you do that and you’re not a clown you’re kind of risking your life. I risked my own life lining up for a blessing leading off the Longest Run, which is an event that was put on by Dennis Banks and the Native American community. These runners were about to run to Sacramento, and I got in line. I had an arrow going through my head when Dennis went to tie in the eagle feather. He looked and there was this arrow going through my head. I think he was contemplating my demise when Bill Wapepah, now demised and what a great leader of the Native Americans in the Bay Area, patted him on the back and said “Relax Dennis, he’s a clown”, and Dennis immediately relaxed and allowed me to do what I do, which is essentially to cause people to have the trainwreck of the mind experience.
To blow the mind. To be a person who puts a jukebox in the jungle, or a seashell in the middle of the top of a mountain in the desert…or.. on a desert tortoise I once in golden letters inscribed on his back ‘souvenir of Miami Beach’ and set him off to wander and they are prone to do and he would come upon somebody and crack their brain. I think that that is one of the great services of the cosmic clown, the mystic clown.
You just, the becoming is not like you’re summoned somehow into a great hall with elderly saintly clowns sitting around. It’s just that your heart lights up one day I suspect, and each initiation I suppose is different. Contemporarily it’s very similar to the acid tests in that each initiation is designed and tailor made to the subject and you fall into it, or stumble, trip or pratfall. I don’t know how to explain it better than that.”

Moshe: “What about the Hopi? I went and talked to them a bit. I met a man who was half Hopi and not initiated into a clan and thus willing to talk to me. He told me that everybody in the communtiy clowned, that they would clown four or five ceremonies in their lifetime, that they would just take on that ceremonial role. Do you think that everybody can have sacred clown moments?”

Wavy: “I hope so, but some more so than others
…as the universe desires them to do. I think that the universe, I would be proud to be in the annals of the sacred clowns. I think that Al Franken is a sacred clown of the moment. Patch Adams come to mind for sure, how about your own self from time to time , mmmhuh (nodding at me).”

Moshe: :Well that is what I mean, is it something that you take on or off?”

Wavy: “I don’t think YOU take it on, I think that you get hit in the face with an invisible cream pie, and if you acknowledge it and surrender to it, interesting things will occur.
But the minute you try to hold it and grasp it, like any truth, it just turns to jello. Or as (Paul) Krasner would have it, into silly putty. He’s a sacred clown for sure. And Lenny Bruce was definitely a sacred clown, as was Jonathan Winters. The closer you get to the edge of the edge: the Monty Python as a unit were a flying wedge of sacred clowns. The Committee in its day, Second City for sure, and I think that it’s easier ‘en masse’.”

Moshe: “Have you witnessed street actions of sacred clowns?”

Wavy: “Oh absolutely. I’ve entertained the idea a phalanx of Santa Clauses, but I’ve never actuated, except for my own Santa Claus… I’ve been arrested as Santa Claus, as the Easter Bunny, as a political Sacred Clown also. I got to, in my Santa Claus, or Insanity Claus, atire to give Brian Wilson his new legs on the tracks at Concord. His legs were severed during a protest against the Concord Weapons Station and instead of stopping the train, they decided to speed up and take off his legs. We had some really nice…. fitted him right on the tracks. We sat him down and the leg-fitter guy was in an elf suit and installed his legs. That was one of my great Santa moments. I was also arrested as a big bird, and that ought to be something during the bird flu, we need to come out with a sacred bird to help people make that adjustement. Pretty scary. There is a lot of fear out there and it’s the job, one of the jobs of the sacred clown is to help dissolve fear with laughter.”

Moshe: “It’s hard (being a sacred clown)?”

Wavy: “It’s hard and that is why the daily show is so important, and they do it every day. John Stewart is certainly the “Chez moon” (shaman) in that vector and the people who go to make up that gas-stalt have taken on… the hurricanes and they are right close to the edge of the incident. Usually tragedy plus time equals comedy, but they don’t wait so long; and that’s where the chances are. When you take the chance. when you succeed it’s positively holy and healing.”

…..
Wavy tells a short story about Lenny Bruce…

Wavy: “He stood on the stage at Carnegie Hall and said “Well Von Meter is f***ked”.

Moshe: “Lenny Bruce said that after JFK was killed?”

Wavy: “Von Meter was the guy who made all the money doing JFK impersonations, that’s all, just a couple of lines but….”

Conversation with Roshi Bernie Glassman about Clown and Zen

Roshi Bernie Glassman (zen master) is internationally recognized as one of the pioneers and guiding spirits of socially engaged Buddhism. He has based his life’s work on a commitment to service, born from his practice and mastery of the 2500-year-old tradition of Buddhist compassion and wisdom.

Moshe:  That’s good.  So do you think the world needs more clown?
Bernie:   I would say: Needs more  honoring of the clown part of ourselves.  Everybody has some clown in them and to make it so that it empowers people to let their clown part speak is good.
Moshe:  To share their humor?
Bernie:  Yea, and it is not just humor, to share the clown doesn’t make mistakes, that’ s part of clowning.  I mean the clown can operate in a full sphere; and many things that we would call clowning, people would get embarrassed about.
Moshe:   So did you say that the clown does not make mistakes?
Bernie:  No, because if the clown trips somewhere, well that’s not a mistake, they  just tripped somewhere.  But most people, if they trip somewhere  where they are in the spotlight, they feel embarrassed like they made a mistake, whereas the clown- they tripped!  Or when the clown is making big proclamations, everybody takes it, Oh they are making big proclamations. But if you are not a clown, if you are not empowering that aspect of you, then you’re making big proclamations, then people will ohh….dismissive gestures…
Moshe:  Serious, or they’re self importance
Bernie:  They…yes …they don’t…. we don’t let…. like I always say, if you put a nose on Bush, then he says whatever he says and we could take it, OK that is what Bush is saying, because he’s made it legal by the nose for people to accept or not accept.  Without the nose you get really pissed off and you are ready to kill him because, ah…. yea put a nose on the prophet and it’s not quite the same.  You still hear it and still sinks in and it still means something; and you can take it or not take it but it’s not the same place at all.  It’s the prophet saying…who does he think he is; or vice versa the prophet saying so I got to do whatever he says.  For me that makes it very human to be able to see everything as it is and I take it or I don’t take it and if it seems funny to me I can laugh.  If it seems absurd I can laugh if I want or whatever…….

Moshe:  So the other question: What caused you to seek out a clown teacher and to bring clowning into your world
Bernie:  Well, it’s been part of my world in some kind of natural way for a long time, but when I was sort of phasing out of being in charge of different kinds of organizations and Zen centers and things of that nature and installed a lot of people into running these things; one of the things that kept grabbing me is how people felt, how they were taking themselves too seriously.  So I was really looking more at the trickster role, coyote role than the clown role.  When I thought of clowning, that was more to getting some technical skills to be able to do the other work in a better way.  But I really felt it very important that one phase of our work has to be to make sure that people don’t take themselves too seriously or see the gates or the armor that they are building in doing their job and how to make it more inclusive.  I thought that a fun way of doing it or a good way of doing it is to sort of visit them in the role of the clown or the jester and poke fun at ways that I felt they were blocking the world from entering their spheres.

About Borders
You know it is interesting that Clowns Without Borders, that very term ‘without borders’ that is the kind of word that I use-I talk about no inside no outside, that everybody draws a circle and that’s their border.  Everything that they don’t see as part of them is outside that circle.  So, when you say without borders, that means the circle is infinite, everything is inside.  Yet it’s very hard for us to be open to all sides. Things push our buttons and then we really build a border, and point to the enemy.  I think that it is an important role trying to really get rid of those borders.  That doesn’t mean that you don’t do a lot of work with pieces within you that you think are not so healthy; just like in your own human body.  I mean cancers they’re part of you, you’ve got to work with them but just to call them the enemy is not good enough.
About Clowns and Fools
Moshe:  Do you think that there is any difference between clown and fool and jester?
Bernie:   Well the way people use the words, probably.  Even between ‘jester’ and ‘nar’, I think there’s a different feeling.  I think the European sense of ‘nar’ is deeper than the English sense of ’jester’.
Moshe:  Define ‘nar’.
Bernie:  Well there was the court jester, but it was really clear that that was the role of pointing out that….what word am I looking for…the arrogances…or the….
Moshe: … power problems….
Bernie:  Yea all of that stuff.  Every system needs that role and creates it in some way.  The ‘nar’ was created in medieval Europe to do that role in the kingdoms.  It is like ‘carnival’ for the catholic world.  It is so straight, you need release, so it something you can allow to point out the various armors or borders or whatever…if you don’t do the release, release isn’t enough.  I mean it’s got to be worked on more; because systems will create a release so they can last longer, so they won’t have as many revolutions and all.  So even with the ‘nar’, if you went too far they could get killed even though they were supposed to be protected.  Whereas a jester, I am not sure what English means by the jester.  It is a little bit more like a fool, huh?
Moshe:  Yes
Bernie:  It had that role but we sort of forget that a little.  Some people think that the role was more to bring humor, to make everybody laugh there; not necessarily to help change the system or keep the system honest whereas with the coyote, definitely, that is part of their job, to make sure that the priests, the leaders, that they walk their talk.  That was definitely part of their job.  It was part of the jester’s job but we’ve lost sight of it I Think in the way people think of the word.
Moshe: Would you find any parallel in modern day’s society?  Is there something going on in the entertainment world that you can point to that has a similar role?
Bernie:    yea, Saturday Night Live, Mort Saul, Trousdale…we allow that world, it is not so huge and we don’t have a government role or a corporate role but it would be good to have that.

St Stupid’s Day

Nothing like an unexpected fall to cut your celebration short. That it should happen right outside your building on April Fool’s Day on your way to the Saint Stupid’s day parade. That it should happen as you gingerly lift your leg over the bicycle bar and give full weight to your positioned pedal. Should it be that there is not the expected traction of the pedal to the chain, and the pedal swings freely down sending said rider giving his full weight to pedal falls right over the handlebar falling unrestricted onto the cement sidewalk. Left elbow right knee take the impact. OUCH!.
Should it happen when you are already more than a little late. Funny thing that it should happen after masterfully navigating said bicycle upright walking it on it’s rear wheel, Amsterdam style, controlled bouncing it down the stairs past all the scaffolding and construction obliterations that have created narrow passageways in the stairwell.
How stupid! I had been remarking to myself, the last 10 minutes getting ready for the big event. St Stupid’s Day in San Francisco on April Fools’. Big parade downtown. Great celebration.
So when I realize that I am going to be late I remark to myself ‘how stupid!” Then I start getting in the spirit of it. How stupid! as I look to find my keys, how stupid! as I decide to change my hat. How stupid! as I unlock my lock just as I realize that the bicycle isn’t locked in the first place. How stupid! as the plastic sheeting that hangs from the ceiling to keep the construction dust out of the hallways gets caught in my bicycle wheel.
How stupid! Is it all? Well I’m not thinking that lifting myself off the sidewalk after a hard bonk on the left shoulder and right knee. I’m feeling for the immediate pain and looking for the rip on the elbow of my favorite suit jacket. There is none, but my knee sure is sore. No holes anywhere, but definite strong bursts of ouch. HOW STuPID I finally say as I realize it hurts to bend my knee. How stupid would I be to miss the parade. So I’m off to ride towards downtown. ‘ride it off, you’ll be fine’ I’m telling myself. Nothing is broken, everything is working.
Feeling actual shock of the fall I stop a leisurely block away, to check on the sources of pain at skin level. Knee shows some scrapes, but a lifting the sleeve reveals the crimson red of an open wound, to the very least threatening my suit from another angle. It’s far more than a scrape, skin has torn and there is a strange little white protruding. after a panicked twisting around inspection of arm parts realize that it’s not that bad, not the bone,
Well it’s an hour later, two rounds of arnica pellets, multiple cleansings with alcohol tabs, kleenex and water. Slabs of bactoban spanish salve to dirge the mighty bacteria that threaten the land. any attempts at bending sore elbow to a right angle results in serious leaks of fluid, not just the red crimson kind. The Japanese kleenex packs that have found their way from cheery Japanese marketing hands to my bathroom counter come in handy, and a few crumpled issues are by the typewriter pad are at hand as I
How Stupid is it all? That I didn’t make it to toss pennies at the banker’s heart, to throw socks up in the air, my favorite thing to do on the steps of the stock exchange, my favorite since I used to step out of the options exchange floor with my clerk’s jacket on and 5 tennis balls in my hand for my 10 minute break.
Omm to the SOCK exchange and the glory of myriads of socks falling from the sky. I had mine saved up and in my jacket pocket. They must wait another year I am afraid.
How stupid! That when I try to bend my elbow , it to start bleeding again . how can it be that one who professes clown to a deep rhythm of life could have such a mishap on the way to the April Fool’s parade. Right on the doorstep to one’s house. Is it a bad omen, am I out of synch with my clownedness or are the clown god’s up there laughing at this glorious human joke. There is no answer of course. Perhaps there is a need for meditation. in the past 29 years I have missed a few of the St Stupid’s days, but usually because I was out of town.

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