Clowns wake up Elder from Brain Disease Monotony !

I just received an email from Hiromi in Japan, a friend and clowning student. For the past few years she has been doing volunteer Clown Doctor work, visiting Elders in several nursing home facilities in Tokyo on a regular basis. She and her clown partner Asako have created the duo Ulala.
The story in her email [...]

WAvy Gravy’s evil twin Lumpy

Camp Winnarainbow 09.
Wavy Gravy’s evil twin Lumpy appeared out of nowhere at Camp Winnarainbow 09’s Sunday morning reading. Wavy sparred in fine improvisational style with Lumpy, whose teddybear on a leash was no match for Wavy’s fish.

Photo: HIromi Kashima

Clown and Spirituality: Principles of Nogaku Theater and Clown

Contemplating the relationship between one’s sense of humor, one’s sense of joy and one’s spirituality, and their relation to the word Clown has become a preoccupation of mine. Spirituality?  Laughter can be cathartic, especially shared in large groups in positive situations. Calling on one’s sense of humor demands this immediate presence and awareness so often [...]

Interview with Utah Phillips

I was saddened, like many others, to hear of Utah Phillips passing. The warmth of his gravely voice rides deep in my heart. In June of 2002 I interviewed him backstage at the Kate Wolf festival on the Black Oak Ranch in California. We had crossed paths numerous times at folk festivals. I [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

Conversations about Clown, Julie Goell

Julie Goell is a wonderful clown performer and teacher. I had the opportunity for this conversation right after her show in the theater in the round of the Cococabana SESC in Rio in Brazil.

Julie and I started by discussing clown and traditions.
Julie: The badkhin, come back to your own tradition (Jewish).
Moshe: tell me about [...]

Conversations about Clown, Aziz

Interview: Moshe and Aziz (Mexico) in a noisy restaurant in Rio de Janeiro. Interview conducted in Spanish in December, 2006; during the Anjos Do Picadeiro festival, translated by Moshe into English.

Aziz performs as a traditional circus clown, and then in a surprising twist ends his show by sitting down and taking off [...]

Conversations about Clown, Tortell Poltrona

Continuing my investigation about Clown, I had a telephone conversation with Tortell Poltrona, well known Catalan Clown who is also the founder of Payasos Sin Fronteras (Clowns Without Borders). He and his wife Montse run the Circ Cric, in which they are both performing…for more about circ cric, clické to this earlier entry…

(the conversation [...]

Conversations about Clown: Sotigue Kouyaté at Anjos Do Picadeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2006.

One of the highlights of the 2006 Anjos Do Picadeiro festival in Brazil was the presence of Sotigue Kouyaté. This Paris based actor is very well known in the theater world , one of Peter Brook’s actors. He comes from Mali, and is a Griot (West African poet, praise singer, [...]