Thoughts on ClownZen, and Mindful Humor

This is an essay written for the clownzen.com website, as well, hopefully for a future publication.
An interviewer asks me: “What does clown mean to you?”
My spontaneous reply: “Service.”
I’m in the middle of teaching “humor” workshops in Japan, and Yoshiko, who produces my workshops, comments to me, “That is exactly what ShobiDobi [mask maker and hospital [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Conversations about Clown and Zen, Amplify and Expand

This conversation with Roshi Egyoku took place during my six weeks (Jan-Feb 2007) as an artist in residence at the Zen center of Los Angeles. A few times a week, we would sit down for a half hour chat to examine the relationship of Clowning and Zen.

What happens when a moment in Clown Performance is [...]

Conversations about Clown and Zen, Intuition-Inner Wisdom

 This conversation with Roshi Egyoku took place during my six weeks (Jan-Feb 2007) as an artist in residence at the Zen center of Los Angeles. A few times a week, we would sit down for a half hour chat to examine the relationship of Clowning and Zen.
In the clown world there is a strong reliance [...]

Conversations about Clown and Zen, The Three Tenets. take 2.

The Three Tenets-Zen Perspective.
During conversations with Roshi Egyoku, we looked at the parallels between clown and Zen. One that comes up is how Roshi Bernie Glassman’s Three Tenets can be applied to the spontaneous aspects of clowning…

Moshe with Boobysatva (Bernie) at ZCLA 07. photo: kuku
Bernie is known as a pioneer in the [...]

Clown and Zen, The Three tenets. Take 1.

It has been a few weeks now that I am posting these discussions about Clown and Zen, about Clown with other performers.
Today’s topic of discussion are ‘the three tenets’ which are deeply engrained in the zen world. Roshi Bernie introduced them to me. I discovered an intriguing parallel between these tenets and [...]

Conversations about Clown and Zen, The Whole Interconnected

 This conversation with Roshi Egyoku took place during my six weeks (Jan-Feb 2007) as an artist in residence at the Zen center of Los Angeles. A few times a week, we would sit down for a half hour chat to examine the relationship of Clowning and Zen.
Moshe: One common thread in different forms/lineages of clowning [...]