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 associated with meditation,  with ‘the now.’ One is born with a sense of humor and joy, it is one of those ethereal qualities that connects us to THE juice.
Was I aware of this 27 years ago when I did my first juggling show in the old town of Annecy in France, and discovered that the audience laughed and I was making that happen? Well most likely not.
Now, is another story.

How about you, the reader?
Does the word Clown conjure up an important person in society to you?
Images of bulbous red noses in striped pajamas running around with cream pies ? Do you look to clowns to offer a contrarian’s perspective within a somewhat heightened spiritual context?
Probably not if you are like the 94% of American children for whom Ronald McDonald is the first clown to come to mind.

On this  pathway of exploration, digging into the deep history of clown, fool and jester in human history, I dug into Benito Ortolani’s book about Japanese theater, focusing in on Zeami’s Aesthetics for the Noh Stage. Having studied Kyogen, the comic side of Noh theater, I have a certain understanding of the depth of their tradition that goes back at least some 600 years.

I recall watching my teacher’s teacher’s father, Shigayama senior, perform in Japan (1993), his comic presence was powerful,  without doing anything, just standing there on stage. It was defined by a deep mischievous grin that resonated in his voice as well. There was little doubt about his comic intentions. He embodied the humorous spirit, no superficiality in sight.

What follows below is a condensed look at the principles that Ortolani discusses in his book.

Zeami, with his father Kan’ami, established Noh theatre in Japan in the 1300’s. Nogaku comprises of Noh, deep theatrical pieces often tragic, and Kyogen, comic stories that come between Noh to relieve the tension.
Toraaki (head of the Okura school of Kyogen in 1646) distinguishes the two forms: Noh concerns mostly illustrious or even divine roles, while Kyogen aims at the ordinary -even reducing to an ordinary level people belonging to the aristocracy, or the supernatural world. …the function of the kyogen is to provide relief from the tragic atmosphere of the no, but not to destroy the dignified and refined no atmosphere of yugen.

Toraaki  goes on(courtesy of Benito Ortolani) :  “Kyogen should offer a sense of human equality, and a search for truth under the veil of the joke-practical and unpretentious truths of common sense…this search for truth eliminates the coarse, low, indecent comicality which elicits an easy but sick and superficial laughter, deprived of profound compassion and understanding for the human situation.”

What branch of clowning does that apply to?

One needs look no further than 2008, and an interview in a Chicago newspaper with David Shiner, great modern clown, and director of Cirque du Soleil’s latest production “Kooza”. Explaining the work and philosophies that went into the show’s creation, he is asked:

So what clown wisdom did Shiner take with him from all those many years ago on the streets of Paris?

“Wow, I guess it would have to be the importance of the human existence,” he says, contemplating his next words. “Not to let people feel isolated and alone. We need each other. It’s important to laugh, to have hope. That was the essence of what I did as a clown, what I still do, what I wanted this show to do. It’s all about finding what’s human in each person and connecting with them on that level.”

This role of the clown, or clowner ( I prefer to think of clowning as a verb), in connecting with the audience is the first of Zeami’s principles: Hana (flower). All of his aesthetics have strong resonance and relation to the world of clown. It is extraordinary how Zeami relates performance to the deepest, and lightest realms,
once again all explanations all courtesy of Ortolani-san’s book:

Hana: flower. the most crucial concept in understanding the relationship between the actor and his audience.  According to Konishi, the Flower is an effect resulting from an excellent performance, when the audience is caught up  in the actor’s performance.
Zeami distinguishes between the temporary flower, that to do with the natural beauty and fascination of youth, and the true flower, which is the result of long years of rigorous training. “It manifests itself in a number of nuances and degrees of perfection reaching the peak in the mysterious flower of the miraculous that sublimely unites actor and audience in a unique experience of the Absolute.”

Kokoro
‘Kokoro is used by Zeami to indicate the ultimate foundation of the art of the no, the source of the greatest impact upon audiences, the ultimate source of genuine  yugen performances, and the explanation of the secret of the unique fascination of the moment of “no-action.”  According to Pilgrim, kokoro in Zeami’s use “encompasses such things as feeling and emotion, soul and spirit, mind and the objective knowing process, consciousness and self, intent and will, a pure and non-conscious mind, and a spiritual state representing the deepest levels of the total self.”

“The reality of kokoro is therefore rooted in the true essence of all things, or the all-encompassing, unchanging pure Buddha-nature…the artist eventually becoming one with the heart of everything, unconsciously and spontaneously following the rhythms of the One, the Absolute, the primordial Energy…. The great master in a real sense becomes its appearance on the stage, moving the  kokoro of the audience deeply in an indescribably way…Zeami used the image of puppets and strings Puppets are not self-moved; the strings effect the movement.  So it is for the supreme master.

Yugen   Originally yugen referred to the hidden meaning behind the surface of the sutras. In the tenth century in Japan, it was used in poetic criticism with the meaning of ”profound”. At first Zeami used the term to refer to elegant beauty, and later to a combination of elegance with depth and a touch of cosmic truth. Ueda writes: “if the term  yugen is etymologically analyzed, it will be found the yu means deep, dim, or difficult to see,, and the gen, originally describing the dark, profound, tranquil color of the universe, refers to the Taoist concept of truth…..Zeami perceived mysterious beauty in cosmic truth: beauty was the color of truth, so to speak.””

Rojaku Old age, tranquility. The quiet beauty of old age. The great challenge for the real master, the reduction to the real essence…being able to cause the flower while portraying old age ( without the elegance of a court lady, or the strength of a warrior)

What a thought that one can approach the cosmic truth through Clowning. Actually one can approach from an infinite number of directions and art forms. In this case the art form happens to be ‘the Funny’.

“Think Buster, not Bozo” (from 500 Clowns in Chicago)

thinking too much

ahhh slip into the warm waters of the hot spring, feel your muscles slowly melt into rythms of gentle laplets of liquid shaking you loose of all things and thoughts.  you sink into the feeling of graviational support as the waters embrace. after extended time in such environments there is a danger of becoming oh so spiritual in such luscious natural environments. after months of non stop, i stop and settle into the waters for two days.

the second day, in the midst of a series of hot and cold water plunges,each of them longer than the previous, memories of a long ago sweat lodge memory open up on my horizons. i recall the jump in the creek after the last round, after intense sweat and prayer,  floating in the water in a fetus ball. what i recall is the clarity of that moment,  it was the sensation of no sense of body, just the sense of being.

and so in the midst of said hot and cold plunges, i seek to open up that experience again, that sense of no body floating in cold water. a lot of the ritual and prayer is missing, not to mention the intensity of the heat in that little darkened sweat lodge. those aspects of the experience don’t come to mind as, after a good number of plunges,  i sink into the cold water, a curl up slightly and focus in on my sense of being.

there is a quiet accumulating in the float, any sense of cold water or other thoughts are absent. there is calmness to this place as  i breath in deeply. Then there is a big  Bonk! as my head bumps none too gently into the side of the cold pool. Oh, I did feel that.

If no one witnesses it, is it still funny?

Amsterdam 4.23.08

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…

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….”

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.

Photos and video on SFGAte

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 striking the audience as particularly funny? If the context allows for it, one tends to play with the moment, exaggerating the situation (amplify), improvising (expand) around the theme, to take the funny further. One could say that :

Moshe: you expand and amplify it.

Egyoku: Exactly. It is a wonderful thing. That is right in line with meditation, because that is what happens when a person meditates in a way.

M: You amplify and expand?

E: Yeah they do, actually they do without realizing it. Life becomes the moment. It is an exquisite thing. And then you connect with that.. That is what you do, you take this little moment. And it grows like that, and that ties right in with Zen because that is the experience of meditation, that is actually what happens: being able to rest in this moment, and to be able to taste it and appreciate it. To just be there with the moment, and that is what the clown does, you have to really be there. You are staying connected and at the same time you are communicating.

E: The other thing I think is interesting, we have this expression, we talk about it with anger but I think that it applies here too: I roll all negative experience into my practice, and we can also say: I roll all positive experience into my practice.

M: So in meditation you call up this anger?

E: You don’t call it up, you just sit with it. You just take it as part of the whole as opposed to ‘this is not supposed to be there.’ This is what I think the clown is doing, I see this, everything is just taken in, it becomes a clown moment. There is nothing that is not supposed to be there.

M: Right anything can be clowned.

E: Exactly.

M: So would you call these parallels to Zen.

E: I would call these parallels to a meditator’s experience. Zen is really about meditation, it is about sitting, we don’t call it meditation, we call it zazen, or just sitting. Vipassana also has this sitting. Some of the Buddhist practices don’t have a lot of sitting. I think it is this quiet meditative experience that allows us to touch the deepest places of life, of one’s self in life, because that is what you got to do.

M: There are many levels that you can touch, the clowning can also remain relatively superficial.

E: It is the same with sitting.

M: Sometimes they stay in their mind thoughts. As a teacher, can you tell that?

E: yes. One of the ways it comes up is what people bring up to share. You can see that this is so STRONG, they haven’t yet got that we are going to leave all that aside.

M: After months, years…

E: Sometimes it is years. Sometimes it is just different levels of it. It is hard to let go of what is going on up here ( gesture to the head) because that has been real for us. That is what is real! (Laughter).

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 on one’s intuition or what you might call Inner Wisdom.

Roshi Egyoku at ZCLA. photo: kuku

M: intuition/inner wisdom, what is
that from your perspective?

E: It is our knowing. We talk about not-knowing and there is also the knowing that comes out of that place.

M: that might be our accumulation of wisdom from past lives?

E: Who knows what that is. It is like a profound wisdom that is who we are, and I think the clown accesses that a lot. It allows us to respond appropriately to any given circumstance. Because that is what you are doing. Your bag of tricks, that may or may no be you, it just depends on what is coming out of the situation. Something guided you, that is beyond all the studies, and learning and training that you have done. I mean that is how I always function here, I go by my gut, it’s the gut thing.

M: Common sense

E: Yes, I just sit back, something comes up and that is where I am going, and I go with total confidence. Someone may ask how can you be so confident? But I know, that is the way, my whole body is telling me that that is the way, that is what you need to do. Sometimes I surprise myself, because I find myself yelling at people. I used to see Maesumi Roshi do that, I’m not doing it because he did it. It would just come out of me, and then I would step back and ask myself where did that come from. I realized, and trusted it, that there is a wisdom coming out rather than telling myself to cut that out…laughter….
I think you do that.

M: yelling?? No, but on stage I have to trust my intuition, or I am likely to step out of my clown world.