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 what lands on my head…

cellphone hiding in hat

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.

Torbeck DEc 11th evening

the rain is coming down, and outside under the balcony, a group of the local residents, along with SarahLianne, Elisa and Brandon are singing songs in beautiful harmonies.  Here is a story that I wrote earlier this evening. No doubt in the next few evenings, the others will start adding their stories to mine…

Dec 11th, Torbeck evening.
We are staying at the rectory in Torbeck where on the balcony we create and rehearse the show that we are going to play tomorrow.  We will be winging it but we have been able to put together a loose structure that should be fun and full of humor. At 5pm we take a walk down the rocky dirt road through the neighborhood doing a little parade to announce our presence and invite the kids of the neighborhood to the rectory courtyard for a little play and workshop, which we intend to do every evening between 5 and 6 pm by which time it is completely dark.  As I type away on the balcony, Brandon is downstairs playing mandolin with hand claps accompanying alongside a local teenager who has brought a conga drum out of somewhere. We had the big parachute up which was exciting for the 40 or 40 kids and young adults who have come in. Our intent is to do a bit of the show every day and to teach little mini workshops, and on our last day here to get some of the kids to perform as well. I get surrounded by kids after doing a simple disappearance of a rock and sneezing it out my ear. I soon find myself with 20 little hands asking me to pull it out of their ear, out of their hair, out of all kinds of different places. I balance my baseball cap on my head, and then tell them that tomorrow I will teach them how to balance things. We have created some momentum that no doubt should continue through the week we are here.
There is a rough moment in our parade when a man comes up to us very upset and angry demanding to know where is our legal authorization to do our manifestation-our parade. There is strong alcohol on his breath.  He doesn’t really want to hear any explanations, he is convinced that we have invaded his country and made it our playground, basically that we are not respecting his country. He starts telling me that he cannot come to our country and do this without legal permission, so what gives us the right to do that here.  Of course he has a point, and he knows it as he tells me that he worked for 23 years abroad.  No one is going to simply let him into the US and allow him to parade down the street making music, or at least so he feels.  No doubts about it that first he would need a visa and a passport, have to get fingerprinted, photographed just to get in the country. His confrontation has gathered a little crowd.  Eventually I am able to explain to him that we are here to do shows in the schools for kids for noel (xmas)., and that we were simply coming out to play with the children and to invite them to the rectory.  He accepts my explanation, walks away telling us to go play there then. Which we do.

AYiti, don’t call it Hate-i

Just a short short note here from Port au Prince, to say that I have started a new blog where for the next two weeks, you can read about the Clowns Without Borders expedition. I am here with three other performers, Elisa, Brendon and Sarah Lianne.

So if you want to read on, click on in on clownsinhaiti.wordpress.com

clowns without borders, Ireland-In Uganda

I was just reading the accounts of Clowns Without Borders-Ireland, their blog from the trip to Uganda where they are performing for Sudanese refugees in camps mostly run by the UNHCR. If you are wondering what the concept of sacred mischief can be, here is one extreme. There is little I can say to put it in perspective more than urge you to click on the link and read on. Amazing work, hard work, work of wonders. Here is a brief excerpt. They are my heroes this week, and showing me the way, as I get ready to fly to Haiti to go on expedition myself to perform there with 3 other wonder clowns….we will blog too, check the Clowns without Borders-USA website for updates.

Thursday 6th December

These IDP and refugee camps we are visiting each day are full of so many untold stories. We sometimes go into them expecting misery, braced for the appalling; these places where happiness seems unthinkable yet the camps are full of hope, comedy and sweetness. We clowns each have our special moments with people in the camps; we connect, interact, play and just be with these amazing warm children who melt you with their eyes and big smiles.

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 that

Julie : The badkhinis (plural)…, the badkhin is the wedding jester. I don’t know the tradition in depth, but I know that traditionally they would balance a bottle on their head and do all kind of antics, limbo in the circle…

M: was this during the ceremony or afterwards during the celebration?

J: during the celebration. Reception Juggling was done by the badkhanim, and a tribute to the bride, if you can get some very old recordings…the musicians are playing and the “…

Oy the bride the bride the bride…she’s crying she’s crying
Oh she’s looking so sad
Because she is leaving her mama and papa….
Oy she’s going to make a good wife …
But everybody cry, cry with me

It’s kind of a litany, fake crying

M: Is this supposed to be sad or funny?

J: funny, extemporizing rhyming verses for the family that make fun of everybody, people in the town….

M: what is clown

it’s a way of looking at serious things with a humorous slant, it’s a way of looking at life, tragedy…(laughter)…seeing irony in it, seeing humor in it, seeing what would topple other people, always keeping the eye for humor on the bad things while they are happening to you even, and that generates material, potential material, a sense of failure, other things…that winds up in your work la mort.

M what do you think about the nose?

J: I think it’s great. I’ve been using it always with the students, and I almost used it today (in the show) .because I like what it does. When I have too many things happening around my face, be able to ….I have absolutely nothing against it. It’s a great tool and it works well in performance.

Do you use one?

M I don’t use it, but I carry one around with me. I use it at the airport, I use it when I go through security and they want to frisk me.; or In other public situations where I want the instantaneous clown mask.

A friend of mine says that language of clown is feelings. I like to talk about clown as a language of heart and spirit as opposed to an intellectual discussion. What would be your response, or reflection?

J: It seems like a clown creates their own world and defines everything about it. Hopefully can make the audience see the world that they are in and from that point they have their own special kind of logic. It’s out of the box, but it’s in a circle of logic. Keith Johnstone has a circle of logic he applies that to improvisation, clowns it is really good if they stay within a circle of logic, they can be very off the wall on the way but feeds into their own line of thinking. So in a way, it is oddly consequential. You take the audience along your line of thinking if you can get them to follow it. Then you are really communicating.

M: What I mean when I say heart and spirit, is where the energy is coming from in the performer

J: I felt it tonight. A great deal of spirit connection happening. And as a musician I really feel that. To me making music is when those things you are talking about happens to me, more than sitting in a congregation doing responsive reading.

………..