Go be a pharmacist

training in the park before ecole

Today Gaulier said:

“Clowns are ridiculous. If you are not ridiculous you can go and be a pharmacist in Paris. Or Budapest. Bon. Me, I like people who are happy to be ridiculous. If you are proud with yourself you don’t be a clown. If you are proud with yourself you are just a piece of shit.”

“The clown arrives like a hair in the soup - nobody is expecting them.”

“The clown is always bad. The clown is not ashamed to be bad. All the time you are ashamed, you are not a clown.”

(This is all my memory and not exact.)

As I watched I thought, he uses telling us we are bad in different ways: To up the stakes so our clowns are more vulnerable; to stop us from being arrogant; so that the audience laughs at us even if our performance wasn’t very good and sometimes just because we are doing the excercise wrong. It’s only day three. I could be entirely wrong.

Today’s exercise was to come onto the stage with the feeling that you are a bad student, but pleased to be there and run in a circle in front of the audience, and he gave us different orders – longer steps, don’t wave your arms, move your shoulders. But almost everyone: light on your feet. He say’s, “the clown likes authority, they are not anarchist.” And I can see it, in the sweet vulnerable, trembling faces of the people behind the red noses as they jump to try to do what he says.

He compliments people when they have finished, “That was not so bad, I am surprised, we like you a little bit.” And the creeping, surprised joy on the faces is so hilarious and adorable to watch.

Just because I can see it, really don’t mean I can do it.