August 21, 2024 / by Kay / In programmes

Why we all need to be the class clown

At certain points on a Monday and Friday, what you encounter when you walk into Aerial Edge may cause you to turn back and check the door, to see if it’s some kind of wardrobe-to-Narnia portal to another world.

But no. It’s just the clowning class for the full-time students.

You might find a bunch of people sitting on the floor staring intently into each others’ eyes while chattering very loudly, passionately, and in an absolute gibberish language.

So what’s going on? Why do we feel it’s important to teach clowning – apart from the fact that it’s a highly respected circus art in its own right?

Instructor Andrew Simpson says: “In my view, it’s important because clowning is all about the connection and complicity with the audience and with yourself as a performer, and with your partner if you have one on stage.”

That’s one of the reasons the students get so animated when discussing something in gobbledegook to each other – they are learning that you don’t need words to make a connection with people, and to communicate with them.

And in many other forms of performance, creating a connection with the audience is a key skill which transforms an act from a series of technically brilliant moves to a shared experience which has an audience enthralled.

Through clowning classes, a student can learn this skill of connection regardless of which circus art they are performing for a live audience.

Andrew says: “The clown is always thinking ‘How is this landing? How is my connection with the audience?’

“They aren’t in their own world like an acrobatic performer who is not looking at you. The clown always checks, they will look directly at the audience as if saying, ‘Oh, there you are!’ And that direct connection, that eye contact, is really important.

“Sometimes with a technically brilliant circus act, someone comes on and does their thing wonderfully well, yet there’s almost a sense of asking yourself ‘Do I need to be here?’ But if I feel seen and they feel seen, a different thing happens.

“I think that’s why people still go to live performance even though there’s TV and film, there’s that indescribable magic, when you’re in a room with people.”

This ability to connect with the audience also teaches you the ability to adapt if things go wrong, or if the audience isn’t responding the way you anticipated.

“You may have a core act but each moment is different with each audience – it might land differently, so you give yourself room to improvise.”

For this and other reasons, Aerial Edge Founder Mark Gibson believes that clowning is an very useful modality for creating any kind of act.

He says: “We want to expose students to different ways of creating acts, and clowning is one of those modalities that we use. Some other modalities might be physical, choreography-based involving music with movement, some theatrical. They are all very much related to inspiring people in different ways to create art.”

The silliness of clowning goes beyond the fun that is central to the Aerial Edge training approach. Silliness generates laughter which breaks down barriers, releases inhibitions and in so doing reduces the pressure that some students put on themselves when they are working hard on their technical expertise.

Andrew says: “A lot of circus work requires you to be very skilled. It’s very technically demanding, because obviously if you don’t do it right, it’s dangerous.

“Clowning and theatre games are really good to get in touch with the softness, the lightness, the silliness…and the freedom that comes with it.

“That silliness and the play are really important. You begin to see people on a different level when you play with them. You can see the fire, the spark in their eyes and you can understand people in a different way.”

Laughing together helps to get you working together collaboratively in all circus arts, and helps to generate the deeper trust that’s needed for partner acrobatics, for instance.

So bringing students together in silliness helps feed into the wider aims of creating an imaginative and confident performer – and one who is prepared to make mistakes in order to learn from them.

“The clown is like the person in all of us who’s a bit lost, who makes mistakes…just like we all make mistakes,” says Andrew.

“In our culture, we’re taught to hide our mistakes, cover them up out of embarrassment. Clowns make mistakes all the time but they live in this joyful energy. Terrible things happened to Charlie Chaplin or Jackie Chan, but they just keep going.

“The clown is the one the audience understands. The audience maybe can’t do all the amazing things that the acrobats can do. It’s about sharing what’s going on.”

So it’s a serious business, clowning.

But as Andrew says: “Clowns take things very seriously. But maybe the things they take seriously are a bit silly.”