Creative Character Development and a Personal Transformation through Clown

"If You Can't Laugh At Yourself, Then Your Missing The Biggest Joke of Your Life." Charles Alden Smith

"Humor is by far the most significant behavior of the human brain.. This is a self organizing system. Humor not only clearly indicates the nature of the system but also shows how perceptions set up in one way can suddenly be reconfigured in another way. This is the essence of creativity." Edward De Bono

Clowning is a wonderful way to liberate the power of your inner diversity and use it to develop and share your heart and your mind through the understanding of your humor. It encourages mindful playfulness with our human nature and helps release us into new possibilities of seeing and being.

What's in A Clown?
That's a big question, but essentially at the core of a Clown is a Human Being. One who can take delight in the experience of being Human and enjoys conversing about the experience. Beyond what we traditionally think of as Clown, there is a particular attitude of mind that is willing to continually face up to itself with insightful honesty as it involves and a quality of heart that can compassionately acknowledge the feelings that are encountered in the process.

These attributes promote a self acceptance that is deeply grounding and encourages self authorization. When this sense of Being is shared with others it can help to re-animate similar sensations in them and remind us all of some common bonds of possibility and fallibility we share together in the Human Experience.

What Do Clowns Do?
Clown's play within the non-linear and unstable systems of the active, self organizing human mind. Their actions provoke a de-stabilizing of set systems of perception and help to create alternate frameworks of possibility. They facilitate perceptual mobility and articulate movement across the range of our experience and into the unknown territory beyond what we know. By doing so, they act as a catalyst for change and a vehicle for adaptability at both the personal and a communal level.

What do I need to be a Clown?
You simply need to be willing to give yourself permission to be seen by the world as nothing other than your present self in the moment; unmasked, simple, and honest. You need to have a strong curiosity and a sense of humor about how you and other human beings function and behave. You need to become aware of the ways that you perform yourself in public and be willing to play with those self perceptions. You have to enjoy engaging in conversational communication with other people and have an extraordinary appreciation of the ordinary along with an open hearted acceptance of the obvious.

Who can benefit from Clown?
Anyone who wishes to release themselves from the oppression of rigid, linear thinking and develop a more playful, flexible, and creative attitude of mind. Anyone who would like to increase their freedom for taking self authorized action and participate more consciously in the process of their own evolution. People from many walks of life have benefitted; Teachers, Lawyers, Nurses, Doctors, Body workers, Housewives, Computer technicians, Actors, Singers, Dancers, and Musicians,... maybe you.

Where do Clowns Play?
Most traditionally we think of Clowns playing in the theatrical and circus event. Practically speaking they can play anywhere in our everyday life, from the Boardroom to the Bedroom, within the public and private arena, and to audiences ranging from large formal public presentations to the intimate and private conversations that we reserve for only close loved ones and ourselves. The psychological systems brought in to action are applicable in all areas of human performance whether those situations are professional or not.

What is the Course Like?
The course revolves around the work of Canadian Clowning Pioneer Richard Pochinko and provides experiences that animate, exercise, and extend our innate skill as human beings to feel, think, and express ourselves.

It begins with an overview of Clownology. This is a way of looking at the human experience as the continuous interplay of the relationships and movement between extremes; the dynamics that arise between our innocence and our experience, our agony's and our ecstasy's, and between what we know and what we believe.
Bio-kinetic exercises are taught that help us to open up to our biological innocence, release tension, and discover new possibilities in how we sense and connect with ourselves. Breath release is practiced to connect with the emotional freedom of our " inner infant". This helps us to reclaim our relationship with our emotional intelligence and the freedom to express and swing between feelings with ease again.

This sets the foundation for "warming up our willingness" and ability to respond more freely and impulsively and encourage the fluent energy of Play. We then bring that awareness into the creation and performing of six personal masks and a range of the innocence to experience within each one. These help you to enter into the vibrant psychological arena where the Clown plays, among the many diverse perceptions of yourself and the world that you hold within you and with the many possibilities for response that they provide.

Throughout the course you will practice those response potentials by presenting yourself before the group. This practice enrichs your ability and understanding of being in a moment to moment, living conversation with an audience.

The course ends with a Clown Birth/Debut as the last class. This consists of an afternoon in which the participants present themselves before an invited audience of their Friends who are there to support them in practicing what they have learned by providing them was converse a larger group of people to converse and play with.

The course meets 15 hrs. per week for twelve weeks. Classtimes weekly are; Sundays 12 - 6 PM, and Tuesdays & Thursdays 6 - 10:30 PM

The course is a challenging and insightful personal journey for all seriously adventurous and fun loving people. It will move your mind!

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