Now I'm famous...

Here it is.  I've been waiting a while for this. My feature in New York Magazine

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/05/fears-of-boswick-the-clown.html

Let me know what you think.

Speaking To Your Audience...

I did a workshop/performance for a clown club in San Jose last night.

I have been telling people about this for a few days.  I forget the concept of a clown club is foreign to most people.  I'm not all that sure what clown clubs do.  I like the idea.

The idea is to promote the art of clowning.  A big chunk of the group never performs puts on make up or appears as a clown.  I guess they are clown fans.  It's flattering but throws me off.  I have people that like me, laugh, hire me, question my life choices of being a clown.  It's a bit odd to be looked at like I'm something special.  Like I'm a celebrity.

There were a few people at the meeting last night that just hung on my words.  They looked at me like I'm a movie star.

I wish they'd tell my children how special I am.

It was hard to do a workshop for this group, they meet in a Round Table Pizza.  The place was very crowded and the Golden State Warriors are in the play offs and were playing on 22 screens  We had to wait for the game to be done.  It would have been hard to compete with all of that.

I mostly did a show.

What is always interesting for me is how to do my show for adults.  I get such laughs from things like dropping my hat with kids.  They laugh and laugh.   Crickets from adults.  The way I make my hat fall off has taken me forever to perfect.  To adults it just looks like I messed up.

I don't like adults to pretend to be children, it's weird, they don't know how to do it.  Also a bit creepy. So when I clown for adults I speak to them.  I do what will make them laugh.  I want them to just laugh.  They are watching me because they like my style of comedy.

which is tricky.

When you are performing for a group you are not good at.  For me adults.  You have to listen to what they are laughing at.  You have to be present, you have to pay attention.   Drop jokes, routines that simply aren't going over.

It's what comedians do.  I've watched watched Robin Williams do the dirtiest stories because that's the audience.  Other times he told stories of his children a family friendly show.  It's having enough material.  Listening to the feedback (laughter.  gasps of surprise) and following that path.

With children, I describe it as being in a rapid river and floating with the current.  It's the same with any audience.  Listen, if they are laughing, follow that current.  If they don't, you're on a rock in the middle of the river not going forward nor backward.  Get off the rock.  It's a lot more interesting to go against the current or with it.

I ended up discussing a lot of theories after the show.  That's my favorite thing.  It didn't work as well as the performance.

But that's why they brought me in.  So extending the metaphor.  I was in an eddy going round and round, till I put my nose back on and did another routine, then they laughed.  I jumped back into the current.

As a clown, you just never know how to deal with situations.  And that's always funny.  

Teaching Clowns to Clown

I find teaching clowning incredibly scary.  Performing is my safety area, it's where I'm comfortable.

When I teach, I have to be very present, pay lots of attention and gently coach or push people to find character or to find comedy within themselves.

It's easy to say the wrong thing, to shut someone down, to hurt them. I never want that I want them to find character, movement and find comedy.

I am going to be teaching clowning at SOTA. That's School of the Arts.  It's a performing arts high school in San Francisco, like the high school Fame in New York.  I've subbed there a number of times for my old clown partner Brady.  Brady is moving into another teaching position at the school and got me the job as the next heir apparent.

The students spend about 3 or 4 hours every day working on performing.  They do Shakespeare and scene study and movement and dance and monologues and African Haitian dance and improvisation and clowning.

There are some downsides to teaching in a place like this.  You get interrupted a lot.  It is a high school, so someone always has to go to the bathroom or a note is coming in because someone left their backpack somewhere and it's in the office.  Or there's a dentist appointment.

The classes are too short.  I think they are 50 minutes.  They come in really worked up, so it takes a while to start class.  The classes are a bit large for what I do as well.  Ideally, I'd have 12.  6 groups of 2, 4 groups of 3.  I have no control over such things.

On the other hand, to be able to work on clowning is so cool.  To use your body as communication, to make people laugh with a look.  To teach someone a proper slap and fall and watch the execute it.  Just nifty.

Internally, I don't think very highly of my own skills.  In fact, I'm in constant fear of being found out as the fraud I know myself to be.  When I demonstrate in classes, I get ooos and aaahs of "you're so good".  It's weird because I mostly feel like anyone at all can do what I do.

Administration sucks with a capital SUCKS at this school.  I'm not good with authority, I will sabotage every time if left to my own devices.   I can tell they just posture.  So, I'll turn in my lesson plans and do what the students need most, that will likely take us off my lesson plan.  They pay little attention to our class so we'll be fine.

By happenstance, I've been invited to teach at a local clown club tomorow.  That's fun as well.  They will be a lot harder to teach.  Adults, especially in a clown club have preconceived notions of clowns.  Lots of cute stuff that has very little to do with clowning.

But I'm nervous and excited about this as well.  The times I've worked with clown clubs, I'm surprised at how little they know of the greats of the history.  I bring up my hero Bill Irwin, I get blank stares.  We'll have fun.  I like to create clowns inside out, so it will be neat to see how they do.

Now, if only this stuff paid a little better....