ADVANCED CLOWNING, like Beginning Clowns, is essentially identical to the Third Year class I teach at NYU Grad Acting. In here we'll take what we've learned from Trinculo, the Porter, Launce and other clowns and jump off a cliff with it, trusting that somewhere down there is a net ready to catch us (there always is). We'll explore the astounding heights of boundless joy, the far reaches of despair, and everything in-between, all of which are fodder for the comedy and pathos the clowns bring to whatever world they inhabit.
OVER THE COURSE of this class, you'll go through the insane, grotesque, sublime, delicate process of creating your own red-nosed clown. You'll hold this creature as tenderly as you would a baby bird. You'll water it, feed it, nurture it with unbridled love and care.
Then you'll throw it off the aforementioned cliff. Just to see what happens.
Because that's what these characters are for. They're meant to plumb the heights and the depths of our experience. They're explorers. The bravest, most terrified, most terrifying, ridiculous explorers of the corners of our lives that we stopped shining lights into years ago. They're agents of empathy who invite us, cajole us, threaten us, seduce us, beat us into viewing our world through their eyes so keenly that we rarely see it the same way again.
Sounds like hyperbole. It's not. When it works. . . it's not.
BECAUSE WHAT IS astounding about the little mask of the red nose is that something so small can take the faintest glimmer of something inside of us (rage, love, lust, curiosity, terror, anything), blow it up to proportions that are outrageously greater than what we previously thought possible, and make the people watching pee on their knees in the process (with laughter. Not. . . just randomly.)
And while we're sitting in the maelstrom of this delicate insanity, we'll also get to the bottom of what the hell makes something funny and why, what happens when we leave a comic vein of gold too early, how this work can be put to use in your VO audition for a Geico national radio spot. Stuff like that.
The cost for this class is $500 for two
8 hour sessions. Its prerequisite is Beginning Clowns. As with Beginning Clowns, this cost has a sliding scale.