Clowning

So it turns out I've been clowning since I was, like, four, without ever realizing it. Well, I knew I was goofing around, but I never called it clowning. I called it being an attention whore when I got older, which, in retrospect, makes me understand why the hell theater was so appealing. I used to look in the mirror for hours, practicing facial expressions just so I could see what I looked like as opposed to what I felt like my face looked like. The difference was kind of striking. But it helped me get a lot of control over what kind of expressions I wanted to make. It's how I learned how to arch either one of my eyebrows at any given time. Seeing Marcel jogged that memory. He holds the honor of being the only French comedian I've liked as well as the only mime. Well, okay, Rowan Atkinson's miming bits are amazing. The drum piece is my second favorite performance in that medium. My absolute favorite is where he's in a fight with the invisible man. That rubber-faced bastard is amazing.

I'm bringing in a wool stretchy hat tomorrow so I can simulate both a normal hat and a sweatband at the same time. I think it will be adequate to learn everything I need to with the hat movements. On that same note, Irwin was friggin' amazing. Jenn, do you have any info on the context of that clip? It was so...surreal. I'm not sure what to make of it, other than the bits.

Re-reading the chapter from Stage Combat, I was reminded of every performance I've used that kind of movement in. The running and different types of locomotion haven't come up much, but the falls have been valuable time and time again for a wide variety of performances. Now that I remember how to do the front-falls, I think I might use them for working out. It really worked some muscles I need to get back into shape.

The reading on clowning seemed familiar to me, but I knew I'd never read the book before. It was only at the end when they were going through takes and such that I realized there's an episode of Tiny Tune Adventures that explains all those elements of clowning (except for the different genres, like miming) in almost word-for-word descriptions. They even have a clown running in the background three times during the episode and explain at the end he's the running gag.

So. Yeah, pretty damned cool. Workout log: More walking. As the weather gets better I feel encouraged to walk more places and do more things. My pace is getting faster and faster, day by day. I love this time of year.

So that's it for me this week. See y'all in class.