Table of Contents

List of Images
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Section 1: Hello - A Pharmacist, Helium Balloons and a Red Nose
Games to introduce the students to each other, build the ensemble, and get them physical.

Section 2: Energy - The Telepathic Renaissance Fool
Games to increase and focus the student’s energy through physical play.


Section 3: The Talking Body - Silence on the Streets
Exercises for developing strength, flexibility and physical expression.


Section 4: Prop Play - The Prop Whisperer
Using props for improv, revealing emotions, telling stories and developing relationships.


Section 5: Curiosity - Oddfellows
Finding potential in the performance space, blurring the border between stage and audience.


Section 6: Clown Solos: Catching a Salad on Your Face
Exercises to develop a solo player’s skills and help generate performance material.


Section 7: Clown Duos: The Wet Towel Intervention
Exercises to develop partner relationships and tools for generating performance material.


Section 8: Clown Trios: Boss, Negotiator, Fool
Exercises that explore status and the dynamics of a trio.


Section 9: Clown Ensembles: Fractious Fun
Exercises to develop complicity, group rhythms, the acceptance of accident and absurdity.


Section 10: The Rules, the Script, the Game, the Play
Exercises to help devise original work for clown and physical comedy.


Section 11: The Mask of the Clown
Background, history and uses for the mask of the clown.


Section 12: The Skillful Clown
How to use skills to develop and enhance clowning and physical comedy.


Section 13: Getting Serious about your Funny
Tips on creating original work and ways to reach your goals


Section 14: Devising for Clown and Physical Comedy
Practical ways to get started on creating new material


Bibliography.
Inspirations
Index

Promotional Information

A comprehensive workbook, packed with original exercises and games, for anyone interested in the art of clowning.

About the Author

Joe Dieffenbacher is known internationally for his performance work in theatre, circus, cabaret, and street spectacle, as a maskmaker and prop designer, as a director of physical theatre, and teacher of clown, mask performance and slapstick. He spent eight years as resident faculty at the Dell'Arte School and was Physical Theatre Director for productions at Shakespeare’s Globe, Regents Park Theatre and the Scottish National Opera.

Reviews

Clown: The Physical Comedian belongs on every theater library’s bookshelf.
*CHOICE*

Joe Dieffenbacher draws on a wide range of influences and experiences to create this wonderful resource book. The exercises and insights offer support to both professionals who are looking to enrich or refresh their existing work and teachers who are introducing "newbies" to clown or enhancing existing clowning or acting classes for the more experienced students. Dieffenbacher's approach is inspirational not prescriptive and easily adapted to your needs.
*Malcolm Tulip, University of Michigan, USA*

Concise, generous, energetic, collaborative and complicit. Joe manages to articulate; what clown is, where it came from and what it takes to become a true clown. Clown: The Physical Comedian offers great tools for teaching, directing and devising clown. I wish I had this book 35 years ago when I first started clowning. It is brilliant.
*Michael Kennard, University of Alberta, Canada*

Clown: The Physical Comedian is an essential addition to the growing field of Clowning Studies. In this increasingly popular area of study, there are a few books of clown exercises, but fewer that offer such direct building blocks for devising and creating clown scenes. Joe Dieffenbacher draws on his contagiously energetic teaching and a wealth of professional experience performing in large scale commercial events and directing smaller scale touring to present a rich collection of clowning exercises for students at all stages of clowning practice. The generous array of exercises included here are accessible, practical and easy to incorporate. You will find helpful contextual notes on significant ideas and practitioners as well as step-by-step suggestions for building your Physical Comedy routines. The exercises work from fundamental principles such as appearance and playfulness, moving on to the details of gesture and how to respond to your audience.
*Richard Talbot, University of Salford, UK*