"Most people, when they hear 'clown,' think American circus clown or horror film freaky, serial killer clown,” says John Gilkey, who founded The Idiot Workshop, one of Los Angeles’ three clown schools, in 2012. “The fact that people don't really know what we do helps us; the mystique of it. Because they can't describe it, they say, 'Oh, you just have to go try this thing.
“In its simplest form, a clown is doing the simplest task in the most complicated, idiotic way,” explains actress and comedian Natalie Palamides. “An example is Lucy and Ethel when they're at the chocolate factory [in] and they don't know what do to with all the chocolate passing them by. They can't wrap them fast enough and they just shove them all in their mouths — a very idiotic, dumb solution to solving that problem.
“A lot of people who have done improv for a long time start to, after a while, feel constrained,” says Gilkey — who began his career as a circus juggler before learning clown and working with Cirque du Soleil — of why he thinks so many performers turn to clown at some point in their careers. “In improv, there are a lot of constraints. There are a lot of rules. And, after a while, people start to yearn for a more open, creative opportunity and I think clown generally provides that.
“The primary approach is focusing on the individual,” he says. “What's unique about you and what's funny about you is super important. So much of what we do is giving the students physical, sort-of-unsolvable challenges. They enter the stage, and they get one phrase — 'This is me' — and they have to only say that phrase and explore that phrase verbally and physically.
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