Three-Week Clown Course
Next dates: 6th-24th April 2026
Venue: Longfield Hall, 50 Knatchbull Road, London SE5 9QY www.longfieldhall.org.uk
Cost: £900 (payment in full)
£350 (per single week)
Time: 10am-4pm Mondays-Fridays
To book your place, email info@jondavison.net for details on how to enrol
Maximum: 18 participants
The Three-Week Clown Course starts with the fundamentals of clowning and works towards creating your own clown performance.
The Three-Week Clown Course starts with the fundamentals of clowning and works towards creating your own clown performance in the way that suits you and performing it in the place that suits you.
We begin with the dynamics of clowning: when we present ourselves as ridiculous for each other’s own amusement, and when we laugh (or don’t laugh) at each other.
We then look at how to make sure the material you create really works for you. There are countless practical ways of devising material appropriate for your clowning. This fuses a personal approach to your clowning together with taking care to set up and structure your performance.
What’s my plan? And how do I perform now what I planned earlier? – keeping your in-the-moment responsiveness while performing an already created piece.
In the third week, we will create unique clown performances that work for you, in the style that suits you best. Whatever your ‘formal’ experience, clowning is something many of have done throughout our lives in informal or social situations, and our experiences will differ widely according to our backgrounds, cultures, and identities.
The course will end with a public performance of participants’ newly created clowning. Depending on your style of clowning, you may choose to present your performance in other settings: in an outdoor setting, in a specific site, online, at home, one-to-one, etc. there are no rules about where or for whom we should clown!
Week 1 - Training
Week 1 covers the fundamentals of clowning in a similar way to the two separate workshops Clown Dynamics and Creating Clown Performances.
Feeling and Laughter – “I (Don’t) Feel Funny / That Was(n’t) Funny”
“How do I get into the mood for clowning? How do I get over not being funny?”
The fundamental dynamics of clowning: when we present ourselves as ridiculous for each other’s own amusement, and when we laugh (or don’t laugh) at each other.
Clowns have a unique relationship with laughter. Laughter is the fulcrum upon which clowning balances. Laughter does amazing things to us, physically, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually. Whilst we are immersed in it, it seems to relieve us of the burdens of norms, expectations and even meaning itself. What a relief!
When you really look, most things are ridiculous: our bodies, our movements, our ideas, our emotions, our words, our relationships, the universe. We don’t need to change ourselves, just look at everything from another perspective. It’s a human thing to do, so anyone can do it.
We will experiment with how you, as a performer, respond to that response from the onlooker. How do you behave, feel or think when the spectator laughs, or does not laugh? Indeed, how do you behave, feel or think upon the mere appearing in front of that audience whose expectations are already formed?
Performing Clowning – “That Was Supposed To Be funny”
“What’s my plan? And how do I perform now what I planned earlier?”
We will explore in depth the material you create to clown with and the relationship with the in-the-moment performance.
What’s my plan? - what and how to plan, create, devise what you’re going to clown with.
How do I perform now what I planned earlier? – keeping your in-the-moment responsiveness while performing an already created piece.
We shall be looking at how to make sure the material you create really works for you. There are countless practical ways of devising material appropriate for your clowning. Awareness of and understanding of these is far preferable to just a single idea will survive the real stage situation. This work fuses a personal approach to your clowning together with taking care to set up and structure your performance.
Week 2 - Creating
Week 2 covers how to create clown performance in a similar way to the two separate workshops Clowning with Skills and Clowning and Theatre.
Skills and Unskills – “Being (Un)impressive”
How can we bring together your own particular stupidity and craziness with the things you do well? Do you have ‘recognised skills’ like music or dance? Or eccentric abilities with no ‘value’ such as waggling your ears, or burping on cue to entertain your friends at a party. Or are you ‘skill-less’ and seemingly devoid of all talent?
In the second week we will draw on your own particular ways of doing things well and badly, in order to explore how to create clown performance:
what makes your abilities ridiculous?
generating clown performance material: wrongness, disruption, surprise
clown scripting: structures, formats, paths
By the end of this week, you will hopefully have an idea of
how your particular kind of clowning works
how to generate clown material that works for you
Clowns in the Theatre – “Being Meaningful/less”
We will explore clowns as both protagonists and intruders upon the performance. As creators and destroyers of meaning and of worlds. As dramatic figures who collide and harmonise with each other through their ridiculous desires, hopes and fears.
Using exercises and games specifically designed for these purposes, we will look at:
Clowns as masters of ceremony and owners of the stage
Clowns as protagonists of the play with something to say
Clowns as intruders upon the well-made and meaningful play
Clown drama: roles and dynamics
Some clowns appear to be full of meaning and profundity, ‘having something to say’, speaking truth. But then others appear to have ‘nothing to say’, except perhaps for saying that meaning is ridiculous! Some clowns exist alone, some in groups, some co-exist with other kinds of ‘serious’ performers. What will work best for you?
Week 3 - Performing
Week 3 is all about you creating your own clown performance in the way that suits you and performing it in the place that suits you.
Creating Performance – “However You Want to Clown”
Whatever your ‘formal’ experience, clowning is something many of have done throughout our lives in informal or social situations, and our experiences will differ widely according to our backgrounds, cultures, and identities. We already know a lot about clowning before we ever set foot in a class or on a stage. All of this knowledge is welcome, without the need for aesthetic unity or discipline.
In the third week, we will create unique clown performances that work for you, in the style that suits you best.
Performing Your Clowning – “Wherever You Want to Clown”
The course will end with a public performance of participants’ newly created clowning. Depending on your style of clowning, you may choose to present your performance in other settings: in an outdoor setting, in a specific site, online, at home, one-to-one, etc. there are no rules about where or for whom we should clown!