10-11 October 2026
Venue: The Clown Institute, Sydney, Australia
Cost: $315/345
Time: 10am-5pm Saturday and Sunday
To book your place, go here
Workshop tour of Australia
You have trained. You have played. You have discovered moments that were strange, ridiculous, surprising or genuinely funny.
But how do you turn those moments into a clown act?
You planned the bit.
The audience had other ideas.
What happens when prepared material meets a live audience?
Laughs in the wrong place. Silence in the right one. Plans wobbling under pressure.
Early bird registration now open for my weekend workshop at the Clown Institute in Sydney! Go here to register
The Clown Institute welcomes UK clown teacher, performer, writer and researcher Jon Davison to Sydney for a rare two-day workshop exploring the moment when prepared material meets a live audience.
How do you perform now what you planned earlier?
What happens when the audience laughs somewhere unexpected, or when the moment you thought would be funny receives silence?
That Was Supposed to Be Funny explores the gap between what you imagined would happen and what actually happens in the room.
Across two days, Jon will guide participants through practical work combining prepared clown material with real audience response. You will practice holding onto your plan without becoming rigid, responding to what is happening in the moment, and allowing the audience to influence the performance without losing its thread.
The workshop begins by grounding performers in the dynamics of clowning: presenting ourselves as ridiculous for one another’s amusement and noticing what happens when people laugh, hesitate or do not laugh.
From there, you will explore how to:
read audience behaviour honestly
notice how laughter, silence and unexpected reactions affect you
respond to shifts in the room
create performance structures that leave space for the audience
adjust planned material in real time
stay connected to your own particular stupidity, craziness and way of clowning
The aim is to perform prepared material in a way that remains alive to the people in front of you.
Workshop Details
Dates
Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October 2026
Time
10am–5pm each day
Location
Sydney
Full venue details will be sent to booked participants.
Full price
$345
Early bird
$315 for the first six bookings or until Sunday 16 August, whichever comes first.
Use booking code JON315 at checkout.
Capacity
Maximum 18 participants.
Bookings cover the complete two-day workshop.
This Is Going to Be Funny is a three-day intensive for clowns and theatre-makers who are ready to take the next step: moving from clown exercises and improvisation towards the creation of an act, a scene or the beginnings of a show.
This is not simply another workshop about being present, playful or spontaneous. It is a practical performance-making laboratory. You will generate material, identify what has potential, give it structure and discover how to perform it without losing the unpredictability that makes clowning alive.
This intensive is for:
- Clowns who want to move from training and improvisation into creating performance material.
- Performers who have an idea for an act but do not yet know how to structure or develop it.
- Experienced clowns who want to refresh, reshape or test their performance.
- Actors, physical performers, comedians and theatre-makers interested in using clowning as a method of devising original work.
- Artists who want to begin developing a solo act, ensemble piece or larger clown show.
Some previous clown training or familiarity with clowning is advisable.
You do not need to arrive with a completed idea. You may bring an existing fragment, character, routine, image or performance problem, or begin generating material during the workshop.
Jon Davison teaches in his home city of London and all around the world.
He has taught extensively in Spain (where he began his teaching career), across the UK (Bristol, Brighton, Nottingham), the rest of Europe (Belgium, Germany, Greece, Serbia) and the rest of the world (Peru, South Africa, USA, Canada, China).
If you want to help organise a workshop where you are, email info@jondavison.net
Workshops Around The World
Some images from the last international workshop, in Vancouver teaching in collaboration with Priscilla Costa and producing a student show in 6 days!
