MY WEEKEND: Comedy, Improvisations and Acting

Saturday afternoon and myself, Sophea Moeln and her friend Lillian rocked up to the Autumn session of Powerhouse Youth theatre’s Sidewalk from 1pm to 3.30pm, Fairfield School of Arts (PYT) run by Andy Ko & Lauren Maher.

This is our day of some serious play as we dressed up for our version of “Thank God You’re Here”.

It was fabulously fun and full of unthinkable conundrums and laughters!

Check out the pictures below:

Clown 101

In the three hour session, taught by Craig Anderson, myself and Joseph Hieu Dinh indulged in the world of clowns and street theatre. This was not a class for people who had a strong aversion to all things silly, because it was a class that rock the boat of acting appropriately and a course that will be sure to give you a stomach full of laughs.

We warmed up to some light bouts of juggling tricks, hula hooping and other circus tricks and soon enough we went straight into a number of rediculous silly music based games such as the “typewriter”.

Craig gave us a quick run down of the historics of clowns (they have a history?), the types, the global clown tournaments back in the 70s, and also acting and storytelling through the physiques.

So what are clowns? They are comical performers stereotypically with coloured wigs, stylised make up and costumes, awkwardly large footwear and red nose, all with the intent to entertainment kids.


Types of Clowns
There are three types of clowns: Whiteface, Auguste & Hobbo/ Tramp.
Whiteface: most common clown, when performing with the Auguste and/or Tramp, this clown will remain in charge, setting up the routine, throwing rather than taking the pie, slap or kick. Although more comical than the Straight Whiteface, this clown is a bit more reserved than the impish and gregarious Auguste.

Auguste: The most comical of all clowns. He/she is impish, gregarious and thrives on slapstick. His/her actions are big, clumsy and awkward. He/she does not have much in common with the Whiteface except for the makeup and costume. His/her personality is that of a rabble rouser. When appearing with the Whiteface, the Auguste (German meaning "foolish") is the brunt of the joke. However, with the Tramp, he becomes the instigator in control of the situation.

Hobbo/Tramp: forlorn and downtrodden character who has nothing and knows he will never have anything, probably be a loner, which is reflected in his determination to be silent, generally not talking to anyone but his peers. His downcast mannerisms and shuffling burdensome movements reflect his hard life.

Does anyone remember...STEPHEN KING's movie IT?

This 1990's movie was one to really traumatise you with the unthinkable horrors of a psycho clown.

A group of adults take a blast from the past. They remember when they were nerds in school, hanging out, victim of bullies. But nothing out of the question compares with one big bully of Evil unspeakable. the bully is a monster in a clowns suit. He is deadly, can be any were anyone, at any time. with supernatural powers. They call him "IT". Written by sam from IMBD.

Prior to this, I only knew Ronald Mc Donald. But what is it about clowns that are so freaky? Aren't they designed to entertainment kids?