Another week, another blog from the performance side of theater. This week--breaking through the negative stereotypes.
In pop culture, few words conjure up as specific mental pictures and or as many (usually negative) associations as the words "mime" or "clown." Mimes and clowns often get a bad rep as creepy, weird, uninteresting, or even deserving of disdain. A mime teacher of mine semi-jokingly told the class that when she worked as a mime and there was a shift in popular culture towards "mime bashing", they had to move from creating friendly characters to ones that were tough enough to defend against random people trying to confront or physically harrass them.
It's ironic that both miming and clowning has acquired such a bad image in the popular imagination, because as an actor, mime and clown training has been some of the most eye opening, important, and influential training I've received. I highly recommend any actor interested in honing and improving their craft to seek out training in both fields.
The art of mime is incredibly fascinating and useful. Whether working with naturalistic mime or exploring the more sculptural nature of corporeal mime, the heightened specificity and body awareness mime work brings is incredibly applicable regardless of the medium in which you choose to act. As a stage performer, increased specificity in physical action as well as improving the range of physical performance will only strengthen your abilities to work in various genres. Even as a film actor, honing your physical body and ability to physically show and react to various environments is incredibly helpful.
Similarly, clown work is also extremely helpful and applicable to a wide variety of styles of performance. Recently, a clowning teacher I had defined clowning as:
"celebrating of your flaws,publicly."
I absolutely adore this definition of clowning, and feel it really can (and should) apply to performance in general. The inherent humility required of such an act (the public celebration of flaws) is absolutely essential in performance. Many times, I feel the ego of an actor can get in the way of an honest, truthful performance.
Such a concept and such humility also echoes one of the things I love comedy improv--it's not about trying to be funny, but rather being truthful. The more a person tries to be funny, or look good, or show off, the less funny and successful at clowning a person is. But when a performer can eliminate (or at least reduce) his own ego and simply revel in the things that he is vulnerable and weak at, the humor naturally rises and improves indefinitely.
Mime and clown work are incredibly important tools in an actor's toolbox. Don't let public perception of the two fool you; I would highly encourage any actor to seek out training in either field. I've loved all of my mime and clowning classes and workshops I've taken, and am eager for more training in both.
What experiences have you had with mime or clowning?
Mimes and Clowns and Stereotypes (oh my!)
by M. Yichao
Jan 30, 2012
Another week, another blog from the performance side of theater. This week--breaking through the negative stereotypes.
In pop culture, few words conjure up as specific mental pictures and or as many (usually negative) associations as the words "mime" or "clown." Mimes and clowns often get a bad rep as creepy, weird, uninteresting, or even deserving of disdain. A mime teacher of mine semi-jokingly told the class that when she worked as a mime and there was a shift in popular culture towards "mime bashing", they had to move from creating friendly characters to ones that were tough enough to defend against random people trying to confront or physically harrass them.
It's ironic that both miming and clowning has acquired such a bad image in the popular imagination, because as an actor, mime and clown training has been some of the most eye opening, important, and influential training I've received. I highly recommend any actor interested in honing and improving their craft to seek out training in both fields.
The art of mime is incredibly fascinating and useful. Whether working with naturalistic mime or exploring the more sculptural nature of corporeal mime, the heightened specificity and body awareness mime work brings is incredibly applicable regardless of the medium in which you choose to act. As a stage performer, increased specificity in physical action as well as improving the range of physical performance will only strengthen your abilities to work in various genres. Even as a film actor, honing your physical body and ability to physically show and react to various environments is incredibly helpful.
Similarly, clown work is also extremely helpful and applicable to a wide variety of styles of performance. Recently, a clowning teacher I had defined clowning as:
"celebrating of your flaws, publicly."
I absolutely adore this definition of clowning, and feel it really can (and should) apply to performance in general. The inherent humility required of such an act (the public celebration of flaws) is absolutely essential in performance. Many times, I feel the ego of an actor can get in the way of an honest, truthful performance.
Such a concept and such humility also echoes one of the things I love comedy improv--it's not about trying to be funny, but rather being truthful. The more a person tries to be funny, or look good, or show off, the less funny and successful at clowning a person is. But when a performer can eliminate (or at least reduce) his own ego and simply revel in the things that he is vulnerable and weak at, the humor naturally rises and improves indefinitely.
Mime and clown work are incredibly important tools in an actor's toolbox. Don't let public perception of the two fool you; I would highly encourage any actor to seek out training in either field. I've loved all of my mime and clowning classes and workshops I've taken, and am eager for more training in both.
What experiences have you had with mime or clowning?