Clowning: John Wright

Failure forms the basis of many aspects of comedy (one can think of a million examples of comedy based on the failure of a person, or people, to correctly carry out a task, communicate with others, or interpret a situation correctly).



This is particularly true in the physical comedy one finds in clowning.

No investigation into failure would be complete without an investigation into clowning, and so as part of my research for this project, I went to watch a clowning workshop led by the director John Wright. Wright also very kindly allowed me to interview him via phone, and although my interviwing skills leave much to be desired I was able to gain some very valuable and interesting insights from him.

What struck me most during both the workshop and the interview was the emphasis placed on the audience, or perhaps more accurately, the interaction between the audience and the performer. Throughout the exercises demonstrated to us in the workshop, John could constantly be heard shouting out to the performers "For us! For us!" or "Find us!" ('us' meaning the audience) stressing the need for the performers to establish, and then maintain, a dialogue between themselves and the audience. For him, failure meant a breakdown in this interaction, a lack of interest and engagement in the audience. He calls it the "angel of death", to be avoided at all costs.

For John, the idea of failure in performance was completely located in the audience's reception - whether or not they engaged with a performance, were interested in it, thought it funny or moving...in short, whether a performance ultimately succeeds or fails. And although I of course agree with this, I want to broaden the idea of failure into other areas:

• The ability of the performer - what happens if a performer is required to complete physical, vocal or emotional tasks that they are unable to fulfill completely?
• Accident and mistake - in what ways does this manifest itself in performance and what effect can it have on performance?

Most importantly, how can a performer negotiate these 'failures' if and when they happen so that they create an interesting and valuable addition to a performance - so they they can move beyond failure and into success?