In his 1976 book on clowns, John H. Towsen, a teacher of physical comedy, writes: “A resurgence of interest in the art of clowning has become more and more evident, and the traditionof the clown, in all of its fascinating manifestations, suddenly seems more vital than ever.” What Towsen stated more than four decades ago is also valid for the state of clowning in the twenty-first century. The number of clowns and clown training options increase day by day. Thiscentury also witnessed the most dramatic expansion of clowning beyond its artistic purposes as its subversive and therapeutic qualities gained extreme attention.

In this regard, clowning as a genre of comedy is a broad subject, which includes a vast variety of clowning practices in different contexts and cultures. Some of these practices are ritual clowning,hospital clowning, radical clowning and circus clowning. This course, however, focuses on a specific branch of this performance genre, identified as “modern clowning” shaped by the teachings of French acting coach Jacques Lecoq. For this reason, participants will experiment with the red nose or “the smallest mask in the world” as Lecoq calls it. Through practising techniques of modern clowning, students will work on developing their own clown personas and perform short pieces at the end of the course during a work-in-progress showing open to the public. Apart from exploring clowning at a theatrical level of play, we will briefly discuss important aspects of comedy such as laughter, humor theories and comic strategies of subversion. We will also approach the clown as an ambivalent figure associated with a longhistory of clown types, including the tragic clown of the modernist theatre and the evil clown of popular culture.