Gauiler — Round 2

January 22, 2023

Well, there’s nothing like an external kick up the ass to get you started with something… So, thanks to Will for asking me if I’m going blog about my experiences this time round. If he hadn’t asked me that yesterday – let’s be honest to myself – the idea would probably have gone into the

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Let’s fail as much as possible

August 11, 2022

Day 8 of Clowns at Gaulier Well… I’ve not written much over the last few days. Part of that is due to tiredness. Boredom – an emotion (if you can call boredom an emotion) that I spend a lot of my life struggling with. It’s a bit of a return back to the first days

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Why everything comes back to the basics

August 5, 2022

Day 4 of Clowns at Gauiler (locked up with Covid and via Zoom) I’m getting used to being locked away from the class by now. I’m still not particularly happy with it, but what can you do!? Day 4 was one of those days in Philippe’s class where the students didn’t achieve what he was

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A clown always wants a miracle

August 3, 2022

Day 3 of Clowns at Gaulier (stuck on Zoom due to getting Covid) Well, today, the saga of Covid continues, as one of my classmates (also my housemate) tested positive. Which is (to vastly understate it) less than ideal. I know, I know. Covid is famously a bastard. It is excessively transmissive and can move

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Disaster strikes

August 1, 2022

Day 1 of Clowns at Gaulier Well, this week hasn’t started off great. In fact, it’s started off badly. I went into the school in the morning, thinking that I had a mild cold following too much end-of-course partying on Friday… To discover to my horror that I tested positive for Covid (we do tests

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A deep dive on the feeling of rejection & bouffon

July 31, 2022

Reflection after Bouffons course at Gaulier. If you were to ask me what I’ve learned so far over the last 4 weeks, I’d list a bunch of insights and ideas around on-stage performance skills. But an emotional theme to my experience? My top candidate is: Rejection. Why rejection? Of all the mental and emotional ups

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“You’re too sad” and other emotions

July 30, 2022

End of Bouffons at Gaulier It’s the end of the second 2-week course. Just one more course to go. For many people, Bouffons has been very confusing. So many people this week have said, “I still don’t really get what ‘Bouffons’ is.” Myself, I feel like I have a good idea of it. Not a

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The crushing confusion of uncertainty

July 28, 2022

Day 9 of Bouffons at Gaulier. One thing I’ve learned about myself in these past couple of weeks is that I am not comfortable with uncertainty. I’d go further than that. I’d say I function extremely badly with uncertainty. The more uncertain things are, the worse I function. When I know what’s going on, I

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