Hey, I'm 63 and still going strong, still doing triathlons and still teaching physical comedy, but I'm nothing compared to this grand dame, Johanna Quaas.
Yes, you got that right — 86! If that doesn't inspire you, I don't know what will.
[post 243] These look great, especially that last one! 1.The Clown Tribe of a New ParadigmFULL!!
March 7th to 17th Johnny Melville and Jango Edwards
(400€ — 40 hours of training) 2. Clown Master Class April 9th to 14th Steve Smith
(300€ — 24 hours of training) 3.The Clown Theory May 14th to 18th Jango Edwards
(250€ — 20 hours of training) 4. Physical Comedy
June 12th to 17th John Towsen
The Clown Tribe of a New Paradigm with Johnny Melville & Jango Edwards March 7th to 17th
is a unique opportunity to train for 10 days with two of the leading teachers of the N.C.I., Johnny Melville & Jango Edwards - who are veterans of stage and screen with thousands of hours of performing experience and success, and who still perform around the globe as comedy surges through their blood and love through their hearts.
La Tribu clown de un Nuevo Paradigmaes una oportunidad única de formación con dos de los profesores principales del N.C.I. Johnny Melville y Jango Edwards - veteranos del escenario y las pantallas con miles de horas de actuación, experiencia y éxito, y todavía actuando alrededor del mundo ya que la comedia se desborda en su sangre y sus corazones.
Johnny Melville B.Sc is a trained teacher, actor, clown, writer, director, and a trained Pleiadian Lightworker. In 2001 he won best actor award at the Brooklyn Film Festival. He has performed and taught in over 30 countries and is continually active in the theatre and movie world. Johnny will appear with Jango in the feature film the Parade of Fools, to she shot in New York in summer of 2012.
Diplomado en Ciencias Sociales, profesor, actor, clown, director y formado en el Pleiadian Lightworker. En el 2001 ganó el premio al mejor actor en el Brooklyn Film Festival. Ha actuado y enseñado en almenos 30 paises y está continuamente en activo en el mundo del teatro y el cine. Johnny aparecerá junto a Jango en el film Parade of Fools, que se filmará en New York el verano del 2012. www.johnnymelville.com
Jango Edwards. Founder of the original "Festival of Fools", director of "The Nouveau Clown Institute" and the "Fools Militia", creator of "Cabaret Cabrón", international clown artist, writer, composer, director and producer. During the past 40 years he has performed and taught in over 30 countries and is constantly active in the evolution of the global clown profession.
Fundador original del "Festival of Fools", director del "Nouveau Clown Institute" y la "Fools Militia", creador del Cabaret Cabrón, artista del clown internacional, director y productor. Durante los últimos 40 años ha actuado y enseñado en más de 30 países y está constantemente activo en la evolución global de la profesión de clown. www.jangoedwards.net www.jangoedwards.es
Planeamos abrir un nuevo grupo de "Clown Tribe of a New Paradigme" en verano. Pronto mas información We plan to open a new group of "Clown Tribe of a New Paradigme" next summer. More info soon!
Clown Master Class with Steve Smith April 9th to 14th
Steve Smith has built a highly-successful career in the entertainment industry, fully utilizing his talents as a writer, performer, producer, teacher, manager and director. He started out as a performer, having studied at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, earned a BFA in acting from the Goodman School of Drama and studied physical comedy with some of the world’s top performers. He performed in the Greatest Show on Earth for several years before “running away from the circus to join a home.”
Steve has taught extensively and served as the Director of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College for ten years, from 1985 – 1994. He has also traveled the world conducting workshops and master classes in physical comedy. During his tenure as Director of the college, Steve conceived and directed the highly successful 123rd edition of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (“The Greatest Show on Earth”).
In 1996, Steve was able to combine his skills as a producer, performer and manager when he served as the Talent Development Coordinator for Chuck Jones Film Productions and he went on to produce and direct numerous shows including several of his own plays and a critically-acclaimed one-man show, Slapstick & Sawdust.
Co-writer & Guest Director of the 2005, 2006, 2008 & 2009 editions of The Big Apple Circus.
Steve Smith ha construido una carrera llena de éxitos en la industria del espectáculo, utilizando plenamente sus talentos como un escritor, performer, productor, profesor, manager y director. Inició su carrera actuando. Estudió en el Ringling Bros. y Barnum y el Bailey Clown College, ganó un BFA en interpretación de la Escuela Goodman de Drama y estudió comedia física con algunos de los mejores performers del mundo. Actuó en el Mayor Espectáculo sobre la Tierra durante varios años antes de “fugarse del circo para unirse a un hogar"
Steve ha dado clases durante largo tiempo y ha sido el Director de Ringling Bros. y Barnum y el Bailey Clown College durante diez años, 1985 - 1994. También ha viajado por el mundo que impartiendo talleres y clases magistrales de comedia física. Durante el tiempo que fue director del Clown College, Steve concibió y dirigió la 123 edición sumamente acertada de Ringling Bros. y Barnum y el Circo Bailey ("el Mayor Espectáculo sobre la Tierra ").
En 1996, Steve fue capaz de combinar sus habilidades como un productor, performer y director como el Coordinador de Desarrollo de Talento para Producciones el Chuck Jones Film Productions y continuó produciendo y dirigiendo numeroso muestra incluyendo varias de sus propios obras y un one-man show aclamado por la crítica, Slapstick & Sawdust.
Co-escritor y director invitado en las ediciones del 2005, 2006, 2008 y 2009 del Big Apple Circus
The art of the clown actor is not just a profession, but a lifestyle that demands an understanding of emotion, sensitivity, passion, pathos and the heart. The essence of clown, in the pure sense, is a combination of innocence and maturity. The Clown Theory Encounter is a way of uniting these qualities so each participant can discover and develop their personal clown, and apply it to their life after the course is completed. A combination of 20 years of professional experience, simple awareness and common logic, enables the instructor to reveal the clown character within each of us.
Through the use of assorted games, physical activities, socio-logical demonstrations, improvisations and performance, each student will find his or her comic simplicity, innocence and logic, which are the fundamental ingredients of the clown formula. A play-environment is created, in which trust within the group ensemble can develop. This motivates the students to remember the innocence they have forgotten. It will also reveal present social and human conditions. It may sound complicated but in fact it’s simple; it is the simplicity that is difficult for us to grasp.
Clown is a social character in all realms of life. The performance situation, be it theater or circus, is probably the most common form through which we know clowns; but it’s the least important. The primary requirements to reveal your personal clown is a knowledge of the comic formula and the creation of a clown heart. You have always had, and always will have, a clown heart, but to revive it demands the simple desire to regain and sustain your youth throughout all aspects of life.
The Clown Theory Class first reveals the innocence each of us has surrendered; and then proves it is never too late to recapture it again. It’s a challenge, it’s revealing but most of all it’s fun. —Jango Edwards Teoría del Clown con Jango Edwards. El arte del clown actor no es sólo una profesión, es un estilo de vida que requiere la comprensión de la emoción, de la sensibilidad, de la pasión, del patetismo y del corazón.
La esencia del clown, en el sentido más puro, es una combinación de inocencia y madurez. El Encuentro con la Teoría del Clown es una forma de unir esas cualidades de manera que cada participante pueda descubrir y desarrollar su propio clown y aplicarlo en su vida. La combinación de 20 años de experiencia profesional, de simple conocimiento, lógica y sentido común permite al instructor revelar el personaje del clown dentro de cada uno de nosotros. A través del uso de juegos variados, actividades físicas, demostraciones socio-lógicas, improvisaciones y representaciones, cada estudiante encuentra su propia simplicidad cómica, su inocencia y su lógica; ingredientes fundamentales en la fórmula del clown. Se crea un contexto de juegos en el que desarrollar la confianza y la unión del grupo. Esto motiva que los estudiantes recuerden la inocencia que han olvidado. Y también revela el presente social y la condición humana. Puede sonar complicado pero de hecho es simple; es esta simplicidad lo que nos es tan difícil de agarrar.
El clown es un personaje que socialmente se puede manifiestar en todas las esferas de la vida. Las representaciones en el teatro o en el circo son, probablemente, las formas más comunes a través de las cuales conocemos a los clowns; pero no son las más importantes. Los requisitos primordiales para revelar tu clown personal son el conocimiento de las fórmulas cómicas y la creación de un corazón de clown. Siempre hemos tenido y siempre tendremos un corazón de clown pero revivirlo requiere el simple deseo de recobrar y conservar la juventud en todos y cada uno de los aspectos de la vida.
La Teoría del Clown primero revela la inocencia de la que cada uno de nosotros ha claudicado para luego probar que nunca es demasiado tarde para recuperarla. Es un desafío, es un descubrimiento, pero sobre todo, es divertido!
—Jango Edwards
Physical Comedy with John Towsen June 12th to 17th
A hands-on crash course in physical comedy vocabulary for clowns, mimes, actors, and everyone in between. Technique leads to application in short pieces, with an emphasis on character interaction, gag structure, and storytelling. Skills are centered around working with your partner (counterweights, levers, mounts, lifts, partner tumbling) and with the physical world around you (tables, chairs, doors, props, etc.). Some performance experience and a reasonably sound body highly recommended, but all levels of experience welcome.
Comedia Física. Un curso intensivo sobre el terreno sobre el lenguaje de la comedia física para clowns, mimos, actores, y todo lo que pueda haber en medio. Uso de la técnica en piezas cortas, poniendo énfasis en la interacción de personajes, la estructura del gag, y la narración. Las técnicas se centran en el trabajo con el compañero (contrapesos, palancas, montajes, levantamientos, la caída de compañero) y con el mundo físico a nuestro alrededor (mesas, sillas, puertas, apoyos, etc.). Se recomienda tener alguna experiencia en actuación y trabajo corporal previo, pero el curso está abierto a todos los niveles.
John Towsen has taught semester-length physical comedy courses at Princeton University, Ohio University, and the Juilliard School (the latter two for six years each), plus numerous shorter workshops, including at the Nouveau Clown Institute in Barcelona. He has many famous former students but doubts he had anything to do with their success. His once-upon-a-time performance career included 7 years of television acting as a child growing up in New York and a decade of clowning as an adult, from the elementary schools of Long Island to the sands of Saudi Arabia, most of it with partner Fred Yockers. In his other lives he teaches multimedia and digital video in the Creative Arts & Technology program at Bloomfield College, and spends his summers working for the Open Society Institute doing media training for activists in hot spots across the globe. He is the author of Clowns (1976) and was artistic director for the first two New York international clown theatre festivals (1983, 1985). He currently teaches and directs physical comedy in New York City, where he is co-founder with Audrey Crabtree of the NYC Physical Comedy Lab. His latest research on the subject is to be found on his blog: physicalcomedy.blogspot.com
John Towsen ha impartido cursos académicos de comedia física en la Universidad Princeton, la Universidad de Ohio y la Escuela Juilliard (en estas dos últimas durante seis años cada una), más numerosos talleres cortos, el más reciente en el Nouveau Clown Institute de Barcelona. Muchos de sus antiguos estudiantes son famosos, pero duda mucho que su éxito tenga algo que ver con él. En los inicios de su carrera se incluyen 7 años de televisión interpretando a un niño que crece en Nueva York y una década de clown ya como adulto, desde escuelas primarias de Long Island hasta las arenas de Arabia Saudí, la mayor parte de ello con su compañero Fred Yockers. En sus otras vidas ha enseñado multimedia y video digital en el programa Artes Creativas Tecnología del Colegio Bloomfield, y ha pasado sus veranos trabajando para el Open Society Institute preparando a activistas para lugares conflictivos del planeta. Es el autor de Clowns (1976) y fue el director artístico de los dos primeros festivales Internacionales de Clown en Nueva York (1983, 1985).Actualmente enseña y dirige Comedia Física en la ciudad de Nueva York, donde es cofundador con Audrey Crabtree del NYC Phisical Comedy Lab. Sus últimas investigaciones sobre el tema pueden encontrarse en su blog: physicalcomedy.blogspot.com
Moni Yakim teaches a class at Juilliard
(Photo: Jessica Katz)
[post 190]
The notion that physical comedians and other movement artists might have something to teach traditional actors goes back at least a century, when such innovative directors as Jacques Copeau in France and Vsevolod Meyerhold in Russia hired accomplished clowns and variety performers as guest instructors. In the United States, this became a trend in the 60s and 70s as "experimental" theatres sought to break the confines of the fourth wall and Stanislavski method acting to forge more theatrical performance styles.
Jewel Walker and Hovey Burgess were two of the first teachers to become influential fixtures at major universities ((Carnegie-Mellon and NYU). Nowadays no respectable college acting program is without its movement specialist and — if you believe the optimistic job descriptions you see in the ad postings — the desired skill set includes mime, circus, clown, acrobatics, masks, dance, biomechanics, yoga, and stage combat, not to mention the techniques of Laban, Feldenkrais, Alexander, Grotowski, Decroux, Lecoq, and Pilates. If you can integrate it with vocal training, so much the better! All this for a position that is often low on the faculty pay scale and not even tenure-track.
Movement training for actors was not just some trendy idea that came and went. It is now widely accepted in the profession and has demonstrably expanded the range and possibilities of many a successful performer. I bring this up because I recently stumbled upon two useful articles on the subject in American Theatre magazine that are available on the web. This first offers a broad survey of the field, what the disciplines are, and what value various teachers and performers see in it.
Here are a few quotes:
"Suppose I hit a line drive over the head of the second baseman. I'm off running right away. And I'm watching the ball, and there comes the possibility I can get to second base on this hit. My body knows without looking where first base is, and I need to watch only the ball and the fielder. If I have to look down at my feet, I've lost. That's like being on stage—you have to be super aware." — Jewel Walker
"What is essential? It tends to change, depending upon the time period. I've been teaching for a long time, and students used to be a bit more out there and crazy: curious, and wildly splattering themselves on the walls. So it was a matter of focusing that wild energy. Students coming in now are better trained, in many ways, and more disciplined. Sometimes you want to tweak that wildness." — Jim Calder
"The hardest things to teach actors are that the pedestrian body embodies a kind of virtuosity, and that movement has a theatrical power that must be trusted in its own right. Actors want to act; they want to create some reason why they are standing on the stage. I take that away from an actor—I say, 'Oh, just raise your arm, just take four steps to the right, just bow your head'—it has meaning. The body is expressing things that are way beyond what you can impose on it in this moment." — Annie Parsons
"Three strong voices spoke to me—Bertolt Brecht, Jerzy Grotowski and Étienne Decroux—and I see them as a triangle of aspects of what I think constitutes full actor training. From Grotowski, it was the visceral aspect, of going beyond the socially acceptable and really finding the primal, visceral self; and from Brecht it was the whole aspect of dramaturgy and social relevance and the importance of the relationship of the artist on stage to the audience. And from Decroux, the concept of shape and form spoke to me—this idea of the actor's ability to physically manifest thought and give specificity to emotion.... The laws of physics tell us that gravity falls through us and pulls us to a perfect vertical. And life pushes us off of that sense of neutrality. If we understand that neutrality, then we understand how a character is pulled off of being perfect. Life creates our imperfections. And a character is a beautiful collection of imperfections." — Kari Margolis
"I deal with various forms of the mask, including the red nose. One is the full-faced character mask; it is a nonverbal mask. I follow that by the neutral, universal mask—also nonverbal—and that I follow with the character half-mask, which is a verbal mask. All of that is followed by the red nose, for what I call contemporary classic clowning. [Prior to the clown work, Francesconi works with...] “...movement improvisation, which is nonverbal. It is somewhat abstract, somewhat of a combination of modern dance and eccentric behavior, which is the basis, really, of physical comedy. 'Eccentric behavior' could be something as simple as a body part going out of control. It is essential that the early work be somewhat abstract and focused on the body in space, rather than on creating story."
The second article features ten prominent performers, each explaining what approach they use for creating a more dynamic stage presence.
Again some quotes:
"I encourage Synetic actors to train in parkour movements because there is an emphasis on gaining knowledge of one's body in space as it relates to dangers (falling, colliding with objects, losing balance) and applying that knowledge to move through obstacles with ease and safety. To me, parkour is about understanding the relationship between your body and the physical world, and enjoying it. Learn to fall, roll, land, climb and interact with the physical world so that you can perform better in your run, play or dance piece. The real joy of parkour is that it changes how you look at your environment—everything becomes a potential playground!" — Ben Cunis
"Lecoq is a way, a path—not a 'technique'—that asks the actor: What do you have to say? Tragedy, commedia and bouffon all have a different approach, but the overarching theme in Lecoq is 'actor as creator.' The process helps you develop your own voice, not just as an actor but also as a theatre artist. That rounded training is lacking in the U.S. The empowerment of the actor to understand more than just the role he is playing is not often embraced here, and in New York there is a palpable hunger for physical-theatre training." — Richard Crawford
"I just played Florindo, the boastful lover in A Servant of Two Masters, at Yale Rep. I went back to basics: leading with the chest, exercising muscles in my back, realizing how to look upward when I walked around, asking where my character's power comes from. Florindo is a funny character, but not to himself. Even doing commedia, I had to find the truth in this body. I did a whole monologue walking straight downstage till I got to the apron, and then ran all the way back crying and yelling. To do that eight times a week, you have to go back to your training. That's what Moni's [Yakim] about: the freedom inside the body when doing these extreme characterizations." — Jesse Perez
[For many of us old-timers, the Valley Studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin was a formative part of our movement theatre education back in the late 1970s. Under the all-embracing leadership of Reid Gilbert, it brought together teachers and performers of mime, clowning, circus, dance, and physical theatre in a beautiful setting and supportive atmosphere. It is probably no accident that the two festivals that introduced American audiences to international movement theatre artists were also in Wisconsin: Lou Campbell'sInternational Mime Festivalat Viterbo College in Lacrosse (July, 1974) and FOAM, the Festival of American Mime, in Milwaukee (August, 1978). Now Reid is in New York for a reunion (see below) but also to help launch a web site recording the history and many individual stories of Valley Studio participants. You can check out the alpha version of the site here. And here is Reid's letter explaining these plans in greater detail... —jt]
Hello,
The internet allows us to find old friends and share experiences in ways that we would not have been able to imagine back in 1970. From 1970 - 1979, Valley Studio in Spring Green Wisconsin brought together a diverse group of talented people dedicated to studying and performing all disciplines of speaking and physical theater arts. Our goal is for all of us from those Valley Studio days to reconnect and share our memories on the common ground of our own web site.
As the founding director with several alumnae initiating this project, we are inviting you to view an early format of the Valley Studio website.
Our vision is to construct a site with the capacity to offer stories and memories , personal web pages and a directory. The website address is www.valleystudio.000php.com. In its current form you can view an early sample personal web page and instructions on how to submit your memories and photos for your future web page. Please do not concern yourself with the design of the page or the format. The formatting of all personal pages will be done by a professional webmaster and will be a very simple, basic design. This site is being constructed as a means for all alumnae to be in touch and to see what others have done or are doing now.
In order to launch this idea there is a Valley Studio gathering to take place in New York City on Sunday October 24, 2010 from 2 PM to 5 PM hosted by myself, Karen Flaherty and John Towsen. The location is Karen Flahertys home- 11 East 17th Street, 3rd floor. Home number is 212 741 9030. Please RSVP at home number or valleystudio.springgreen@gmail.com by Friday October 22.
Please join us and bring your questions, suggestions and mailing lists. Beverages and appetizers are welcome!
Feel free to reach me directly if you have any questions. I will be in New York October 21 through October 24 and can be reached at 212- 741- 9030.
Hope tosee you soon on the Valley Studio web site, Reid
[post 082] Pure acrobatics operates in a precise world where time and 3D space intersect in ways even Einstein could not have imagined without vaudeville. As my old Russian circus teacher Gregory Fedin put it, "if you are able to see space, the acrobat has to go through it... go with the curves, like the tracks of a railway."
Physical comedy often hitches a ride along these same curvy tracks, but it also inhabits the messier world of people and objects, of personality and ambition and conflict. When I teach physical comedy, I like to play with this material world as much as possible, with oddball characters at odds with one another, and with all kinds of man-made stuff — chairs and tables, stairs and doors, walls and windows, and with every object that dares challenge our pride with the label "unbreakable." So here in Barcelona we’ve been developing a vocabulary of theatrical acrobatics by using our partner's weight and mass to create counterbalances and human levers. Add to that an exploration of the material world starting with our old friends, chairs and tables. As I mentioned in my previous post, within two hours we had reconfigured four chairs and one table (and by reconfigured I mean smashed to smithereens). No, not a record for my classes; not even close.
Which brings us to this post — Tables are Funny — and a new blog feature that looks at how physical comedy makes use of specific elements within its real-world environment. Stay tuned for Chairs are Funny, Doors are Funny , etc.. I’ll be combining clips of imaginative work from the past with some how-to instruction that should give an idea of how I approach this when I teach hands-on physical comedy.
I first became enamored of table tricks while on the Hubert Castle Circus in the late 70s, where a French troupe, the Gaspards, performed a sure-fire act with many of the tricks you'll see in the videos below. I don't know whatever happened to the Gaspards, I've never uncovered any footage of them, but many other acts have performed very similar routines, which have surfaced in various video archives.
Tables for Dummies Some obvious things we know about tables: • they are flat, so we should be able to walk, roll, or lie down on them just as we do on the ground • they are elevated, so we have the possibility of vertical movement to and from them, including from the table to a higher target • they can be a surface for working or a gathering place for eating, often bringing people together in a festive and sharing atmosphere • if it's a dining table, a variety of objects — plates, cups, utensils, food — are placed on and eventually cleared away • because we associate cleanliness with fine dining, human bodies on top of tables or hands other than our own contacting our food are simply unacceptable in polite company; let us not forget that it was standing on a kitchen countertop that precipitated movie Max's journey into the land ofthe Wild Things. • many other structures share some of these characteristics with tables and are therefore eligible for similar treatment at the hands of the unrepentant physical comedian
As with most physical comedy elements, we can look at tables both from a purely physical point of view — what tricks can we perform on them? — and from a comedic angle — how do we make that funny? In fact, we pretty much have to do both, don’t we, or it won’t be physical comedy? Physical + comedy = physical comedy (more or less).
Tricks We’ll see numerous variations on these in the videos that follow, but here’s a breakdown of the physical possibilities: • diving, leaping or falling onto and off the table • sliding onto, along, and off the table • balancing in precarious positions on or from the table • using the table as an obstacle, chasing around it, diving over or under it, etc. • hiding under the table • manipulating the objects on the table • moving, manipulating or even destroying the table itself
Basic Table Technique:
The better the acrobat, the fancier the tricks possible on a table, but you have to begin with the basics. This is what I started them on here in Barcelona:
1. Forward Roll onto Table:Because you are working against gravity here rather than with it, you will need to initiate the roll with more force to push your hips up and over this higher center of gravity, but you will need less arm strength in the second half of the roll to cushion your landing. Be careful to get the hips up and straighten the legs (point those toes!) so you don 't scrape your shin bones on the edge of the table. Unless the table is too long, you should be able to come smoothly off the other end and onto your feet. From there you might go into another roll or into a front fall, as in the video below from my NCI class.
2. Backward Roll from Table: A back shoulder roll is actually easier than a symmetrical roll and also frees up your hands for other activities, such as balancing bowls of soup. First figure out where your butt will sit on the table so that your head is actually off the edge of the table and you are pivoting directly on the shoulders. Sit in the same spot every time and you should be fine. As you go over, think of your shoulders as the pivot point for your rotation and actually see the floor long before your feet make contact. If you are doing a symmetrical, two-hand back roll, push off hard and straighten those legs to avoid the edge of the table.
Here are two in a row, the first by Tony Curtis or his double, from the 1965 movie The Great Race.
3. Peanut Roll onto and off the Table: [Peanut roll = partners holding each other's ankles.] First of all you need to be able to perform a smooth peanut roll on the ground, and especially be able to keep the speed up. It's mostly timing and momentum, but some arm strength does help. Doing it on and off the table looks a lot harder than it is. The person diving from the table needs to plant their partner's feet on the ground and to maintain tension in the arms to minimize the impact. The person sitting on the table can help a lot by resisting on their partner's legs. This is not difficult and, in fact, it's easy to execute the dive from the table in slow motion — admittedly not very spectacular, but a good starting point.
When rolling back onto the table, the partner doing the pulling should be fine so long as they use their butt on the table as a fulcrum and lift more with their legs than they yank with their arms. In the video below two NCI students who just learned the trick muscle their way through it. With more practice, using movement similar to a back extension roll (= back roll to a handstand) will allow the bottom person to make it easier for the lifter, and momentum will replace muscle. Here it is performed by Stefano Battai (Italy) and Giovanni Sanjiva Margio (Australia)
4. Slide Across the Table This is everyone's favorite stunt! In the movies you might see it across the length of a saloon bar, though in this clip from a barroom brawl in The Great Race, it spans a stage catwalk and down some stairs.
You'll want a smooth laminated table top and will probably want to sprinkle some baby powder on it as well. The idea is to slide clear across the table and off the other side, your body in a slightly arched position, toes pointed. It can be done with no hands, but try starting by placing both hands on the table to boost you up there and push you forward. The hands can grab again to pull you off the end, but with a running start and minimum friction you won't even need to.
Sliding between the legs of one or more people who just happen to be standing on the table is pretty common, as is deliberately knocking objects off the table as you go. I still remember Charles Murray, in a class of mine in Athens, Ohio in the early 80s, sliding desperately across the table to get to a ringing telephone in time. (You see, back then we had these big loud telephones that sat on tables and didn't take messages and didn't tell you who the missed call was from... oh forget it, you wouldn't understand.)
A more common crowd-pleaser is the two-person table slide with the partners approaching from opposite directions. This can be dangerous if you get your signals crossed but is not particularly difficult so long as each person sticks to their side of the table. A demilitarized zone of a few inches is recommended.
An even funnier ending for the table slide is to maintain the swan dive position and belly flop to the ground rather than go into a roll:
5. Hair Pull onto Table Everyone loves the hair pull, even those of us who are starting to get receding hairlines. In the politically incorrect Age of the Flinstones, caveman grabbed cavewoman by the hair and yanked her left and right, up and down. This was called courting. Nowadays we are only allowed to pretend. As in most stage combat — or as Joe Martinez aptly labeled it, Combat Mime — the "victim" initiates all the action, which keeps things safe and believable.
The basic move goes as follows. To make up for an ice age of discrimination, we'll let cavewoman do the honors. • Cavewoman reaches her hand into the lushest region of caveman's hair, bringing her hand into a fist as she does so. The idea is to give the impression that she has gathered a clump of hair into that fist, but in fact she should have none. • Fighting back, caveman grabs cavewoman's wrist in a futile attempt to disengage. What he is actually doing is pressing her wrist into his head because if we ever see a gap between her fist and his skull, the illusion is shattered. • All movement, from a simple shake to dragging the whole body across the floor, must be initiated by the victim, aka the caveman. The cavewoman follows through, miming being the aggressor. This is both for safety purposes and to maintain the illusion.
Same technique for pulling someone up to the table. • Cavewoman stands on the table, caveman on the floor. • Cavewoman reaches down and grabs caveman's hair, as explained above. Caveman grabs her wrist. You may find a two-hand grip easier. • Caveman plies and jumps to the table while cavewoman mimes being the cause of it all. While caveman may get some support from his woman's arm, the bottom line is still that fist and head cannot come apart.
In class we first tried this jumping to a chair just to get the movement down and our confidence up.
Here are the Three Ghezzi doing it (their full-act video can be seen later on in this post).
6. Ye Olde Tablecoth Pull We've all tried pulling a table cloth out from underneath the dishes, but did you know it can be done with 4 plates supporting 4 legs of a chair and a person sitting in that chair? The principles remain the same, and are all designed to minimize friction: • use a smooth table with a sharp edge • use a tablecloth with no edge seams • let the tablecloth hang down on your side but not off the back • put fruit in bowls, etc.; crockery is more likely to stay in place if it's heavier • taller objects are more precarious, so place them closer to the near edge of the table so they have less contact time with the tablecloth • pull quickly downwards with both hands as you step back
And, yes, this is me with hair (Toronto, 1989).
And, yes, those front two plates were supposed to stay put. It looks to me like my yank was slightly up rather than slightly down. Don't you make the same mistake! An even worse mistake would be to ask a horse to do a human's job, as in this early Max Linder film:
A Table Safety Note: Most tables these days fold up. You probably don't want this to happen while you are on them. When I use this type, I like to brace the opposing legs with a 2" x 2" wedged between them so they cannot fold inward. Of course in a workshop setting you can always use a spare human:
Table Acrobatic Acts
No doubt tables have been funny ever since they grew that third leg, and certainly hit their stride with the fourth. I have no idea which caveman did the first table comedy acrobatic act, but such shenanigans were common by the time vaudeville came along, and the black & white photograph at the top of this post is indeed of Buster Keaton's father, Joe. Their vaudeville act was the Three Keatons (that's Buster on the left) and Joe was the Man with the Table. "He would dive on it headfirst, turn handsprings along its top, and then from apogee plunge head down almost to the floor before, with a catlike turn, he would land on his feet."
It's unlikely we'll ever discover footage of the Three Keatons, but Buster never tired of doing his trademark table fall, a bizarrely brilliant piece of business which he may or may not have gotten from dear old dad. To get up onto the table, he places one foot up there so that leg is now parallel to the ground. Hmm...that worked well enough, so why not just do the same thing with the other leg? Here he is, still demonstrating it well into his senior years.
Through the miracles of DVDs and YouTube, we do have some complete table acrobatic acts that hearken back to vaudeville. The oldest piece I have is from the early days of television, performed by two comedy acrobats on the Colgate Comedy Hour. (I don't have their names, but I'm working on it!).
Fast forward to 1966, where Allan Sherman ("Hello muddah, hello fuddah...") is introducing The Three Ghezzis at the London Hippodrome. They combine standard table tricks with clown carpenter shtick to create some high-level mayhem. Pay attention at the 1:40 mark as one of the Ghezzis reprises Buster Keaton's table fall.
Next up are the Stanek, performing in the Tarzan Zerbini Circus (USA) in 1989. (I had not heard of them and the announcer seems to be calling them by another name.)
More recent are Quartour Stomp, who go more in and out of the comedy in order to show off their formidable acrobatic prowess.
Our final full-length piece comes from the excellent web site Circopedia This act by the Fumagalli in the 2007 edition of the Big Apple Circus is more clown than comedy acrobatics, perhaps a bit thin in both areas, but interesting enough.
Shorter Table Bits (the bits are shorter, not the tables)
The Launching Pad Usually we descend from a table. Usually. Here's Buster Keaton cornered by Joe Roberts in his short film, The Goat (1921). Buster has succeeded in getting invited home by the girl he's been chasing, only to discover that her father is the cop who's been chasing him all day.
The Folding Table On a sillier note, here's Harpo Marx, thwarting an attempt to fold the legs of a card table.
The Mobile Table Usually a table is stable, but there's no reason it can't be moved and manipulated, as in this brilliant sequence from the Beijing Opera sketch, The Crossroads, or, The Fight in the Dark.
Breakaway Tables And finally, it is of course possible to destroy a table. Breakaway furniture has been a mainstay of physical comedy since the invention of the 3-legged stool, and I think when I asked Jango months before my workshop to get me some tables and chairs, that must have been what he thought I meant, because they all kept breaking.
In the 19th century, the Hanlon-Lees were famous for breaking anything and everything: trains and stage coaches, and of course ceilings and tables...
In The Great Race saloon brawl, they break everything within sight: chairs, tables, windows, mirrors, doors, stairs, railings, and two balconies. Here's the most explosive table smash:
On a lamer note, here's the Brit comic Spike Milligan crashing onto a card table in his multi-cultural "waiter, there's a fly in my soup" routine, in this variation making fun of the Irish:
Table That Story
Now after looking at those videos you might think that all table tricks are good for is a highly technical comedy acrobatic act. As much fun as such acts are, they require highly skilled acrobats, which very few of my students are and which I never was. Furthermore, the 10-tricks-a-minute approach is fine for presentational acts but not for routines with a narrative structure where falls, flips, and nosedives have to be motivated.
So let's look at the use of table tricks within a storyline....
First up is Joe's Restaurant, a 10-minute piece created by and starring Christopher Agostino, Laine Barton, Aaron Watkins, Joe Killian and Mari Briggs, and performed at the 2nd NY International Festival of Clown-Theatre (1985). The piece actually grew out of work in a physical comedy class I taught and was reshaped and directed by Steve Kaplan. I remember Steve liked to say "what's the joke here?" in an attempt to sort through all the shtick and hone in on the primary comedy angle in a scene. This piece was more a series of tricks than a story until it was agreed that the joke was that there were not enough chairs for all the customers.
Joe's Restaurant has dozens of tricks, but this is not the only way to go. Instead of trying to string together a series of table tricks into a substantial sequence, it's equally valid to use a single technique at just the right moment in just the right away. The move doesn't have to be hard, it just has to work within the context of the piece. Here's a good example from this past weekend's Cabaret Cabron at the Nouveau Clown Institute. In this funeral home sketch, Giuseppe Vetti and Salvatore Caggiari, who in real life work together as as Il Duo Dorant, reprise the Dead or Alive motif, using just a few partner and table moves from my class. This was put together in one afternoon after three physical comedy classes. Giuseppe is the undertaker, Salvatore the body.
Because this was shot with a basic Flip camera and from a bad angle, first a couple of high-rez stills by Manel Salla "Ulls" to set the mood:
You can find a dozen more stills here, but onto the video:
Greetings from Barcelona, I mean Barthelona, by many reports the coolest city in Europe. And arguably cooler now that it is the home of the Nouveau Clown Institute, an international clown school started just this past year by Jango Edwards, who is amazingly energetic for someone who may or may not be as old as me. I'm running away from administration and he's starting a school. Go figure.
I'm doing a physical comedy workshop this week for students taking a month-long clown intensive, and I hope to do several blog posts on our work here. There are forty participants from eleven different countries, most of them already working at a professional level, and it is an exciting mix of very creative talent. While many performance academies espouse a particular method (Stanislavsky, Lecoq, Decroux, etc.), these students are being exposed to a wide variety of styles and approaches to clownesque performance. Every few days a new teacher with a new angle. It may get overwhelming at times, but from an educational point of view I like the idea of them getting to play with so much. Plenty of time to sort it out and use what works for them — starting in April.
Here are a few pics of the space at the Roca Umbert Fàbrica de les Arts, a former factory complex being transformed into a formidable arts center.
Today was a good day. As far as I know, we only broke four chairs (here's two of them) and one table. Don't tell Jango until after I get paid.
Jango's Office:
The café, just steps away from the main classroom space.
And here's Jango (not to be confused with his long-lost cousin, Django Reinhardt) doing the classic but deadly headfirst dive into the cup of water, proving he's no slouch when it comes to physical comedy.
I don't know much about this, but it might be right up your clown alley. The Manege Center for Circus, Music Hall and Street Performance, in collaboration with the Swedish branch of Clowns Without Borders and the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts, is offering a one-year master's degree program in Physical Comedy. Classes are in English and start January 2011. "Upon completion of the programme students will be qualified to work with Clowns without Borders internationally." You might want to ask if "qualified" means "offered a job," but certainly worth looking into.
This one-year Master’s programme is intended for performing artists with professional experience in physical comedy and entertainment - clowning, magic, juggling, acrobatics, mime, etc – and with a desire to make the world a better place.
A Year of Physical Comedy, for 60 ETCS credits, is an undertaking in collaboration with Clowns without Borders, Sweden. Upon completion of the programme students will be qualified to work with Clowns without Borders internationally. During the programme each student will create a solo performance and is also required to produce a master’s paper - written or otherwise presented. The year will also include two tours to international crisis areas (i.e. refugee camps). International students are accepted. The language of instruction is English. Good English language competence is therefore a requirement.
The programme begins in January 2011. Applications will be accepted during Spring 2010 with the last date of submission May 31st. Auditions will take place in Stockholm no later than June 2010 or in another European city no later than July 2010.
More information and the application form can be found at http://www.teaterhogskolan.se Do feel free to e-mail any questions you may have to magister@teaterhogskolan.se
Update (Feb. 22, 2010): Malin Karlsson, the program's international coordinator, has written me with this additional information: This year we have a master's programme called Skratt utan gränser (Laughter without borders), which is also a physical comedy-based programme. The class is on tour right now (also a cooperation with Clowns without BordersSweden). The difference between the ongoing course and the upcoming is that the upcoming programme's tuition language is English. But I will happily report to you about this year's tour (three students are in Kenya, three students are in Burma and three students are on the West Bank) when they get back in the middle of March. There will be both photos, videoclips and reports on our website.
This January I finally got back to San Francisco for a week, my first visit to the west coast in something like seven years; always flying out of the country instead of across it.
Much to see there — friends, family, a beautiful city, a breathtaking coastline — but no visit to the Bay Area would be complete without checking out the local performance scene. San Francisco has one-tenth the population of New York City, but when it comes to the whole physical comedy / circus /new vaudeville / clown scene, it may have us beat. For starters, they've got not one but two — count 'em, two — schools devoted to our favorite art form: the Clown Conservatory (one of several programs offered by the Circus Center) and the Flying Actor Studio, a physical theatre training program under the tutelage of James Donlon and Leonard Pitt. Take that, New York!
A lot of this activity can be traced back to the strong influence of the commedia-style political satire of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, founded by R.G. Davis (see next post) way back in 1959, and the Pickle Family Circus, launched in 1975 by jugglers Peggy Snider, Larry Pisoni, and Cecil MacKinnon, who as the Pickle Family Jugglers had been working with the SF Mime Troupe at the time. Pisoni had vaudevillian grandparents as well as circus training in New York from Hovey Burgess
I once got Paul Binder, director of the Big Apple Circus, very mad at me for writing in our obscure 1980s clown-theatre newsletter that the Pickle Family Circus was America's only indigenous circus because all of its acts were home-grown. He had a point, some of Big Apple's were too, but not to the extent that Pickle's were.
The Pickle's accomplishments were not insignificant: • They were living proof of the artistic advantages of the small, intimate one-ring circus format. • They raised the status of clowning and launched the careers of Larry Pisoni (aka Lorenzo Pickle), Geoff Hoyle (aka Mr. Sniff), and Bill Irwin (aka Willie the Clown). [For more on this, check out Joel Schechter's book,The Pickle Clowns: New American Circus Comedy] • They created a new funding model, touring up and down the west coast under the sponsorship of local not-for-profit organizations. • They gave juggling more prominence in their show; in those days it was not uncommon to go to a circus and not see a single juggling act. • They established a circus school in San Francisco.
[ Click here to read my post on Humor Abuse, Lorenzo Pisoni's show about growing up as a child performer on the Pickle Family Circus.]
As a performing unit, the Pickle Family Circus eventually dissolved. It was later replaced by the New Pickle Family Circus, but it has not had the resources to maintain an ongoing ensemble or touring schedule. The school, however, very much survives in the form of the San Francisco Circus Center. Here's their promo video:
The Clown Conservatory
The Clown Conservatory program is directed by Jeff Raz, who was off performing with Cirque du Soleil's Corteo during my visit, but I did have a chance to visit with Paoli Lacy,Dominique Jando, and my first juggling teacher, Judy Finelli. I cannot actually offer any behind-the-scenes revelation about the training there because instead of me watching them, they put me to work talking with students and faculty about this and that. (Okay, it's true, I did just happen to bring along some videos, but that was only because I was afraid that the students — for whom my Clowns book is actually required reading — might ask me questions about it that I wouldn't be able to answer. Not having read the damn thing since I wrote it 35 years ago, I figured I better have something to distract them with.) However, the facilities, teachers, and students were all impressive, and I do look forward to getting back there.
The clown program takes a full academic year, meeting all day three days a week. Judy felt that this wasn't really enough time, though I suppose lacking substantial funding you have to give the students time to eke out a living, no? And besides, know any other full-year clown program in the United States?
Admittedly the more training the better, but I also think that clowning is such an all-encompassing art form that no program, no matter its depth, is going to automatically churn out creative and polished performers. Nor should it. Better to think of clown school the way we used to think of an undergraduate education: it exposes you to all the pieces but you have to put them together yourself, over time, with input from an amazing variety of unforeseeable resources.
But if you're thinking of going to San Francisco, with or without some flowers in your hair, do check out the Clown Conservatory. Here's the basic info from their web site: The Clown Conservatory accepts students from a variety of performing arts backgrounds who show a strong potential to become professional clowns, whether in the circus ring, on stage, or in other settings (such as clowning in hospitals). Students submit to a selection process and upon acceptance enter the First Year Program (September to June). Weekly classes (three days-a-week) include: • Core clowning (classic routines, character development, history, performance, creating material, clowns in community) • Acrobatics • Circus skills (juggling, stilt-walking, balancing and more) • Dance • Mime • Body awareness An Advanced Program (September to May) is offered to Clown Conservatory graduates and qualified non-graduates in one of three specialized tracks: • Clown Ensemble Performing Track – Creating and performing an original production directed by top professionals (acceptance by audition only) • Social Circus Track – Instruction and hands-on work in hospital clowning, teaching, clown therapy, and other aspects of Social Circus • Independent Study Track – Additional one-to-one artistic and business coaching for working performers Evaluation and Performance Our program directors and faculty evaluate students on a regular basis. Students are offered an opportunity to perform in front of an audience at the end of each session (December and June), and possibly at other times (every five weeks for Clown students) in order to gain performing experience. When they have completed their course of study and are considered ready for professional work, students are given resources and assistance to help them get started in the circus business.
Some photos of the Circus Center:
Above with Paoli Lacy. Below with Judy Finelli and Dr. Nora Bell
No, we're not back in the Haight in '68; that last photo is of clown students doing contact improv.
Finally, if you're anywhere near SF, get on the Circus Center's mailing list because they sponsor a lot of performances in the bay area, including a clown cabaret at The Climate Theater on the first Monday of the month. Here's what went on earlier this week:
LOVE is in the air this month- and it's funny! Join emcee Jeff Raz, straight off of his tour with Cirque du Soleil's "Corteo", advanced students from Tony Award-winning ACT, scenes from the "Monkey King, a Circus Adventure", graduates from Dell’Arte International, our resident pranksters, Pi, the Physical Comedy Troupe and some very special guests (who may or may not be from a BIG circus, opening soon in San Jose, whose name we cannot mention). Marco Martinez-Galarce’s video art and some students from the Class of 2010 will be making their Clown Cabaret debut; Clown Cabaret Favorites The Stringsters and Jonah, Fae and Calvin of Wuqiao Festival fame will be back, bringing some of their own love.
See what you're missing?
Update (only 2 days later): "Coastal Carolina University, in association with the Clown Conservatory of San Francisco Circus Center, has just been approved to offer an accredited BFA degree in Physical Theater, the first in the nation!... We are currently recruiting students to begin in the fall of 2010, graduating in the spring of 2014. Students will spend the first 3 years at Coastal Carolina University in a rigorous BFA program, which includes movement, acting, technical theatre, and general education requirements, with a faculty member from the Clown Conservatory in residence for one semester during the sophomore and junior years, and will spend the entire 4th year as first-year students at the Clown Conservatory. As students of Coastal Carolina University, students will be eligible for federal financial aid and student loan packages, and will receive a NAST accredited BFA degree upon graduation."
The Flying Actor Studio
Right in the heart of downtown San Francisco you will find a handsome and spacious studio that houses what is probably the town's newest professional performance training center, the Flying Actors Studio, opened this past fall by James Donlon and Leonard Pitt. The focus of the training is physical theatre, defined broadly enough to include "movement, mime, mask, clown, circus arts, improvisation, voice, and new performance.
" They are offering a 28-week professional conservatory program, already up and running, with classes 30 hours per week, as well as shorter courses open to the general public.
Once again your intrepid reporter came away with no eyewitness account of training in progress because they used my arrival as an excuse to stop working and sit down and have a discussion with me. Luckily, animator Jonathon Lyons has already provided this blog with a guest post about an introductory class he took at the studio this past fall. I can report that the students I chatted with for a couple of hours were already quite knowledgeable and bright and seemed to be exploring some very interesting performance areas. I look forward to seeing their work!
Other than the Dell'Arte School of Physical Theatre, almost 300 miles north in Blue Lake, California, I don't know of another conservatory program in the United States devoted exclusively to physical theatre training. As James Donlon was pointing out to me, there are several university graduate theatre programs with excellent physical theatre training. He should know, having taught at the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Yale School of Drama, and the University of California at Santa Barbara. The difference, however, is that those graduate programs are all geared toward integrating physical training into more text-based theatre, whereas the Flying Actor Studio also encourages the creation of original work whose roots are as much in the body as in the word.
It's great to see these two highly accomplished artists, both now in their 60s, forsake the easy life and launch such an ambitious enterprise, and one I'm sure they won't exactly get rich from. The breadth of their experience is staggering. Just a few highlights: Leonard Pitt was a student of Etienne Decroux in Paris, studied mask theater and carving in Bali and performed with the Balinese in their villages and temple festivals, and was movement consultant for the film Jurassic Park. James Donlon has toured internationally to wide acclaim, has taught at several prestigious institutions, was a teacher of Bill Irwin at Ringling Brothers Clown College, and has been a coach for several Oscar-winning actors. Click here for the complete scoop. You can see why I couldn't resist telling the students how lucky they were to be able to work with them and plug into all the tradition they represent. _______________
A few photos:
With James Donlon (l.) and Leonard Pitt (r.) .
Physical Comedy in Real Life So... I'm staying in our home-exchange house in West Portal, about to head downtown to visit the Flying Actor Studio. I like to bike around cities I visit, and I've mapped out the route in great detail. I'm excited about this, hills be damned! I've been told there's a bike in the basement I can borrow, but it turns out the tires are flat and there's no pump. No problem, I wheel the bike to a gas station six blocks away and pump up the tires. The air holds, the tires seem good. I hop on the bike and start pedaling. The pedals spin around very rapidly, as if I'm in a super-low gear... only I notice I'm not going anywhere. I hop off the bike and look down: no chain.
...that you can click on any blog image to see it full size?
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An Introduction...
[So this is what I wrote six years ago; more or less true!]
Ring around a rosie, a pocket full of posies Ashes, Ashes, we all fall down
Welcome to the All Fall Down blog, an exploration of all aspects of physical comedy, from the historical to the latest work in the field, from the one-man show to the digital composite, from the conceptual to the nuts & bolts how-to. Be prepared for a broad definition of physical comedy (mine!) and a wide variety of approaches. Physical comedy is a visual art form, so there’ll be tons of pictures and videos, but also some substantial writing and research, including scripts and probably even some books.
This blog is a result of me wanting to follow through on lots of unfinished research from the past 25 years. It’s made possible by a full-year sabbatical leave from Bloomfield College that will take me through August 2010. It’s also made more practical by the ease of Web 2.0 tools for managing and distributing content. I had envisioned a web site similar to this blog more than a decade ago, but never got too far with it because it was simply a lot more work. Now, no more excuses!
Just as this blog will be sharing lots of goodies with you free of charge, I hope you will share your knowledge and ideas with me. Feel free to comment on any of it, or to write me directly with your suggestions. Admittedly I don’t see this as a free-for-all forum on the subject of physical comedy. It’s my blog, I’m the filter, and it won’t be all things to all people. That being said, I hope it will bring together insights, information, and people, and encourage others to make their own singular contributions to the field.
I hope to be adding substantial and varied material to the blog on a regular basis, so check back often and be sure to check out previous posts. And finally, a thanks to all of you, past present, and future whose work contributes to our knowledge — and our fun. We are truly standing on the shoulders of giants.
— John Towsen New York CIty May, 2009
My Physical Comedy Qualifications
So if you don’t blink, you can see me doing a pratfall on the original 1957 CBS production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella(starring Julie Andrews, directed by Ralph Nelson, stage managed by Joseph Papp).
If that doesn't say it all, then click here for the full bio.
My Favorite Posts Okay, there are literally thousands of physical comedy blogs out there, but only one physical comedy blogopedia. Why list my favorite posts? Because I want to draw attention to my best research and writing, to posts that make the strongest connections between old and new, between theory and practice, between ha-ha funny and broader global issues. If I die tomorrow, which is impossible because it's already the day after tomorrow in Australia, these are the ones I would like read aloud at my funeral, with high-rez projection of all videos. (Is it bad luck to write that?) Also, please mention that I never voted for a Republican. —jt
Here are some useful and fun blogs and web sites that touch on the whole field of physical comedy, rather than just sites by performers about themselves (not that there's anything wrong with that). Click away!
For the latest posts from these blogs, see below. (Blogs only; not web sites.) These are automatically sequenced by Google in order of most current posts. The blog at the top of the list is the blog with the most recent post. Since the whole idea is to keep you (and me) up to date on current posts in the field, blogs that have not been posting regularly have been dropped from the list; if you've been dropped but are now posting regularly, just let me know.
Los otros hombres que ríen
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En nuestro camino para conocer a Gwynplaine hemos encontrado algunas otras
versiones de la célebre novela de Víctor Hugo. La primera película
inspirada p...
Caroline Loyo
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==Equestrienne==
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R.I.P Dougie Ashton
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ICHOF inductee Dougie Ashton passed away on August 25th at the age of 96.
Please enjoy this rare audio interview with him from 1973 when he was
touring wit...
The Apache Dance
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I had heard of the “Apache dance”, but didn’t know much about it, until I
ran across this youtube video: It’s a humorous setting for a dance that
isn’t mea...
Canal Payasas
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Con todas las grandes payasas que conozco y admiro, había tardado mucho en
realizar esta lista. Seguramente porque a muchas las tengo incluidas en
otros....
Here's a list of complete books available for free as pdf documents right here on this here blogopedia, arranged in chronological order; dates are publication in the original language. Clickhere for a Tech Note on these books. Click on the book title to go to that post. More books coming!
Posts
