Guest Post: Jeff Raz & Co. in China

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Jeff Raz's performance credits range from Cirque du Soleil to Broadway, his teaching credentials from San Francisco's Clown Conservatory and ACT to the Big Apple Circus and now all the way to China.  His international experience is staggering, and he has already favored us with a guest blog post about Japanese Butoh.  This time he has been so kind as to write about his travels as a pioneering clown teacher and director in China.  For more, you can visit Jeff's personal web site here.  Thank you Jeff, and also to Calvin, Jonah, Christopher, and Linie for their contributions. —jt
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In fall, 2008, Circus Center Artistic Director Lu Yi organized the first ever Chinese government-sponsored workshop in “Western-style Clowning”, held in Nanjing.  Students in the month-long workshop came from acrobatic troupes from across the country.  The Circus Center team, Joan Mankin, Linie Orrick, Jonah Katz and Jeff Raz, taught acting, mime, classic routines, make-up, creating original material and other skills from the Clown Conservatory curriculum. 

Teaching through a translator takes extra care, both in framing the language for instructions and feedback and in reading when the students are off on a wrong track because of translation issues.  Working with professional acrobats with no experience in Western acting or clowning was also a challenge – very basic imagination and improvisation work took days to get going, while slapstick, tap dance and other technique work would often fly.

In the final week of the workshop, the students performed in various venues in Nanjing.  We were thrilled to find that their professional experience kicked in at show time and, by the third school show, the cast was confident and audiences were laughing and cheering.  The culminating performance, held at a local University, was attended by the vice-president of the Chinese Acrobatics Association, General Ning Gen-fu and other high Chinese officials.  Gen. Ning was impressed with our work and has become a strong supporter.  He helped Lu Yi to set up a second trip to China, this time including both a workshop in Nanjing and an extraordinary invitation to bring a performing team to the Wuqiao International Circus Festival.

Part One – Nanjing Workshop, September 26 – October 23, 2009:
The second annual Nanjing clown workshop was lead by Diane Wasnak, with Linie Orrick and Jonah Katz. The workshop was organized in a similar fashion as the first, with Diane taking over the bulk of the curriculum, focusing heavily on her mime skills.  Jonah again taught tap dancing and Linie again taught classic clown gags. The student body was larger than in 2008; the 23 students were a mix of new and returning students, including 12 students from The Beijing International Arts School, all freshman in high school with no previous performing experience.

“We proved to our Chinese hosts that one doesn't need to copy others to make good clowning. I truly feel we are starting an artistic revolution in China. It will be written in the history books that people from the San Francisco Circus Center brought emotional and creative innovation to all forms of performance in China.”
— Jonah Katz  (Clown Conservatory ’08, AP ’09, Acrobatics Program ’10)

Part Two - Wuqiao International Circus Festival, October 27 – November 8, 2009
After the successful completion of the Nanjing Workshop, 2009, Lu Yi, the Circus Center Nanjing team and four Chinese acrobats traveled to Shijiazhung where they rendezvous'd with Jeff Raz and his team flying in from San Francisco.  Shijiazhung, the capital of Hubei Province, is the site of the bi-annual Wuqiao International Circus Festival. 

The Wuqiao performing team included — Diane Wasnak, Calvin Kai Ku, Fae Kleivman, Jonah Katz, Christopher Keller, Linie Orrick and four Chinese performers, all top acrobats, who did one hour of pre-show entertainment in stilt costumes. The team also included designer Chris Weiland, who did the Chinese performers’ make up, helped with costuming for all performers and painted faces in the audience for one hour before each show.

In order to highlight our strengths of flexibility, audience involvement and vivid characters, Lu Yi arranged for the American performers to work outside of the competition format.  This allowed us to be in all of the shows and to work closely with the director to make the performances flow smoothly.
Our six American performers were featured in all nine Festival shows, working with world class acts from over 20 countries, including Russia, Mongolia, France, Australia, Uzbekistan, Cuba, North Korea and South Africa.  We also did pre-show walk around for all the shows, included Christopher as the god Pan on bounding stilts, Diane as her baby character (baby talking in Chinese, a huge favorite with the crowd), Fae as a gluttonous ‘panda’ and his little partner Calvin, Linie’s grandmother character (also using Chinese to great advantage), Jonah’s slick-suited tap dancer and our four Chinese colleagues in stilt costumes based on the Transformers. 

Lu Yi worked closely with the performers in the months leading up to the trip to custom fit their material for a Chinese audience, e.g. with a little design work, Fae and Calvin’s balancing routine with a 15’ pole turned into a number about selling Chinese lollipops in the traditional Tonhulu display.  Fae’s Kung-Fu Panda costume and moves went over very well, too.  Christopher featured his routine with a monkey puppet in the shows because of the long tradition strolling performers with trained monkeys in Hubei province.  Diane, Linie and Jonah incorporated a lot of Chinese language into their routines, with Diane and Linie capitalized on the strong Chinese affection for babies and grandmothers.

“Every day something would change and I always felt that we were up to the challenge. Seeing other acts helped me to gauge where I am and what things I need to work on, being thrust into an environment with a huge language barrier showed me many of my strengths, as well as my weaknesses.”
— Christopher Kellor (Clown Conservatory AP student)

Lu Yi and I worked closely with the Chinese director, lighting director and conductor, helping to make the 3.5 hour plus shows flow smoothly and ensure that our performers where able to show their best stuff.  It would have been exhausting even without the multi-lingual improvisations, since the programs and our participation in them changed minute to minute for the entire ten days. 

For example, when we arrived at the theater for the first public performance, we found that the show order had changed and the tiger act would start the show.  This left Jonah Katz to cover the cage strike, doing a silent, solo tap dance/juggling number 3 feet downstage of thirty roustabouts madly dismantling an enormous cage.  Because they had trouble with the cage in rehearsals, the lighting director left the stage lights on (the tigers were also on stage in their wheeled cages) and, for the first show, accidentally left the house lights on as well.  Jonah held his own in this chaos, winning applause from the audience and a lot of respect from our hosts. 

Although nothing was easy about the Wuqiao Festival, including an 11-hour traffic jam on our way to the Bejing airport, the trip was a success.  We met many wonderful performers from around the world and dozens of directors and casting agents got to know us through our performances, informally over meals and through our reputation with the Chinese Acrobatic Association.  Members of our team were interviewed and taped by many media outlets, including many Hebei Province papers and stations, The China Daily and a number of TV channels that are aired across China and internationally. Here are links to a few samples of Chinese press coverage:

• http://press.idoican.com.cn/detail/articles/20091029277A11/
• http://press.idoican.com.cn/detail/articles/20091029277B41/

Snapshots from the Wuqiao International Circus Festival

Jeff

Rehearsal Day #1

• Walking by a semi truck as I leave the theater by the back door, looking into the back and seeing the yellow eyes of a tiger staring back at me.  The tigers and dogs were waiting to be off-loaded for the tech.

• Grandparents with little kids lining up outside the padlocked glass doors, staring at our rehearsals in the huge lobby.  There are very few westerners in Hebei province, so we get stared at all the time, but even more when Diane is in her baby outfit, Christopher is a Satyr on jumping stilts, and Fae is a giant panda.

• Watching the director of the festival, Ms. Liu, watch our "audition." Jonah starts his act and her face relaxes as she sees his moves are clean and clear, and then a hint of a smile as he dances and juggles.  She wants to see more, so Christopher comes out with the monkey puppet, which gets a real smile of recognition and, when Diane goes into her baby bit in Chinese, Ms. Liu is laughing out loud and repeating each phrase after Diane.  The day is won; Lu Yi's crazy idea of having a group of American clowns do the transitions at a major international circus festival in China now seems like just the ticket to the director.

• After a few hours of refining our ideas and deciding where the acts might go in the different shows (and eating a huge and wonderful lunch), we're back to show the assistant director the whole megillah.  Now, in addition to dozens of kids behind the glass doors, we have camera crews in the lobby, swarming over Lu Yi and the performers as we try to show our stuff.  Lu Yi is as happy as I've seen him in years, with microphones in his face and cameras all over his students.  We'll be on TV tonight and, if things go well in the next couple of days, doing S.F. proud in front of thousands of circus fans and agents in the next week and a half.

• The pollution is so thick you can taste it; horns honk constantly and, a moment ago, the fireworks began (no, I have no idea why we have fireworks tonight).

• Then it snowed.  Hard.  I left early for the show to buy a sweater which I found for cheap but they wouldn't take my 100 yuan note for some reason so I got to the theater cold and early and everyone else was late because the snow caused a traffic jam and then the "A" show lasted for nearly 4 hours and most of the audience left before the final bow and it is now after midnight and I'm just getting home and I have a meeting with Lu Yi at 7:30am to figure out how we're going to do it all again tomorrow for the "B" show."


• I wrote that 3 days ago.  The snow cleared the air for one glorious day and now we're back to smoggy and mild.  The "B" show is a lean 3-hour affair while the "A" continues to lumber in at 3:40.  Our team is doing very well, connecting with the audience, filling in the gaps and getting real laughs.  And I have a lovely matching sweater, hat and gloves.

• A woman carrying a black naugahyde couch strapped to the back of her bicycle.  On closer inspection, I see that she has the matching armchair sitting on the couch.

• Walking home late last night on the street that, during the day, is a riot of wheeled transportation, pedaled, motorized, two- and three-wheel, but is now deserted.  First I smell and then I see a sidewalk cafe — seven or eight tables with chairs, patrons sipping hot soup and the kitchen built off of two of the tricycle drays that are so popular here.  This morning, there is no sign of soup or chairs or kitchen.

• Both the "A" show and the "B" show end with flying acts, from North Korea and Kazakhstan respectively.  Their rigging takes at least 10 minutes to set up, ten minutes that we need to fill with joy and excitement to keep an exhausted audience from heading for the street. Lu Yi and I decide to put all of our folks in the audience, spread out and performing all at once; Diane, Jonah and Linie improvising in Chinese (we hear Diane's amplified baby voice above the crowd yelling 'Are you my daddy?'), Christopher's monkey puppet raising havoc in the second tier while Calvin and Fae hold down the center with a revised balloon act.  Folks stop at the door and step back into the theater, at least for a moment, and the flyers have almost a half house to perform to.

• The horribly studied, distant stare on the North Korean performers faces when I say "hello" in the halls of the theater.  For some reason, I thought that international tensions melted away for the moment when we are all in costume and make-up, sharing the same stage.  That stare makes me sad and bitter.

• A French performer is arguing about his lighting, trying to get it just right.  On one hand, I sympathize with his passionate attempt to make his act great, and on the other hand, I see that he is teetering towards arrogance (and making me late for lunch).  Finally, the director, Ms. Liu, steps forward, says something into her mic and twenty Chinese women in elaborate head dresses stand up and come to the stage; our French friend is finished.  He argues and, from the look on his translator's face, clearly crosses the line of rudeness.  The director walks away and sits down.  The performer leaves.  My heart is with the director — this is what I would have done (minus the headdresses) and I think to myself that it is good that this arrogant young performer learns a lesson.  Within the hour, I am arguing with Mrs. Liu to try to get a spotlight on Diane in the audience.  The irony registers in time for me to tone down my rudeness a bit.  We get the spotlight, mainly, I think, because I am working with Lu YI, who still has enormous respect here. Coda:  I presumed that the French guy was on his way home but he is in the show that night; his lighting isn't very good and his act suffers for it.

Calvin:

• Being in China for an international circus festival and performing alongside other professional performers for professional directors pushes me to a new level that I could never get in a school setting. I know more of what it takes to become a professional artist on stage, and especially off stage: Shmoozing with other performers to get the know-how of where they've come from and their training process; shmoozing with agents to gain future job opportunities; and looking good for directors to want them to have us back again.

• Seeing "Clowns. San Francisco Circus Center" on the big screens of both house left and house right as our WuQiao team hit the stage was a glorious moment that I'm sure will in many ways get Circus Center known in the circus world. As we talk to other performers, agents, and other circus heads, we always bring up the name San Francisco Circus Center to let people know where we come from and to simply let people know of another Circus School in another part of the world. All this being said, a bridge has been built that definitely goes both ways for people to check out Circus Center as well as for people to grab talent from Circus Center.

Jonah

• Nanjing: I have broadened and strengthened my skills as a physical comedian by focusing on mime. I have improved as a director by directing acts. I now know how to run sound. I have gotten much better at working from the inside out as opposed as the outside in. I have improved my ability to completely take on an emotion/character. I have gotten much better at Chinese, which has broken a lot of barriers. I have also improved as a teacher. I would be comfortable leading a clown workshop to any age group.

• Wuqao: I have learned the level of skill I must be at to compete. I have gotten better at talking to the people you need to talk to, staying calm, and asking the right questions.

• Nanjing: We proved this year you don't need to copy others to make good clowning. It was representatives of CC that did that. I truly feel we are starting an artistic revolution in China. It will be written in the history books that people from San Francisco Circus Center brought emotional and creative innovation to all forms of performance in China.

• Wuqiao: We are rocking. Because the directors like us, they like CC. Also, more people know about CC. However, I think it all boils down to: they like us, they like CC. Everybody likes us. I think.

Christopher

• There were many good things about the Wuqiao festival. First off It was a great chance to see circus acts from all over the world: Canada, Australia, South Africa, and France, just to name a few. It was also a great opportunity to connect with other circus artists and to learn that we all are not that different from one another. I also learned about the strengths we as Circus Center clowns have, mainly being hungry and flexible; a good appetite is important for a clown. Every day something would change and I always felt that we were up to the challenge. Seeing other acts helped me to gauge where I am and what things I need to work on. Being thrust into an environment with a huge language barrier showed me many of my strength, as well as my weaknesses. I have learned that my jumping stilt caricature is one that I need to explore as well as pursue with gusto. I also learned that even though my skill at animating my puppet monkey is good, our relationship is lacking, which causes our relationship with the audience to suffer.

Linie

• Nanjing Workshop: I was pleasantly surprised by several things during this second Western clowning workshop.  The Beijing International Arts School sent us twelve students! They were young (all freshman in high school) with no previous experience. In a way it was a little stunning to have such inexperienced students (especially when we were expecting returning students); however they were enthusiastic and bright and learned the skills and philosophy of clowning quickly.

• The “overseer” of the Beijing students was an administrator at the school and has a theater and directing background (American musicals!). He was very taken with the teaching and curriculum and is most anxious to have clowning teachers come to Beijing to teach.

• One of the four returning students had clearly worked on his skills over the past year and came back with his acrobatics partner with the “bones” of a great act that we were able to develop within the workshop.

• We had even more students this year: 23.  The workshop was organized in a similar fashion as last year. Jonah taught tap dancing, I taught "clown gags,"’and Diane taught the bulk of the curriculum, leaning heavily on her mime skills. We are still reeling from the ‘expectations’ the Chinese had for the workshop. We arrived believing we were going to teach advanced clowning skills to returning students and have the option as to what sort of final show we would produce. Nothing was said about providing costumes, music, or make up. The Chinese, however, enrolled 18 beginners and (in four weeks, no less) expected every student to have a finished and polished individual act. They also expected us to produce a final full-production show that included music, lighting, and costumes in addition to the acts!!!  I feel we were able to give them most of what they wanted. Mr. Ning the vice president of the national acrobatic association was generous in his post-production comments in admitting that we didn’t have to have lots of costumes, music and makeup to do clowning successfully.  Future workshops need to have a written outline of expectations that is reviewed and signed-off on by both the Chinese and American parties before the workshop begins! I believe that for a second year our curriculum was very strong and the quality of our teaching was solid.

• I love hearing Calvin, Jonah, Fae and Christopher talk about their craft. I envy their enthusiasm and eagerness to perform! It was fun to hear them discuss how the audience reacted to a particular gag or movement, or what they will do ‘next time’ to make the act better. They are always analyzing their movements, their “motives’ for doing things, how to start or end a gag… Jonah realized that his tap act, though great, doesn’t work well in a huge space with lots of other things going on. Christopher has to figure out how to keep little boys from hitting him and his monkey as he moves through the audience. Fae and Calvin are working on how and when to use audience participants, and how to keep their stage ‘relationship’ playful enough to be interesting but not go towards “mean.”   I love it! Best of all, I think watching the other clowns and having just a ‘taste’ of performing at Wuqiao has made them more determined than ever to work on perfecting their skills and acts---as fast as possible. They all have great talent and are not far from receiving their own invitation to perform at Wuqiao!! I think their biggest challenge will be to have the patience and self-discipline to get their acts ready!

Finally, Jeff, thank you, thank you again for giving me this wonderful opportunity to play with your clowns… I am honored that you thought I was ‘up to snuff’ for the walk around and I am so glad I have been a part of the team here. I learn so much each time I interact with you and the circus. I appreciate more than ever what performers endure in order to compete and perform. It is not an easy life! (I know, I know: I’m old!)

China was something of an eye opening experience. I met performers and agent's from all over the world and made some real connections and friends for future work with Calvin. Some of those being the Joka Boys, Arnold and Jose. We picked their brains and asked as many questions as one could about how to make it in this business as a clown and circus performer. The answer simply was to get out there and compete in the festivals. If we did that we would get the work, because that is where the circus producers go and agents go. Jose and Arnold work at the Zip Zap Circus school in Cape Town South Africa when they are not on contract. What is amazing about them is they are truly dedicated to the school because it is designed to be free and the school is literally a social circus school that is free for all of its students, who are from different backgrounds. Some of the kids in the school have absolutely nothing to look forward to in life and some come from wealthy backgrounds, but they are all welcome.

Jose and Arnold told me the school acts as an agent. I found that to be interesting and that they do not make the same as most performers do. They make less in any given gig, but more in the long run. They have a steady income. They do not have individual users. just the program and their show are their bread and butter.

I learned that it isn't enough to be subtle on the stage, one has to offer much more(demand presence) in such a big venue and with such an audience. This audience was all over the place. Talking on cell phones and getting up and walking in front of the stage and many times in front of Calvin and my act. It called for us to be bigger and yet stay personal with them. Stay real with them.

I learned a lot on this trip and realized that there is allot missing from the circus center that is needed. Like for one why doesn't the circus center act more as an agent for its students? I believe that students in the professional programs should all learn to teach circus and should all go to a circus festival so they can really understand what the circus world is looking for and is like.

Being up there performing in front of a 2,800 seat audience from a different country was just what I needed to understand I must keep performing and learning. I must be a flexible  performer and willing to do it all, because there are so many performers who wont. And that creates good business for me.

Quote from Jonah Katz and a little from me too, "Clowns must be DEPENDABLE, RELIABLE, FLEXIBLE and most of all IRREPLACEABLE."

Gettin' Schooled in San Francisco

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The Clown Conservatory & The Flying Actor Studio


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.

The Great Debate: Chaplin vs. Keaton

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Most practitioners and aficionados of physical comedy, myself included, have a strong preference for either Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin. So I asked dozens of people in the field to share their perspective in a paragraph or two. The results were fascinating and insightful. Enjoy!


Laura Fernandez

Being asked to choose between Chaplin and Keaton is like being asked if we love Mommy or Daddy more. I love Chaplin for his view of the world, his ability to make the political funny, of his stick-it-to-the-man schemes and for his enviable, heart-wrenching pantomime. The Gold Rush had everything from the roll dance, to eating his shoe, to the hungry-chicken routine. Genius.
Keaton is the master of taking the small incident to its absolute conclusion. I revere him for sacrificing his well-being for my entertainment. His use of neutral has taught me so much about how a clown can see the world and reflect it without commenting on it. Authentic.
No, please don't make me choose.
Not possible.
Laura Fernandez is a mime, clown and actress who works in theater and on the street, as well in hospitals, senior homes and hospices, originally in NewYork and since 1993 in Germany. She founded Die Clown Doktoren, the first established group in Germany to visit children's hospitals, and is currently Artistic Director for Humor Hilft Heilen.

Bernie Collins 

Bernie (left) with Philippe Martz

I have often been in the situation where I showed people Keaton and Chaplin films for their very first time. Starting with my son and all the neighborhood kids, through years of teaching the history of clown here in Paris at the Samovar school, and throughout the world while on tour and giving workshops at festivals. Everywhere, hands down, Keaton gets the biggest laughs. On that criteria alone, I’d say Keaton is the better clown. I could go on for hours arguing both sides, but it also comes down to the feeling that Chaplin is “self-contained” and difficult to identify with, whereas Buster, you’d take home with you. I admire Chaplin, I love Keaton. Buster lives on in the films of Jackie Chan. No one is doing Chaplin anymore, not since Mickey Mouse and Gene Kelly passed away.
Bernie Collins is the “B” (for better looking) half of the French-American clown duo BP ZOOM along with ”P” Philippe Martz.


Judy Finelli

Judy juggling at 2

I've always appreciated that Keaton wasn't sentimental. I appreciated that when I was younger because I disliked Chaplin's sentimentality. But as they say —that was then and this is now. I don't mind Chaplin's sentimentality as much now that I'm older. I saw The Kid recently and I loved Jackie Coogan and thought Charlie was generous as a performer and the end result is that the movie is very sweet in a good way except for the odd "heaven" dream. I like Chaplin's nonsense song in Modern Times I think it was. I like that Keaton never cracked but I didn't think he was as effective as the alcoholic doing talkies.
Judy was an early contributor to the New Circus Movement. A former Artistic Director of the Pickle Family Circus, she currently coaches circus skills at Circus Bella, the SF Clown Conservatory, and Prescott Circus Theater, and is the founder of Notoriety Variety.


Deanna Fleysher
Well, it's always a treat to get to choose between a drunk and a womanizer (or in this case, really, a teenage-izer). But for all of Chaplin's disturbing flaws, I like him WAY better. I recognize the technical genius of Keaton the same way I recognize the beauty of a trained physical performer, but I don't personally laugh. Chaplin's performances have so much vulnerability and heart, and I still find him funny. Despite the whole kinda-pedophile thing. But that is a thing.
Deanna Fleysher teaches and performs internationally with the Naked Comedy Lab and Butt Kapinski, respectively.


Kenny Raskin

I've always been more of a Keaton fan. I was actually lucky enough to wear one of his outfits a decade ago. That's another story… I have a lot of respect for Chaplin's talent and his versatility. I just always believed Keaton more. He was always about the dilemma, and I find that closer to my interests as a clown. To watch these two masters in their duet in Limelight really says it all. Chaplin's approach seems to be more outwardly focused, Keaton's more inward. Thank God they both existed!
Kenny Raskin has been toiling as a clown for over 40 years — Cirque du Soleil, Broadway, film, variété, and hospitals.  Not a bad life!

Karen Gersch
Visually, Chaplin's character is an endearing soul; the draped and shabby outfit, the bowlegged stagger of a walk. Eyes darker and moodier than a Kardashian. When he laughs, those little pearl teeth make him the more childlike. But he has all the charm of a frenetic terrier. At times, watching him run circles around antagonists wears me out. I think I lean more towards Keaton's stoicism. He was an early master minimalist —of movement and expression. His face was haunting; one felt the weight of the world in his gaze. And things seemed to naturally conspire against him, which made him more endearing, a victim of the disasters that befell him. (Whereas Chaplin often —intentionally or naively— caused the grief and arduous situations he found himself in).
Karen Gersch has performed and taught in circus and stage for 50 years.  Keaton & Chaplin appear in many of her paintings. 
http://acrobrats.org   http://www.artbykeg.info/



Allan Turner

Chaplin wants us to dream about who we can be. Keaton shows us how to cope with who we are.
Allan Turner is a Canadian writer, actor, and clown. For 18 years he’s performed as the zombie clown Jean-Paul Mullet. New YouTube channel launching this summer! www.AllanTurner.net
www.meMullet.com

Glen Heroy 

There was a small art house cinema in my upstate hometown. As a youngling, I spent countless hours there in the dark watching Chaplin films feeling amazed and inspired. While all my other comic influences (Lucille Ball, Art Carney, Carol Burnett) had the ability to make me laugh, Chaplin had the ability to make me both laugh and cry. That’s the dragon I’ve been chasing as a performer ever since. The only Keaton film I’ve ever seen was Film by Samuel Beckett. Again at the art house cinema. I was very young and it was very weird. Before that Keaton was that man on Candid Camera. Don’t get me wrong, because I’m a professional performer I’ve read 3 Biographies about Keaton, and have watched more than a few documentaries about him all in the name of research. Just never gravitated to actually sit through any of his films. When I told Will Shaw this fact he said, “Part of me wants to slap you, but I’m actually envious of the incredible joy you are about to experience when you finally do watch his films for the first time.”
Glen Heroy was featured in the PBS Documentary "Circus" and is a veteran of the Big Apple Circus.


Karen Hoyer

I loved Charlie Chaplin movies and thought he was amazing —until I saw Buster Keaton movies.  Chaplin seemed simpering and smarmy compared to Keaton's deadpan aplomb. And after I read their biographies, I definitely landed in the Keaton camp.  But I have great admiration for both, especially after watching the PBS programs The Unknown Chaplin and Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow.  Amazing to watch the gag development.
Karen Hoyer performs and teaches mime, clown, mask, and puppetry. She is based in Chicago, where she co-founded Partners in Mime, Inc. and currently works as Dr. Dot, Chief Bonehead for Healthy Humor at La Rabida Hospital.


Dominique Jando

Between Chaplin and Keaton, my preference goes to Buster Keaton for several reasons. First of all, he is an “honest” clown: he never uses pathos if it doesn’t lead to a gag. He doesn’t try to be poetic, or to create easy, superficial emotion (schmaltz); yet he manages to be poetic and to create true emotion through his talent as an actor, but without ever trying to force it upon us, and without ever trying to make a point of it. (For all his comedic talents, Chaplin is the king of schmaltz.) Then Keaton is a prodigious and meticulous gag builder, able to make them on a minute or a gigantic scale, as the situation demands it. Finally, his character is not a one-situation or one-definition character: he can be either the scion of a rich family or a washout, he can end up a winner or a loser, it doesn’t really matter —so long as there is room for a final gag. Yet whoever he appears to be, he is always himself, his own and single clown persona. He is the ultimate clown.
Dominique collaborated with Alexis Gruss in the creation of France’s first professional circus school, and of Le Cirque à l’Ancienne. For nineteen years he served as Associate Artistic Director of the Big Apple Circus. His numerous highly-regarded books include "Histoire Mondiale du Cirque" and "Clowns et Farceurs."


Hilary Chaplain

I usually go to Chaplin first, and then Keaton surprises me again with his beautiful simplicity. Laugh out loud: The Gold Rush. If I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be Chaplin —it’s all in the name (only he spells it wrong).
Hilary tours with her solo show “A Life In Her Day” and her short comic numbers. She thinks she knows a thing or two about physical comedy and teaches in NYC and around the world.



Aitor Basauri

In my opinion, the two most influential comedians of the 20th century. Trying to identify what we owe to each of them is a huge task. I believe there are millions of things from each one of them that has an effect on my everyday work. Having said that, I identified more with Keaton. I find him funnier, more to the point, and with more interest for the laughter.
While I say that, there come to mind amazingly funny moments from Chaplin's early films and I doubt my previous comment. His body of work is so vast that he covered everything that there is in comedy and clown. I read both of their biographies and the words of Chaplin I find very inspiring and the life of Keaton speaks to me in loud voice. I still lean towards Keaton, but I can't stop admiring Chaplin.
Aitor is the Joint Artistic Director of Spymonkey, and teaches master classes in Brighton, London, NY, and beyond, and at the École Phillipe Gaulier. He has performed in numerous Spymonkey productions as well as with Circus Knie and Cirque du Soleil.


Dan Kamin

Having to choose between Buster and Charlie would be like choosing between my hands.  I love both of them.  That said, I have a particularly strong emotional attachment to Charlie. I was in college when I saw my first Chaplin film, The Gold Rush, and it absolutely bowled me over. I thought it was the funniest film I’d ever seen, and the most moving. I loved the way Charlie shyly courted the dance hall girl, and how he made the bread rolls dance on the tabletop for her. I was amazed by the way he could turn into a giant chicken, or a man frozen stiff in the snow. I admired how he maintained his dignity under the most humiliating circumstances, and his comical and wildly inventive problem-solving strategies. I liked the way he held himself, and the way he moved.  I wanted to be as cool as he was.
In all his films, The Tramp lives in a hostile world that threatens and excludes him. He demonstrates, again and again, that we can do more than just survive that world. If we’re imaginative and nimble enough, we can find delight, magical surprises, and even love there.
What do forks and bread rolls have to do with courtship?
Everything, it turns out.
But I love Keaton just as much. They’re two sides of a coin of incalculable value. Like Chaplin, Keaton successfully integrated his physical skill with a profound cinematic vision, in his case a vision of man buffeted by a world of immense, powerful and often indifferent forces. In the 1960s, when his great films became available for the first time in decades, my generation was blown away by how relevant they seemed, given the horror and absurdity of what was going on in the world. His verbal humor in the subtitles was not only funnier and droller than that of any other silent comedian, but also strangely contemporary. Keaton's bleak vision of cosmic futility is disguised as the fever dream of a vaudeville pro who’s just trying to get a laugh, but we aren’t fooled. We respond to his stoical beauty as he pratfalls on the edge of oblivion.
Dan Kamin is the author of "The Comedy of Charlie Chaplin: Artistry in Motion."  Dan created the physical comedy sequences for the films  "Chaplin" and "Benny and Joon" and trained Robert Downey, Jr. and Johnny Depp for their acclaimed starring performances.  He performs internationally, frequently as a guest artist with symphony orchestras.


Larry Pisoni

Larry with his son Lorenzo

I prefer Keaton, his history/experience. I respond to the manner in which he sets up the story and each gag. Keaton was clearly an acrobat and, to my eye, Chaplin was a dancer. It all comes down to personal preference in the end.
Larry was a co-founder of the Pickle Family Circus, where he clowned alongside Geoff Hoyle, Bill Irwin, and his own son, Lorenzo. His extensive performance credits include Robert Altman's film, "Popeye" and, more recently, his son's film "Circus Kid."


Bill Irwin

Charlie Chaplin is everywhere. Not just clowns and pantomimists, but breakdancers, stand-up comics and music-video makers draw constantly —often unconsciously— on the work of the silent film comedians the way musicians look back to the blues. And at the center of that amazing work stands Charlie Chaplin, regally —in fact at times a little imperiously— a brilliant clown who learned to make movies when there was no one to learn it from... Chaplin was the early film comic who did most to vary the rhythms and give the wild and silly early silents a grammar and punctuation, making them less quaint. You may not be able to describe all the gags, but you can usually re-tell the stories of Chaplin's comedies. It's harder with, say, the earlier Keystone Cops; with them, there's some wonderful stuff but it feels a little primordial... Even Buster Keaton, the other titan of silent comedy and many people's favorite, while more athletic and acrobatic than Chaplin, occasionally let the stock nature of his falls show a bit in the knockabout —amazing though the falls were. It's a little rarer to be able to recognize stock bits of vocabulary with Chaplin....
You always know what the Keaton character is up to, even if you may not be able to name it or de­scribe it. What's the blend that makes Buster Keaton's physical comedy so wild and so visceral but at the same time so finished, so sure? For one thing, he was one of his era's finest actors and one of the best acrobats ever captured on film. As an acrobat, he had a particular —and very rare— actor's knowl­edge of how to harness the story-telling potential of acrobatic movement. Hang out with gymnasts or circus tumblers, even stunt players, and you'll see how the empha­sis their craft places on execution tends to make it difficult for them to think about narrative. Ask di­rectors how often they've been wowed by acrobats at live auditions and then had to leave it all on the cutting room floor later on. Keaton and a few other graduates of knockabout vaudeville made it work.
Never in his irony does there seem to be any contempt for his characters, or for his audience. It's a fine and difficult line, mordant wit without contempt. What seems to guide Keaton is a true belief in innocence and the possibility of heroism....
Chaplin worked the cause and effect of human motive, too. In ''The Rink'' Charlie and that accomplished foil Eric Campbell endlessly trip, shove and pummel each other on roller skates. If you only see the action sequences, the violence seems a little gratuitous, but viewed from the beginning it's clear that it's all driven by that supreme gag motivator, jealousy (Edna Purviance is on hand). The easiest thing to forget when you put together physical material is the ''why'' of each move. The run, look, slap, fall of the choreography (especially with camera marks to hit) can take over, and the specifics of maintaining life, limb and semblance of dignity —the great human preoccupations— often get lost; then you're left with that depressing shell: zaniness in general. Chaplin, when he became his own director, rarely let that happen.
Bill Irwin is an award-winning clown and actor. As a clown, he is best known for his work with Pickle Family Circus and such shows as "The Regard of Flight," "Fool Moon," and "Old Hats." This text is extracted from two articles written by Bill for the NY Times on the 100th anniversary of each performer's birth: "Chaplin, Inventing Modern Times; How a Classic Clown Keeps Inspiring Comedy" (April 9, 1989), and "Beauty in the Form, and Even in the Face" (July 2, 1995).


Amy Gordon

In the time-honored tradition of clowns kvetching over who did it better, I put forth my opinion that Keaton was the more masterful physical comedian. Like most opinions, it tells more about my predilections than any actual truth. I like funny. Keaton’s situations (usually more dire) and reactions (usually more economical) make me laugh every time, still. While both were genius filmmakers and fabulously creative dudes, Chaplin’s art seems more that of a sentimental actor’s, even if he was more wonderfully physically agile than any of the leading men or comedians of his day. Chaplin was also the bigger thinker on the conceptual scale, making statements with his work that spoke to big issues.  But Keaton’s timeless visual metaphors, understated acting, perfect timing, partner work, jaw-dropping stunts and simple, unvarnished character make him my choice. Plus, he kinda looks like my grandpa.
Forged from vaudeville stock, classical training, and an endless international tour circuit, Amy G is a deluxe weirdo extraordinaire. She's been featured around the world since 2006 in the Olivier Award-Winning "La Soirée,"  currently playing in Club Swizzle (Perth). Amy has worked in theatres, films, tv, festivals, circuses, variety shows and events in over 40 countries, and performed her original material in 6 different languages. 



Moshe Cohen

Chaplin or/and Keaton!!!
Great Clowns, both have universal appeal.
Yet it’s Chaplin who touches me, opens up my imagination, and my laughter.
A recurring conversation over the years, with many people, with many an answer.
All subjective. As it should be.
Moshe Cohen, a.k.a. Mr. YooWho, is the founder of Clowns Without Borders-USA. Over the past 25 years, he has given over 2000 performances in over 30 countries. He teaches workshops exploring the expression of personal humor through physical theater and contemporary clown.

Joel Jeske

I would say Keaton.
Why? Well... I think both have unique and iconic film personas.
Chaplin is a great introduction to silent physical comedy.
However... when I saw Keaton from a modern perspective...I found the subtlety of his comic ability and timing a revelation.
I think Chaplin performed in front of the camera whereas Keaton worked with film as a medium. So... I would say Keaton.

Joel Jeske is a professional physical comedian, director, teacher, and creator of his own theater shows.  He is a creator and performer for the physical theatre company Parallel Exit and has toured with Ringling Brothers, Cirque du Soleil, and Big Apple Circus. An encyclopedia of comedy knowledge, Joel is committed to passing along this unique and distinctive art form to future generations of performers.

Fred Yockers

It's Keaton all the way for me.  Stand-out reasons:
1. His style is much more in my wheelhouse —slapdash with the slow double-take, deadpan reaction.
2. His stunts were much more spectacular.
3. His plots more "epic."
4. And if nothing else, the sympathy for his childhood as an abused vaudeville child, followed by the decline in his end days, making beer commercials.
The son of the legendary Coney Island Steeplechase clown, Freddy the Tramp, Fred Yockers clowned with Ringling Brothers and other circuses, with partner John Towsen for about a dozen years, and as a solo clown nationally and internationally.

David Lichtenstein

I'm a Chaplin man.  While Buster's big stone face sometimes gets the bigger laugh, Chaplin displayed a far bigger repertoire of lazzi; he's a brilliant comic dancer and prop manipulator. And a fuller clown character too. And inarguably Chaplin went far beyond Keaton in producing major films of great social importance.  For the ages, urban poverty and the Great Depression is represented in City Lights, industrialization in Modern Times, and WWII and the fight against fascism are forever captured in The Great Dictator.  Note that he made City Lights just before the Great Depression and The Great Dictator just before WWII, truly a great artist of his times!
David Lichtenstein has been a professional performer specializing in street, clown, and variety theater for over 25 years. He is a Clowns without Borders vice-president.


Sigfrido Aguilar

After graduating from drama school, I traveled to Europe for nine months to observe classical theater in France and England. When I returned to America, I began my self-taught studies of creative stage movement and mime by focusing on the investigation and analysis of the silent film comedians. Observing the films of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, I learned the essence of what comedic scenic language is for me, my own popular theatrical world of movement and gesture.
From the comic sense, Chaplin, over the years, developed his pathos as a performer and this fact made him transcend his acting with body and soul to become a unique artist.
Keaton, from the beginning with his stone-face signature, had an immediate artistic effect of drama and comedy in his acting, as well as the complete presence of a neutral performer. It is his total neutral value as a theatrical performer that makes me like him the most.
Sigfrido is an internationally renowned performer and teacher. He is the director of the Estudio Busqueda de Pantomima-Teatro in Guanajuato, Mexico and founder of the International Festival of Contemporary Mime in Mexico.


Barry Lubin

Photo: Maike Schulz

Keaton, internalized, was stoic. Chaplin, in childlike ways, explored the world actively. Chaplin represented the childlike self in adult body, not looking for trouble but finding it anyway. I related better to Chaplin for his emotional battles with authority. Keaton found himself in crazy situations made crazier by his stoicism. Then, in genius ways, often subtly, Keaton managed to survive those impossible situations.
My treadmill act was directly influenced by Chaplin, knowing that if he were alive today and walked into a health club, the props and characters would be his playground.
Barry "Grandma" Lubin is the author of Tall Tales of a Short Clown.



Jonathan Lyons

For me, it is first and always Buster Keaton. While in high school, I attended a screening of Seven Chances.  I had never laughed so hard in my life, and may not have since. The chase of a thousand brides was beyond anything I had seen before, and the sheer scale of the event nearly caused me to fall out of my seat.  It was Keaton’s ability to create sequences that were not only hilarious, but spectacular that makes him the easy choice for me. Chaplin was better on a personal level, up close, but Keaton was big enough to partner with storms and steam trains.
Jonathan Lyons is a lifelong fan of physical comedy. A professional animator by trade (Lucas Films, "Pirates of the Caribbean"), he also wrote the book "Comedy for Animators" and authors the blog, comedyforanimators.com.

Jeff Raz
I loved Chaplin first, because my mother loved him. As an adult, I got to know and love Keaton. Both great, both teachers to us now, both still vital.
Jeff is a clown , actor, teacher, and director. He has had leading roles with Vaudeville Nouveau, Make A Circus, Pickle Family Circus, and Cirque du Soleil. He founded and directed the Clown Conservatory (San Francisco) and is the author of the new book, "The Secret Life of Clowns."


Joe Dieffenbacher

Chaplin was the first silent comedian I saw and, as a  visually oriented kid, I was fascinated by this wholly visual clown. As an adult, I appreciated his themes and his depiction of a tramp's life and how he dealt with it, sometimes aggressively, sometimes dreamily. I discovered Keaton much later via Walter Kerr's The Silent Clowns. Here was the supreme visual comedian! As a budding slapstick comic, he was a great inspiration: I loved how his physical comedy took in the big picture (houses falling on him, boats taking over his love life, trains taking out his home, even Mother Nature having a go), and he is the author of the clearest, most profound advice on creating comedy. "Think slow. Act fast. Create a situation and introduce a character that tries their best. No begging." Keaton inspired me to attempt a show with a deadpan character, a pure slapstick routine with a ladder (I called it The Trap).  It was for the street, a place where exaggeration is often your greatest ally. But with Keaton as my guardian angel, I stuck it out and it remains one of my favorite shows to perform. Working with that kind of economy and clarity taught me so much about comic performance. Choosing a favorite is impossible, they both offer so much. Comparing them I'd say Chaplin makes you watch him —he is always the center of attention, like a demanding child (a very funny and skilled one). Keaton lets you watch him, invites you to consider and enjoy his worldview. No begging. Chaplin's films took on social issues and I appreciate him for that. Keaton was less specific but still able to comment on how the little man deals with the big bad world. The loss of his independent status just as he was exploring feature films is to me one of the great tragedies; what he might have produced had he been allowed to continue as an independent filmmaker! To me, their greatest achievement is the fact that over a hundred years later, their films still elicit laughs from modern audiences. Might all comedians be so lucky...
Joe Dieffenbacher has been working as a physical comedian, teacher and director for over 30 years. His  style incorporates circus, commedia dell’arte, mask performance and puppetry, the large-scale visual comedy of stadium shows, the focused work of the theatre clown, as well as the confrontational approach of the stand-up comic. He is known internationally for his circus, stage and cabaret work with his company Nakupelle. 
www.joedieffenbacher.com


Michael McGuigan

Oh man, tough one.  Arrrrgh.  I like Keaton's character more. There is a sweetness about him that earns points over Chaplin in that department. But truth be told I reference storylines and specific gags of Chaplin more than Keaton.  Chaplin's The Circus has so many brilliant bits it's not funny (oh wait, it's VERY funny) and the social commentary of Modern Times and The Kid greatly appeals to my sense of agitprop theater.  If I think of it this way, approaching their work for what I can use to influence my work, it would be an exercise in futility for me to steal from Keaton's character, which I love dearly and would imitate extremely poorly. But Chaplin is a gold mine of bits and storytelling that I can outright steal and make my own. So I think I gotta go with Chaplin, by a red nose.
Michael McGuigan is a longtime wide-world physical performing artist, teacher, and Managing Director of Bond Street Theatre, NYC. 


Johnny Melville

Chaplin and Keaton were geniuses in their own way. However, Chaplin was a very strong "unconscious" influence on me in the fifties when Scottish TV only really featured a limited kind of telly. We only had TV from 5-12 for a long time in my youth —I was really brought up on radio comedy. But when it did come it was mainly Chaplin: his speed, his riotous situations, all had an effect on me that was to bloom when I started to clown around London's tough housing estates when I was 26-29 and learning my trade in the raw. Hit and miss, try this try that, but like Chaplin's and Keaton's' own beginnings. As I started to study those clown historic heroes I was based at the Oval a few hundred meters away from Chaplin's Camberwell home. It was Keaton who took my focus later,  however, as his clown I believe is more the intellectual clown, more adult, and therefore more appreciated by the adult, than the more cheeky and kid-childlike style of Charlie. So, in a nutshell, Chaplin influenced my child and was the instigator of my clown beginnings, and soon Keaton became the cream on the cake, at least as the role model. Chaplin, of course, developed his art into the movies much more. Poor Keaton had the comedown after the silents ended and drink took him off his potential, that very sad, all the more hurtful to see him in Limelight as a shadow of what he had been, whereas Chaplin is still going strong as the inventive performer.
Johnny Melville is a Scottish-born, Barcelona-based actor, director, clown, writer, energy-sculptor, and "lightwork healer." He is celebrating his 45 years in the biz in 2018.


Steve Smith

Steve at 65

I feel like this is like trying to pick your favorite sibling, or which of your children you love the most.
Keaton has unmatchable technical skills both in front of and behind the camera. His ability to communicate so well and so deeply even with his great Stone Face is remarkable. And for physical stunts and falls... unequaled.
Chaplin is more lyrical & poetic and often criticized for being sentimental. To that I say pish, posh & pshaw. He was a brilliant storyteller who knew how to underscore each scene of each story with clarity of movement, focus and the music he composed to make his art as accessible to the largest number of people as possible.
And, oh by the way, both of these geniuses were INVENTING THE MEDIUM as they worked.
Steve Smith —teacher, director, performer, clown & comic spirit. From circus to cruise lines, cabarets to coliseums, theatre, theme parks, television & more...a very fortunate human being now in his 47th year in the business of show.


Mimi Calado 

How difficult for me to have to choose the best in a comparison of two geniuses like Keaton and Chaplin. Both make me laugh a lot and inspire me to this day. Buster Keaton had a better body for comedy, acrobat, and exemplary comedian, but I believe that the way Chaplin managed to talk about political and humanitarian matters without losing the comedian's funny way of practicing poetic comedy makes him the best.
Mimi Calado is a Brazilian clown and mime currently living in New York City. He most recently performed with the Yankee Doodle Circus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xewmBSIZ0Uo


Vladimir Olshansky

Buster Keaton is a wonderful comedian. But just a comedian. Chaplin is a brilliant comedian humanist. In my opinion, Keaton was a stronger actor than Chaplin. Chaplin was not only a great comedian artist but also a citizen, a citizen of the world. Hitler wanted to kill Chaplin, not Keaton. When there was a  “witch hunt,” Chaplin was forced to leave the States. He was not a communist, he was a humanist. If we compare the topics addressed by these two great comedians, then it becomes obvious. It is so important for an artist to experience all the pain and imperfection of our world and express it in his work. Then his art becomes clear to all mankind. All over the world, people imitated Chaplin, not Keaton. Chaplin was able to express what excited ordinary, small people around the world. Therefore, as a person and as an artist, he is more significant than Keaton.
Vladimir Olshansky originated the role of "Yellow" in Slava Polunin’s "Snow Show," and has worked as a clown in the Cirque du Soleil. He moved to the U.S. in the late 80s, where he was one of the pioneers in the development of the "clown doctor." In 1996, he co-founded "Soccorso Clown,"  a national organization of hospital clowns in Italy. Presently, he is performing his metaphysical comedy "Strange Games"


Nola Rae

I love and admire both Chaplin and Keaton, but I love Keaton more. His character was the more gentle, always falling into scrapes rather than necessarily causing them. Situations happened to him and he struggled to do his best but without malice. (The French film comics Jaques Tati and Pierre Etaix had similar gentle and naive characters). Keaton was always trying to be accepted. Chaplin was forever the rebel. Both clowns had wonderful faces. But Keaton, realizing he had a bad smile for film, made the fact he didn't smile an advantage. The eyes said it all. There are deadpan comedians, but Keaton was not one of them. His emotions always shone out. A great clown without guile and without smile was always going to be extra special.
Trained at the Royal Ballet School and with Marceau Marceau, Nola Rae MBE is one of Britain's most celebrated visual performers, playing 68 countries to date.


Don Rieder

I appreciate Walter Kerr's understanding of Keaton in The Silent Clowns. Kerr understands Keaton's silence, the pause, the architecture of the gag, the understanding of the camera and the frame. Keaton's craft is nearly perfect. In terms of content, though, he and his gag writers show a marked insensitivity towards minorities and people of color. Paleface, while sympathetic to native Americans losing their land to corporate greed, uses Hollywood 'Indians' and offensive stereotypes. The text frames show that the 'Indians' cannot speak in fully formed sentences in 1922. The action in Cops is initiated by the stereotyped Balkan bomb tossers with ridiculous mustaches. In Seven Chances, jokes are made at the expense of Jews and black women. In The Navigator there are the "savages." And in Steamboat Bill, Jr., if this is Mississippi, where are all the black people? There is one black man and Keaton frightens him into eye-popping panic. A choice typical of the period. Another case of Keaton's apparent racism or adoption of the racism of the period is The General. Keaton supports The Lost Cause, secession, and the war to protect the right to own people. Finally, there's The Cameraman. Keaton in top form as a gag writer and stunt performer, but the opening scenes in "Chinatown" pander to anti-Chinese sentiment. Keaton has always played comedy using stereotypes. Consider the fact that he began in The Three Keatons with its Irish domestic violence routine playing to anti-Irish sentiment. No Irish need apply.
No, I prefer Chaplin who did not resort to racial and ethnic stereotypes for his comedy, who portrayed cops as people who protected the status quo by abusing the poor, who poked fun at the upper classes, who sympathized with the poor, and who, as a performer, had the more complex phrasing and the grace and articulate elegance of a dancer. But a Time's Up and #metoo of that period would have chased him to Switzerland well before HUAC.
Don Rieder is a clown, dancer, storyteller, director, and author. He has toured internationally and is a master teacher whose credits include the Cirque du Soleil, The National Circus School in Montreal, The National Theatre School of Canada, and numerous American and Canadian universities. 


Matt Mitler

Keaton, Keaton, Keaton. I became enamored of silent and early comics when I was quite young, and Keaton simply made me laugh more. He still does. Years later, I began to appreciate Chaplin's technical skills, and his mathematical precision, but Keaton still had him beat. The thing with Keaton is that it's never showy, there's a simplicity even in his most outrageous stunts, a selflessness. Chaplin was the bigger crowd pleaser, but I never bought it, I couldn't get past the ego. I give him kudos for his creative range —acting, producing, writing, and directing, and (ok he beats Keaton here) his musical compositions, but Keaton was more visionary as a director/writer and took film into landscapes that were thoroughly, divinely surreal. If you read up on Keaton, you see that he didn't do what he did for acclaim, but because he truly loved it. Of course, you don't need to read anything, it's evident in his every moment. The other thing was that Chaplin played the fool, but at the expense of others, while Keaton himself is always the brunt of the joke.
Matt Mitler has brought his anarchic physical comedy to stages, plazas, and centers for disadvantaged populations. He is founding director of Dzieci Theatre, an experimental ensemble balancing work on performance with work of service.  dziecitheatre.org


Jeff Seal

First and foremost, I think Chaplin is funnier. I genuinely and consistently laugh at every film he made from Kid Auto Races at Venice to City Lights. On a side note, while I like his talkies I don't think they're very funny. I think it's ironic that Chaplin resisted talking for 10 years after sound came to films and when he finally made the switch to Talkies he wouldn't shut the fuck up. All of his sound films have these long drawn out monologues that drone on and on (except for the final speech in The Great Dictator which is moving and beautiful). Anyway, back to Keaton: while I think he's funny and I love watching his films they don't make me lol as much as Chaplin's do.
Chaplin didn't exploit the medium of film quite as well as Keaton and he never really outgrew the one-reelers, but I think Chaplin more than makes up for it with the Tramp's pathos. Chaplin's films are genuinely moving in a way that Keaton's never were. When asked why his shots were never as "interesting" as Keaton's, Chaplin said, "Because I'm interesting!" I agree! However, Chaplin did incorporate some sophisticated editing in the opening to The Kid, which predicts and predates Sergei Eisenstein's Theory of Montage.
Chaplin wrote, directed and SCORED all his movies himself while Keaton hired gag writers and co-directed most of his films with Eddie Cline. Also, Chaplin made two of the greatest silent films ever, Modern Times and City Lights in the 1930s when literally everyone else was making Talkies and Keaton was getting drunk while living in a trailer on the MGM studio lot. Look, I still love Keaton but I think most people say they like Keaton more than Chaplin just because it sounds cool.
Jeff is a comedian and filmmaker and a graduate of the Clown Conservatory at the SF Circus Center. He makes comedy videos for Bankrukt Productions and is one of the artistic directors of Cloud City, an arts space in Brooklyn. 

Dave Carlyon

Buster is better. I respect, admire, and honor both Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. Each had immense comic talent and great physical skill (which are different things). Little can match Chaplin’s roller skating in The Department Store. They also had equally impressive drives, its own separate talent, that created wonderful work. However, in my estimation, Keaton has three advantages.
First, Keaton is more inventive. (And I’m not saying that just because Chaplin gets credit for the fork-&-roll dance in Gold Rush that Roscoe Arbuckle had done before him.) Though Chaplin is inventive too, his inventiveness focuses on himself. His sets and scenes contribute to the story less than they serve as a backdrop to better display him and his comic business. For instance, in Modern Times, he built a factory without any function except to be a setting for the jokes he wanted to do. He costumed a woman with buttons like bolts on her front for the joke of using his wrenches on her. Keaton, by contrast, always plays with the reality of the world he’s in. As a performer, he uses the specific physical elements around him as his partner. When he engaged the mechanical world, in The General, he didn’t build a train to show off comic business he thought up, but thought up comic business to fit an actual train in the reality of the story he’s telling. As a filmmaker, he manipulates the physical space and the movie frame in similarly inventive, playful ways. Sherlock, Jr. is a master class in using the techniques of filmmaking to tell the story, to craft comedy, and to subtly display how films create the illusion of reality.
Second, Keaton’s work has a clarity that his counterpart lacks. With Chaplin, everything tends to a wink & a shrug & a slide & a kick. Though those moments are fun, sometimes funny, together they cloud the view, so we come away with more sense of him than what we’d seen around him. Consider Keaton sitting on the bar connecting the train wheels in The General when they start to move. It’s a gag. It’s clean. It works. Now imagine Chaplin doing that scene: he’d use his wonderfully expressive eyes to show us a thought, then a feeling, then another thought, next he’d wiggle his eyebrows and shrug, or stumble and make another face, or do all of it. In actor jargon, he'd make a meal of it. Excess can work great in comedy but Chaplin’s moves pile up on each other, creating a fog of “Chaplinesque,” which overwhelms our sense of the films themselves. Most clowns can, at the flip of a cane, do a reasonable facsimile of Chaplin-like moves. (Do we need another Chaplin-wannabe shrugging shoulders, tilting head up coyly, and pursing lips in an impish smile?) By contrast, imitations of Keaton barely work because they usually go for a pose of the immobility, which doesn’t capture him. Despite his reputation as the Great Stone Face, it’s the seemingly infinite variety of his moves that animate his movies. And whether those moves are frantic activity or stillness —its own kind of activity for a good physical performer— he uses what he does to create particular moments for a particular purpose.
The third point follows from that: Keaton has an emotional honesty I don’t see in Chaplin’s relentless sentimentality. Though Chaplin deserves credit (some credit) for making satirical points, sentimentality is his default mode, to orchestrate our responses, tug us to make sure we notice poignancy, all but wave his arms so we don’t miss him smiling bravely through sadness. He does it very well: I sometimes fall into whatever emotion he’s pitching. But it’s still sentimentality. Keaton works differently. Not calling attention to himself or his character’s plight in the insistent way Chaplin does, Keaton focuses on the move, the image, the shot, and then gets on with it. No begging for us to love him. Instead, he lets us meet him halfway, finding our own way into the moment he’s created, deciding how we feel about it.
Dave is an ex-Ringling clown, Equity actor, and director who wrote the award-winning books, "Dan Rice: The Most Famous Man …" and "Education of a Circus Clown: Mentors, Audiences, Mistakes­."   www.davidcarlyon.net


Will Shaw

I have been greatly inspired and influenced by Mr. Keaton and certainly “resonate” with his work more.  However, it seems to me that Chaplin’s accomplishments are so great that we tend to take them for granted:  they’re just part of the cultural landscape like mountains are part of the natural landscape. In reality, of course, his work didn’t exist before he created it. To this day, his Little Tramp character is still the most common logo of the entire art of cinema. Keaton is a bit more of a niche taste —almost a startling revelation when discovered by people of our era because it is so great while Chaplin’s massive popular appeal has kept his work, to some extent, always a given.  So, while I personally am a Buster fanatic, if forced, I would say that Chaplin’s accomplishments were a bit greater.
Will Shaw is the winner of the Bistro Award from Backstage, the theatrical trade paper, as one of New York City's top cabaret performers. He has been seen on Letterman, the Daily Show, Sesame Street, and pretty much everywhere else.

Aaron Watkins

Laurel & Hardy.

Aaron is perhaps best known as the editor of If Every Fool's "Clown-Theatre Gazette."

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As for me? I wouldn't argue that one is objectively better than the other, but ever since my first introduction to them in the early 1970s, I was always in Keaton's camp, to the point of hero worship —I even had a cat named Buster Kitten. I found Keaton funnier and more relatable. I thought and spoke of Keaton as "Buster," but Chaplin was always just "Chaplin" to me, never "Charlie." All art is manipulative, but I went along more easily with Keaton moment to moment, whereas I found myself resisting Chaplin's efforts to tell me what to think and feel. As Keaton once said, "What you have to do is create a character. Then the character just does his best, and there's your comedy. No begging." And Keaton, with his surrealistic touches and existential angst, seemed more modern, or perhaps more timeless.
The 70s were also my formative circus years, so I naturally gravitated toward the acrobat more than to the mime/dancer. Still, both were a marvel in their use of physicality in comedy. Absolute geniuses.
So yes, I admire both, and now it's time to sit back and do some serious re-watching, enlightened by all of these great perspectives, thank you very much!

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Here are Chaplin and Keaton sharing "centerstage" for the only time in Chaplin's 1952 film, Limelight, a quarter-century after the silent-film era.

But as Ben Robinson points out, Keaton (as a waiter) and Chaplin (as himself) did share the screen in a 1922 promo film for the Independent Screen Artists Guild.

And finally, via Dan Vie, here's a 52-minute Spanish documentary juxtaposing the work of Chaplin and Keaton.