Clowning

So recently I was asked by one of my classmates from Syracuse to create a short clown piece for a variety show he was producing at the Duplex. 

Apparently one of the acts had to drop out last minute, and by last minute, I mean 4 days before…? Two other Syracusians (one of my best friends and one girl who went to grad school at LAMDA), Tyler (who was producing) and myself got together and quickly came up with a piece about a clown beauty pageant. We did it in 3 hours and then rehearsed/cleaned it the next night. The day after that was the day OF.THE.SHOW.

The show started at 9:30 pm Thursday January 14th, at the Duplex. It was a true variety show made up of everything: stand-up comedians, poetry, Whitney Houston belting, straight boys acting a Julius Caesar scene in short gym shorts…, and clowns of course! Crazy enough, the Duplex FILLED up that night. I’m talking every seat sold AND standing room. Just book me Broadway already…right? Yeah. It was not full of agents/managers/casting directors like every actor’s dream is (never thought that was going to happen) but LOVING friends and family who no matter what we did up there, laughed and loved whatever we did. I mean really…we could have done the worst 10 minute piece of whatever, and they would have been hooting and hollering and throwing their drinks at us, in a good way.

Seriously though, I was very pleased with how we did. BUT I do wonder if we had done the same piece at 10am in a gymnatorium in front of an audience of strangers, not sure if we would have gotten the same reaction. Regardless, it was incredibly fun because the audience was so vocal and so willing to participate. That's what MAKES a clown piece. The audience completely elevated our piece and gave us so much to work with and have fun with. I was very proud of what we had come up with it, especially being last minute. We're hoping to expand on this piece. More on that to come!