Comedy summer school

Join Bristol Clown School for a 3-day Comedy Summer School (ages 12–16)!

What to expect:

Work with a creative team to explore comedy dynamics through games, improvisation, and ensemble play. Bring your ideas and energy—we’ll turn them into comedy gold!

The Summer School includes:
  • Fun warm-up games
  • Physical comedy & slapstick
  • Character development
  • Comedy sketch creation
  • Scriptwriting & devising
  • Rehearsals & performance skills

Led by professional clown and comedy teachers.
The course ends with a short performance for family & friends on Wednesday 13 August at 4pm.

Who's this for?

Do you have a passion for performance? Curious about comedy and what makes you funny and watchable? Want to discover some of the tools and techniques of comedy performance, character, physicality and creation? Are you aged between 12 & 16? Then this course is for you.

We welcome young people who; have a passion for developing their theatre and comedy craft, who want to jump in, have fun and get on stage. Our facilitators are industry professionals, who know how to create a fun, interactive and inclusive learning environment.

HOW IT WORKS

Date & time:
Monday 11 August - Wednesday 13 August
10am - 4pm

Venue:
St Werburgh's Primary School
Silver Birch Annexe
Mogg Street
St Werburgh's
Bristol
BS2 9UB

Investment:
Sliding Scale £150 – £200 (PWYC)
 (Subsidised options, discounts for siblings & bursaries available—email us!)

If you’re not sure if your level of experience would support you to join this workshop, please email [email protected] and we will be happy to help identify if the workshop is right for you.

facilitators

robyn hambrook

Robyn is a Bristol-based director, teacher, performer and founder of the Bristol Clown School. With over 20 years experience she is a passionate practitioner of clowning, physical theatre, circus and street arts. She has a MA in Circus Directing, a Diploma of Physical Theatre Practice and trained with a long line of inspiring teachers including Holly Stoppit, Peta Lily, Giovanni Fusetti, Bim Mason, Jon Davison, Zuma Puma, Lucy Hopkins and John Wright.

She has performed with internationally acclaimed theatre companies including Derevo, Oceanallover and Akhe and with her own company Fun in the Oven Theatre. She has directed shows for Whispering Woods, The Sexual Health Circus, Boo to a Goose and was one of the co-founders of The Lost Cabaret Bristol, a night for alternative comedy and clowning.
Robyn has run workshops in corporate, community, education and humanitarian settings for companies including Let's Circus, Impact Arts, Islington People's Theatre, Active Inquiry and in tertiary education for the University of Bristol, UWE, Circomedia and Circus Central.

Robyn is driven to create collaborative, research spaces, testing and pushing the limits of the artform to create new knowledge and methodologies for her industry. Recent  collaborations and teaching projects have included the Nomadic Rebel Clown Academy (5-day Activist Clown Training), The Laboratory of the Un-beautiful (Feminist Grotesque Bouffon Training for Womxn Theatre Makers) and the Clown Congress (regular gathering of clowns, activists & academics collectively exploring what it means to be a clown in this current era).

holly meechan

Holly is a Bristolian performer, theatre-maker, director and facilitator. She has been running workshops for over twenty years for a wide variety of groups in community, educational and corporate settings; working for companies including Bristol Old Vic, Tobacco Factory Theatres, Shakespeare Schools Foundation, Freshwater Theatre, Fifth Word and her own company Join the Dots. As a practitioner her specialist areas of interest are devised theatre, immersive and interactive performance, improvisation, clowning and puppetry. 

Since gaining a degree in theatre at Exeter University she has further trained in comedy improv with The Free Association and Monkey Toast; in Forum Theatre with Adrian Jackson; and she has studied clown with many teachers including Phillipe Gaulier, Aitor Basuri, Peta Lily, Holly Stoppit, Bim Mason and Dr Brown. She performs regularly on stage with London based improv team Rhinoceros and in Bristol Improv Theatre’s flagship show The Bish Bosh Bash. She was a performer/writer for Release the Clowns comedy sketch podcast and is performer/director for sketch group Biscuit Barrel. Other performance credits include multiple shows for Gingerline, Closer Each Day, and Bim Mason’s Big Heads. You can occasionally see her on the comedy and cabaret circuit performing solo character and clown bits and Holly has also recently started working as a Giggle Doctor for Theodora children's charity.

As a facilitator Holly aims to create safe spaces for exciting, playful shared experiences where she encourages people to explore their creativity, and connect with each other. She is also very serious about silliness!