The Political Clown Co-Lab Series 5

Clowns, activists and researchers are coming together to explore how clowning can be a mechanism for political change!

This is the fifth season of this hugely popular course, with an all-new line-up of guest clown & activist facilitators. Our 2021, 2022 and 2023 courses sold out in days

Welcome to our fourth co-lab series, which builds on Robyn Hambrook’s continued research and playful investigation into how to use clowning for political activism. Hosted by Robyn, joined by guest facilitators, expert clowns and seasoned activists, this series of masterclasses will use discussion, play and experimentation to dive into some big questions, such as:
• Can clowns be political?
• How can clowns challenge authority?
• What can we borrow from activists, art movements and theatre forms to increase our efficacy?
• What can we learn from clown history and from the clowns who’ve dedicated their lives to playing on the front lines?
• Is the clown equipped to deal with power and make real change?

Robyn Hambrook of The Bristol Clown School, The Online Clown Academy and The Bristol Rebel Clown Collective leads the whole series with a different guest clown/activist joining her each week. Together they will explore the potential of the clown to transform the performer, people, places and power structures. Each week Robyn will interview her guest about their work, followed by a co-facilitated workshop session, and a group discussion. This season, Robyn will be joined by a stellar line-up of experts: Leo Bassi, Ash Perrin, Police Officer Az-Oolay and Magdalena Schamberger.

The facilitators

Robyn Hambrook is an activist and a clown. Over the past six years she has been researching the meeting point of these two passions. This has led to collaborations with Jay Jordan (Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, France), Clown Me In (Beirut), LM Bogad (US), Hilary Ramsden (Greece) and international Tricksters; ‘The Yes Men’ (US). 

Some of her most 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 (annual gathering of clowns, activists & academics collectively exploring what it means to be a clown in this current era). Robyn has most recently founded the Bristol Clown School, creating a home for clowning in the South West of England.

During the pandemic Robyn took her work online, setting up The Online Clown Academy with Holly Stoppit and later developed (and sold out) the first three Activist Clown Toolkit series in February & June 2021 and February 2022. Itching to get stuck in once again, Robyn has enlisted the help of four more expert international practitioners to help with her continued inquiry:

★ Leo Bassi (Spain)
★ Police Officer Az-Oolay (Jerusalem)
★ Ash Perrin (UK)
★ Magdalena Schamberger (Austria/Scotland)

How it works

Places:
There are 20 spaces on the 6-week co-lab journey.
This course is booking on a first-come, first-served basis.

Dates & times:
Mondays: 29 January, 5, 12, 19, 26 February and a bonus session 4 March
18:30 - 21:00 (UK time)
Paris 19:30 - 22.00
New York /Toronto 13:30 - 16.00
San Francisco /Vancouver 10.30 - 13.00

Venue:
This is an online course, held on Zoom

Cost:
Cost: 6 week course:
£175 standard / £150 low income / £125 no income (plus booking fee)
Booking via Eventbrite: Click the link below
“A workshop in standing up to power using humour and subversion. A whole new angle on non-violent resistance.“ 
Previous Participant

“Be inspired by playful and real activists. Clowning on the edge.”
Previous Participant

Course Structure

★ Each session lasts 2.5 hours to ensure we have enough time to learn, play & grapple with the issues.
★ This will be a closed group for the whole 6 week course, to enable participants to connect, share and develop their skills and networks together. This will be a group journey so we ask that you commit to attending the whole course (as much as you can).
★ Co-lab 1: 29 January
In the first session Robyn Hambrook will explore key concepts of clowning and activism from her research so far, introduce elements of clown play, ensemble work and improvisation and enable participants to get to know each other before launching into the rest of the course.
★ Co-labs 2-5
- Robyn will interview a guest expert each week, to get an insight into their practice
- The guest expert will lead a practical session, allowing you to have an embodied experience of their ways of working
- At the end of each session, Robyn will facilitate a discussion where the group will reflect on their experience and have a chance to ask the guest their burning questions.
★ Co-lab 6: 4 March
This final session with Robyn Hambrook is an opportunity to integrate all the learnings from the previous 5 weeks. The aim is for participants work collectively to; vision, discuss, devise and plan how each can integrate this activist clown toolkit into their own projects.

Take-aways from the course

During this course you will develop:
  • Practice-based frameworks for applying clowning practice for personal, social or political transformation
  • Experience and insight into the work of practitioners in the areas of clowning, circus, art and activism
  • A toolbox of go-to exercises for facilitation, creation, rehearsal and performance of transformative clowning projects
  • Inspiration to start building your own action or project.

Who is it for?

Clowns, theatre practitioners, circus and physical performers, dancers, musicians, visual artists, street performers and political activists and enthusiasts! Anyone interested in exploring new forms of activism or expanding their understanding of clowning as a form of political expression. And anyone who wants to use humour and laughter to change the world.
“A bubbling cauldron of magic, mayhem, musings and mwisdom. Brilliant fun and very informative. Learned a lot from it and left inspired.”
Previous Participant

“A lot of hard work went into it. I appreciate Robyn’s effort, energy, enthusiasm. Also the variety of people she brought in to offer perspectives, share tools etc”
Previous Participant
“A beginner's buffet of very prompting information regarding how to use one of the world's least understood art forms to help bring attention (and hopefully bring change) to any issue we face as a community, as a world, as a people.”
Previous Participant

“It was so inspiring to work with the guest facilitators for two hours and to feel that they really practice what they preach.”
Previous Participant

About the co-facilitators

Leo Bassi
Leo Bassi is descended from a long line of eccentric comedians and circus clowns from all over Europe. A multifaceted artist, he is known around the world for his extravagant theatre performances, street shows, hoaxes and large-scale direct actions, on buses and on television. His work touches on current political and social issues, creating exciting, sensational and shocking experiences, where provocation is the language and not just a purpose. In the last ten years he has developed a clown persona which combines the Pope and plastic bath ducks (the words being similar in Spanish). His own 'church' the Iglesia Patolica, is in Madrid, where he performs weekly sermons, marriages and memorial events. He has also installed a stone circle from where he intends to attract aliens to come and save the world.
http://nuevaweb.leobassi.com/la-gran-misa-patolica/
Police Officer Az-Oolay
Officer Az-Oolay (“then may be” – in Hebrew”) is the lone officer of the Yashar-el Ha-Lev (Straight to the Heart, in Hebrew) police force. This clown officer was a creative response that emerged from the weekly demonstrations in Balfour Street in Jerusalem, against the corruption of Netanyahu’s government. As protesters were met by increased violence from police, Officer Az-Oolay entered, dressed in a wrinkled blue uniform, a flower garlanded police hat, a red clown’s nose. Officer Az-Oolay creates an inverted mirror to bodies of the police, the army, and bands of citizens who oppose equal rights; trying to break down the repressed power that they represent. Working throughout Jerusalem, the West Bank and beyond, Officer Az-Oolay ushers in a new political imagination, providing moments of mercy and healing in these complex political and emotional times.
@Shoteretazoolay
Ash Perrin
Ash Perrin, also known as Bash the clown is a professional noise maker, childhood conservationist, rabble raiser and lifelong Play enthusiast. Author of ‘The Real Play Revolution’, and Founder of The Flying Seagull Project charity; for over a decade Ash has taken play and dynamic fun activities into the forgotten corners of the world sharing smiles and laughter with more than 400,000 children. Working in Orphanages, refugee camps, shanty settlements, hospitals and often out on the streets the mission is simple and the agenda direct: every child has the right to a happy childhood.
http://www.theflyingseagullproject.com/
Magdalena Schamberger
Magdalena is a theatre director and teaching artist with a special interest in creating high-quality performances with and for people living with dementia. She considers herself a dementia activist, using clowning & physical theatre to challenge assumptions and change perceptions about the creative potential of people with dementia and their contribution to society. Born in Austria, she has lived in Edinburgh since 1995. Magdalena has trained with Philippe Gaulier, Pierre Byland and John Wright. She is Co-founder and former Artistic Director of Hearts & Minds, Scotland, and has created the highly acclaimed Elderflowers programme, influencing similar programmes across the globe. Magdalena has devised Curious Shoes, In the Light of Day and Framed (in development), all collaborative performances for people affected by dementia, touring widely to theatres and care homes throughout the UK. Magdalena regularly teaches Compassionate Clowning internationally, and has recently delivered her first clowning workshop for people living with dementia.
www.magdalenaschamberger.com