Discovering the Clown, or The Funny Book of Good Acting

In his introduction, Christopher Bayes describes the pursuit of the clown as the search for "the authentic, playful self and its unique relationship to the comic world." An essential read for performers of all kinds, this text takes a deep dive into theatre, physical expression, and the limitless possibilities of the comic performance. This unique glimpse into the whimsical world of clowning includes helpful guides for movement, vocal exercise, and helping the "big stupid" in you find its full potential. Through the exploration of sound and gesture, Discovering the Clown, or The Funny Book of Good Acting expands the boundaries of typical performance, and promises to unleash the clown within any performer.

Everybody has a clown in them. Thousands of characters can come from that clown. It's the playful self, the unsocialized self, the nave self. It's the big stupid who just wants to have some fun with the audience.

Christopher Bayes runs The Funny School of Good Acting in Brooklyn, NY. He has taught programs at Juilliard, the Actor's Center, the Public Theater's Shakespeare Lab, the Academy of Classical Acting at the Shakespeare Theater, NYU, and Tisch School of the Arts. He is currently Professor and Head of Physical Acting at the Yale School of Drama. His honors include a Jerome Foundation Travel/Study Grant and both a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship Grant and a Career Opportunity Grant. He is a 1999/2000 Fox Fellow.

Virginia Scott specializes in developing, devising, and staging collaboratively created and physically oriented pieces for the theatre and the training of actors for this pursuit. Her work has been seen in New York at UCB, Ars Nova, 59E59, The Barrow Group Theatre, and the International Clown Festival. Virginia has taught Clown in New York at the Actor's Center, the Michael Howard Studios, CAP 21 and the Glass Contraption Clown Theatre Company. Virginia works closely with Christopher Bayes and is one of only a handful of teachers certified to teach his clown technique.