Doctor Brown Clowning Workshop:

The Funny of Nothing

Saturday 12 February
Time: 11:00 - 18:00
Cost: HK$600/person
Venue: Mariners Club, 11 Middle Road, TST
Suitable for: Actors, comics
Language: English

For enquiries or to book a place, use the contact us page.

As actors, we are always doing something. What happens when we have nothing to do on stage? Most of us panic. But in that space of ‘nothing’, the real humor, the real beauty, the real humanity of the actor lies. And so often, we are afraid to go there.

One of the most crucial elements a performer needs to have, is a positive relationship with the audience. They must cultivate a sensitivity towards the them and be aware that the audience is not an enemy, but an entity, an actual living being.

This is a 6 hour intensive workshop geared towards cultivating in the actor a comfort and a joy in being with an audience and doing nothing. We will begin with exercises that loosen the imagination, encourage silliness, and increase awareness of space and fellow actors on stage. Exercises that cultivate in us an ability to listen and be sensitive to what the audience wants will follow.  We will then practice the action of doing nothing and seeing how we can sustain an audience’s attention by simply doing nothing or close to nothing, and the power that carries with it.  Last we will learn how to act on an impulse that is not out of panic or need to fill the space or silence, but on a truer impulse, one that will ultimately be more revealing of the humanity and humor that an actor has to share.

Philip Burgers, originally from Los Angeles, is a London-based performer/clown. He trained for two years with French Clown Master, Philippe Gaulier and is currently touring his internationally acclaimed one-man show, ‘Doctor Brown Because’.