Some
clowns are not fulltime performers. They have other jobs as well.
These other jobs may influence their clowning, their clowning may
influence their job. I talked with clowns Tobias Tambornino and
Florian Thelen, who are both teachers in public schools in Germany.
Tobi teaches arts and philosophy, Flo teaches German as a foreign
language and politics. Next to these challenging jobs they managed to
find the time and energy to create clownnumbers, form a clown group*
and organize a four day clown festival with the name ‘Flop.’ in
Cologne, Germany, that took place for the first time last November.
In
their dinosaur number professor Toby parodies the role of the teacher
who is more interested in himself than in his subject of teaching and
is the only one in the room who thinks he knows what he’s talking
about. His assistant Flea translates everything he says to German
either a bit too correct, or while having his own thoughts about the
content of what he is translating. The
assistant is a bit more clever than the professor. The dinosaur,
performed by Noelle Kuhlmey, is
more clever than
both of
them together.
When
she lets that show, she is been punished though, as no one is ever
allowed to be smarter than the teacher, ofcourse...
‘I
am a teacher’, says Tobi, ‘but actually I’m a clown pretending
to be a teacher. And that’s a good thing, important even, as it’s
a way of telling the kids that I know that what I’m doing is
actually stupid.’ ‘I am a clown who would like to be a teacher’,
says Flo, ‘or a teacher who would like to be clown.’ This then
raises the question what or who is a clown? Tobi says he sees clown
as a function, that is fluid and could be taken over by anyone, an
audience member, a child in the classroom (the class clown) or indeed
the person who has done clown training. He says he would never
self-identify as clown without an audience. ‘In order for clowning
to occur we need: public, norms, making mistakes and laughter.
Because all these things also exist in the classroom, clowning can
happen there too. You can either realize the instituion ‘teacher’
or parody it. Both can cause laughter. But in the classroom the stage
is everywere and everyone can take over the function of the clown,
which can lead to chaos.’
As
Flo had also mentioned chaos in the classroom, I
asked them what they do when this happens. Tobi
answers me: ‘Once
you start clowning it’s hard to stop, but when I continue the
lesson in a normal fashion often they calm down after a while. Or I
become silent and just observe them interestedly for a while, waiting
untill
they ask me what I am waiting for.
Sometimes
I
also
start counting, as a reference to the counting they know (I
want you to be silent in 1….2...3, otherwise there will be a
punishment…)
When
they ask me confused what I’m counting, I answer them I’m
counting my money, as I am getting paid anyway, whether I start
shouting at them or not. I
never shout at them or
tell them off.
Much to my regret they’ve always wanted to continue working then,
they never let me get away with earning money without working for
it.’
Flo
explains
to
me
that,
for him, the
chaos is
often the result of the fact that there are
so many things happening at the same time in the classroom and he’s
only able to do one thing at a
time. He
then
tries to master this
chaos
by improvising, which actually makes it worse. ‘I often feel
completely overwhelmed but because
I’m
transparent
and open about it,
it becomes
funny. It is
then
like a performance that arises in the dynamics with the audience. My
students love it when I spread myself too thin or make a mistake. I
do that openly, like a clown, admitting my failure. That’s very
liberating to the students. This way they see that their teacher is
also just a human being, who makes mistakes and that mistakes are
normal in life.’ Tobi agrees: ‘Students experience a lot of
pressure to be perfect, to always succeed, look great and wear the
right clothes. Every form of weakness means to disappoint the
expectation that has been put on them. The clown-trained person
really helps in this situation, because clowning shows another
possible way of living, which can also make you happy, or
successful.’ Flo has noticed that when he puts clown energy into
his teaching, using a lot of eye contact and body language, he gets
that back from his students in return. He connects with them the same
way as he does with the audience when performing. ‘Because of
clowning, school becomes much easier and, I think, much nicer too…’
Comments
Post a Comment