- My name is Zoey Shea Peacock-Jones, and I graduated from the New School with a BFA, and that's where I first started learning about theatrical clown.

(whimsical music) When I was growing up, I was part of an afterschool program called Cirkids.

We did unicycle and trapeze and aerial silks and tumbling, and it was my first introduction to performing.

Big head, small hands.

Okay.

- That's pretty cute.

- I have been interested in clowning ever since I took this class in college with Jean.

She did a mini clown lesson.

It made me feel free.

I was able to be myself on stage, and I just fell in love with it.

- My name is Jean Taylor, and I teach theatrical clown, and I teach a course called "Accepting the Ridiculous."

Zoey and I have come up with what we think is a very fun and instructive idea, which is a clown salon.

We gather folks who have studied New School, The Barrow Group, to play, to explore, and then to present short pieces that they're working on.

(clown salon participants laughing) We get so excited about building a clown community where we can practice our practice, which is why we started clown salons.

We start with play, and then Zoey will share a piece that she's working on.

It's not finished.

It's definitely in process.

And then you will offer feedback.

And then we will play again.

Now, you're all familiar with this, and it is "Bonjour mes amis."

Clowns are not multitaskers.

And it's beautiful to allow time for something to both land and for something for you to experience it differently, because so much goes on and so many times we do too many things at once.

We're just trying to invite ourselves, give ourselves permission, to really do one thing at a time.

- Bonjour mes amis.

Whoa!

(feet thudding) C'est moi, Avi.

(class laughing) - Bonjour mes amis.

C'est moi, (indistinct).

- [All] Bon.

- We're going to go into paper dance.

The beauty, I think, of this, is that it's to build complicité.

We say yes to the same game.

And what is wonderful is I'm seeing clowns together who haven't been together before, and some who have, which is great, build on the relationship or start the relationship.

So in this paper dance, one person is moving the paper and the partner is trying to translate that movement into their body.

What's a wonderful challenge is our bodies don't actually move that well like paper.

So it's kind of fun to see people on the floor crinkled up, then they're stretched out, and then they change roles so that everybody gets to both become that and the other one lead.

- There's a moment in every clown class where we go into nose, which means we all sit together usually.

We take a look at each other, not in nose.

We take a moment to ourselves.

We put our heads down.

Our noses go on away from the public.

It's usually a private moment to yourself.

We bring them up together.

And we see everyone with their noses on as their little clowns.

- Oh, look at that lineup.

We start with the concept that accepting your ridiculousness is a way to be fully present.

You're really fully present so that you're available to the public, you're available to the other clowns.

There will be moments of vulnerability, but your clown is incredibly resilient.

And your clown can take you between both the vulnerability and the resilience and negotiate between those.

The vulnerability makes us open and the resilience is like we can come back from a little mini dilemma with a new idea.

Yeah, so this is a really fun opportunity for Zoey to be able to just try something and see how it goes.

So what we'll do after Zoey shares it with us is we'll have a chance to do a little bit of what you noticed.

Just know that when we offer feedback, it's not about what you like or don't like.

It's what you observed.

"This is the choice I saw.

This is what I wondered about."

So we're just trying to keep it out of a value judgment and more about choice making.

(door creaks) - Ah.

(class laughing) (seat scuffing) (upbeat music) (class laughing) (upbeat music continues) (music stops) (Zoey exhales) (class chuckling) (door clicks open) (class laughing) (Zoey breathing, exhaling) (seat brushes) (upbeat music resumes) (Zoey panting) (Zoey groaning) (music playback stops) (Zoey sighs) (Zoey sighs) (class laughing) (upbeat music resumes) (upbeat music continues) (class chuckling) (Zoey's feet scuffling) (class laughing) (door latch clunks) (class applauding and cheering) So hot in this.

Thank you.

- So, what did you notice?

We'll just start with that.

- Your clown, when dealing with failure, was just kind of like, "This doesn't make sense."

Like, "This simply, I'm doing everything right."

Like, but you never got like frustrated, really, or like, upset.

It was just kind of like a, "I don't get it."

Like, "What's happening?"

Which was delightful.

- The story I was building in my head is what's the thing going to be?

And the tiny unicycle was like a light bulb.

And I was disappointed that I didn't see you excel at it in a way.

You started to exit.

I wanted to see like, all the amazing tricks you could do.

- Yeah, Alex?

- I really enjoyed kind of like, the preparation before getting on the bike.

And I think there's like an opportunity to like, really prepare the bike, like spin the wheels on it.

Just really enjoy like the mechanics.

- Mechanism of it?

- Yeah.

- Or mechanics of it?

Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think that'll be kind of fun to watch.

- Thank you.

- [Jean] So not, not just this or the tire?

- Yeah.

- But also- - I can pump the tire every time.

- Yeah, like, share... (class laughing) - Performing today for the clown salon setting and then hearing from my peers is totally invaluable because clown really only exists in relation with the public.

Getting the response from the public and finding out what they connect with versus what they don't connect with at all is so helpful.

And also every clown in the room has a different perspective on the dilemma I'm going through.

So they have all these other ideas for maybe things I should incorporate into the solution or what other things might be a dilemma for me.

- [Jean] What is always so beautiful about Zoey's work is an innate connection to the public.

A willingness to be open, responsive, allow her vulnerability to come forward, but not to be undone by it.

And so she draws the people into her experience and then carries them forth moment to moment.

But it's her responsiveness and connection to the public that it seems just part of her DNA.

- When I first was experiencing Jean as a teacher, she was always open to anything students had to say and I could tell that she wanted to learn from them, which was different from other experience I'd had with teachers in the past.

And I got so lucky when she brought this idea of intergenerational co-mentorship to me.

- I had already been thinking about what would happen if you had a mentoring program relationship that didn't have hierarchy.

We call it distributed wisdom.

I'm on the planet longer.

That doesn't mean I have all the wisdom or even half of it.

I've learned so much about my own practice and my own humanity from Zoey.

(soft inspiring music) - It's taken me a long time to see us as equals because she was so inspirational to me before we started the mentorship.

And now it's like we're on the same plane and it feels so amazing, but she got me into like, so many of the things that I love today.

And I feel forever indebted to her for that.

I think the most vulnerable and maybe shy part of yourself that doesn't often come out in front of other people is usually what your true clown ends up being.

And I feel like when I put that nose on, it just gives me a little bit of freedom to explore that part of myself without feeling like I am totally myself.

I think it allows us to move slightly beside ourselves and experience from a slightly different perspective who we are.

It's just made me be a much more open person and much more comfortable with myself.

It's totally changed my outlook on life, like as a whole.

And I can see things in a more positive light all the time and move through issues in my life a lot easier.

And I seriously credit all of that to a clown.