Oct
12
5 Steps to Better Clowning: Practice
Filed Under Clown
Welcome back to the second part of our five part series on becoming a better clown. Last time we covered simplifying your clown life, today we will cover making the most of your practice time.
We all know that practice makes perfect, what some people might be missing is what makes perfect practice. We will be looking at three common clown skills and the most effective practice strategies to help you become a better clown.
The three skills we will be looking at are: Juggling, Magic and Balloon Sculpture. These where chosen because the practice strategy for each of these skills can be easily applied to other clown skills. Juggling is a physical skill like unicycling, stilt walking and balancing; Magic is a mental skill like ventriloquism; and Balloon Art is an artistic endeavor much like face painting.
Juggling like most physical skills can be very frustrating to learn. This is because you are not only trying to learn something new you are having to train your muscles to work in a different way then normal. The three main components of a good juggling practice session are: individual, routine and patter.
When attempting a new juggling trick or first learning to juggle it is important to start by teaching individual body parts what you want them to do. Usually it is better to start with your non-dominant hand as it will give you more trouble and once you learn that side teaching your dominant hand will be a breeze.
Once you have practiced each body parts part of the trick you are done with the individual part of the practice it is time to squeeze it into a routine. This routine is not your normal juggling show; you just need to get the transition in and out of the trick worked out.
Routine training will train your body to work together, putting together all of the individual parts of the trick into your pattern. The most important part of the routine practice is to take note when your pattern falls apart during a new trick and stopping right there.
Once you can pin point what is going wrong with the trick you can go back and work that part of the trick individually, focusing on the part of the trick that causes the pattern to crumble. Once that part is fixed, go back to the routine and wait for the pattern to be destroyed again and just keep repeating the individual to routine to individual pattern. Try to limit the actual juggling portion of your practice time to 30 minutes to prevent excess frustration.
Patter is an important part of juggling and all entertainment. You should practice patter all of the time. The most important part of your juggling patter is going to be drop lines. These are lines you will say when you are performing and your pattern fails, stopping the show. With a well planned and thought out drop line, you will be able to save the show.
Magic is another skill that a lot of clowns work on and it is mostly an art of the mind and crowd control. The best way to practice magic is to Learn it, Mirror it and Perform it. Learning a new magic trick is usually a very exciting process, not only are you finally learning a secret that you did not know before but you are gaining a powerful tool to add to your performances.
The most important part of learning a new trick is to make sure that you learn all of the mechanics of the trick prior to trying to do any sort of performance, even a performance in front of a mirror. Once you can perform the trick mechanics with your eyes closed, you are ready to move on and worry about angles.
You have now graduated to standing in front of the mirror for hours and hours. This will help you learn the angles of a trick and force you to make allowances for distance and audience size. Since you are already able to do the movements of the trick with your eyes closed, let your eyes wonder. Your goal is to fool your eyes and your eyes goal is to catch you red handed.
Once you can fool yourself at one distance from the mirror, take two steps back and check the angles again. You will be surprised at how the angles change as the distance to the spectator changes. Once you can perform angle free from about ten feet from the mirror you are ready to perform.
You should find yourself a magic buddy. A magic buddy is someone who you can perform magic for who will be brutally honest with you. This person doesn’t need to be a magician or entertainer of any kind, the only criteria is that they won’t give away the secret if they do figure it out and they will tell you, politely, when they catch you in the act.
Once you can fool them ten times you are ready for the big leagues. At your next party or event, present your new trick second in your magic act. That way you have other material to cover any mistakes you make in your presentation as well as seeing if it fits within the rest of your show.
Balloon Art is one of the most funs of all clown skills to practice. The basic plan for practicing balloon art is quantity. You will find that the more balloons you make the better you get. Here is a schedule that will allow you to practice balloons you already know to make them better, learn new balloons and to get more comfortable making balloons all together.
Always start your ballooning practice by inflating a 260 until it explodes. You might want to warn people you live with prior to doing that, as it is quite a loud bang. Doing this helps you realize that inevitably a balloon is going to pop while you are making balloons and the more used to it you are the better. Also the minor little pops you might encounter while making smaller balloons will pale in comparison to the noise of that first pop. Once this is done, you are ready to practice.
Start by inflating one balloon about half way; on that balloon make all of the twists you know: fold, ear, pop, tulip, etc. Doing that will remind your fingers how to make all of the different twists and gets you all warmed up for twisting. You should also do this prior to any heavy duty twisting at parties and events, offer it as an abstract sculpture.
The rest of your practice session will be spent making actual balloon animals and other sculptures. Start by making five each of the ten most requested balloons you make. If you are relatively new, you may not have any idea what might be requested a bunch and the list will vary year-to-year and place to place. Here is the list I use:
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- dog
- cat
- giraffe
- elephant
- poodle
- bear
- mouse
- turtle
- monkey
- flower
Most of those are one-balloon creatures (with the exception of the flower) and should take very little time. The one thing you need to do is really focus on making each one perfect. Make them in a variety of colors and place them in a big black trash bag. The reason for the trash bag is so that after you are all done practicing you can donate that bag to a daycare or library for a free give away. Of course, you will make sure that your business card is attached to each balloon so your good deed does not go unrewarded.
Now it is time to learn a new balloon. The first couple of times you make this new creation take it slow and really focus on the measurements, making it by the book. Once you are able to make the balloon by the book without using the book, start to speed up the process. Once you are operating at full speed, make five perfect balloons and place them in the big black trash bag.
Now it is time for the fun stuff: Improv. Turn up the music and spend twenty minutes creating a multi-balloon masterpiece. Pick something you have always wanted to see made out of balloons and get started making it. This will help improve any balloon decorating you might do or just make you more comfortable with your balloons. Remember to take pictures of all of your balloon art, as they will make a great addition to your website.
There you have it, the best ways to practice all of your skills: Physical, Mental and Artistic. Remember that if you start to get frustrated or angry, stop and continue you another day. Next week we will talk about marketing.
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[…] 5 Steps to Better Clowning: Practice By Dylan Welcome back to the second part of our five part series on becoming a better clown. Last time we covered simplifying your clown life, today we will cover making the most of your practice time. We all know that practice makes perfect, … The Usable Clown - http://clownusability.com […]