QCP #029 | Dan Griffiths, founder of The Church of Clown | Praising Folly, A Peek into the Toolshed and The Life of a Performance Artist

SAY HELLO TO DAN!
Website: http://www.dangriffiths.us/
Kapoot Clown Theatre Skit Video
How Much - Created and Performed by Dan Griffiths
Donut Goat at the Barber Shop

GUEST BIO

Dan Griffiths is a multi-talented, experimental performance artist, award-winning theatre director, teacher, and founder of the first Church of Clown in San Francisco. He founded the Clown Workshop, Clown Zero, and KAPOOT Clown theatre. Some of his recent gigs include teaching clown at The Wu Qiao International Circus Festival in Shijiazhuang, China. He also did work as a clown doctor and trainer for the Big Apple Circus and a director of CLOWN ZERO, a Medical Clowning Unit residence at the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital.

For almost 35 years, since 1988, he has performed original theatrical works across the country and around the world. He studied at the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre and has served on the faculty Clown Conservatory San Francisco, The School for Mime Theater, Columbia College Chicago, Roosevelt University, Indiana University Northwest, and Academy of Art University. Dan holds an M.A. in Experimental Performance from New College of California and an M.F.A in Interdisciplinary Art from the California Institute of Integral Studies.

NOTES | MENTIONS

SEG 1

• Church of Clown
  • How to start a church
• Holy Fools Parade
• St. Stupid's Day
• Praise Folly
  • What is Folly?
• What is the mission of the Church of Clown?
• Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
• Satanic Church
• Kenyan College
• Marcel Marceau
• Mime
• Lon Chaney
• Free Masons
• Meyers Briggs Test
• Clown Lab
• Hopi Indians - Clown Culture
• Kapoot
• Sacha Baron Cohen

SEG 2

• What type of people does clown/ theatre attract?
• Teacher Compensation
• Humanities
• Observations on Waldorf Education
• What is the mimetic realm
  • Why do people hate mime performance?
• How to be more comfortable in performance?
• Gastro Absurdo
• Clown Conservatory
• How to deal with a performance gone bad?
• Taking the temperature of the room

SEG 3

• Humor and Play as Tools
• Soldiers in your cup 1:12:10
• Teaching clowns in China
• Role of Jesters in Medieval Times
• The Joker, Dark Knight
• The King of Comedy
• Charles Dickens, First Scary Clown
• Harlequin Clown
• The Flow State of Clown Performance
• Laughter - Henri Bergson

SEG 4

• Kettle Chips
• How to evaluate an experimental performance
• Overcoming a failed performance
• Accepting Foibles
  • Dan's follies
• Being Inflexible
• Difference between a lifelong  vs a day one performer
• Times to be serious
• Frederico Fellini
• Greatest Joke Ever

SEG 5

• The Multiverse
• Waldorf Education, Why?
• What is the purpose of clown college?
• Cosmophilia
• Maplethorpe Exhibit
• Be easy on yourself