Article
The Path of the Clown
Patricia Rockman
MD CCFP, FCFP
I am a subversive. Not in the political sense of the word, but rather in the sense of someone pushing at the psychological status quo of human behaviour and interpersonal interactions. I am a clown and a medical psychotherapist. Don’t get me wrong. I am not a party clown, creating balloon dogs or other party tricks for kids or a therapeutic clown spreading cheer in hospitals for the ill. Rather, I come from Richard Pochinko’s and Philipe Gaulier’s, Bouffon traditions of clowning. Pochinko’s clowns are viewed as “children of God”, awake and responsive to the present moment as they keep their audiences safe , while those arising out of Bouffon are the misfits, the deformed and the ostracized in society who teach through humour and mockery. The Bouffon, in earlier times had the role of performing for the Royal court pushing his or her audience to look at itself honestly without resulting nasty consequences for the clown himself. It was and is a risky business indeed.
Trained by clown King, Michael Kennard (Mump of Mump and Smoot) and Bouffon teacher, Adam Lazarus I was pitched into the clown world after a bout of Thyroid Cancer and have remained there ever since. I arrived at an Introductory Workshop where I coincidentally bumped into long time friend, Elaine Smookler , destined to become my partner on this whacky and wild journey through performance and teaching. What you get when you pair a Buddhist comedian and a physician is the birth of the twisted and changeable Pox and the delightfully, mischievous Vendetta creating clown pieces that aim to shock and delight while helping themselves and others move through the joy and pain of being human with the levity that only humour can bring.
Doctor by day, Pox by night....this is how I have found resilience both in life and in the work of medicine where I maintain a focused practice in mental health, teach physicians, residents and patients CBT and Mindfulness based therapies and co-chair the OCFP Collaborative Mental Health Care Network. Elaine Smookler and I are offering mindfulness based workshops, courses and medical performance under the name Lumino (www.Lumino.ca). Jensen et al, CFP, Vol 54: May 2008 pg 722-729 performed an extensive literature search and study on Building Physcian Resilience. They assert that there are a number of factors relevant to resilience. These include, but are not limited to, self-awareness (reflectivity and attunement) , acceptance of personal limitations, limit setting, honouring the self (acceptance and forgiveness) , spirituality (optimism and altruism), personal support and the avoidance of self other comparisons.
Clown cultivates resilience. It is a funnily serious business that is a path unto itself giving us clown guidelines about how we might live more fully. Self-awareness is essential in that clown throws you full frontal into the present moment, demanding honesty and responsiveness to those around you and the environment. Other rules include the notion that “Mistakes are a Gift from the Gods” and should be viewed as such, providing us with the opportunity to work with them and learn. “Keeping the audience safe” means that the clown needs to be attuned to the other. “Caring enough not to care” means we must be willing to say “yes to experience” and to work to eliminate self-judgment and comparative thinking. The rule of, “More, More, More” really means, if it’s working keep doing it and if it isn’t, do something different. And of course, the clown world is enveloped in humour because humour helps us to reduce both our positive and negative self importance and to see ourselves in a gentler lighter way.
Clown ultimately is not so much something we do as it is something we recognize that we are. As Jan Henderson writes, “Clown is the embodiment of hope in the face of hopelessness and possibility in the face of the impossible.” It is about being with life as it is in each moment and this is why I remain forever in the clown world, stumbling upon this chosen path.
Pox and Vendetta work to expose our attachments and the impermanence of life; to assist us in letting go but also in staying awake for the ride. Our work is informed by Medicine, Psychotherapy and Buddhism. These are reflected in such clown turns as; Mirror, Mirror off the Wall which is about vanity and plastic surgery gone wrong, Lovestuck which is concerned with care of the elderly, dependence and obligation, and The Funeral which deals with resistance to the ultimate letting go; death. All of these are handled in delightful and provocative ways.
Clown is not for everyone. The faint of heart should not tread into this world for to be a clown, is “to live out loud”, jumping into the void to see what comes next. Pox and Vendetta can be viewed on Youtube in Lovestuck or at this year’s 20th anniversary of the Toronto Fringe Festival that runs from July 2-13 in their new full length show, Bondage, about the emotional ties that bind in which Vendetta thinks she can escape life’s difficulties but Pox has other plans for her.....
