Tag: pochinko

dossier: Heather Marie Annis and Amy Lee for MORRO AND JASP: GO BAKE YOURSELF

As a fellow clown, albeit a new one who really has no experience clowning with or around these two, and York alumnae (it’s about time I shamelessly showed pride of my roots on this site – I realize that sounds like I harbour problems with York’s training. Really, I don’t; I had an excellent time there and think the training I received was exactly what I needed. I just don’t talk about it much anymore. Gotta move forward, amiright?) I am greatly excited to bring both Amy Lee and Heather Marie Annis by today to chat a little about the reprise of their hit, GO BAKE YOURSELF! That’s right, Morro and Jasp are in the field to chat about what got them started.

Amy, Heather and I mostly just missed each other at York University. I had seen them around, and I think Amy had seen me, or at least knew my face, but it wasn’t until, maybe three Fringes ago that we actually met and had a conversation. It’s funny because I think I’ve actually seen these two perform more frequently out of nose than I have in nose (if you haven’t seen these two bust out their acting chops, do yourself a favour and keep your ear to the ground for what they’re up to next; usually they come as a pair, but individually they are their own unique forces of theatre-nature. It’s quite refreshing).

I know Fringe is well underway, but if you need to fill a hole in your roster and you’re just hearing about this show right now (which you probably aren’t), there’s still time to catch it! You’ll just have to line up a bit early…

dossier #18:

morro and jasp ii copy

Who are we talking with?

Heather Marie Annis and Amy Lee (sometimes known as Morro and Jasp).

What drew you down this path? (to theatre, to clowning, to Fringing, to wherever the hell you are in life)

We were in theatre school at York and discovered that we really loved working together. Byron Laviolette (our director and co-collaborator) had studied Pochinko clown and after he saw us in a physical piece together, asked us if we’d be interested in playing around with clown. We said yes, having no idea what to expect, and then we kept saying yes to every opportunity to experiment with/perform clown.

What is your earliest memory of realizing, yep, this is what I’m going to do with my life?

Amy decided when she was 6. Heather decided in high school. Although that was acting, not clown. Clown was a bit of a surprise love for both of us.

Why MORRO AND JASP: GO BAKE YOURSELF?

We both love cooking, baking, and food in a serious way. When we were roommates we would experiment with new recipes and they would almost always turn out disastrously (even though on our own, we are pretty kitchen saavy). We thought, “What could be more fun than letting our clowns play in the kitchen?” We also wanted to look at our relationship with food and how food helps us relate to one another. And we have a whole lotta fun doing it…

What kind of atmosphere do you intend to set up, or can someone expect from MORRO AND JASP: GO BAKE YOURSELF?

Fun, delicious, and full of love.

You’ve done the Canadian Fringe circuit often in the past. What do you look forward to the most when touring a new show to a new city?

Every audience is difference. And because we interact with our audiences so much, that really impacts us and the show. It is always really exciting to see how the space, city and people will affect the show and how we can play with that.

What is your favourite memory from a past Fringe circuit show?

Ah! Too many to pick one! Although, if we have to…We created a very audience-dependent ending to our show last year and we had no idea whether it would actually work, so on opening, when it did, we cried so many tears of joy!

Describe MORRO AND JASP: GO BAKE YOURSELF in three adjectives, a phrase, or with sound.

Mmmmm….

Do you have anything else you’d like to share? Photos, videos, links, posters, stories, wishes?

Here is our trailer for it:

We are sold out of our advance tickets for the run, but there are still tickets at the door every show!

We want to wish every Fringer out there, whether you’re performing or watching, so much love, so much gratitude, and may the Force be with you!

morro and jasp - fringe13 go bake yourself 2013 11x17 textured draft 2

dossier: Dave McKay of TORONTO CLOWN and the RED NOSE DISTRICT

For the next dossier, I was able to get in touch with Dave McKay of Toronto Clown and the Red Nose District. I sent him some questions and he opened up a beautiful vault of treasures to show me his answers. It blew me away. You get a real sense Dave’s been around for the development of clown in Canada and has been very important to its current framework and popularity here in Toronto.

That said, here’s dossier number two:

Sketchy

First off, who’re we talking with?

Dave McKay. I’m the co-producer of the Red Nose District show, Lunacy Cabaret, Belleville Ville and the Toronto Festival of Clowns.

What drew you down this path? (to the Red Nose District, to being a clown, to being wherever the hell you are in life?)

I used to play in a band and we put out and album and toured around. The other guys got married and had kids so we stopped playing. I guess I was more of a rock star than a musician. I always preferred the performance aspect of being in a band. In the mid-nineties I read a review of clown duo Mump and Smoot – the clowns of horror. I thought I would love to see that. I went to see them and then I wanted to do what they did. I had no idea where to start as a clown so I got into improv comedy instead. While in the Second City Conservatory program I met people who had studied clown with John Turner and Mike Kennard of Mump and Smoot. So when the time and money became available I took Mike Kennard’s Baby Clown/Clown Through Mask course. Sometimes while doing improv I would connect with a character and the audience and it would all just flow naturally. However while clowning it always happened. I had found my thing. At the time I was still doing improv, theatre, music and tv/film work. So in 2006 I told myself, “nothing but clown this year.” That year I started up TorontoClown.com, the Lunacy Cabaret (with Dan Nimmo, Jeff Krahn and Eli Chornenki) and the Toronto Festival of Clowns (with Srah Buski and Adam Lazarus). The Lunacy Cabaret has a very wild audience so you need to be an experienced performer to handle them and the Toronto Festival of Clowns features hour long shows. There needs to be a place where people who are starting out can get some experience in front of a friendly audience. In the past there were some small clown cabaret shows that people could get some stage time with, but eventually they ran their course and stopped. I created the Red Nose District show to fill that role. A place for new clowns who have just taken a workshop, experienced clowns to work on new material and for people who have left clowning to come back and try it again.

What’s you earliest memory of wanting, or needing to do this?

As I kid I had no affinity for clowns. In fact I just kind of ignored them and thought they were for little kids or unsophisticated people. It wasn’t until I started seeing several Pochinko style clowns that I got into it. In particular I was doing improv in a show that Neil Muscot produced and he had Helen Donnelly on doing her Foo character. Foo did a very simple turn where his ass was itchy and he searched the room until he found a box of Gold Bond powder in a bag in the back of the room. Foo looked into the bag and then up at the audience several times before revealing the contents. Each time he looked in and then out it was a completely different face and expression. This was beyond mugging, there was a whole story behind each expression. At this point I made the commitment to study Pochinko clown.

What can we expect, if anything, at the Red Nose District?

You can expect the performers to recognize that there is an audience in front of them and sometimes to engage the audience in their act.

Tell us about your favourite moment from this event in the past.

Once a year we put the Red Nose District show in the Toronto Festival of Clowns. We get Morro and Jasp to host it. They really take the hosting job seriously and put together one of the best nights at the festival. One year at the end of the show they started a popcorn fight with the audience, there was popcorn everywhere. We have pictures of the whole audience engaged in throwing stuff with huge smiles on their faces.

Describe the Red Nose District in three adjective or phrases.

Surprising, engaging and adult.

Do you have anything you want to share? A story? A photo? A song? A video?

I recently found these videos on Youtube of Richard Pochinko teaching a clown class. He is recognized as the father of modern Canadian clowning or as we sometimes call it Pochinko Clown. I never met him but he seems like at delightful, enchanted nutbar who created a wonderful thing that has turned into a tradition. I like to watch these videos once in a while so that I don’t take the whole clown thing too serious.

He gives a good description of what he is trying to accomplish at around 2:50 in this video.

Mump and Smoot with some of their dark humour, it starts getting really dark around 4:30.

A montage of Foo clips

Red Nose District