The concept of a “clown conservatory” is a bit difficult to wrap your head around. Are they conserving clowns, or teaching clowns to conserve? Are the clowns being taught the finer points of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle?” And really, can you teach a person who’s wearing a multi-colored wig, face paint, a red nose that honks, ill-fitting pants held up by suspenders and big, floppy shoes to be “conservative?”
If anyone can, it’s Jeff Raz who has been doing so since 2000, the year the Clown Conservatory was founded in San Francisco, California.
Raz has an impressive track record as a clown. From his humble beginnings as a street juggler in the 70’s, he has gone on to become a virtual “who’s who” in the world of clowns. He’s juggled with the Bay City Reds, one of the most successful juggling troupes in the country. In the 80’s, he spent most of the decade with Vaudeville Nouveau, including a Broadway production of Comedy of Errors. He emerged in the 90’s as a writer, where he wrote and performed plays while performing with the Pickle Family Circus and acting in theaters around California. Raz led the Clown Conservatory at S.F. Circus Center from 2000 until 2010. During that time, he participated in a 500-performance tour with Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo, in English and Japanese, while still running the school.
And now, Jeff Raz is bringing his irresistible clownish self to downtown Santa Cruz on December 14th to participate in Tandy Beal’s next installation of her ArtSmart Family Concert Series at the Veterans Memorial Building.
Is there an art to being a clown?
“Of course there is,” says Raz. “One colleague said, ‘I don’t teach the clowns, I walk beside them.’ We teach hard skills: our clowns learn to juggle, ride a unicycle, perform acrobatics and mime, and a lot of circus skills in a wide range.” Raz is hurriedly ticking off every element of Clowning 101. “There’s the history, current practices, clowning of other countries, makeup application—there’s lots to learn.” It must take a certain type of person to want to try being a clown, I muse. Raz is emphatic: “I trust that every student that comes to my school is a little weird, and that they’ve got what it takes to be a clown. My job isn’t to excavate that; my job is to give them the forms to let that come out.”
“Is it really that daunting?” I ask. Raz nods. “Being a clown is quite hard but very rewarding. It takes a lot of practice, and things can be tough. The upside is you get to work with lovely people in very electric, creative settings. Clowns are able to connect with the audience in a deeper and more evocative way than any other performer. The main skill is to take 2,700 people and make them feel like they’re in your living room. In the business, it’s called Shrinking the Theater or Shrinking the Tent. How deeply and skillfully do the clowns make a connection with the audience? That’s the litmus test for success,” says Raz.
For the upcoming performance in Santa Cruz, what should the audience expect? “There’s this assumption that clowns are for kids,” Raz says. “Clowns were adult entertainment for the last 50-70 years, but I always welcome anyone who wants to volunteer. You know what’s funny,” says Raz, “is the kids on stage are having a level of success on that stage that they don’t normally have in the classroom. I always try to pick a kid from the back of the room. It provides a moment for the volunteers to find comfort and their voice on stage,” he says.
After performing for 47 years, Raz finds that he has to keep giving himself new challenges. “My challenge for the last few years is how to be radically present,” says Raz. “I don’t always succeed, but I want to be right there with that audience, with that volunteer, and completely respect that we have a reciprocal relationship. My interest,” says Raz, “is to invite someone to be more themselves than they were a moment ago, and sit back down a hero.”
“Is there an example of that?” I ask. There is, Raz tells me, and it happened right here in Santa Cruz. “When I was a member of the Pickle Family Circus, we came to do a show with Tandy. Lo and behold, we got a volunteer who had just had hip replacement surgery, and he wanted to participate in the show. We got this amazing guy to come up on stage and stand on my shoulders with a new hip! The whole audience was cheering like crazy for him. When I came into the lobby after the show, he was in the lobby signing autographs.”
Raz has had plenty of time in the spotlight himself. As the lead clown in Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo, he did ten shows per week, filling 3,200 seats per performance in Japan for 14 months.
And now? Raz has written two times on his favorite subject: being a clown. The Secret Life of Clowns and The Snow Clown are authoritative works by an author whose specialty is making the world a lighter, brighter and less conservative place.
Interested in learning more? Visit https://secretlifeofclowns.com and be sure to attend his upcoming performance in Santa Cruz. Tickets for Tandy Beal’s ArtSmart Family Concert Series are available at www.brownpapertickets.com
