My interest in physical humour, mime and puppetry has lead  me to various artists that have become very popular on the British comedy circuit for their unique style. One in particular that has inspired me in my research and development is The Boy With Tape On His Face who uses random objects and a musical score to create a fresh and innovative way to puppeteer. The magic does not only come from his skills as a puppeteer and a performer but the inventiveness of his material and the intelligent use of song. The songs are all well known and creates an instant atmosphere for each little sketch (which you can see from the extract) as they are from popular culture and are easily recognizable.

 

The key thing that I have noticed to his approach is his use of focus and attention. His focus is constantly on the object to help give focus and allow the audience to project a character onto it, the music also helps with this. Once that is established his eyes can wander away from the puppet as the audiences are shown the relationship between him and the puppet, with all the other gaps being filled by the music and the audiences imagination. The humour comes from the absurd and creative narratives that he creates and the novelty music that accompanies it. Who would have ever thought oven gloves could be so entertaining!

The beginning of this other extract also highlights the skill and precise movement needed to bring the objects and scenarios to life. His sense of timing is impeccable and the subtlety of his actions  create a fictional relationship with an inanimate object. When I watched his show at the Edinburgh fringe in 2011 I found I was laughing at myself for believing his illusions.

 

 

One show that has always been inspirational to me was The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer, which combines unique hand puppetry and a vibrant use of multi- media, which creates beautiful storytelling. The underwater world Is imagined through lighting, projections and animations which alters the space as Alvin has various puppet sizes to emphasise the magnitude of his journey.

 

I am still to this day astonished by how emotive the show was when all he had was three various sized puppets of Alvin and projections. I feel that the key to it was the story, which was established well at the beginning with an animated video. The introduction, much like The Boy With Tape On His Face, establishes the character and scenario so that the audience fills in the gaps with their imagination.

For me, these examples have inspired me to work with visuals, mime and puppetry in order to create a fun, surreal and possibly comical piece of performance. I have various images in my head that I am looking to attempt to re-create through the research and development phases. One of these ideas  is to portray when I was 16 I had a nightmare that I was going to work in an office. I am looking to create the atmosphere of the absurd through sock/ hand puppets, music and lighting to create a sense of distortion. I am keeping open minded and tomorrow I will be experimenting on a number of puppetry, mime and physical theatre techniques to find which one best suits my abilities and the performance I wish to create.

My next blog will be the results of my preliminary performance research.

The reading Solo in Soho: The Performer Alone by John Howell, was an interesting article that brought up many issues with the definition of solo performance and performance art. One comment in particular that struck me was that in the context of the solo performances, the truths displayed onstage are individual. That is to say that as there is one voice that acts as a testimony, where the opinions expressed are portrayed in a sense of ‘intimate personalism’. This act of testimony can only work if there is an interaction with an audience so that the messages conveyed are passed on and accounted for.

Performance art lies within the realm of aesthetics whereas solo performance can blend and blur the gaps between the aesthetic and literate. It is a sense of the unmitigated self, a performer without conscience of the outer world but of the inner self. This means that a solo performance has its own reality within the space and the context of the performance.

An aspect I have been interested in examining is the divide between the person and the persona. The person being the true self with a testimony that you portray honestly (testimonial) and the persona a false personality, a character that stems from you but demonstrates a dishonest truth. With the clowning from Paul Currie that I examined in the previous post, I feel that my work would be leaning more to that of the persona, but that isn’t to say that by being a persona I wont be expressing something of myself. Playing with a persona or character can be a safer way to express ideas and feelings for both the performer and the audience as the content is acknowledged as a performance. Many stand up comics do this as a way to distance themselves from the audience and the comments they make such as Frankie Boyle or Lee Mack. This performance style doesn’t have the same vulnerability of testimonials however it opens up more possibilities for the performer to venture through.

We all had a very big debate about what makes and artist and what is art, which brought some great responses. What it highlighted was that it is such a subjective commodity that we cannot simply define it as being art or not. The closest I have come to define it is to say that there must be an artistic vision, a process of finding exploring that vision and then the final product that demonstrates the journey. This takes into account that art is subjective so when we see art we don’t like, you still have admiration of the artistic process. To me art in any form is about the journey taken and so when we come across people who call themselves artist like Matt Chewewie, I get frustrated as their work is immediate, with little process or thought and the work is of a poor standard. He says in his artistic statement that people shouldn’t take his work seriously but if he doesn’t then who will?

The issue here is that with the internet as such a huge global platform, there is an immediacy to so called art where anyone can pick up a camera and do work and call themselves artist. This isn’t to say that in time this platform couldn’t be a great place to acknowledge work but at present it is breaking down what art represents. There is another side to the coin too as art galleries get away with creating a hostile atmosphere with the art they display. I have never been a huge fan of art in galleries as it can be very elitist and can look down on audiences but there is a process and occasionally a rebellion from the form which becomes exciting. For me the end product must match the process, so it you put three empty canvases in the Tate Modern I wont consider it art whether your a well renowned artist or not.

With all this in mind, it can sometimes just be a case that you look at something and it makes you feel something and you instinctively call it art, regardless of the platform its on or the artistic process taken. My sister was at Oxford doing a fine art degree and for her final piece she said she wanted to have fun and demonstrate to her lecturers that they need to not take art so seriously so she made this…

 

a six by eight foot rocking duck, which all the lecturers had to sit and rock back and forth in. Art should be playful and as artists, we sometimes need to remember that even though it requires effort, skill and time, we are in a privileged situation to express and enjoy our work with audiences who are looking to enjoy or revel in our accomplishments.

After the lesson, I started to find an essence of where I wanted my work to go. I have been really inspired by Tim Crouch as his work pushed the boundaries of performer and audience, forcing us to examine this oddity of communication. He is playful but highly intellectual in the way he interacts and experiments with the audiences expectations of what a play is such as in An Oak tree. The audience are unable to predict what is happening as even the actor accompanying Tim Crouch onstage is in the dark as to what is about to occur. The moment the actor is told he/she is the parent of the girl killed in a car collision, the audience is transported to a much more sinister and uneasy atmosphere of unpredictability. For me, I feel that this doesn’t suit my strengths and to try and create a unique performance atmosphere would require far too much patience. The solo script I have been writing has attempted to have the performer seem as clueless to what the performance entails as the audience. Creating a sense that no one knows what is happening. I am also exploring how the actor is a vulnerable occupation of following rules dictated by others. I hope to explore the idea of an actor without integrity.

Near the end of the session, Jason stood up and told us about his idea of being a sinister character who attempts to control the audience through fear, foul language and threatening behaviour. The concept was interesting in theory but I felt it would be hard to realise fully in practice as there are too many conditions that come with an audience. The difficulty is that an audience prepares for whats to happen and the effect is diluted through a big audience. Also, an audience will not watch something they know is repulsive and if they did do it would be something of a challenge and a competition with the performer, like watching a scary film. I believe it would work on a one on one basis or if the audiences caused the performer to harm themselves.

During Jason’s talk I had an image in my head (one which I will later reveal with photos or a video), which sparked an array of ideas. In reflection, it is very close to Paul Currie’s performance style and involves physicality and clowning. Over the coming days I will explore clowning further and see the traits that may help me develop the images and scenario in my head.

Think sock puppets and a revolver…

I have seen Paul Currie perform twice and I’m a big fan of his ridiculous work. His use of mime and clowning combined with the absurd actions that he performs on stage create a feeling of unease and unpredictability. He is particularly interesting as a comedian as there never seems to be a punchline. The situations build for a long time without an end result. His comedy demonstrates how varied the genre can be as he isn’t afraid to be unpopular. In an interview he mentions that people go to his shows assuming that all comedy is universally funny and sometimes leave disappointed with what they see or are confused as to why others are laughing. The subjectivity of performance is an important factor to acknowledge as what is funny or considered great by some can be deemed awful by others. One thing that cannot be argued is his technique and performance skills. He was a puppeteer for The Muppets for 8 years and has been a street performer for 13, where he tried to perfect his art.

 

 

We had a good group discussion on what art was. There were many who said that although people believed themselves to be artists that didn’t necessarily mean it was true. A good description that Tim Crouch used in My Arm was that art is what you can get away with. I think many people get away with lots of things I consider to be bad art, but if it provokes a reaction or a response in any way, even if it is for one person (including the performer) then who am I to say it’s not.