Keynote: "A Manifesto for Impromptu Clowning"

Presented at

III INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH SEMINAR - THE CIRCUS OF YESTERDAY AND TODAY

Conferência de Abertura com Richard Talbot (University of Salford/Reino Unido) e Kurt Zarniko e Yuri Benicio Amâncio Costa (translator)

Martim Gonçalves Theater, UFBA Theater School, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

28th May 2025

SLIDE 1:

KURT: Hallo Bahia. Hallo Salvador. I am Kurt Zarniko. Thank you, Professor Eliene Benicio Amâncio Costa (UFBA) and the organising committee for inviting Richard Talbot and myself to join you all. We met 8 years ago at the Circus Symposium in Manchester Metropolitan University, and you remembered me, I cannot imagine why!

AUDIO 1: MUSIC Max Bruch Violin Concerto 1 Finale

stirring music plays

Thank you, Dr Patrick George Warburton Campbell (Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom) and the Scientific Committee. Thank you, Yuri, [Full name?] for translation today. I have never been to South America; this is my dream. I am so excited about this International Seminar, The Circus of Yesterday and Today. I have so much to learn from you all. Honestly, I don’t know what to say -   

AUDIO 2: CUT MUSIC AS KURT TAKES MOBILE PHONE CALL

AUDIO 3: RICHARD ON SPEAKER PHONE

RICHARD: Er.. (Sigh) Hi Kurt, it’s Richard (pause). I’m sorry that I -Can’t. Attend. The conference. I’m going to have to cancel.

AUDIO 4: KURT CUTS HIM OFF

KURT: Oh great – that’s typical. Again! You always let me down. You are worse than Northern Rail. The trains are delayed/cancelled/on strike; I have been up all-night vomiting; my pet hedgehog had a stroke, and I had to take it to the hospital emergency department.  Oh, my goodness I am so sorry that must be terrible for you. No that is the last straw. I will not tolerate it any more. What is your pathetic excuse this time?

AUDIO 5: RETURN TO RICHARD ON SPEAKER PHONE:

RICHARD:  …because…very sadly my Mum died on the 2^nd May and I have –

AUDIO 6: KURT CUTS HIM OFF

KURT: Oh-oh (trying to make light of it) ha-ha well yes of course I completely – Oh my God what can I do? No. Richard must be here!

KURT DRESSES AS RICHARD

KURT: (as Richard) This presentation seeks to define “ludic hodge-podge” as a methodology inspired by the figure of the clown and indeed by circus assemblages. The proposed methodology offers some applications for dialogic-creative-interdisciplinary research operating in liminal spaces between performance, social and cultural practices.

Aaargh.

KURTasRICHARD TAKES MOBILE PHONE CALL

AUDIO 7: KURT ON SPEAKER PHONE

KURT: Richard – This is Kurt. You cannot leave me alone in the lurch like this. I’ve got a lot of people staring at me. I’m in a massive theatre. I’m on my own. Give me some ideas. What is your big Manifesto. They are expecting it. We have got an hour and a half here.

SLIDE 2: VIDEO Richard On Zoom

RICHARD: Kurt – don’t panic. You can do this. Just ask AI –  ChatGPT,  Co-Pilot. Get it to come up with a structure for you.

KURT: (Swapping hats) Hey Claude. What should Richard Talbot present as a Keynote, Opening Presentation for an International Seminar on Circus?

SLIDE 3:

KURT: He is a fictional Professor in a field of one – his Mum.

SLIDE 4:

SLIDE 5:

KURT READS OUT LOUD. STOPS AT ‘FORTUNE 500’

SLIDE 6:

KURT: Claude, what should Kurt Zarniko talk about in his presentation for the seminar 'The Circus of Today and Tomorrow' in University of Bahia, Salvador?

SLIDE 7: VIDEO Richard On Zoom

RICHARD: Kurt, you know what it’s like when things get really complicated with your work and gets a little bit chaotic; so can I suggest for this - because you are operating far away from your normal base ... (I know that technology’s fantastic but you don’t know you have no control over this)... so I suggest: just establish a rule. "No technology. No structure." No technology. And then just follow your…instinct. Ok? Good luck.

SLIDE 8: (SLIDE 1 again)

Ludic Hodge-Podge: A Manifesto for Impromptu Clowning in a Coastal Town.

Key-not (sic.) speech Dr Richard Talbot, University of Salford. And Kurt Zarniko.

KURT: OK break it down. Ludic Hodge Podge. Impromptu Clowning. Coastal Towns.

SLIDE 9: VIDEO

KURT: This is a hotch-potch I think that emerges quite clearly the thing has been thrown together. a veritable rag bag of last year’s damp fireworks. Yes. Yes. A hotch potch de luxe. Yes. A theatrical haggis. Isn’t this what our ancestors would have delighted in calling a gallimaufry. They have made our English tongue a gallimaufry, a hodgepodge of all other speeches. This is in Spenser, the poet Spenser er to – in the letter to Gabriel Harvey at the beginning of the shepherd’s calendar. Hotch Potch this word not hodgepodge.

KURT: Sorry YURI - it's complicated....

Yuri Benicio Amâncio Costa

(translator)

YURI: (Smiles and says nothing)

KURT WRITES MANIFESTO ON FLIP CHART

KURT: Hodge Podge. Ludic Hodge Podge. Playful Hodge Podge. And Manifesto for…

What is Richard’s Manifesto?

Kurt Zarniko's Flip Chart

SLIDE 10:

KURT DISTRIBUTES A HANDOUT TO THE AUDIENCE

---

THE HANDOUT: 

1. Embrace Failure as a Creative Engine

Talbot consistently frames failure not as a mistake but as a core aesthetic and pedagogical tool. For a forward-looking circus, he might encourage performers to:

•           Lean into mishaps as opportunities for connection and innovation.

•           Use failure to disrupt perfectionism and invite audience empathy.

•           Explore how technological glitches or awkwardness can become part of the act.

2. Expand Clowning into Digital and Hybrid Spaces

Given his recent work with virtual puppetry and digital clowning (e.g., Human-Idiot-Puppet), Talbot would likely advocate for:

•           Integrating digital tools (e.g., VR, AR, live-streaming) into clown performances.

•           Exploring remote clowning collaborations across borders.

•           Using clowning to critique or play with digital culture, especially in youth-

oriented circus environments.

3. Prioritize Participatory and Therapeutic Clowning

Talbot’s projects often involve older adults, people with dementia, and community groups. For the circus of tomorrow, he might suggest:

•           Designing inclusive clowning workshops that engage diverse audiences.

•           Developing therapeutic clowning programs in hospitals, care homes, or public

spaces.

•           Encouraging audience co-creation, where spectators become part of the clown’s

world.

---

KURT READS OUT THE THREE TITLES ON THE HANDOUT AND ADDS ‘BOOM’ AT THE END OF EACH HEADING

AUDIENCE: BOOM! (x3)

KURT: (How) does this manifesto relate to your work?

YURI: (Como) este manifesto se relaciona com o seu trabalho?

WHILE AUDIENCE DISCUSSES, KURT CHANGES INTO RICHARD.

LX 1: GENERAL WASH OFF/SPOTLIGHT ON RICHARD

RICHARD: (Sincerely) I want to offer an idea, an ethos for interaction that underpins this whole presentation. You know that clown training is the most fundamental actor training? e.g. presence; sensitivity. And then what these important skills are applied to clown-therapeutic programs. But we can learn from professional care practices too. This was confirmed for me by a discussion with experience palliative care nurses about the interstices between Performance and Palliative Care, following my experience of witnessing my mother’s death. I am going to talk about her death but there's nothing graphic, you can relax.

Some principles of the performance of palliative care that apply to interaction with any public:

1.     Investment (in the ritual of care)

2.     Doing it "As If For The First Time" and specifically for this particular (family)

audience.

3.     The procedure, your routine, should be secure enough to tolerate adjustment and variables. Dramaturgically, I mean in terms of content it might contain elaborate speculating (some would could it fibbing, but these are just white lies) and this is a kind of tuning in to the other. Dramaturgically it’s like jazz. Each step has a shape: a) induction, being with – establishing the context/theme/story, you make the experience with minimal guidance, b) you intervene with technical monitoring, then you set up the next stage of dramaturgy – c) they go off d) they come back, and find things changed. e) When things come to a climax, you are in thrall with them f) you agree/confirm the tone – “Oh Diana!”; you give them time to digest.

4.     Reflection is part of the creative process – "I should-have", "I could-have" - this is merely the flip side of this approach that uses improvisation and follows impulses. So don't let concerns and afterthoughts fill your mind..

AUDIO 8: MUSIC Cairokee, Helmy Ana 

Helmy Ana (My Dream) Cairokee (2017) Vocals, Amir Eid

KURT IS CHANGING

KURT: Maybe play some music that she liked. Share a funny catch phrase that she had. Share a few of her favourite jokes and funny sayings, as that really makes it so much nicer. Thinking of you at this time, and sending much love

Chat GPT I love you too!

LX: GENERAL WASH ON/SPOTLIGHT OFF

My mother was born in Kaliningrad. Her phrase ... “Hands, Face, and Teeth”.

This means before you go to bed, wash your hands -  No. Wash your face, then your hands. Maybe it was wash your face, and your hands together. How can you move the tap? And then scrub your teeth? How does that work.

(Pause)

RICHARD: Big ideas with not any Agenda!

SLIDE 11: Agenda Outline (The print is tiny)

KURT:  (Adding up the time) 2 and a half hours ?! Go straight to Interactive Activity - quick!

KURT DIRECTS AN EXERCISE OF GRANDMOTHER’S FOOTSTEPS WITH GENTLE TEASING OF THE PARTICIPANTS THROUGHOUT. HE REINFORCES THE PHYSICAL PRINCIPLES DURING THE GAME

RICHARD: You are teaching me something. It is the zen of total ego loss. Founder of Footsbarn Theatre and students of Phillipe Gaulier, Jean-Paul Cook defines his experience of 'failure', Le Bide: "

To find [my]self […]here in front of the audience, so vulnerable, so transparent, so devoid of resources that suddenly anything and everything become possible. There is no way left to go but up. (Glossary, 2010)

KURT: MY CONCLUSION? MY repetoire of skits and games IS ONLY A HODGE PODGE or tools for LOOSE PLAY. This is Simon Nicholson, 1972. Your plan can be discarded easily: ‘at the drop of a hat’. BE SENSITIVE. ASK PERMISSION, cheekily

Embrace Failure as a Creative Engine.  Disrupt Perfectionism.

RICHARD: You never will behave. You cannot behave.

LX: GENERAL WASH OFF/SPOTLIGHT ON

KURT GETS INTO CARDBOARD ZOOM WINDOW

AUDIO 10: RICHARD remembers DIANA

Diana Bentley (1945-2025)

RICHARD: So - I - I thought this would be pertinent because - I think our … thoughts are getting very close together now. I wanted you to know that these were the last words. These were her last - These were her last thoughts that she conveyed to me. So “she told me. I’d probably go to sleep - and that’s ok”. We are waiting; we are watching her sleeping deeply now. We sense her fading ‘Ki’ - and I think “Ki” is a really Key Word. Ki: spirit; energy – it’s a Japanese word. Her fading “Ki”. I can draw the Kanji if you want. I’ll put it on the white board.

KURT DRAWS 気 ON THE CARDBOARD FRAME and adds the word ‘Vapour’

Because if you look at it it’s got all the elements in it that express more than the word “energy”. So she is er.. gone. Before the pneumatic. Rhythm. Ceases. The past is not separate from the present: it is within it.

LX: SPOTLIGHT OFF/GENERAL WASH OFF

KURT (IN THE ZOOM FRAME): The power of the sun, sunspots and flares, torrential floods, volcanic eruption, febrile plants unfolding and photosynthesising. The planet has a superabundance of energy. Intentionally or not, “man‘s activity in fact pursues the useless and infinite fulfilment of the universe” (Bataille, 1991, pg 21).

KURT IS GETTING CARRIED AWAY

It's harmless. I got it from the internet. Eliene, is that enough? You said I could be weird.

ELIENE: Thank you.

References

Bataille, G. (1949, 1991). The Accursed Share: An Essay on General Economy. Volume 1. trans Robert Hurley. London: Zone Books

Cook, Jean-Paul. (2010). Blog & Glossary. 'Le Bide' In Arguments for the Actor. <https://www.jpcook.dk/def_le_bide.html>

[Accessed 26/5/25]

Works Cited

Cairokee (2020) CairokeeOfficial. Youtube. 'Cairokee - Helmy Ana Studio Session' (21 April) <https://youtu.be/XzWw7doySfM?si=rDvm2fvBOh-YVOAH> [Accessed 20/5/25]

Chua, C. 2023. Chloe Chua - Classical Violinist. Youtube. 'Finale from Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1' (Nov 12)<https://youtu.be/X7IGzM1b9EY?si=SuyLTW7-kZ-hT3mu>[Accessed 20/5/25]

Credits

Photo of Diana Bentley, courtesy of Gordon Bentley.

Video footage of Kurt Zarniko from Keynote speech, courtesy of Eliene Benicio Amâncio Costa

Note on the use of AI

The sections of the Keynote produced by ChatPilot were generated as part of the creative concept of the performance.