In which Our Hero makes a friend!
Once in a blue moon, you meet a person who feels like someone you’ve known your whole life. In my case, today’s was a trans, autistic, lesbian philosopher with eerily similar experiences to my own. Dinner started at 7 p.m. and ended at 11:30, including a long, leisurely walk around the park.
My goals at clown school are threefold:
- Learn the practicalities of clowning
- Learn the theory of clowning
- Make friends I’d like to spend time with after clown school
It’s nice to move forward on #3.
Notes from clown school today:
- Blindfolded ball pickup: Walk toward a ball with eyes closed, then pick it up. The key is counting the right number of paces, then walking normally even when, near the end, excitement floods in.
- Chair swap game: Don’t let others rattle you. Don’t move until you have agreement.
- One structure of game: One vs. Group. A bunch of people beating up on one idiot (à la Monkey in the Middle). Perhaps funniest when all are idiots.
- Some people are more confident than they are right. One classmate especially.
- Idiots trying very hard at something they’re terrible at → very funny.
- Smart people tease each other; idiots conspire.
- Regardless of external intensity or internal emotional intense, I must still speak in a BIG, BOOMING VOICE.
- Idiots playing smart games → lots of apologizing.
- A conspiring group mirrors fighting over limited resources; one-on-one intellectual duels mirror fighting for extraneous desires or abstract pleasures like honor.
- Teaching hunch: if someone ends on a mistake, they dwell on it, therefore learning faster.
- When the major/minor switches → fixed point.
- A “miser for pleasure” hoards joy inside instead of sharing it.
- Loud creates an impulse. The important part is the impulse.
Julian Wise 