Pub Date : 2022-11-22DOI: 10.1080/2040610X.2023.2149944
Houda Belkhiri
Abstract The Clown, as a comic archetype, has been demonically possessed by killer clown culture. The latter had produced, all whilst subverting the erotic Greek clowning of satyr plays, several trends, ranging from Commedia dell’Arte in medieval Italy, to British pantomime tradition of leery clown characters like Joseph Grimaldi, and Deburau’s French theatrical performances which led to the development of the lofty and violent pantomime shows of the Hanlon-Lees. These shows inspired European and American literary trends to adopt killer clown personas; most notable of which, perhaps, is the controversial killer clown character ‘The Joker’. This American pop culture ‘anti-hero’ was depicted, controversially, in the movie The Dark Knight, the movie Batman the Killing Joke (2016) and the movie Joker (2019). In modern literary trends, the culture of killer clowns in literature exists for various reasons. Though the lens of philosophical and mythical studies, this article considers the Joker’s killer clown as a descendant of the continuous development of the interpretation of the art of clowning in relation to the Dionysian cult. It views modern clowns as characters that mirror the Greek god Dionysus.
{"title":"The Dionysian clown in movies: the Homicidal Joker in the Dark Knight (2008), Batman the Killing Joke (2016) and Joker (2019)","authors":"Houda Belkhiri","doi":"10.1080/2040610X.2023.2149944","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2023.2149944","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Clown, as a comic archetype, has been demonically possessed by killer clown culture. The latter had produced, all whilst subverting the erotic Greek clowning of satyr plays, several trends, ranging from Commedia dell’Arte in medieval Italy, to British pantomime tradition of leery clown characters like Joseph Grimaldi, and Deburau’s French theatrical performances which led to the development of the lofty and violent pantomime shows of the Hanlon-Lees. These shows inspired European and American literary trends to adopt killer clown personas; most notable of which, perhaps, is the controversial killer clown character ‘The Joker’. This American pop culture ‘anti-hero’ was depicted, controversially, in the movie The Dark Knight, the movie Batman the Killing Joke (2016) and the movie Joker (2019). In modern literary trends, the culture of killer clowns in literature exists for various reasons. Though the lens of philosophical and mythical studies, this article considers the Joker’s killer clown as a descendant of the continuous development of the interpretation of the art of clowning in relation to the Dionysian cult. It views modern clowns as characters that mirror the Greek god Dionysus.","PeriodicalId":38662,"journal":{"name":"Comedy Studies","volume":"14 1","pages":"36 - 53"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41878066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-18DOI: 10.1080/2040610x.2022.2091827
K. McCabe
Abstract Diversity, equality, and inclusion are three values that would, on the outset, seem intrinsic to good improv practice. However, as many improv schools and communities have noted, especially over the past few years, though the ideals may seem like a natural fit, the practice takes consideration and thoughtful work.
{"title":"DEI and improv: a conversation","authors":"K. McCabe","doi":"10.1080/2040610x.2022.2091827","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610x.2022.2091827","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Diversity, equality, and inclusion are three values that would, on the outset, seem intrinsic to good improv practice. However, as many improv schools and communities have noted, especially over the past few years, though the ideals may seem like a natural fit, the practice takes consideration and thoughtful work.","PeriodicalId":38662,"journal":{"name":"Comedy Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":"226 - 237"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43850815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-06DOI: 10.1080/2040610x.2022.2091902
N. Keates
Improvised Theatre and the Autism Spectrum is a practical guide to using improvised theatre to improve autistic 1 children’s social and communication skills. Both practitioners have a long history as practitioners of improvised theatre. Richard Ploesch is the expert on autistic people with his association with the Connections programme for National Comedy Theatre (named, ‘Unscripted Learning’), of which Gary Kramer is the artistic Ploesch has a master’s in special education and has qualified in applied behaviour analysis Going to the title of the book and considering how AI practitioners might want to present themselves in the academic and organisational realms, I wonder if ‘mindset’ is the best choice of metaphor for improvisers, who – you’d imagine – are not so concerned about what happens in the head (or the mind) as with what can be readily observed and transformed in the tangible and interactional world. Perhaps ‘Stance’ would serve better, while still to say
{"title":"Improvised theatre and the autism spectrum: a practical guide to teaching social connection and communication skills","authors":"N. Keates","doi":"10.1080/2040610x.2022.2091902","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610x.2022.2091902","url":null,"abstract":"Improvised Theatre and the Autism Spectrum is a practical guide to using improvised theatre to improve autistic 1 children’s social and communication skills. Both practitioners have a long history as practitioners of improvised theatre. Richard Ploesch is the expert on autistic people with his association with the Connections programme for National Comedy Theatre (named, ‘Unscripted Learning’), of which Gary Kramer is the artistic Ploesch has a master’s in special education and has qualified in applied behaviour analysis Going to the title of the book and considering how AI practitioners might want to present themselves in the academic and organisational realms, I wonder if ‘mindset’ is the best choice of metaphor for improvisers, who – you’d imagine – are not so concerned about what happens in the head (or the mind) as with what can be readily observed and transformed in the tangible and interactional world. Perhaps ‘Stance’ would serve better, while still to say","PeriodicalId":38662,"journal":{"name":"Comedy Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":"248 - 251"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44840913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-04DOI: 10.1080/2040610X.2022.2091734
Sam Beale
Abstract This article considers the contributions made to UK comic performance history by women serio-comic performers on the late-nineteenth century British music hall. These women were associated with gritty and witty portrayals of the lives of lower-class Victorians and frequently engaged in ironic representations of ‘acceptable’ versions of female behaviour in performances combining the serious and the comic. Reflecting on the style and content of their characterisations and their direct interactions with audiences, the article examines the varied nature of these largely forgotten acts, and considers the echoes of such serio-comic approaches in contemporary comedy.
{"title":"Funny and disturbing: women’s serio-comic performances on the Victorian music hall","authors":"Sam Beale","doi":"10.1080/2040610X.2022.2091734","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2022.2091734","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article considers the contributions made to UK comic performance history by women serio-comic performers on the late-nineteenth century British music hall. These women were associated with gritty and witty portrayals of the lives of lower-class Victorians and frequently engaged in ironic representations of ‘acceptable’ versions of female behaviour in performances combining the serious and the comic. Reflecting on the style and content of their characterisations and their direct interactions with audiences, the article examines the varied nature of these largely forgotten acts, and considers the echoes of such serio-comic approaches in contemporary comedy.","PeriodicalId":38662,"journal":{"name":"Comedy Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":"186 - 198"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41618125","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/2040610x.2022.2091817
Colin Mochrie, Brainne Edge
{"title":"An interview on longevity in improv with Colin Mochrie","authors":"Colin Mochrie, Brainne Edge","doi":"10.1080/2040610x.2022.2091817","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610x.2022.2091817","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38662,"journal":{"name":"Comedy Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":"212 - 217"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42794998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/2040610X.2022.2091735
Eleanor Russell
Abstract In this article, I discuss the iconic African-American mid-twentieth century stand-up comic Jackie ‘Moms’ Mabley. Specifically, I theorize the ways in which Moms’ voice, vocal technique, and formalist relationship to language performs a queer and Black maternity in excess of the trappings of the ‘mammy’ figure of the US minstrel tradition. I call this performance the ‘mom voice.’ With this term, I consider how Moms’ voice works to deconstruct language as a system of signification in a way that provides a glimpse into the interiority of Black maternity as a cultural and subjective formation. I think about her voice and the grain of it, her raspy breath and speed, the quickly-moving timbric rhetoric. In these ways, Moms’ maternity exceeds the normative scripts for Black maternity in dominant US mid-century popular performance culture. In short, Moms’ voice necessarily engages the Mammy caricatures, critiques, and exceeds it. I argue that Moms’ work on record exemplifies how the commingling of sound and as a performative, commingling, is at once an essential element of stand-up comedy as a form and a crucial method for her alternative performance of Black motherhood.
{"title":"Mom Voice/Moms’ Voice: Jackie ‘Moms’ Mabley, the comic voice, and refiguring black maternity","authors":"Eleanor Russell","doi":"10.1080/2040610X.2022.2091735","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2022.2091735","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this article, I discuss the iconic African-American mid-twentieth century stand-up comic Jackie ‘Moms’ Mabley. Specifically, I theorize the ways in which Moms’ voice, vocal technique, and formalist relationship to language performs a queer and Black maternity in excess of the trappings of the ‘mammy’ figure of the US minstrel tradition. I call this performance the ‘mom voice.’ With this term, I consider how Moms’ voice works to deconstruct language as a system of signification in a way that provides a glimpse into the interiority of Black maternity as a cultural and subjective formation. I think about her voice and the grain of it, her raspy breath and speed, the quickly-moving timbric rhetoric. In these ways, Moms’ maternity exceeds the normative scripts for Black maternity in dominant US mid-century popular performance culture. In short, Moms’ voice necessarily engages the Mammy caricatures, critiques, and exceeds it. I argue that Moms’ work on record exemplifies how the commingling of sound and as a performative, commingling, is at once an essential element of stand-up comedy as a form and a crucial method for her alternative performance of Black motherhood.","PeriodicalId":38662,"journal":{"name":"Comedy Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":"199 - 211"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49540920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-27DOI: 10.1080/2040610x.2022.2091900
Paul Z. Jackson
In many improv training centers, what’s called a ‘rule’ here is not necessarily taught that way. I like to think of them as ‘training wheels’, those extra wheels on bikes for new riders. When they are no longer needed, they are taken off the bike and the rider (or improvisor) takes off on their adventures. Stiles devotes a chapter to the rule ‘Don’t Ask Questions’, and she’s absolutely right the rule does not make sense for intermediate and advanced improvisors. Beginners can use that rule, though; we should call it a tool. Questions from beginners to other beginners are the result of fear and an unwillingness to make a decision or offer of their own. Without the guidance of ‘make a decision instead of asking a question’, everyone gets frustrated. Experienced improvisors can handle questions from others, and their questions can be the keys that open doors in improv. It’s also apparent from Stiles’ experience that many groups and training centers are teaching what was once advice or a tool to get someone past a roadblock as absolute rules that should never be broken even if, as in the example of the ‘dark side of Yes And’, they put improvisors at risk. When tools and advice get hardened into unbreakable rules, and are used in situations for which they weren’t developed, we are getting in our own way and our students’ way. Stiles makes a strong case for using different terminology, and to use tools appropriate to the task at hand. Improvise Freely is especially useful for teachers, trainers and coaches. Stiles enthusiastically communicates the joy of improv; her personality and expertise are readily apparent on the page.
{"title":"Review – The applied improvisation mindset: tools for transforming organizations and communities","authors":"Paul Z. Jackson","doi":"10.1080/2040610x.2022.2091900","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610x.2022.2091900","url":null,"abstract":"In many improv training centers, what’s called a ‘rule’ here is not necessarily taught that way. I like to think of them as ‘training wheels’, those extra wheels on bikes for new riders. When they are no longer needed, they are taken off the bike and the rider (or improvisor) takes off on their adventures. Stiles devotes a chapter to the rule ‘Don’t Ask Questions’, and she’s absolutely right the rule does not make sense for intermediate and advanced improvisors. Beginners can use that rule, though; we should call it a tool. Questions from beginners to other beginners are the result of fear and an unwillingness to make a decision or offer of their own. Without the guidance of ‘make a decision instead of asking a question’, everyone gets frustrated. Experienced improvisors can handle questions from others, and their questions can be the keys that open doors in improv. It’s also apparent from Stiles’ experience that many groups and training centers are teaching what was once advice or a tool to get someone past a roadblock as absolute rules that should never be broken even if, as in the example of the ‘dark side of Yes And’, they put improvisors at risk. When tools and advice get hardened into unbreakable rules, and are used in situations for which they weren’t developed, we are getting in our own way and our students’ way. Stiles makes a strong case for using different terminology, and to use tools appropriate to the task at hand. Improvise Freely is especially useful for teachers, trainers and coaches. Stiles enthusiastically communicates the joy of improv; her personality and expertise are readily apparent on the page.","PeriodicalId":38662,"journal":{"name":"Comedy Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":"246 - 248"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47589511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-27DOI: 10.1080/2040610X.2022.2091719
N. Keates, J. Beadle‐Brown
Abstract Improv comedy is a small subset of improvisation, which has been under-researched. This study aims to investigate if the benefits agents experience match previous research. Literature discusses positivity, community, social and communication skills, and relaxation. The survey gained 128 global respondents answering a series of questions related to their improv experiences (as per stated literature topics), including in-depth demographic information. Improv has added value to most people’s lives, provided improvements to their socialization, and improved their communication. The respondents felt that they enjoyed the company of others, and they wanted the same. Most people trust their scene partner more often than not and felt that they were relaxed in their own group and as a guest. Variations within the global population are examined. The survey functions both reliably and validly, finding that past research fits the global population of those engaged in improv. Most respondents agree to the domains presented and trust their scene partner. Performing improv breeds trust and trust can lead to increased benefits in the domains. Nonetheless, there are no differences in represented groups of respondents on their experience of the benefits of improv.
{"title":"The benefits of participating in improvisational comedy: a global confirmatory survey study","authors":"N. Keates, J. Beadle‐Brown","doi":"10.1080/2040610X.2022.2091719","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2022.2091719","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Improv comedy is a small subset of improvisation, which has been under-researched. This study aims to investigate if the benefits agents experience match previous research. Literature discusses positivity, community, social and communication skills, and relaxation. The survey gained 128 global respondents answering a series of questions related to their improv experiences (as per stated literature topics), including in-depth demographic information. Improv has added value to most people’s lives, provided improvements to their socialization, and improved their communication. The respondents felt that they enjoyed the company of others, and they wanted the same. Most people trust their scene partner more often than not and felt that they were relaxed in their own group and as a guest. Variations within the global population are examined. The survey functions both reliably and validly, finding that past research fits the global population of those engaged in improv. Most respondents agree to the domains presented and trust their scene partner. Performing improv breeds trust and trust can lead to increased benefits in the domains. Nonetheless, there are no differences in represented groups of respondents on their experience of the benefits of improv.","PeriodicalId":38662,"journal":{"name":"Comedy Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":"161 - 174"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46720333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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