Check out this article on Clowning written by one of my amazing students!
On Comedy
“Tell it in action”
– Buster Keaton
“Tell it in action”
– Buster Keaton
Comedy is serious business. How serious? Well, it's a matter of life or death. If you fail, you've "bombed" and "died out there," but if you succeed, you've "killed!"
To master the art of Comedy (physical comedy and Clowning) is to master the art of the Lazzi. Simply put, Lazzi is a physical or verbal bit derived from Commedia dell’arte. More complex, though, are its requirements. Lazzi insists on precision, timing, improvisation, physicality, non-verbal communication, awareness, and imagination, to name a few. At a minimum, a Lazzi has two parts; a set-up and a punchline, a premise and a point of view, or an expectation and then a surprise. At maximum, a Lazzi can go on for hours. It can be seen and utilized anywhere from Classical Comedy; Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Moliere, to Clowning; Cirque du Soleil, Ringling Brothers, Hermanos Vasquez, to Stand Up, to Contemporary Comedy on Stage and Screen.
I teach Comedy by first exploring Commedia Lazzo (laughing lazzi, fly lazzi, hungry lazzi, tight-rope lazzi), then applying those principles mentioned above (timing, improvisation, precision, etc.) to scenes from classical comedy, to Clowning routines, to Stand-up, to contemporary scripts.
To master the art of Comedy (physical comedy and Clowning) is to master the art of the Lazzi. Simply put, Lazzi is a physical or verbal bit derived from Commedia dell’arte. More complex, though, are its requirements. Lazzi insists on precision, timing, improvisation, physicality, non-verbal communication, awareness, and imagination, to name a few. At a minimum, a Lazzi has two parts; a set-up and a punchline, a premise and a point of view, or an expectation and then a surprise. At maximum, a Lazzi can go on for hours. It can be seen and utilized anywhere from Classical Comedy; Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Moliere, to Clowning; Cirque du Soleil, Ringling Brothers, Hermanos Vasquez, to Stand Up, to Contemporary Comedy on Stage and Screen.
I teach Comedy by first exploring Commedia Lazzo (laughing lazzi, fly lazzi, hungry lazzi, tight-rope lazzi), then applying those principles mentioned above (timing, improvisation, precision, etc.) to scenes from classical comedy, to Clowning routines, to Stand-up, to contemporary scripts.
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