A Note about our approach…

About our classes

Our classes are open to all comers who wish to discover and deepen an authentic experience with the audience. What does it mean to be funny? In our classes, students explore various points of departure: wonder, discovery, generosity, action, resilience, and timing toward the generation of a playful spirit and the will to delight an audience. 

What to expect

You will be asked to delve into specific aspects of imagination, physical comedy, character, and improvisation in order to ready yourself for a kind of fearless devotion to play.  You will expand your awareness to include the audience and yourself in the same breath. You will strive to be responsible, able and willing to respond onstage in a state of true play and discovery. You will risk vulnerability as you devise original characters and new material. You will learn to confront the audience, find your breath, discover your body, and play.

How do you create humor in front of a live audience?

By having an ACTUAL experience onstage. How do you create spontaneity while maintaining truth in the moment? You RISK. Play is action and the action is all for ‘them’ as it occurs to you. It is whimsical and everything is at once discovered and planned. The play is not a previously organized and envisioned set of circumstances unrelated to the audience. The play is pulled from the very desire to show them something, to combine images, emotion and situation together to tell a profound story. Don’t worry about things ‘making sense’ or ‘being correct’. Whatever occurs to the character you are living is in the moment, and therefore undeniably true and acceptable. How do your partners affect you? How does the audience affect you? How do you remain emotionally and physically receptive? How do you explore the generation of a playful spirit and develop the impulse to delight an audience with humor and spontaneity?

Our focus is on character, state of play, and the creation of new work.




Clown LAB - Winter Session

Flying Onion Youth Circus 10 - Week Class

This 10-week class combines gentle conditioning, Circus, Mime technique and Clown training. It  is intended for youth ages 5 -15 years of age. Using games and exercises, challenges and skills, I am offering a versatile and well-rounded circus training for newbies and intermediate students. Classes will focus on physical and emotional development via:

EQUILIBRIUM - PHYSICALITY - MOBILITY - ENDURANCE - SELF REGULATION - RESPONSIBILITY

ALL CLASSES WILL BE HELD AT ZACCHO DANCE THEATRE'S GORGEOUS 2200 SQ FT. SPACE.

https://www.zaccho.org/

Cost $475 - Limited partial scholarships available. 18 hours of study. Class length is 2 hours with one 20 minute break. Parents please arrive early and accompany children into the building. Children should arrive dressed to move. Masks are required to enter the building but can be removed during class.

Questions? Call me. 415-990-6336.

Thanks! I look forward to it! -Dan

REGISTRATION IS OPEN NOW

 

Clown + Mime 10 - Week Class

Instructor - Dan Griffiths

This 10-week class combines gentle conditioning, Mime technique and Clown training. It  is intended for performers and non performers of all varieties who wish to discover greater physical vocabulary and how they are uniquely funny. How does the audience affect YOU? Discover how to trust yourself onstage in a state of true play and originality. Learn to follow your impulses and RISK!  Each participant will exit this class with an understanding of Clown as an action necessary for visual comedy and an awareness of performing with DELIGHT. Through clear instruction and feedback, games, and entrances, you will develop a greater awareness of yourself in relation to your partners, your props, and your audience in a safe and fun environment. Prepare to experience the joy of discovery and the celebration of your ridiculous self!

Now that you are fully connected and responding to us, WHAT NOW? Time to dig in and create some material. This is not a formula for comedy, it is not a prescription. All material is a unique expression of each individual. Each participant will exit this class with an understanding of Clown as an action necessary for visual comedy and a continued awareness of performing with DELIGHT. Through instruction and feedback, you will develop an understanding of how to play a comedic personae and create NEW material. Each class will begin with a physical warm up necessary for the work.

Cost $775 - Limited partial scholarships available. 20 hours of study. Class length is 2 hours with one 15 min break. Please arrive early and dressed to move. Masks are required to enter the building but can be removed during class. CLASS TO BE HELD AT ZACCHO DANCE THEATRE! https://www.zaccho.org/

Questions? Call me. 415-990-6336.

Thanks! I look forward to it! -Dan

 

RAW Improvisation 10 - Week Class

Instructor - Craig Gaspian

The foundation of improvisation is impulse. No matter the art form, no matter an audience’s expectations, a developed connection to our impulses leads to unexpected opportunities for success. This course is focused on comedic theatrical improvisation and explores our relationship to instinct and inspiration in the context of unscripted storytelling. Classes are designed to enhance your confidence in following your gut for any performance situation - familiar or foreign - and to equip you with tools to support your collaborators in their own improvisational endeavors. All experience levels welcome.

Class runs 10-weeks at Church of Clown 2400 Bayshore Dr. San Francisco. 7-9 pm

Cost $575. Limited partial scholarships available.

Questions? Call me. 415-990-6336.

Thanks! I look forward to it! I will be joining you. -Dan

About the Instructor

Craig Gaspian has taught improv independently and with SF’s Endgames Improv, specializing in introductory instruction, improvised musical theatre and a performance format called Harold. He was a student at iO Chicago and UCBNY and has taken classes with teachers from Second City, The Annoyance, The Pack, The Nest, iO West, Bird City and more. He’s a former member of the long-lived improv teams Cat Dance and Flash Mob Musical, and the shorter-lived teams Wachaa!, Lamplighter and Carlos Hey Carlos. He has performed at a dozen and a half comedy festivals, including SF Sketchfest and (due to a stroke of scheduling luck) a sold-out solo show in Manhattan.