Written by: Henry Maynard
Published: Friday 28th August 2015

Apparently I love 'Avant Garde' theatre; Puppetry, Clown, Commedia Dell'Arte, mask and even (horror of horrors) Mime... though I do draw the line at Marcel Marceau. As you can imagine, as a theatre producer, I am a fabulously wealthy man.

I really became interested in clowning at the 2005 Fringe, when I saw All Wear Bowlers by Pig Iron. Since then I have been heavily influenced by the principals that they used - it remains, to this day, my favourite piece of theatre. I have since learnt (whilst being tutored by him) that it was this exact production that encouraged Phil Burgers (aka Dr Brown) to study with Gaulier.

I was already embroiled in a three-year classical acting course and my journey has taken a more meandering path, but here I am eventually doing my first ever, solo clown show in Edinburgh.

Even before this year, clowning principals have featured in our productions, I feel that Boris & Sergey 'The Balkan Bad-boys of Puppetry' (my company Flabbergast's first creations) are a clown double act and probably very influenced by the duo in All Wear Bowlers and certainly by Laurel & Hardy's escapades.

Visibility is certainly at play; there have always been a trail of students leaving LeCoq, Lispa and Gaulier etc, putting on shows featuring clowning and physical comedy, but until recently 'clown' has been a somewhat dirty word prompting unbidden images of Ronald McDonald and terrifyingly strange European circus clowns. Even Dr Brown's promotional material has up until now shied away from 'clown'.

With his massive success in 2012, the doors flew open and suddenly people started paying attention to clown shows, I hope people have started thinking more along the lines of Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd now.

Puppetry was the talk of the town not so long ago, and I like to flatter myself that Boris & Sergey is riding that wave alongside Blind Summit, whom I trained with, and Handspring's War Horse in which I puppeteered the head of Topthorn.

I believe 'Avant Garde' theatre styles are destined always to be condemned to cyclical trending; things get popular, lots of people do them (some better than others) and they fall out of favour. However, this doesn't really matter. These experimental mediums will always be there because when they are done well, they are A M A Z I N G (literally, amazing!) and those who celebrate them, do so because they love them, regardless of how financially viable or popular they may be. Which is in the end is why they are Avant Garde in the first place.

'Tatterdemalion' is at 5:45pm at Assembly Roxy until the 31st August. Listing