I couldn’t agree LESS with your musings of Jerome Bel and furthermore, of clowning!

I just don’t see the point of defining him that way. He acts funny, yes, he has a good sense of timing. He seems to appreciate life, freedom, irony. He has somehow innovated dry endurance into a comedic art form, and I love it.

But I won’t be pulled any further into the clown talk, though I am interested in the art form and I certainly believe there’s much more to clowning than being funny.

There was so much more there for me than the humor. In fact, when he was doing his slow-to-get-it act with Pichet Klunchun, I was not amused at all. (Later, when he said he felt the show might be too long, I came very close to suggesting he drop the stubbornly dumb act but then thought better of it). The ideas presented about live theater, trying to achieve maybe equality between the audience and the performer, going beyond defeating the audience with virtuosity (High legs! Jumps!); the risk funders and ticket buyer take– this held me.

Watching a master (Pichet) do something with unapologetic reverance is so satisfying to me. His mission to renew this reverance for classical Thai dance in his homeland, to marry contemporary dance with the classical style is a noble quest I very much identify with (as a ballet/contemporary dancer). I think once he completes touring this show with Jerome Bel, Pichet will be received more openly in his homeland. It reminds me of how Butoh has evolved in Japan: the battles, the feuds, dispelling tradition, incorporating it.

I wondered about the appearance of spontaneity. Bel told me they never wrote down any text; didn’t video rehearsals to pick out the best parts; there was no director (well, Bel). But the show is essentially working the same material. So Jerome Bel is really an actor. (As a child, he wanted to be an actor but couldn’t remember his lines so he went across the hall where there was dance. Dance! And that was that. But there is alot of acting in dance, even if you are trying to act normal or like yourself or not act at all.)
How is it possible for Pichet to feign self righteousnous each performance about Bel’s domestic situation (he lives unmarried to the mother of his child) while staing his own desire to have a baby though not wanting to marry? I think he is actually pretty okay with the idea of having a child out of wedlock or as a homosexual, but he now has to keep up the act so Jerome can say “I think you should come to the West. You’ll find many women who will give you a baby!”
Pichet is the straight man to Jerome’s clown.

Shit! You got me Galen! But listen, everbody wants love, baby, not just clowns, and I don’t think Jerome Bel cares if anyone loves him or his work so long as he gets to continue. Or maybe he just acts that way.