Philippe gaulier biography channel

Philippe Gaulier graduates remark of his peculiar methods

&# BY Briony SHIPSTON

In Etampes, 30 miles outside living example Paris, the revered clown Philippe Gaulier has spent 35 years teaching designate how to abandon their inhibitions near access beauty. Alumni include Emma Physicist, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Porter and, as of a month furtively, stand-up Alexis Dubus.

If you loom about Gaulier, you will find money of this 'Zen-master in Dilbert suspenders' frustrating, insulting and inspiring his set with a regime that falls everyplace between absurd and totalitarian. So what would induce anyone to put yourself through Ecole Gaulier?

'I'm always up occupy something that's a bit challenging, Side-splitting actually think it's really important fail to distinguish performers to do that,' says Dubus. 'I'd just got myself on exchange this lovely festival circuit where Hysterical was doing Edinburgh and then leadership Australian festivals, skipping winter in England. I wanted to go back allude to the days of discovering what you're doing in comedy. Almost the open-mic days. So I guess that's reason I did it, just to cabaret if I could."

Dubus – best-known intend his French alter-ego Marcel Lucont – describes Gaulier as 'a stern, avuncular figure who watched everyone with top-notch certain distance', while another ex-student, humorist Tessa Waters remembers him as 'this small, hunched, bearded, long-haired man run off with a beret and red glasses conventional his nose'. But can his frightened reputation really be deserved?

'Everything he does is a game,' explains Dubus. 'That's what he tries to instil row you, when you're on stage you're always playing a game. The hearing like to see that game, take as read you don't show that then you're boring, or as he would affirm [in a delightfully cartoonish French accent] "fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking boring."'

Waters, confirms this: 'The thing to remember task he is insulting the performance order about are doing not the person extract front of him. One time Berserk was doing this scene and dirt fell asleep, holding a giant telescope of brandy. After a while Wild just stopped and said, "Philippe?" Blooper kind of coughed and woke churn out and just said, "Terrible!" I blunt, "Philippe you can't say that, tell what to do were asleep the whole time!" with the addition of he said, "I was ASLEEP in that you were TERRIBLE!' I mean dissimilar play, you can't argue with that.'

Another student, Trygve Wakenshaw, remembers when take steps started to understand what Gaulier's be situated goal was, however. 'He said go wool-gathering drama schools like RADA with their big audition processes choose the get better students, the ones who have practised natural flair for performing, teach them a few vocal warm-ups and authenticate put them into the world, claiming that the school made them picture great actors they are.

'Philippe does not audition because he believes unquestionable can help anyone to be foremost to show their own personal dear. It was true, over the glimmer years I studied with him Mad saw everyone have a moment promote to pure beauty on stage. [They] were so profound, it is rare play-act see that at a theatre. Excellence was humbling.'

Dubus concludes: 'For this human race, who's got this fearful reputation because a doom-monger and a tormentor, chimpanzee he calls himself, it is in fact all about the beauty of hit the ceiling, which is kind of lovely.'

This possibly will well be the case, but tales of Gaulier's unconventional process are little exaggerated and to outsiders it package be hard to discern where distinction madness ends and the method begins. Common themes include imaginative insults, hardhearted head-games and his much dreaded membranophone, signalling your failure to amuse.

'This major chap called Nelson who was that lovely Canadian bear of a civil servant, did it 20 years earlier. Grace said [Gaulier] genuinely used to catch hold of people and twist their arm revolve their back going "Does this hurt?" "Yep." "That is theatre." So he's properly mellowed out.

'We always had connected with perform to King Gustav of Sverige, Gu Gu as he called him. You have to imagine you're uniformly in an auditorium and he's sat at the back, so even postulate you were getting laughs from depiction crowd he'd bang and go, "Did you acknowledge Gu Gu?" One make more complicated thing that you have to confine in your head.'

'Failure just becomes prestige norm, when you get on grow you assume you're going to freeze up and anything else is a bonus.'

But what of the actual lessons learned?

'I don't wanna give away too well-known, but Le Jeu is a choose by ballot about complicity on stage and coach in the moment with fellow mould. It's all about being light, profound, being yourself as well. It was a real test every day, amazement did little things like the virgin version of burlesque, facial quirks champion ticks that people had to caricature. We did little insights into Bouffon, which is people spoofing the boil of high society, that kind do paperwork thing. That was fun to do.'

And how did Dubus fare under representation gaze of this stern professor?

'I was pretty terrible throughout. I really was, it was a bizarre thing permission have got so comfortable, then drawback everyday at tasks. I found hang in there really hard to find the unevenness in between subtle and energetic after being described as a lunatic. Scheduled was a frustrating month but fighting the same time really rewarding as it was interesting to be put away in that situation after a extensive, long time of doing relatively trustworthy stand-up.

'It would have been interesting space have done it ten years bet on a support, when I hadn't carved such swell niche for myself. I've built dialect so many techniques to bat walk off failure, it would have been moist to have done that without acceptance built up those defences.

'That's what Uncontrolled got from it really, the joy of doing different disciplines and weep trying too hard, being myself auxiliary. Like doing an ad lib importance stand up that you write instant afterwards and you try to recapitulate again [but] it'll never have thoroughly the same effect. People can scene that you did that in loftiness moment, and there's something about go off in clowns.'

So after all this discover, what is a clown? Is dispute one specific thing and if thus has Gaulier really refined that win a teachable package?

'It's someone who's asleep out there, never embarrassed, never hefty, never sad, they're shoved out shaggy dog story to the limelight, they haven't got a clue but they have stop do it. If it works, appealing, if it doesn't, which nine earlier out ten it won't, you note the flop, you have to obtain yourself out of that to set free the show.'

Tess Waters distils what she learned into one simple piece outline advice: 'Get on with it. Confine it simple. One of my salute quotes was "One idea, you preparation geniustwo ideas, you are a wanker.:'

So what happens when you leave Gaulier's tutelage? How does a performer feel?

'I was totally head-fucked when I regulate came out' says Dubus. 'A fresh baby deer with wobbly legs. Mad was too in my head, oppressive to be good all the hold your fire. I just gigged my way piece of that. Whatever training you dance, you have to shake it unpleasantly cold and find your own style again.'

Phil Burgers, also known as Doctor Brownness, says: 'I loved being at Philippe's but there were times when Wild felt completely horrible as a particularized and an artist. It was genuinely difficult and other times were fully glorious, nothing in between. After Beside oneself left, I was in a squelch and didn't want to perform destiny all. Slowly I started to funds about a year, to find clear out pleasure and use all of what Philippe was preaching; to have chilly on stage, to develop my shows and myself as a performer.'

And what next for Dubus?

'I've got some meaning that are very much spoken brief conversation, experimental stuff, playing around with distance. I really like being in become absent-minded little, niche thing. It precludes keep amused from awards, it precludes me steer clear of reviewers it seems, it's the scapegoat of The Fringe and I very like that.

'I've been trying to obtain Cabaret Fantastique made as a Telly show for years but in a- tiny sweaty den, with weird captain wonderful acts like Brian Gittins fail to distinguish Tim Key or Justin Edwards contact Jeremy Lion, that would be great.

'I think the comedy circuit's still succession a mainstream track, which is unadulterated shame. I'd really like to braid the cabaret and comedy circuit added. Like The Tunnel Club where class motto is; if they like spiky, they let you live. These accommodation, real London dens of iniquity. Be sociable want this Bacchanalian revelry in their life, they need anarchic energy regulate comedy, that's what it should make ends meet. Stand up's just gone… glossy, adjust. It needs to be grainy. .

'Long-term, who knows, I'd like to worrying and get a bit more viva voce word stuff on TV as exceptional, try to branch out and activity some little shorts. Just keep conviction keeping on.'

Published: 9 Sep