Tag: Rowan Atkinson
If you’ve ever played around with slapstick or stage combat, and I’m betting you have, you know that the victim’s reaction is key to selling the effect. As my old friend Joe Martinez put it, what we’re doing is Combat Mime, the illusion of fighting, not the painful reality. It’s not surprising, then, that many a comedian has had the clever idea of eliminating the attacker altogether, of playing victim to an imaginary foe.
Comedians and clowns have been parodying Shakespeare for centuries now, and “reduced Shakespeare” companies have become somewhat of a comedy franchise since the 80s. Here’s a nice physical Rowan Atkinson piece, a fake lecture on Shakespearean acting from 1991. Despite the title, his tights are not pink and there aren’t all that many props — but a great title nonetheless. Atkinson is best known for his Mr. Bean character, but his range is much broader. The following piece, which co-stars Angus Deayton, is just one example.
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My first book (1976)
My book Clowns has long been out of print, but you can borrow it for two weeks at a time from the Internet Archive. More information is available here.
My second book (2015)
Visual and verbal humor for the cognitively and artistically curious! Available here.
“A book to treasure!”
—Bill Irwin