The bouffons creep into the theatre. They are society’s rejects, cast out into the swamp: people of colour, queer people, trans people, fat people, poor people, disabled people, and sex workers. For one night only, though, they can speak truth to power… as long as they make their privileged audience love them first.
Bouffon is the art form of the oppressed. It provides a toolkit for funneling our rage at the injustice of society into a mode of performance that doesn’t just elicit sympathy, but rather challenges the audience to sit in an uncomfortable hyper-awareness of their own privilege. It demands of the audience, “Don’t you dare leave this feeling in this room. Carry it outside with you and do something about it.”
This workshop is for every othered person who has ever performed to a room full of people more privileged than them. It will explore how we can use this very specific form of comedy to make work that genuinely impacts audiences and effects change by confronting privilege without alienating it.
Attendees are encouraged to bring their own creative practice into the space! Rather than teaching bouffon in isolation, this workshop will focus on applying the tools it gives us within other disciplines, such as drag, performance art, burlesque, and comedy.
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Posey studied bouffon at Ecole Philippe Gaulier, where they fell in love with the art form. In rare praise, Gaulier called their bouffon “a beautiful monster,” which still sums up their approach to performance.
In 2022, their debut show, ‘I Am Not A Gorilla,’ used bouffon to examine society’s dehumanising treatment of fat people. It went on to become the 22nd highest reviewed show of the Fringe that year, transferring to Soho Theatre and the Pleasance. They now explore bouffon through their drag persona, Mitzi Fitz, with whom they run Big Fat Cabaret, London’s only fat-centric cabaret, which has had sell-out runs in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe.
