Belly laughs and joy were quickly on the menu with PJ, but there is more to him than simply being a funny guy and it all comes down to his passion for people, the inner-child, chasing happiness and earnest performance.
When I first met PJ White, I had to stop him mid-story for an explanation.
“Sorry – could we circle back to “when I was at clown school in France”, real quick?”
The Geelong comedian, performer, theatre practitioner and sandwich-slinger wants us to take a deeper look at comedy as an art form.
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“My background is all theatre and I was a big movies kid, so I was well into performing before I was into comedy,” he says.
“I was also an ADD-riddled kid as well – that kept me up as far as energy but I was probably more disruptive than funny in school to be honest.
“I live in a world where sometimes I just exist and people laugh at that; I understand I have a weird way of getting my thoughts across sometimes, and perhaps the expectation that I’m going to be funny makes people ready to laugh.
“I did always do the funny role in shows through school, but comedy was a big driver when I was 13; around the time my older brother Blaise started comedy.”
PJ’s brother and his wife Kelly have since founded the annual Geelong Comedy Festival and run a local weekly stand-up night – funny is in the family.
“I love bouncing off others, I’m very collaboratively minded so if I could write with three other people I love to do it.”
“Comedy is such an obviously reactive art form – the response you’re getting is so instantaneous, the gratification is instant.
“There’s no second guessing; if they laugh, you’ve won, and that’s satisfying for me.
“I’ve always felt a very instinctual connection with comedy and the way we go about it.
“The constant on-ness of some comedic people, where there’s a point in all conversations you’re trying to instill a bit of comedy.
“I’m always trying to find the funny in something and I translate that into performance.
“The characters I do, I don’t necessarily put them in a place of reality at all.
“Sure, there are some based on human ideas but they’re mostly me in a funny costume, being silly and playful, I don’t feel my comedy has something to say.
“There’s simplicity in it. I just got lucky that I already had a comedic sensibility.”
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For PJ, the question of ‘why’ something was funny, led him to the Ecole (school) of master clown, pedagogue, and professor of theatre, Philippe Gaulier.
“There’s only so much you can learn in two weeks, but you’re taking something away with you every time Gaulier speaks,” PJ says.
“What it gave me, which I thought I already had, was more confidence.
“At the school, you’re fighting for yourself and your right to be on stage and stay on stage, because if it’s not good he gets you off quick-smart.
“You were allowed to poke fun at him too, though.
“Lots of the best comedy in the world is questioning authority, sometimes it looks like George Carlin talking about the government and sometimes it looks like impersonating some French teacher because he’s making fun of you.
“It’s that childlike quality again; you tell a kid not to do something and they go to it anyway – hilarious.
“Why did we ever think they were going to follow the rules? We are the fools.”
“Gaulier is such an earnest guy, you believe everything he’s saying but he’s giving you things to latch on to.
“By saying ‘that’s bad’ he’s giving you an opportunity to acknowledge being in the flop and try to turn it around.
“For me, a lot of clowning games are about understanding what the fuck you’re doing. It’s this Mr Miyagi situation of ‘why are we painting the fence?, ‘why are we waxing the car?’ – but when he gives you the opportunity to utilise what you learnt, you go ‘oh right, that’s why’.
“I’ve always had an interest in the Why of the funny and clown class felt like comedy math to me, it was something tangible as to how you approach getting laughs on stage as a performer of comedy.
“It’s so childlike, a lot of it is just showing joy on stage. If you’re not enjoying yourself on stage, they’re probably going to notice.
“It re-set me as a performer and made me feel like there were so many more options and little tools to make it easier to do.
“I went into it knowing my classmates would be professionals in this industry but I’m happy to be the worst at something if I have the most progression, if I’ve got the most to learn that’s great.”
Back home, the Geelong comedy culture is inherently community-based, being a much smaller pool than the Melbourne scene.
“We’re an art form that a lot of people love but don’t respect.”
“The culture is crazy; the idea that just because you’re not doing something “serious” means you shouldn’t be taken seriously, is mental to me.
“This is what I like doing, this is what I was given, and all I want to do is chase happiness. There’s only so many things that can get me to that feeling. I don’t know what that feeling is.
“I enjoy the process of writing down my ideas, giving them value, considering how they will go and then I get to share those moments with people and if they love it the way I love it, great – the validation is just a byproduct of that.
“Overall, Geelong performing art is very important to me and there’s so much theatre here, lots of people making movies and short films and I’m thankful to have beautiful spaces for visual art. The gap between being a performer at a level I’m at and the jump to having accessible spaces for shows, is very low.
“I’d like to see more of Geelong get around our local, smaller performers.”
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From Geelong to France, Philippe Gaulier tells me the essence of clowning is childhood.
“I always made stupid jokes. That’s just who I am as a person. So, I thought being a clown would be the perfect job for me – I was attracted to clowning from the age of seven,” he said.
“I grew up in a family with four sisters, and my mother was my best audience. She laughed a lot at my stupid jokes. So, I thought: If my mother loves me, then everybody will love me! And I just kept going.”
“The essence of a clown is childhood. There is no better clown than a child. A five-year-old child, for example—they don’t know how to walk properly, they hesitate, just like Charlie Chaplin. The way they talk, their little accents, their pure joy when they discover a new game—this is the true essence of clowning.
“A clown is not about arrogance. If a child says, “My father is a policeman, and he’s going to put you in jail!”—we don’t believe them, but if something comes from deep inside their heart, we find it beautiful and it makes us laugh.
“Everything that comes from the innocent, childlike part of your soul is good for clowning. Even when you cry and laugh at the same time—that’s the beauty of it.”
Clowning draws it’s beauty from the soul of the performer, according to Gaulier.
“For a clown, if you act with the arrogance of a child pretending to be an adult, it can be funny. But if you bring something deep from your soul, something true, then it’s beautiful.
“The clown imitates the adult, pretending to be grown-up, but in reality, they are still a child.
“Surprise is also so important. Something like being scared of being scared. A surprise, or something that makes you scared, can help you. It grounds you. It’s like a present—you know, like “Happy Birthday to you!” It’s a gift.
“Ah, it’s my birthday! It’s a surprise that moves your soul. If you don’t move your soul, you cannot show your clown. So, if you want to be a good clown, you have to prepare a lot of surprises. In a show, you must include many surprises. After that, you have to surprise the audience.
Why is this so important?
Because imagine it’s your birthday, and you forgot about it. Then, 15 people in the hallway start singing “Happy Birthday” to you. At first, you don’t remember—it’s your birthday! And suddenly, you realize, Oh, it really is my birthday! You feel so touched by your friends who came to celebrate you. That feeling of surprise is so important.
So, you mean surprise is a gift for the audience?
“Yes, of course! Surprise is a gift for the audience, but it’s also a gift for the clown.
“A good clown can create something beautiful out of nothing. That’s it.
“What interests and fascinates me is the power to make the audience laugh. The reason I chose this path is simple: making the audience laugh is essential. If you don’t make them laugh, you are not a clown. I always tried to make people laugh, and since I was a child, I was a bit funny—an idiot, but funny. That’s why I succeeded.
“This is the power of the fool. The fool has the power to make people laugh, and that’s what I love about it.”
A question; What if a clown is arrogant?
“If you are arrogant and try to succeed with arrogance alone, you are just a top-level idiot. You should shut up and try to be subtle. A real clown is subtle. But if it’s the elegance of a child, that’s different. A child might act arrogant like their father, pretending to be an adult—that works for a clown.
“A clown does things to make us believe. Authenticity matters.
“If a clown is not commercialized, if he doesn’t fake happiness, if his soul is genuine, we love him. If he is just commercial, we hate him. We don’t like that kind of clown.
“The problem is, if the audience sees you trying too hard—if you force yourself to create something beautiful—they won’t like it. But if you do it naturally, they will love you. The clown must find a funny face or gesture within his soul to be truly lovable.
“To be loved by the audience is the most important thing for a clown.”
I asked Gaulier if he believed clowns played a role within society, but Gaulier is not a sociologist.
“I’m just a guy walking down the street. But we need everything—we need beauty, we need fools, we need all kinds of people to see how wonderful the world is. Without clowns and their stupidity, the world would be less beautiful. Clowns are part of the beauty of the world.
“If you have a talented company, it’s rare and special. Many people have created amazing clown performances.”
You can catch PJ here:
- Underground Comedy – 3 April at Manhattan Bar
- Geelong Comedy Festival – 30 October – 2 November
Overflow Theatre Company’s ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’
- When: Thursday 15 May,
Friday 16 May,
Saturday 17 May (two shows)
Sunday 18 May - Where: Platform Arts, 60 Little Malop Street, Geelong
