Name: Bouffon workshop with Alicia Gonzalez
Start: 2025-10-04T00:00:00+10:00
End: 2025-10-05T06:00:00+10:00
Location: Metro Arts, 97 Boundary St, West End, Qld 4101

Tickets: https://www.trybooking.com/DEXPE
Jesture is bringing Alicia Gonzalez from The Clown Institute to Brisbane to teach bouffon. Bouffon uses the joy of the grotesque along with razor-sharp humour and exaggerated physicality to entertain, challenge and provoke. Made famous by theatre master Jacques Lecoq it is the dark, rebellious, satirical cousin of clowning that uses mockery and parody to hold a mirror up to society. Inspired by modern bouffon icons like Red Bastard, Celeste Barber, Ricky Gervais and Sacha Baron Cohen, this workshop will challenge you to poke fun at society, the powerful, absurd norms, dogmas and delusions.
You will:
* discover a new approach to comedy
* explore the use of the grotesque in your performance style
* build resilience as a performer and social commentator
* extend your physical expression
* be outrageous (and courageous)
* laugh ... A LOT!
This is a rare opportunity to experience this form of theatre. It is perfect for physical comedians, stand up performers, actors, clowns and creative artists looking to deepen their comic toolkit.
10 AM - 4 PM each day
Tutor Bio:
https://www.aliciagonzalez.com.au/
Alicia Gonzalez is interested in playful and authentic encounters. She’s a Central Coast based performer, director and coach specialising in clowning and the creation of original stories for stage, public spaces and screen. She is the driving force behind The Clown Institute, where she utilises movement training as a central element in shaping actors, civilians and clowns.

At the core of her clowning philosophy lies a deep trust in the body as the storyteller. Alicia believes in surrendering to somatic impulses, allowing their physicality to guide the narrative. Her ultimate quest for artists is freedom.

She’s performed at the Sydney Festival, and Melbourne Comedy and Adelaide Fringe festivals. In a former life she was known as Dr Ding Dong, a medical clown doctor at children’s hospitals. Her performances aim to create interpersonal connections, spark joy and laughter, and provide a theatrical spectacle that lingers in the hearts of those who experience it. She honed her craft at the renowned Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France.