A comedy lab for clowns and street performers rises from pandemic ashes
Clowns and street performers can get feedback on their work from other comedy artists now that a lab for these artists is returning after a hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It's really hard to kill artists," said Christine Lesiak of Small Matters Productions, the original founder of The Comedy Lab. "We're pretty resilient."
The Comedy Lab was born in 2018 as a place for "alternative comedy" artists to workshop their material. Lesiak started it because while stand-up comedians have open mic nights and improv actors have improv jams, clown artists, street performers, and other physical comedians didn't have a similar place to share early work in Edmonton. Street performers Aytahn Ross and Paul Bezaire were among the original lab participants. The lab ran until pandemic restrictions forced it to go on hiatus, but it will return starting on Jan. 23 at The Playhouse in Ritchie.
To restore the lab, Lesiak has partnered with Dayna Lea Hoffmann and Katie Yoner of Batrabbit Collective, the indie company behind Rat Academy, which won three of the five Fringe categories at the 2024 Sterling Awards.
"I'm just thrilled that Katie and Dana are jumping on board with this, because I think their energy and their ability to get (stuff) done is extremely good," Lesiak said. "They're very talented performers and creators and are quite skilled in other ways that an artist needs to be from a producing standpoint."
Artists are invited to sign up to perform online. The lab is looking for "clown turns, physical pieces, new characters, comedy bits, (or) vulnerable performances that blur or mix the structures of theatre, improv, clown, stand-up, dance, mime, and/or music." Audiences are welcome, too. "We just want a general audience to understand that our focus isn't to entertain you, but to serve the artist's needs at this time, but a lot of this work requires an audience for development," Lesiak said.
Each artist or group will perform their bit, there will be a break, and then each bit will be workshopped using Liz Lerman's critical response process. "It's a method that prioritizes the artist's positioning so that the facilitator, in collaboration with the artist, will go through a process to make sure that the feedback isn't just a wave of stuff the artist might not actually want at that time," Lesiak said. "Most of the time in this situation, the artist wants to just know, 'Did you understand what I was doing? Did you enjoy this? What was confusing?'"
"And then, honestly, a big bunch of the time we end up going out and grabbing a drink or a coffee somewhere, and people can continue the conversations there," Lesiak added.
Part of the reason the lab has been shut down for so long is that Lesiak has been working on The Spinsters, which won two Sterlings and returns for a limited run in February. It's free to workshop bits and to come watch the lab, but donations are welcome, Lesiak said.
