Slapstick & Physical Comedy School with Joe Dieffenbacher

Name: Slapstick & Physical Comedy School with Joe Dieffenbacher
Start: 2026-02-16T10:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-02-20T17:00:00+00:00
Location: The Spark Space, 138a Church Road Redfield Bristol BS5 9HH

Schedule

Mon, 16 Feb, 2026 at 10:00 am to Fri, 20 Feb, 2026 at 05:00 pm

UTC+00:00

Location

The Spark Space, 138a Church Road Redfield Bristol BS5 9HH | Bristol, EN

THE INVITATION:
The Bristol Clown School is delighted to welcome back Joe Dieffenbacher for a 5-day intensive exploring slapstick and physical comedy.
Develop your performance toolkit with slapstick comedy - from trips and falls to subtle prop play, turn accidents into artistry and laughs!
WHAT WILL THE 5-DAY COURSE INCLUDE?
★ Learn to be more physically spontaneous and fully engaged onstage.
★ Change the way you think about problems: they’re opportunities for comedy and character development.
★ Develop characters and enhance any scene with physical play.
★ Make connections with your partners using your body, objects, costumes and the performance space.
★ Find both broad and subtle ways to play with slapstick.
★ Explore techniques such as how to trip, slip, slide and stumble in eccentric ways.
★ How to use accidents to create comic moments, reveal your character, and get laughs.
★ Develop greater body coordination, increase your awareness onstage, improve your improvisational skills and generate ideas for devising your own shows.
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AT A GLANCE
★ Dates
Monday 16 - Friday 20 February
★ Times:
Monday 10am - 4pm
Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 11am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
★ Venue:
The Spark Space, Bristol, BS5 9HH
★ Application and Investment:
To apply please fill in this form by Friday 30 January:
https://forms.gle/4HjEJQVvHc2CEGVL9
Once invited; the course investment is:
£325 - Supporter/ High earner
£300 - Full Price
£275 - Concession (low/no income, student)
If you’re not sure if your level of experience would support you to join this workshop, please email us and we will be happy to help identify if the workshop is right for you.
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WHAT IS SLAPSTICK & PHYSICAL COMEDY?
Physical Comedy is a form of dance but it’s off the beat. Most dance styles focus on control, flow and grace. Physical Comedy uses interruption and eccentricity to find creative ways of moving and connecting with the audience. It welcomes the unexpected and revels in awkwardness and mischief. Problems and accidents are not something to fear but opportunities for creativity and comedy.
This can include hits and falls, slaps and pies, but also more subtle slapstick where the clown plays with props, clothes, furniture, sounds, colours, shapes. It includes everything from the knockabout and anarchy of the Three Stooges and the Young Ones, the classic physical comedy of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, the visual and verbal slapstick of Monty Python, the mad invention of the set designers for Mischief Theatre and the ‘Goes Wrong’ shows, and the more subtle prop play of Jacques Tati.
This type of training will help you develop spatial awareness and greater skill in how to use your body. It opens you up to the possibilities for play with the physical world – the body as well as objects, costumes, even the wall and the floor. This capricious way of moving through the world to discover new ideas for physical and visual play, and how to use slapstick to develop comic scenes and characters. Learning slapstick will also develop your confidence in performance, helping failures to become opportunities for imaginative and inventive play.
IS THIS FOR ME?
This workshop is for Actors, Clowns, Comedians, Entertainers, Dancers, Improv Artists, Street Performers, Puppeteers, Mimes, Cabaret Artists, Teachers, Adults who want to encourage their inner kid and playfulness and Curious People.
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
Joe Dieffenbacher is an actor, director and teacher working in theatre, film, circus, comedy, puppetry and clown. He was Physical Theatre Director for productions at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Shakespeare’s Globe in London, Circus Skills Director with the Scottish National Opera, Master Teacher at Clown Conservatory-San Francisco and the Dell’Arte School in California. He's worked with pop sensations Take That, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Holiday on Ice, and tours with his own company, nakupelle. Joe’s produced a film series on YouTube on How to Learn Slapstick, and is the author of CLOWN The Physical Comedian and DRAMA GAMES for Clowning & Physical Comedy.
http://joedieffenbacher.com