The Name of Our Game
I was 28 frothing with ambition and bliss It was the end of Summer we sat overlooking the sky and city kiss From Hollywood the L.A. skyline is post-card perfect Small enough to fit on a piece of paper & big enough to wind away with dreams unchecked Gazing into possibilities abound with my mustachioed lover Seated five stories off the ground we delved into our whimsy–no buffer "Let's start a clown troupe..." "That anyone who plays can be a part of!" "We'll call us all, 'THE YARNBALLS!" "And we'll weave stories full of hutzpah!" His big, brown eyes met mine, and we smized our odd bits gleaming with the idiotic and divine It feels like it all started long before then but it was then that we recognized It was then that I knew he knew it wasn't pretend.
And so it was!
Nearly five years ago, The Yarnballs were born; my clown troupe with an ever-growing cast of anyone who joins us in play. Alan and I make up the duo-core of The Yarnballs, but one idea behind the name itself is to have a name that allows anyone and everyone who chooses to play with us, in their own bold and beautiful way, to be themselves, a Yarnball.
Yarn as in a story, ball as in… odd, ball.
Yarnball.
Last Saturday, The Yarnballs had the joy of playing with the audience of my grandmother’s talent show at the church of the Latter-Day Saints in Bee Cave, Texas.
It was the first time Alan and I donned our red noses in this great cowboy state! The show was full of engaged and interesting children, providing much-appreciated fodder for our bit.
In all of the arts, the audience has immense authorship.
I adore how clown acts embrace this component of storytelling.
I would never have predicted it, but of course, it would be from a group of LDS children that a seven-year-old would offer up the theme of Guilt.
How special.
I didn’t have any idea how our bit would develop in this space, nor how that development would go over with the crowd. One rarely does in this work. It was such a delightful gift to be so well received!
That sounds backwards, for a gift to be itself, the gift of being well received… but I suppose that’s the way of clown theater. You offer something meaningful and authentic to the beloved audience, a gift of yourself. And in return, they gift you back their truth. Their truth…
An audience cannot conceivably lie.
They gift you back their truth. You know how it went, indubitably. And that… that place of indubitable gift exchange… is a place I deeply cherish. A place I always feel safe.
Next Saturday, we are bringing this new and in-progress piece to our first red-nose show in San Marcos! OoooOoooweeeEeeEeee GoBbeLdy GoOk iT is going to be so much fun! I wonder what the audience will feed us at a groovy toovy coffee shop as the sun makes its way across the other side of the globe. Certainly, even though our offering has the same bones as what we gave the church last weekend, it will have a very different resulting body.
We’ll be opening the show at seven and carrying on with some mid-show shenanigans between the curious and courageous musical experiences of Molly J. Hayes & The Unsurpassed Profit!
If you’re around, might as well plop this possibility onto your calendar, no? We’d love to have your wild and merciless self in the audience to play!
Texas! IT IS A HAPPENIN’!
A hui ho,
Julia