# Philippe Gaulier

Philippe Gaulier is a French master clown, pedagogue, and professor of theatre. He is the founder of École Philippe Gaulier, a French theatre school in Étampes, outside Paris. He studied under Jacques Lecoq in the mid-1960s and was an instructor at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in the late 1970s. As well as performing as a clown, he is also a playwright and director. He has published The Tormentor (Le Gégèneur), a book discussing his thoughts on the theatre and containing exercises designed to develop an actor's skill. Gaulier is known for performing both clown and bouffon comic genres.
Sacha Baron Cohen, Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Roberto Benigni, Simon McBurney, Kathryn Hunter, Viggo Venn, Mathew Baynton number among his students. Cohen has particularly praised him for "help[ing him] understand how to be funny," and in 2001 stated that he was "probably the funniest man I have ever met."

## Early life and education

Gaulier was born in occupied Paris in 1943 to a doctor, his father, and a Spanish woman, his mother. He has called his father "a bourgeois idiot," and described himself as "the rebel" of his family. He grew up near a circus. At 8 years old he was kicked out of school for punching his gymnastics teacher; he has stated that he does not regret this as the instructor made students march as though they were in the army. He had an ambition to be a tragic actor, but says he was laughed at every time he attempted to do serious work in drama school. He thus began a class with Jacques Lecoq who trained him in clowning, improvisation and mask work.

## Early career

With Pierre Byland, Gaulier was able to begin a clown show in which they broke 200 plates every night; this became a hit.

## École Philippe Gaulier

Gaulier left Lecoq in 1980, and set up his own clown school, the École Philippe Gaulier, in Paris. In 1991, Gaulier moved the École Philippe Gaulier to the north London suburb of Cricklewood in the United Kingdom, where it was based for eleven years until 2002. Sacha Baron Cohen attended the school around 1996. After Lecoq's death in 1999, Gaulier's reputation grew larger as his school continued to take students.
In 2005, the school reopened back in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, until 2011, when it moved again, this time to Étampes, where it opened in summer 2011. Organised by Small Nose Productions, Philippe returns to the UK once a year to runs workshops at Trestle Arts Base in St Albans, Herts.
The BBC show Newsnight covered Gaulier in 2015. In 2016 The Guardian reported that "'Gaulier-trained' [was] a buzzword on many a comic’s publicity." At this point, the school was charging €2,300 per term with no auditions required, enrolment being first come, first served. The school temporarily closed for the COVID-19 pandemic, and reopened in autumn 2020 for a delayed 40th anniversary in 2021. The New York Times reported in 2022 that Gaulier's "stature has grown in recent years." Hillary Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton travelled to Paris and interviewed Gaulier for their 2022 Apple TV + Series. As of 2022, Gaulier has begun to teach fewer classes and travel less, having considered retirement, a prospect he said he had no plans for in 2020.

## Pedagogy

Gaulier's view is that the essence of clowning is to find "your idiot," requiring a performer to become a singular character. His methodology of teaching is designed to allow the student to develop their own strengths, following specific principles but no defined method; He does not emphasize technique or physical virtuosity. In this sense he tries not to leave his own mark on his students, stating that he "hate[d] the idea of lots of little Gauliers going out into the world." This approach notably differs from that of his teacher, the famous late master bouffon Jacques Lecoq, who is seen by some as a guru of modern movement-based theatre. "You can always tell a Lecoq student," Gaulier stated in 2001. "Too much emphasis on image." He additionally tells his students to wear red noses because, he says, "when a student puts one on, I see better how he was when he was a child."
He has a direct method of communication to his students, and is known for his frequent negative feedback, which has been seen as insulting by some. Former student John Wright of theatre company Told by An Idiot has described his teaching as "open-heart surgery without anaesthetic." Gaulier has said himself that he directly tells underperforming students that they should not be actors, giving them a choice between changing or leaving his school. This has equally received praise from his students; Sacha Baron Cohen described him in 2001 as "brutally honest," but also said that he "was so lacking in pretension that he made acting what it should be, which is fun." A Facebook group called "Philippe Gaulier Hit Me With a Stick" collected instances of these insults, including "you sound like overcooked spaghetti in a pressure cooker,” and “you are a very good clown for my grandmother." These insults have been described as being able to dismantle the students' egotism, and as helping to build character.
In 2020, after meeting several of Gaulier's former women students who did not think they were good, Gaulier's former student turned clown teacher Deanna Fleysher wrote that his style did not work for many people, especially those who are marginalised and women, and that it was "macho, abusive, bootcamp-style sadism befitting frat houses and old-school military training." Gaulier has since rejected this, and argued that his teaching works equally well with women, his criticism is "a game between the teacher and the student," and that his classes were still full. Others have praised Gaulier's for playing a "demon" character in his classes. Arab Muslim actor Randa Sayed said that in one lesson he told her to "Get off [stage] you Muslim slut"; she said that he did this in recognition of and to externalise the risks and dangers she would face as a Muslim performer, and that she had "never experienced more love from any teacher than Gaulier". He has said that "now we have to be politically correct but I’ve never been politically correct. I love to say horrible things – I get that from my mother. She was from Spain and the Spanish have a black humour. They say “fuck you” to many people, the Spanish."

## Alumni

École Philippe Gaulier has educated numerous notable alumni.
* Annabel Arden, theatre and opera director and Complicité co-founder
* Mathew Baynton, actor
* René Bazinet, clown, mime and actor
* Roberto Benigni, actor, comedian, screenwriter and director
* Orla Brady, actor
* Louise Brealey, actor
* Phil Burgers, comedian
* Helena Bonham Carter, actor
* Sacha Baron Cohen, comedian
* Kendall Cornell, leader of clown troupe Clowns Ex Machina
* Sean Foley, director, comedian and half of troupe The Right Size
* Josh Glanc, comedian
* Kathryn Hunter, actor
* Elf Lyons, comedian
* Marcello Magni, Complicité co-founder
* Julia Masli, clown
* Simon McBurney, actor, writer, director and Complicité co-founder
* Hamish McColl, comedian, actor and half of troupe The Right Size
* Cal McCrystal, director and actor
* Nina Nawalowalo, theatre director
* Eryn Jean Norvill, actor
* Carmen Pieraccini, actor and clown
* John-Luke Roberts, stand-up comedian, writer, actor
* Samantha Scott, director
* Lorna Rose Treen, comedian
* Viggo Venn, comedian
* Tom Walker, comedian
* Erica Whyman, deputy artistic director at the Royal Shakespeare Company
* Zach Zucker, comedian

## Personal life

Gaulier is married to Michiko Miyazaki Gaulier, a former student and colleague.

## In popular culture

Zach Galifianakis has stated that Gaulier and his school inspired his TV show Baskets.