Hey guys,

I'm in charge of training all the "baby clowns" at the company I work for, and I was just wondering if anyone knows anything about the "right way to fall" and not hurt yourself? Or even if anyone knows any good websites which discuss this kind of thing, that would be AWESOME. The current training program at our company doesn't cover anything like that, and now that I'm in charge, I want to be able to teach the new clowns about slapstick and all that kind of thing - so they can be "REAL" clowns, and not just people in funny clothes with funny voices!

Thanks...

Well Gusto, This was the only book I could Find. The Physical Comedy handbook (http://www.amazon.com/Physical-Comedy-Handbook-Davis-Robinson/dp/0325001146/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197789036&sr=8-1) by Davis Rider Robinson. I will check the lending library to see if they have it. But according to amazon this is a how too book.
Hope it helps.

I know when I was learning to fall it is very imporatant to be able to support yourself with your arms and palms of your hands and to make sure you do not fall on your elbows.(so your forearms and hands should be horizontal to the ground). If you have a large tuckus like me then you can always use your bottom without much trouble.

I love your face Gusto! The colors you've chosen are wonderful!

You might look into tumbling, judo or aikido lessons.

As a teenager I took Aikido and the first thing you learned was how
to fall correctly.

Also, in clowning you don't necessarily need to really "fall" - I've
seen Priscilla Mooseburger do a fall which was really a controlled sit-
down-and lay-back-and lift the legs into the air. Looked like a fall,
but she was in total control the entire time.

One of my mottos:

I fall down good.

Being in Austrailia you wouldn't know about this but the best way to learn how to fall is by learning to ice skate. When I was learning to ice skate for a college class, the first thing they taught us was to fall. First the best place to fall is on your butt. It's big, soft and full of padding. If for some reason you can't fall on your butt because you are actually falling roll a little bit and land on your arm up against your body. It's padded too. Also it prevents you from falling on the point of your shoulder which can lead to a REALLY painful injury. (No need to be cussing in front of the kid) ;) If you are falling slowly and in control you can land on your forearms. But if it's a hard fall DON't fall on an outstretched hand. THis can lead to two injuries. One, a fracture in the lunate bone of your wrist. Two, a dislocation of your shoulder. If you HAVE to land on an out stretched hand, make it two to spread out the weight.

Thanks guys, that helps a lot!

By the way Jobee - we do have ice skating down under! Not in the "go out on a lake which is frozen over" sense, of course - but we have quite a few indoor ice-skating rinks around here... at least 3 in Sydney that I know about, anyway. However I must admit that in all the times I've been ice skating they've never offered to teach any of us how to fall...

But anyway, thanks again everyone. You rock!

How dare they teach you to ice skate without the proper technique on bruising your glutus maximus! :D

Ifall down just thinking about iceskating