[Music]
rarely people talk about clowning is a
powerful and invigorating art form and
yet here I am I’ve been working on this
documentary for five years following the
clowns and I’m giving this talk on the
weekend when it comes out I think it’s
meaningful I think I’m here to turn
around the American opinions about the
clowns because you guys are alone in
that sad corner of fear nobody outside
is aware of the fear of clowns in Israel
hospitals hire professional clowns and
incorporate them into the protocols and
procedures of the hospital so that
clowns work with kids with adults with
the families with the staff with the
entire environment of the hospital to
make it less stressful and a little more
tolerable for everyone and I’m gonna
give you a heads up I’m going to show a
video right now with the clowns there’s
no white face whatsoever no creepiness
no weirdness just awesome super special
Israeli medical clowns that’s wrong it’s
not just to make him laugh is how to
communicate I think that I’m addicted to
medical clowning the red nose is like a
license to talk to anybody you want
[Music]
it’s amazing it’s beautiful
it’s fun it’s sad it’s tragic it’s
happiness it’s the only thing that
combines life the hurts moment in
clowning it’s the greatness this is part
of what I’m doing something that I
choose to do in my life
[Music]
[Applause]
so I’ve been following them a few years
and have learned a lot about them but I
also realized that in the process I’ve
learned some cool lessons from them and
I would like to share them with you
so here are my five and a half lessons
of clown wisdom learned from the Israeli
clowns who are the jesters of the
hospital Kingdom lesson number one
embrace the chaos we’re used to hearing
oh don’t try to control everything just
let go well to me let go
feels like defeat it’s sad and passive
and the clowns have taught me to be
active and to embrace the cast hospital
is the kingdom of order everything has
to be color-coded measured structured
and this is the way it has to be for the
hospital to run and this is the way we
want it to be when we happen to be in
the hospital we want order we want
somebody in control and the doctors and
nurses do their best with their love lab
courts and charts to show that they are
in control and the order they bring
because to them the patient is a body
that’s out of order that needs to be
brought back to order so they bring
those regiments diets and rules which we
then hate when the order is imposed on
us we can’t even feel alive because the
truth is we are just as much creatures
of gas as we are creatures of order so
that’s when the clown comes in the clown
walks in and by playfully challenging
the doctors authority helps us feel a
little bit more alive and they’re not
disturbing the rules one of them
actually told me we’re not breaking the
rules we’re breaking all around between
the rules they’re carefully
orchestrating that chaos to help us feel
alive because the order is not the
relief embrace the cast lesson number
two be present modern technology has
tricked us into that feeling that we’re
always present everywhere we’re checking
everything we’re connecting with
everyone all
the time but the truth is that we’re
more disconnected than ever before we
break up over text we express
condolences via emoji prayers sad face
the ability to be physically and
emotionally present is becoming a
disappearing art and that ability in the
hospital has an extra value because
let’s be honest we would all much rather
be absent from it than present in it all
we want is an escape and within the
truth is and that’s what clowns have
taught me that indeed you can escape but
only being present see the clown’s work
in the hospital is not a show it’s not a
stick what they do is a nonstop
improvisation and they have to be really
present when they walk into the room
they don’t know what they’re walking
into
they have to be really present to assess
the room within two seconds and address
it correctly because the moment before
can be filled with pain and fear and
fighting and tears and the moment after
can be filled with more suffering and
sometimes nothingness it’s the present
that we have the power over that’s when
the clown magic happens
and I’ve seen it I followed a clown into
a patient’s room isolation unit actually
in the cancer ward a man in his 60s
after bone marrow transplantation
attached to a morphine sack with 50/50
chances of survival moaning from pain
clown breaks into it silly cannabis for
air song and moments later the guy joins
her did the prayer save his life no he
didn’t make it into the right 50% but
then and there in that moment it made
all the difference not only for him but
also for his family and the memories
that they get to have for the rest of
their lives and often times those
situations are really really difficult
on the families
there’s been some mentions here people
don’t know how to be people don’t know
how to be present for their loved ones
it’s really hard I’ve been there and
what people do they build walls of
complacency and denial to protect
themselves and then they regret for the
rest of their lives one of the clowns
told me a story he worked with a patient
who was dying from cancer and he wanted
to talk to his children about it and
they would just brush it off Oh what are
you talking about it’s nonsense
you’re gonna get better soon just stay
positive you’re gonna get better soon
and he knew he was not gonna get better
soon he was gonna die soon and he had to
talk to them about it and they wouldn’t
so he turned to the clown and said man
you know I’m gonna stop 14 soon and the
clown knew exactly what the man told him
he said oh how sad I love your farts I’m
gonna miss them so much and then he
turned to the kids I said aren’t you
gonna miss them and they went on and on
and on with that stupid joke about farts
but being adults they all knew what
they’re really talking about and if you
cannot utter the word death and you have
to say fart better and in that moment
the clown helped bring that family into
the present and be there for each other
so be present every moment is precious
lesson number three give up your social
status that’s my favorite don’t we all
love our social statuses wear this so
that race nationality religion party
class we buy all of our trinkets to
belong to the right sliver that we want
to belong and we feel really comfortable
we feel very happy to know that we are
not them right but this is how the
society begins to divide the clown the
gesture doesn’t apply any of those
definition to himself he’s outside the
grid one with everyone he doesn’t ignore
the definitions that others apply to
themselves but he reaches right past
them to the human essence of the person
that’s what he talks to
that’s what responds to him the clown
almost doesn’t look like quite a human
once the nose is on it’s a creature
right certainly not an adult children
view the clown as a superhero oh my god
he’s unafraid of doctors he does the
most outrageous things and gets away
unpunished
whoa adults see him as a fool who they
can share the deepest fears with and not
be judged in Israel this ability to be
one with everyone has an extra value see
the society is as fractured as it is
diverse and in the hospital
everybody’s cramped together religious
and secular people Arabs and Jews
Russian immigrants in Ethiopian
immigrants people don’t even speak the
same language but they have to share the
hospital rooms in the moments of crisis
gibberish comes in very handy and so
does this ability of connecting and
being one with everyone a girl clown
told me a story
she lives not far from Jerusalem with
her husband and kids in one of the
settlements which is a disputed
territory between Arabs and Jews
she works in a hospital nearby and she
became particularly friendly women with
one Arab family who were there with
their young kid one day she was driving
home and she saw them at the bus stop
and she knew that from that bus stop
they could only be going to that same
village where she lives she knew they
were her neighbors for a moment she
hesitated so I give
the ride or not it said she decided not
to and she felt guilty but she knew that
if the family were to find out that
she’s a Jewish settler that the clown
who their kid is playing with is on the
other side the kid would lose a friend
and the family would lose the support so
she chose to keep her clown anonymous so
when social divides are out of the
picture that’s when the real human
connection can be made that’s a hard one
right throw away your you go we don’t
like that one but truly throw it away
for a moment drop it won’t break its ego
not an egg that’s what clowns do when
they walk into the patient’s room they
don’t come in to impose their act on
their audience that would be rather rude
the audience didn’t buy the tickets to
that show they’re trapped there I can’t
leave so the clown has to tune in into
what they really need in that moment and
create a tailor-made piece of art for
them right there the part of the beauty
of clowning in the hospital is that the
act wouldn’t even exist without the
audience there’s no stage no fourth wall
to break the audience is right there
they are part to creating that moment
and whatever is happening with them
becomes the art and there’s a lot of
negativity in the hospital a lot of fear
anger frustration and it all has to come
out it’s very apparent with the kids
because they don’t even understand why
they have to be there why do I have to
wait why do I have to suffer why and
where the adult can be well I’m not
happy with the management of this
hospital I’m gonna file a complaint the
kid’s gonna just scream his lungs out so
when the clown works with a kid he
always either crouches or goes on his
knees to be on the same level to be with
him and he will allow the kid destroy
his costume
and make up and hit him actually one of
our clowns who have been following he
walks around the hospital with a hollow
plastic baseball bat God does he get hit
dozens times a day because kids are
frustrated and he’s willing to take it
so that another kid doesn’t have to with
adults it’s a slightly more refined game
but the essence is the same the clown’s
just create an environment where the
person can express whatever is happening
with them one of the clowns the same guy
who did the 14-bit he works a lot with
adult patients who go through chemo it’s
a long process so he has to build a
relationship over time and the way he
does it is through creating art together
and most those people have never created
any art before and what they do is songs
and plays and little videos and through
those pieces the patients get to express
their fear they talk about their disease
they talk about their relationships and
the clown is always in the background
letting the patient to shine in all
those videos because he knows it’s not
about him and believe me the artists ego
is alive and well in clowns I know all
about him they’re not monks but when in
hospital when with the patient they will
take whatever they have to take and give
whatever they can to support the patient
because they know that when you make the
other person feel like they’re the most
important person in the world that’s
when they open up that’s when you can
really connect that’s when you can
really feel alive and it goes both ways
for the patient and for the clown don’t
know say I don’t know it’s the biggest
motivational speaker cliche right it is
so for a reason because in order to
learn anything you need to say I don’t
know
need to find out in order to fix a
mistake you need to say I don’t know
maybe I messed up in order to feel you
need to say I don’t know and it doesn’t
matter to go beyond you need to forget
the limits you need to not know the
limits and the clowns are real pros at
that they they’re not into the knowing
stuff because knowing just disturbs the
imagination and in the hospital
the knowing can be particularly heavy
and it’s the clown’s job to lift that
heaviness one of the clowns told me a
story about how he danced with a
paralyzed woman she had control over
half of her face and some sensation in
her hand he walked in he saw her and he
said oh my god let’s dance
clearly as an adult man he knows she
can’t dance but as a clown he chose not
to know it she rejected him all of a
sudden all the power is in her corner
he’s heartbroken how come I’m not good
enough am I not dressed to the occasion
took him days but he made her he
convinced her to dance with him granted
that hand did most of the physical
movement but they danced because he
didn’t know it was impossible see the
clown’s don’t rely on knowledge they’re
fools they think with their heart and
finally poke the King the clown’s have
taught me that there is an inherent
value to mischeif to disrupting the
order disturbing the rules and this is
what brought us here from the caves if
not for that spirit we would have been
still living in the caves and we are all
born with that spirit of challenging the
boundaries and exploring ask any parent
of a five-year-old all they do is
challenge the boundaries but by the time
would grow up we know the boundaries all
too well we don’t even care to test them
anymore
well what a pity Galileo Einstein Warhol
Steve Jobs were not clowns yet they knew
the value of challenging the order
expanding the boundaries they had the
clown spirit that’s for sure
and clowns themselves they don’t have an
on and off button
they’re just dial up or dial down a
little bit but they take that clown
spirit into all of their life situations
they have told me how they used it at
the bank in the army the divorce court
at the office at their boss at the
hospital and one of them told me you
know when I see a rule when I see a
boundary what I do is I stand right at
the very edge and I put my foot in front
of me and I smile and more often than
not the boundary bends so Bouck the king
it’s liberating thank you
[Applause]
rarely people talk about clowning is a
powerful and invigorating art form and
yet here I am I’ve been working on this
documentary for five years following the
clowns and I’m giving this talk on the
weekend when it comes out I think it’s
meaningful I think I’m here to turn
around the American opinions about the
clowns because you guys are alone in
that sad corner of fear nobody outside
is aware of the fear of clowns in Israel
hospitals hire professional clowns and
incorporate them into the protocols and
procedures of the hospital so that
clowns work with kids with adults with
the families with the staff with the
entire environment of the hospital to
make it less stressful and a little more
tolerable for everyone and I’m gonna
give you a heads up I’m going to show a
video right now with the clowns there’s
no white face whatsoever no creepiness
no weirdness just awesome super special
Israeli medical clowns that’s wrong it’s
not just to make him laugh is how to
communicate I think that I’m addicted to
medical clowning the red nose is like a
license to talk to anybody you want
[Music]
it’s amazing it’s beautiful
it’s fun it’s sad it’s tragic it’s
happiness it’s the only thing that
combines life the hurts moment in
clowning it’s the greatness this is part
of what I’m doing something that I
choose to do in my life
[Music]
[Applause]
so I’ve been following them a few years
and have learned a lot about them but I
also realized that in the process I’ve
learned some cool lessons from them and
I would like to share them with you
so here are my five and a half lessons
of clown wisdom learned from the Israeli
clowns who are the jesters of the
hospital Kingdom lesson number one
embrace the chaos we’re used to hearing
oh don’t try to control everything just
let go well to me let go
feels like defeat it’s sad and passive
and the clowns have taught me to be
active and to embrace the cast hospital
is the kingdom of order everything has
to be color-coded measured structured
and this is the way it has to be for the
hospital to run and this is the way we
want it to be when we happen to be in
the hospital we want order we want
somebody in control and the doctors and
nurses do their best with their love lab
courts and charts to show that they are
in control and the order they bring
because to them the patient is a body
that’s out of order that needs to be
brought back to order so they bring
those regiments diets and rules which we
then hate when the order is imposed on
us we can’t even feel alive because the
truth is we are just as much creatures
of gas as we are creatures of order so
that’s when the clown comes in the clown
walks in and by playfully challenging
the doctors authority helps us feel a
little bit more alive and they’re not
disturbing the rules one of them
actually told me we’re not breaking the
rules we’re breaking all around between
the rules they’re carefully
orchestrating that chaos to help us feel
alive because the order is not the
relief embrace the cast lesson number
two be present modern technology has
tricked us into that feeling that we’re
always present everywhere we’re checking
everything we’re connecting with
everyone all
the time but the truth is that we’re
more disconnected than ever before we
break up over text we express
condolences via emoji prayers sad face
the ability to be physically and
emotionally present is becoming a
disappearing art and that ability in the
hospital has an extra value because
let’s be honest we would all much rather
be absent from it than present in it all
we want is an escape and within the
truth is and that’s what clowns have
taught me that indeed you can escape but
only being present see the clown’s work
in the hospital is not a show it’s not a
stick what they do is a nonstop
improvisation and they have to be really
present when they walk into the room
they don’t know what they’re walking
into
they have to be really present to assess
the room within two seconds and address
it correctly because the moment before
can be filled with pain and fear and
fighting and tears and the moment after
can be filled with more suffering and
sometimes nothingness it’s the present
that we have the power over that’s when
the clown magic happens
and I’ve seen it I followed a clown into
a patient’s room isolation unit actually
in the cancer ward a man in his 60s
after bone marrow transplantation
attached to a morphine sack with 50/50
chances of survival moaning from pain
clown breaks into it silly cannabis for
air song and moments later the guy joins
her did the prayer save his life no he
didn’t make it into the right 50% but
then and there in that moment it made
all the difference not only for him but
also for his family and the memories
that they get to have for the rest of
their lives and often times those
situations are really really difficult
on the families
there’s been some mentions here people
don’t know how to be people don’t know
how to be present for their loved ones
it’s really hard I’ve been there and
what people do they build walls of
complacency and denial to protect
themselves and then they regret for the
rest of their lives one of the clowns
told me a story he worked with a patient
who was dying from cancer and he wanted
to talk to his children about it and
they would just brush it off Oh what are
you talking about it’s nonsense
you’re gonna get better soon just stay
positive you’re gonna get better soon
and he knew he was not gonna get better
soon he was gonna die soon and he had to
talk to them about it and they wouldn’t
so he turned to the clown and said man
you know I’m gonna stop 14 soon and the
clown knew exactly what the man told him
he said oh how sad I love your farts I’m
gonna miss them so much and then he
turned to the kids I said aren’t you
gonna miss them and they went on and on
and on with that stupid joke about farts
but being adults they all knew what
they’re really talking about and if you
cannot utter the word death and you have
to say fart better and in that moment
the clown helped bring that family into
the present and be there for each other
so be present every moment is precious
lesson number three give up your social
status that’s my favorite don’t we all
love our social statuses wear this so
that race nationality religion party
class we buy all of our trinkets to
belong to the right sliver that we want
to belong and we feel really comfortable
we feel very happy to know that we are
not them right but this is how the
society begins to divide the clown the
gesture doesn’t apply any of those
definition to himself he’s outside the
grid one with everyone he doesn’t ignore
the definitions that others apply to
themselves but he reaches right past
them to the human essence of the person
that’s what he talks to
that’s what responds to him the clown
almost doesn’t look like quite a human
once the nose is on it’s a creature
right certainly not an adult children
view the clown as a superhero oh my god
he’s unafraid of doctors he does the
most outrageous things and gets away
unpunished
whoa adults see him as a fool who they
can share the deepest fears with and not
be judged in Israel this ability to be
one with everyone has an extra value see
the society is as fractured as it is
diverse and in the hospital
everybody’s cramped together religious
and secular people Arabs and Jews
Russian immigrants in Ethiopian
immigrants people don’t even speak the
same language but they have to share the
hospital rooms in the moments of crisis
gibberish comes in very handy and so
does this ability of connecting and
being one with everyone a girl clown
told me a story
she lives not far from Jerusalem with
her husband and kids in one of the
settlements which is a disputed
territory between Arabs and Jews
she works in a hospital nearby and she
became particularly friendly women with
one Arab family who were there with
their young kid one day she was driving
home and she saw them at the bus stop
and she knew that from that bus stop
they could only be going to that same
village where she lives she knew they
were her neighbors for a moment she
hesitated so I give
the ride or not it said she decided not
to and she felt guilty but she knew that
if the family were to find out that
she’s a Jewish settler that the clown
who their kid is playing with is on the
other side the kid would lose a friend
and the family would lose the support so
she chose to keep her clown anonymous so
when social divides are out of the
picture that’s when the real human
connection can be made that’s a hard one
right throw away your you go we don’t
like that one but truly throw it away
for a moment drop it won’t break its ego
not an egg that’s what clowns do when
they walk into the patient’s room they
don’t come in to impose their act on
their audience that would be rather rude
the audience didn’t buy the tickets to
that show they’re trapped there I can’t
leave so the clown has to tune in into
what they really need in that moment and
create a tailor-made piece of art for
them right there the part of the beauty
of clowning in the hospital is that the
act wouldn’t even exist without the
audience there’s no stage no fourth wall
to break the audience is right there
they are part to creating that moment
and whatever is happening with them
becomes the art and there’s a lot of
negativity in the hospital a lot of fear
anger frustration and it all has to come
out it’s very apparent with the kids
because they don’t even understand why
they have to be there why do I have to
wait why do I have to suffer why and
where the adult can be well I’m not
happy with the management of this
hospital I’m gonna file a complaint the
kid’s gonna just scream his lungs out so
when the clown works with a kid he
always either crouches or goes on his
knees to be on the same level to be with
him and he will allow the kid destroy
his costume
and make up and hit him actually one of
our clowns who have been following he
walks around the hospital with a hollow
plastic baseball bat God does he get hit
dozens times a day because kids are
frustrated and he’s willing to take it
so that another kid doesn’t have to with
adults it’s a slightly more refined game
but the essence is the same the clown’s
just create an environment where the
person can express whatever is happening
with them one of the clowns the same guy
who did the 14-bit he works a lot with
adult patients who go through chemo it’s
a long process so he has to build a
relationship over time and the way he
does it is through creating art together
and most those people have never created
any art before and what they do is songs
and plays and little videos and through
those pieces the patients get to express
their fear they talk about their disease
they talk about their relationships and
the clown is always in the background
letting the patient to shine in all
those videos because he knows it’s not
about him and believe me the artists ego
is alive and well in clowns I know all
about him they’re not monks but when in
hospital when with the patient they will
take whatever they have to take and give
whatever they can to support the patient
because they know that when you make the
other person feel like they’re the most
important person in the world that’s
when they open up that’s when you can
really connect that’s when you can
really feel alive and it goes both ways
for the patient and for the clown don’t
know say I don’t know it’s the biggest
motivational speaker cliche right it is
so for a reason because in order to
learn anything you need to say I don’t
know
need to find out in order to fix a
mistake you need to say I don’t know
maybe I messed up in order to feel you
need to say I don’t know and it doesn’t
matter to go beyond you need to forget
the limits you need to not know the
limits and the clowns are real pros at
that they they’re not into the knowing
stuff because knowing just disturbs the
imagination and in the hospital
the knowing can be particularly heavy
and it’s the clown’s job to lift that
heaviness one of the clowns told me a
story about how he danced with a
paralyzed woman she had control over
half of her face and some sensation in
her hand he walked in he saw her and he
said oh my god let’s dance
clearly as an adult man he knows she
can’t dance but as a clown he chose not
to know it she rejected him all of a
sudden all the power is in her corner
he’s heartbroken how come I’m not good
enough am I not dressed to the occasion
took him days but he made her he
convinced her to dance with him granted
that hand did most of the physical
movement but they danced because he
didn’t know it was impossible see the
clown’s don’t rely on knowledge they’re
fools they think with their heart and
finally poke the King the clown’s have
taught me that there is an inherent
value to mischeif to disrupting the
order disturbing the rules and this is
what brought us here from the caves if
not for that spirit we would have been
still living in the caves and we are all
born with that spirit of challenging the
boundaries and exploring ask any parent
of a five-year-old all they do is
challenge the boundaries but by the time
would grow up we know the boundaries all
too well we don’t even care to test them
anymore
well what a pity Galileo Einstein Warhol
Steve Jobs were not clowns yet they knew
the value of challenging the order
expanding the boundaries they had the
clown spirit that’s for sure
and clowns themselves they don’t have an
on and off button
they’re just dial up or dial down a
little bit but they take that clown
spirit into all of their life situations
they have told me how they used it at
the bank in the army the divorce court
at the office at their boss at the
hospital and one of them told me you
know when I see a rule when I see a
boundary what I do is I stand right at
the very edge and I put my foot in front
of me and I smile and more often than
not the boundary bends so Bouck the king
it’s liberating thank you
[Applause]
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