first hurdle....done!

Valid for 10 years.

Clown Principles

Susah nak jadi clown ni. Tak percaya? Read these principles sent by Avner to me recently. The last principle is the toughest!

Clown Principles By Avner Eisenberg

1. Clown’s job is to make the audience feel things, and to get the audience to breathe.

2. Everyone inhales, but many of us need to be reminded to exhale.

3. The imagination and the brain are connected to and affect the body. Any change in the mind has a corresponding change in the body. Any change in the body (i.e. in the breath first) has a corresponding change in the mind.

4. Don’t tell or show the audience what to think, do, or feel.

5. Don’t tell or show your partners what to think, do, or feel. Don’t point.

6. Weight belongs on the underside. Keep a single point in you lower abdomen. Keep your energy flowing.

7. Tension is your enemy. It produces emotional, mental and physical numbness.

8. How you feel about your numero is what counts, not whether it is in reality good or bad.

9. The clown discovers an audience who are sitting in rows and looking at an empty space and waiting for a show. This must be dealt with first, by establishing complicity with the audience.

10. The clown creates a world in the empty space, rather than entering into a world that already exists (sketch).

11. Use mime to create fantasy, not to re-create reality.

12. The clown searches to create a game and to define the rules, which must be obeyed.

13. Don’t ask or tell the audience how they feel or think. Show them what you feel.

14. It is better to be interested than interesting.

15 You have to breathe all your life, even on stage.

16. The clown enters the stage to do a job, not to get laughs. If there are laughs, it is an interruption that must be dealt with.

Clowning with Cancer Children at GE Mall

Had a very fun day at Great Eastern Mall yesterday. Me and Sam was clowning with cancer children from PPUM. We were supposed to mingle around with the kids but somehow due to unforeseen circumstance ( erghh!!) we were ask to do an impromptu show. The local celebrity singer who supposed to come didn't turned up. Can't help it but to proceed with improvised show. no back up music whatsoever. we did improvised games and sang songs. We just grab the kids and the parent to join us.

Anyway, we had a great fun with the kids. Sam busy with ballooning and I was busy making jokes and improvising with the kids and their parents. Sam and I comes from different school of clowning thoughts. He is from traditional american clowning school of thoughts whereas I am more towards european theatrical clowning way. I seldom do balloons and stuff as I believe my role is to create interactions. We complement each other.

Hey! anedra was there! Laaaa.... kenapa tak datang and tegur saya?

Alhamdulillah...finally

Alhamdulillah...finally I just want to share a very good news with everybody.

Insya Allah, I will be going to USA this August. Yeay!

My employer has agreed to send me for the course under their training programme. I can't wait or depend on the government grant anymore. I am not sure how much they will give or not. If it gets through, fine. I just consider that as a bonus.

Thank you all for your prayers and kind thoughts. I really appreciate it!

Thank you

15 June 2005

Maknenek Banner Productions Inc,

PO Box 5461,

Black Forest,

Jerman Barat.

Dear Madam,

SATISFACTION THRU YOUR BANNER DESIGN SERVICE

I refer to my satisfaction for your the very beautiful banner design. Thank you for your excellent service; just give the details and the gambars to you and wallah!banner ready within 30 minutes. What a terror (tera) designer you is!

I also check aa that you also did bleutiful banner for other customer; so I am satisfied and happy.

And more thank you for your international support service too. This makcik from london very promptly contact me and will try to repair the blog. yelah the right column seems to drop down. And I know I am in the safe hands when she was blabbering about mozilla and godzilla .that makcik I tell you, very the techie one you know. where you got her to work for you meh?

I am very happy like in the cloud 7 to see my banner already beautiful up there!

thanks you again for your assistance.

Your everloving customer,

Dr Bubbles

P.S : Eh! Eh! stop! stop! why aa suddently aa my banner went lost meh? cannot see pictures some more? my check bounce meh? please sent that makcik modzilla godzilla to assist me again, please. My numbet aa is 00-603-4156 9871. I am right here waiting for her.

Sorry aa for my engrlish is not so OK.

Last place

I just got an email from the Celebration Barn today . They are keeping the last place in the workshop just for me until I sort out the grant application thingy.

Phewwww!

Jogging

Little I realised that I have been jogging religiously for the past 2 months or so. Went for jogging this morning. woke up at 6 am. dozed off again until 6.30 am. Prayed and quickly drove to Taman TAR. It was still dark when I reached there but there were fellow joggers around already. Parked my van in front of Kelab Darul Ehsan. It is safer to park there than other place in that area. And for precautions, I usually won't bring my wallet along. Just my driving licence and IC , that's all.

Warmed up a little bit and start to jog at 6.50 am, climbing up the slope leading towards Tamarind Springs. Reached the peak huffing and puffing despite trying my best to calm myself by belly-breathing. I felt like to stop at the peak of the slope but managed to drag myself slowly and continue until I reach the entrance of Kelab Darul Ehsan. Phewww! this is the second time, I managed to jog non-stop completing the circuit. It took me about 30 minutes and thus I reckoned that the circuit is around 3 km circling the Kelab Darul Ehsan's compound.

Since I have been jogging, I do noticed that, my morning achoo's disappears completely and somehow I can 'last' longer in the office than before. Otherwise, after 3 pm it will be a 'mandom' period until 5 pm. Now, not anymore. And, I also notice that no more in between snacks etc. Makan on time. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. No dinner after 7 pm. (Seluar pun dah longgar. Hahaha!)

The reason why I first to take up jogging for the past few months, is not so much of losing weight, or other reasons like the fact that Sofia Jane or Hans Isaac used the same circuit for jogging, etc . It wasn't my intention at all. I just want to have my old me who loved to run during his teens. I used to run for cross-country during my schooldays and stopped completely the regime when I finished my SPM. (If you see my photos during my STAR's years, you won't believe it that it was me). It was fun, really.

Haa....fellow exercisers like atenah....any komen?

duly submitted

I have submitted the syllabus and the tuition fees info to the ministry's officials today. I don't know how long it will take for them to decide. I cannot rely so much on the grant application and already consider other options. Alhamdulillah, I managed to get in touch with Avner's partner, Julie Goell who reassured me that they will try to hold a place for me as long as possible until I got any updates on the grants.

When I am smilin'......

I love this song so much. First heard in Adam Sandler's " Anger Management".

When you're smilin' When you're smilin'

The whole world smiles with you.

And when you're laughin' When you're laughin'

The sun comes shinin' through.

When you're cryin',

You bring on the rain, So, stop you're sighin',

Won't you be happy again!

When you're smiling, Keep on smilin'

And the whole world smiles with you.

I was jogging (yeah!) as usual yesterday when I got a phone message from Kementerian Kesenian people asking me to call them back on Monday. In fact they were trying to reach me at the office yesterday evening (around 6.30 pm) and I was already halfway climbing up the "Tamarind Springs" slope in Taman TAR. Luckily my colleague picked up the phone and relayed the message to me.

Hahaha.. Alhamdulillah. Apparently my appeal letter to Dato' Rais Yatim I'd sent few weeks ago seemed to take effects on the officials who must be frantically trying to find answers for the blunder. The officer in charge musti dah kena "bambu" for not going thru my application thoroughly. And now finally, they asked me to provide the 'budget breakdown' and also the detailed syllabus for the course. I hope it is a 'good sign' when they started to ask these infos from me.

But then, budget breakdown tu OKlah but detailed syllabus? Ayoyo.. come on, asking a world's leading teachers of physical comedy like Avner for a detailed syllabus? You must be joking! But then fair enough, I wrote to him last night ( came back to office just for that) and this morning ( Yes, I went back to sleep and come back this morning. :) ) I got the expected reply from him.

Sure enough he wrote,

Dear Iskandar,

Thank you for writing. There is no official syllabus for the Eccentric Performing workshop.

It is a professional level course, but has no academic standing per se.

We we meet for two 3-hour classes every day for over sixty hour of class work.

In addition we meet in the evenings for presentation of assignments and critique of student's work.

Below are two handouts that summarize the principles of what is taught.I hope this helps. Unfortunately I am on tour and will not be able to fax these documents.

You can find additional material and bigraphies on both Julie and myself at the Barn site, www.celebrationbarn.com, as well as at my site, http://www.avnerTHEeccentric.com.

I must advise you that the workshop is nearly full, so please submit your application as soon as possible so we can hold a spot for you.

Please do not hesitate to write if you have any further questions.

With best regards,

Avner Eisenberg

I am bit worried on the last lines. The workshop is nearly full and I am still 'ding-dong'ing with ministry officials.

Kalau nak bagi, bagi ajelah kan?