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Mooky, Mooks
Cowtown, Calgary, Alberta
 
After CHS, I did a year of Theatre History at the University of Ottawa, then went to Toronto to the Royal Conservatory of Music. I began training in Clown with Sue Morrison at Theatre Resource Centre, headed to Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre in California and trained there for two years.
 
CREATIONS
After graduating from Dell’Arte I was hired into the Players’ Company. We wrote and performed two plays which we toured throughout Northern California and Oregon – Out of the Frying Pan and its sequel ( by popular demand) Further Frying. They were about four clown chefs telling the history of our region.

I wrote and performed a solo clown show called Dot’s Place. It was about a clown who refuses to leave her house to the point of going on a camping trip in the middle of her kitchen. It was well–received – the review read ‘Dot’s Place Comic Genius”. I was really pleased.


I was then responsible for beginning a town-wide pageant in our village of Blue Lake. I instigated and ran the whole affair which involved over 120 people. From sewing banners to building giant puppets. The play travelled throughout the town, and more than 300 people travelled with it to watch. That was a very fulfilling project. I have left Blue Lake now but that pageant continues to be an annual tradition even without me.
We also started a tradition of cabarets in that village for which I created new acts every soiree.

In Calgary, Alberta, I have co-written and performed in numerous shows with Green Fools Puppet, Mask and Comedy Troupe.
We create shows for kids by day, and full-on, over-the-top, on-the-edge, whacked-out experimental shyte at night. Like the Seven Deadly Sins Experiential Performance ... I can’t even begin to describe it...
I started – a circus. The Great Western Canadian Bricks and Earth Circus. It took us a year and a half to write and build tents, backdrops, puppets, masks, etc.
I composed all of the music and wrote all of the songs, as it was a theatrical show. I played “Coyote”. We travelled throughout Alberta, playing to and teaching kids on reservations and in small towns.

Since then I have been fully exhausted and on a little bit of a holiday ( the end of 2000), save for a few short films. I’ve written and produced one. And am in the throes of writing a vaudeville show for inner-city kids that I work with frequently.

 
PERFORMING
I performed in all the things that I wrote and created.
I was featured in A Telus commercial – that was totally fun – as well as in a feature film in L.A. called Where the Elephant Sits
 
PLACES
Prominent theatres and festivals have included:
Edmonton Street Festival
Women in Comedy at the Citadel, Edmonton
Edmonton Fringe Festival
A few cool theatres and Clown conferences in San Francisco
The Unima International Puppet Festival in Budapest, Hungary
The Oregon Country Fair ( the world’s largest hippy petting zoo - Eugene, Oregon
Now with Cirque du Soleil in Varekai.
 
   
DIRECTED/PRODUCED  
I’ve initiated numerous projects in California and now Calgary:
Youth Theatre Initiatives, kids’ plays, clown and circus camps, and
organized neighbourhood carnivals and activities.
I was co-Artistic Director of Green Fools for two years.
All of my work is self-generated, directed and produced. Everything.
 
   
ACTIVITIES  
I play piano - even studied in university in California as a piano major.
I play hockey.
I have no time for hobbies, but like to cook good food.
I participate in many charities – heaps – for inner city kids, seniors, community events, elementary schools, autistic kids.
 
   
PERSONAL  
I have a nice home life now – a beautiful partner, Pam with two kids. So spare time goes to them.
Pam is fantastic – a music teacher for kids with autism. Her two sons are funny little boys, Jonah 7, and Nicholas, 10 . They did a pretty hilarious strong man routine in the circus.
 
   
LINKS  
Grnfools@cadvision.ca
www.grnfools.ca
 
   
FAVOURITE BOFA MOMENT  
One time I was a funny fish in the theme game, Herald. The theme was “putting love back in the family.” I came out as a fish - with my fish husband – and tried to encourage him not to eat our kids any more. It killed pretty hard. We had to wait what seemed like forever for the audience to stop laughing.  
   
FUTURE PLANS  
I am working in a series of short films for festivals. They are comedies, self-written and performed. I think they are pretty funny.
In the summer, some friends and I are headed to eastern Europe and Russia to perform and teach in the refugee camps. We will perform in the camps and at festivals throughout Europe. I will check it out – perhaps I will move to Europe – or sign on with a touring show- who knows?
 
   
THE FAVOURITE OF THE THINGS I DO  
Crackin’ folks up.
I love killing a crowd laughing.
I love writing and creating work.
I don’t love the business stuff.
I love being hilarious and shocking people with extreme physical comedy.
Film stuff I think has been my favourite.
 
   
PRIZES  
NO, I SUCK!!
I won scholarships to Dell’Arte and a scholarship to Humboldt University.
 
   
WHAT I’M PROUD OF  
I am most proud of Women in Comedy, in Edmonton. Pretty BIG comedy – a whip act in which I was the sexy assistant. It was 3 years ago and people still tell me that it was the funniest thing they have ever seen. I’m pretty proud of that.
The work we did on the reservations this past summer. Teaching native kids stilt-walking, juggling, clowning, and generally teaching them that they were wonderful. That was a good thing to do. I’m proud of most things I’ve accomplished really - it’s a good life.
 
   
WHAT I FIND DIFFICULT  
Most difficult – ambition – I am too ambitious at times. And relations – artists are jerks – self-centred, impulsive bastards – I find that hard. As much as I love them, I wish actors could get along better.
I also don’t love all the office work you have to do before being able to get into the studio.
 
   
WHAT ELSE  
Jane insists I write about teaching at Dell’Arte - I was an assistant teacher of clown for two years and taught my own clown class after that. We did some whacked stuff, including getting the entire class in trouble with the police.
I was real proud of some of the things I taught and exercises I developed. But to teach Clown to Company of Fools – that was about the most fun summer ever - to Scott Florence, Maureen Welch and Matthew Godfrey. CounterNotes brought me to teach Clown, Zach Smith, Andrew Morphew, Jesse Buck, Dan... and it was fun teaching BOFA in ‘96. Good kids.
 
   
   
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