Thomas Monckton tells us about his clowning career and his latest show The Pianist, about a concert pianist whose recital deteriorates into absurdist catastrophe.

Trained in Europe as a clown, Monckton collaborated with the Finnish company Circo Aereo on the show, which has already played to sold out audiences in Finland.

Renee Liang talked to him in the lead up to The Pianist opening at Circa Theatre in Wellington before embarking on a North Island tour. 

Why do you clown?  Are clowns born or made?

I clown because I'm clown shaped.

Clowning is similar to many disciplines and there are techniques that can be learned, and tricks to train but there is an element of natural proficiency involved. It helps to be a bit wonky.

Tell us about your journey as a performer. What have been your career highlights to date?

I started by learning to juggle at about eight-years-old and through that I became more interested in circus and circus skills and never really looked back. I left high school a year early to go to circus school, which was undoubtedly one of the best decisions I've ever made. I loved the physical training of circus and working with people who had tunnel vision about their chosen discipline.

After circus school I said yes to any job that was relative to clowning. I toured NZ as a freelancer and as part of a small theatre company but I quickly realised that I had to go overseas if I wanted to progress. There just wasn't the culture of the type of clown I wanted to be in New Zealand and I had already exhausted the training opportunities available to me at the time. I applied to the physical theatre school Lecoq in Paris and moved to Melbourne in the meantime. I lived in a squat and worked offering jobs on the streets on behalf of Greenpeace and as a cleaner in a community circus space until I heard that my application was accepted. Since then it has been a slow but sure progression to full time international clowning.

Some of the highlights of my career have been:

The first time I made my living off performing for an entire year without subsidising it with other work.

Being alone onstage and having 1500 people laugh at the same time in my direction.

Performing in a castle with some clown colleagues as part of an opera. Our changing room was in a turret.

In BATS Theatre a kid wandered onstage looking for the toilet while I was performing. Twice. He stole the show both times.

Doing an artist's residence in Finland's countryside in the middle of winter for three months.

How did you end up living and working in Paris and Finland?

I went to L'Ecole Internationale du Theatre Jacques Lecoq in Paris and met two Finns there. We moved into an apartment together in the second year, which was fortunate because I was living in a tent before that and it was getting cold. After we finished at Lecoq we did a six month contract with a Finnish circus in Helsinki together before establishing our own performance company. Paris is a good location for me since I am touring more often than not, it's easy to get to the airport and to the rest of Europe.

Are you also a musician?

That's a secret.

How did you get the idea for The Pianist?

There is an old rickety upright piano at my house and I thought perhaps it would be a good idea to make a show where it fell to pieces since it was basically there anyway. My parents weren't as enthusiastic about the idea but I mentioned it to Sanna from Circo Aereo anyway. She later came back to me and asked if I would like to put Circo Aereo's money where my mouth was and make the show with a grand piano instead of an upright and her as director. I quelled my squeal of excitement and calmly said I would have to check my diary. I went into the other room and wiggled, then came back and accepted the offer.

How do you make a work like this? Can you tell us about the collaboration with Circo Aereo?

It's different each time I make a show so I'm not sure I have a method. The common denominators are
1. Lying on the floor
2. An existential crisis
3. Spending an obscene amount of time training a ridiculously useless trick which I never end up using in the show or ever after.

Circo Aereo have been at the forefront of the Finnish contemporary circus scene for a number of years so I was really happy to be asked to work with them, and especially with Sanna Silvenoinen as a director. The Pianist was the first show I have worked on that had so many dates confirmed before it had even been created. That coupled with the amazing creative team I was working with made me very nervous during rehearsals. I felt a little bit out of my league and hoped that Circo Aereo hadn't made an error in judgement in commissioning me. Fortunately the show has been a great success in Finland and has sold out at least one show in almost every place we have visited.

Where have you toured the show to date?  Do people respond the same way in each country?

With The Pianist I have mostly toured in Finland, with a few festivals in New Zealand as well. There are differences in audiences. The Finns are slightly more reserved as an audience but not nearly as much as they think they are. I enjoy performing in Finland because I know if they laugh then it's for real. I've been to a number of different countries with other shows and generally people still laugh at the same punch lines, just with varying levels of enthusiasm.

What are you working on next?

I'm currently creating, directing, and performing a children's show called Caterpillars, co-writing a new physical theatre show, and touring The Pianist, Moving Stationery, and Members of Our Limbs. I am also drawing a picture of a dog for my friend's boyfriend's daughter.