The Montreal Clown Festival is about to be underway! With nine days of offerings, you’re sure to find something to tickle your funny bone! Vanessa Rigaux is the Montreal Clown Festival’s Director, and she was kind enough to answer some questions about the Festival, about clowning as an art form, and what audiences can expect this year!

Could you please introduce yourself to my readers and tell us a bit about the Festival?

My Name is Vanessa Rigaux and I am the artistic and general director of the Montreal Clown Festival. I studied clown 20 years ago in Paris, and fell hard for the subversive and niche art form that lets you say anything, and throughout the years I have had the pleasure to deepen my understanding of clowning and get to know some of the international performers who have made clowning their career.

The Montreal Clown Festival is a time and place to gather the clowns, exchange experiences, and through discussions, workshops and shows, invite audiences in to enjoy and discover what this ancient art form is all about in a contemporary setting. The programming aims to offer a balance of Quebecois artists, Canadian and International shows, and considers a bilingual of physical program to reach both Francophone and anglophone audiences. Now in its 8^th year, we have made our place in the in-between spaces that clowning falls- between language, disciplines and gender, the lowns are here to stay!

What do you think is the biggest misconception about Clown?

Probably, that clowns are only for kids, or clowns are scary (because of the mask). Movies like Joker and It have used the clown archetype as misunderstood psychopaths, so there is always something to try and overcome. The mask and painted face of a clown can be garish and it is bold, but it is an interesting type and has been picked up by subcultures. Like everything, there are misconceptions and stereotypes to overcome.

Our programming reflects care and deep consideration on how to bring this unique art form to the masses, which can be challenging for our mandate to support strange, unusual, and risk-taking artists/performances.

Can you talk a bit about the family programming included in the Festival?

Most of the shows are suitable for all audiences, The Gala Cabaret, for example, is a fancy clown ball and many families attend. It is exciting to invite kids to a premiere, I certainly think they add to the magic of the premiere. Thinking about the roots of American Circuses, shows were billed for the whole family.

In Montreal, we have theatres called “la Maison de Culture”. Each borough has one, and the shows that are programmed there are free.

Through a new partnership with La Maison de la Culture in Claude-Leveillée, we have a non-verbal show from Edmonton with bilingual video titles called Pour La Science ! (For Science!) by Small Matters Productions. It calls for audience participation for science experiments and is a very good time. This is recommended for 12+.

Then on Saturday afternoon (April 12) we have a nonverbal show from François-Guillaume Leblanc, who performed in Ovo with Cirque de Soleil for years before returning to the Magdalene Islands off the east coast of Quebec. He is part of a new physical theatre collective “Foutiyayaï”, that will perform a show called “Amârrable” (Anchorable in English). This is a silly show for all ages is about 3 shipwrecked fools who have no choice but to find a way to cooperate to survive and get off the island!

Le Grand Imbécile, the Festival’s talent show, sounds amazing! I can’t believe Uma Gahd is hosting too! What’s it like organizing such an epic production?

On top of the 5 other shows in the 8 day-festival, The Grand Imbécile is our party night- this one is for adults only. I enlisted the help of the co-founder of the festival, Kendall Savage, to help organize this wild night full of surprises.

We decided to ride the wave of surprise and make the applications a lottery. Uma Gahd (host) and Kendall (event coordinator) did an Instagram Live to announce the 15 contestants in the talent show. It was risky but so is a talent show and I love that we did it this way!

Looking at the list of performers, I am blown away by the array of backgrounds and experience. For an underground talent show, this night is going to be so special. Uma is so incredibly generous and such a pro at contests. I loved her in Canada’s Drag Race. I am excited to experience how the evening unfolds. I know there are going to be some good surprises. DJ Lady McCoy is going to take us into a late night of dancing once the show is over.

Our venue is a new space on St-Laurent boulevard. This is significant as so many live performance venues have been disappearing since the pandemic and have been fuelled by noise complaint laws. This is exactly the moment to claim our space and enjoy the epic wild clown party.

What are you looking forward to the most from the Festival this year?

Enjoying being surrounded by a community that are interested in finding ways to really connect with an audience and each other. That is the heart of the clown, and I think we can agree that this is so important right now.

I want to thank Vanessa for taking the time out of her busy schedule to answer my questions. The Montreal Clown Festival runs April 4 – 12. For more information, visit: https://www.mtlclownfest.com/

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