This Melbourne Fringe at the Motley Wherehaus.

A world premiere of Die Clown Die, by a once in a generation clown Benny Boot ( “Weird Al” Yankovic at the Hammersmith Apollo, Daveks One Night stand and ‘Tour’ with Michael Winslow.)

This will be Benny Boots first show back in on the scene after spending four years in a Japanese monastery.

Die Clown Die is a 50-minute clown show unlike any other — a bold and tender collision of clown and spiritual experience, where comedy and the contemplative are not opposites but partners. The show begins the moment the audience enters, where ambient sound and a pulsing light — illuminating and dimming the room in time with a live amplified breath — prime them for the journey to come. Inside, they meet Bootoh — a clown who has vowed to lead the audience to nirvana but has no clue how to get there, and who fumbles his way through countless ridiculous deaths in pursuit of an impossible perfect ending. Across the show, Bootoh weaves between two states — Clown (laughter, games, and audience play) and Emptiness (breath, stillness, and clear mind). Each cycle takes the audience a layer deeper, like an onion, until clown and audience are breathing as one. Lighting expands and contracts like a pair of lungs. Bespoke music supports the rhythm. Staging is minimal — a clearly defined threshold between the two states (perhaps a circle, a line, or a raised section of stage), occasional projected imagery, and almost nothing else. Audiences remain seated but participate with their senses, their minds, and their breath, with occasional moments of direct play between the clown and individual audience members. By the end, the show offers something rare on a comedy stage — a playful taste of emptiness, of clear mind, of stillness and shared presence — delivered through belly laughs and the body of a fool who keeps failing to find what he’s looking for.

@creative_katana