Another rainy morning in Bristol, what better to do than head out to Cafe Number 12 in Easton for eggs and chat with internationally acclaimed improviser, Joanne Tremarco.

I voice-recorded us chatting for 1 hour and 17 minutes and the following blog is an edited version of our conversation. It's the 5th in a series of blogs entitled “When Holly Met...”, capturing conversations with clowns and clown teachers, Joanne is the first fool / fooling teacher I've interviewed. 

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It brings me great pleasure to present a guest blog from performer / writer and long-term collaborator, Helen Duff. Helen has been applying some of the techniques she learned in my performance workshops to her writing, with fascinating results... Over to you, Helen!

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I'm sitting in Paddington station, beaming the happy glow of a play-geek who's spent a full day of contemplating the nature of play with a gang of fired-up play enthusiasts. 

I was invited up to London by the Wellcome Collection, to speak at their 'Perspectives On Play' symposium...

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Introducing Guest Blogger Neil Morbey who attended our recent Fools Retreat in Dorset. Neil is a meditation teacher and 1-to1 coach. Over to you Neil...

“I am a beautiful fool, just like everyone else.” 

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Last week, a recent Intro To Clown student sent me a questionnaire. She's doing a research project about the use of positive feedback in creative learning environments. I happened to have a very long train journey - all the way from Glasgow to Bristol, would you believe? I thought – what better way to pass the time than to joyfully grapple with the subject of positive feedback. I'd like to share some of what I wrote with you, dear reader. I hope it's useful.

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Watch a video of Holly and Dominique talking about the ingredients of the 4 weeks of Summer School.

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Watch a video of Holly and Dominique talking about their vision for Summer School 2019!

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Holly Stoppit and Dominique Fester sit in the dappled sunlight in Dominique's garden, chatting about their upcoming summer schools, what they're excited about and what you might get out of it if you sign up.

H: Hey Dominique Fester, we're running some summer schools, this summer!

D: We are, Holly Stoppit!

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Meet some of the characters that appeared during Assembling Your Inner Cast in August 2018.

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This is the only picture I have of the last two weeks at Fools School. Strawberries and Borage, from the final banquet of the second of two week-long fooling courses I've just run back to back in Bristol. One of the fools pointed out that strawberries are the only fruit to carry their seeds on the outside. Another fool told us that borage traditionally represents courage. I think this beautifully describes what's been happening at fools school for the... Read more >