"The Josephine Baker Exercise" the great Clown exercise for Women... and anyone

“The Josephine Baker Exercise” the great Clown exercise for Women… and anyone.

The Josephine Baker Exercise is situated in my method’s chronological template The Four Articulations for Performance,

The final section of The Four Articulations is whereThe Josephine Baker Exercise occurs. That final section named The Path of Honor. There are 9 exercises in The Path of Honor starting with: The Laurel & Hardy; The Buster Keaton: Charlie Chaplin the Entertainer; The Lucille Ball/Vivian Vance Exercise; then comes The Josephine Baker Exercise; etc.

Each exercise demands physicality and acting. Each exercise demands complete concentration and creative involvement by the actor. Each of The Four Articulations exercises are valid and valuable for movement, creativity, acting, clowning, teaching, directing, and for generating new material.

Photo. Paris workshop with Ira. An improvisation for four.

I am currently in a process of writing a few blog/essays on this site, as well as an article to be published in a few months. The list of 100+ blog/essays and each link is provided at the end of this one.

In this blog/essay’s case, I am in the midst of reading a biography of Josephine Baker. The author interviewed over 400 people who either knew Josephine personally or knew of the various places and events of significance in Josephine’s life and career. Yesterday while reading there were two performances mentioned and I wanted to see if there was any footage of those two. There isn’t. However I did find a fine short conversation with Josephine and an TV host. That conversation is below at the end of this blog/essay.

The book and the video motivated me to write about The Josephine Baker Exercise.

The book is “Naked at the Feast” by Lynn Haney in 1995 and my copy is the republished version of 2002.

The Josephine Baker Exercise is by intention non-verbal. Not that an actor can’t speak if they felt so inclined. In my work I do not have rules. I always have explicit structures and instructions. Those are all in the book Clown Secret’s chapter 2. With any of the exercises, ideally – once an actor is very familiar and has tried the exercise perhaps six or a dozen times – can then stretch the parameters of structure and instructions. After ‘stretching’ perhaps six or a dozen times, then, I highly recommend that an actor return to the pure structure and instructions as originally proposed. By such practice the actor’s insights about themselves and their instincts and creativity will explode their very own intellectual limits.

Each exercise in The Four Articulations is deceptively simple just as is ‘nature’.

Photo. Ira Seidenstein in soiree at end of teaching and directing a workshop.

The Nature of Clown

After spending 3 hours with Sweden’s great clown Nils Poppe at his home I made a saying “If you can tell me where a wildflower comes from then I can tell you where a Clown comes from”. A great clown such as Nils Poppe is an act of nature. Each, wildflower and great clown, come from a deep nature source. That source is also cosmic. As far as my method is concerned, its purpose as I see it is to ‘align one’s stars’ in a very grounded way. The Four Articulations is a direct conduit for that purpose. The Four Articulations template is a major tool to learn or practice “How To Think As A Clown“. I also refer to The Four Articulations as “How To Think As A Clown“.

The Josephine Baker Exercise reminds of her greatness as a Clown, Woman, and Artist. It also reminds of her deep source as a person. We don’t imitate her in the exercise. We emulate her. We honor her. She, in essence via this exercise thus honor’s us as we emerse ourselves in the structure and instructions.

The specific instructions are provided step-by-step in the bookClown Secret, chapter 2. That chapter provides the step-by-step instructions for each exercise of The Four Articulations for Performance. The book is available electronically online in one minute. The book is available via online booksellers as print-on-demand in paperback, or via ebook.

The Josephine Baker is the only one in The Four Articulations which intentionally uses a ‘clown nose’. There are a few Auxilliary exercises which use a ‘clown nose’. Each of the ‘clown nose’ exercises has a different dramatic premise. Each uses a ‘clown nose’ in a different way. That is a cult buster ploy to break the ‘cult of clown’.

The Josephine Baker Exercise is uniquely situated to allow the actor to discover how pathos in Clown operates. It is also for the viewers benefit to witness the Art of Pathos. When you get Clown Secret via Kindle ebook or print-on-demand and if you want to learn the exercise for yourself, or to share with colleagues, or to teach or use for rehearsals or creating material you are welcome to write to me after you have tried it via the given instructions in Chapter 2. My email is

The Path of Honor, and, the Auxilliary sections of The Four Articulations also have specific exercises referencing women clowns. However, ALL exercises can be done by anyone. Note that as mentioned elsewhere in my writings I suggest that the Art and Field of Clown is based firmly on a “Matriarchal/Patriarchal Lineage of Clown.”

In the short interview below you can bear witness to Josephine’s pure lineage of pathos. Her sense of pathos shares her soul along with joy, humanity, and her inimitable coy playfulness.