for booking information

AUTHOR AND DIRECTOR: Joe Dieffenbacher

STYLE: buffon - clown

LANGUAGE: Europanto

MINIMUM PLAY AREA: 5m x 5m 7m height

DURATION OF SHOW: 30 mins.

SET-UP/STRIKE TIME: 10/10 mins.

AUDIENCE: family

VENUE: street / theatre / circus

bon appetit!

This mad comic catches fruits & vegetables on his face. Trying to open the wine he ends up in a one-arm handstand on top of the bottle. It's culinary slapstick, challenging and enchanting the audience with food for thought and laughter for the belly.

Background: My work with the clown goes back to 1982 when I got a job at a costume rental / gag gift / balloon delivery shop in Greensboro, NC. Working there I met a man heading to the Ringling Clown College. Never thought anyone could get paid for acting the fool but the next year I got accepted and spent a a year with the circus acting the fool, traveling the country by train and jumping over elephants. My clown went through various evolutions over the years, from the big shoes-big costume necessary to be seen in the arenas where the three-ring circus played, to the simple, almost minimalist anti-clown of my Waiting for the Fridge show. For Bon Appetit I wanted a tougher, street clown that combined my interest in the Phillippe Gaulier-inspired buffon clowning, and my desire to integrate some of the energy of the commedia character, Pulcinella.

"A specialist in the art of movement astonishing everyone who sees him." EL PERIODICO, ZARAGOZA, ESPAÑA

"Imagination, innovation and improvisation at its best!" Grainne Millar, Programming Manager, Temple Bar, Dublin

"Nakupelle's performance of Bon Appetit at Manchester's Xtraxx festival on a late Saturday evening ... was one of my personal favorite shows of the year. The energy, the relationship with the (potentially difficult!) audience and the simple audacity of the show were all tremendous." Jonathan Halloway, Festival Director - National Theatre - London

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