Clown Of The Month: Josh Matthews
By Calvin Kai Ku
What a delight to share a little about our Clown Of The Month: Josh Matthews!
We’re absolutely grateful to have Josh be a part of the Medical Clown Project and healthcare clowning in the Bay Area. Without further ado, here’s a little about the incomparable: Josh Matthews!
ABOUT JOSH
I found a love for variety arts early on. When I was 6, I went to an outdoor play and a performer was singing a song in the middle of the audience. I remember the joy and energy of that person being right next to me and thinking “Ok, this is it. This is who I want to be”.
I found interactive and improvisational performance early in my career and that lit a spark in my mind and heart that has informed every step of my life. Through character, improvisation and interaction I have found new spaces in places we feel are solid and immovable.
I am a clown, actor, and director specializing in physical theater, interactive performance, and performer generated works. As a co-artistic director of Under the Table ensemble theater, a major theme of our work has been an examination of the performer’s relationship to the audience.
Under the Table has created immersive sets that transport the audience into a facsimile of a submarine in our original production of Monster (2013), as well as created an interactive rock fight with the audience that captures a hilarious siege in our take on The Hunchback(s) of Notre Dame (2011). Under the Table has co-created seven original productions, touring and teaching nationally and internationally.
I have also worked as a clown doctor for the last 18 years finding moments of delight, fun and transformation within medical facilities throughout the U.S. Currently I am the lead clown at Laguna Honda with the Medical Clown Project.
As a teaching artist I have worked with The New Victory Theater, NYU, Occidental College to name a few. My focus as a teaching artist has been examining character interaction, comedy and site specific performance. Currently I am a lead teaching artist for American Conservatory Theater’s education program.
I have performed with San Diego Rep, The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, The Big Apple Circus, and Third Rail Projects. With Third Rail Projects, I played the role of “The Mad Hatter” in Then She Fell, a New York Times Top Ten Pick of 2012, and the role of “Sam” in Ghost Light, performed at Lincoln Center, which was New York Times Critic’s Pick in 2016.
I co-wrote and directed Bad Kid, a New York Times Critic’s Pick in 2012, and directed the Chicago Neo-Futurists’ production of Mike Mother, a Time Out Critic’s Pick. I am a graduate of the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre.
