Mump and Smoot

Mump and Smoot are a Canadian clown duo created by Michael Kennard and John Turner, and directed by Karen Hines.[1] Also referred to as 'clowns of horror', they've produced interactive, improvisational plays aimed squarely at adult audiences.[2]

History

Kennard and Turner met in Toronto in 1986 in Second City workshops, where they discovered a mutual talent for improvising with gibberish dialogue.[3] While at Second City, they met Karen Hines, who has directed all their shows. Kennard and Turner also studied under Richard Pochinko in a new field of what he called Canadian clowning.[3] On May 13, 1988, Mump and Smoot presented their first show, Jump the Gun. Since then they have played fringe theaters throughout Canada, regional theaters and festivals, the American Repertory Theater, associate artist positions at the Yale Repertory Theater, and Israeli and Palestinian festivals culminating with a joint workshop for Israelis and Palestinians together. In addition to theater, Mump and Smoot have made numerous television appearances and two short films, including Laurie Lynd's The Fairy Who Didn't Want to Be a Fairy Anymore.[4]

Their early shows often featured Debbie Tidy as Wog, an evil stage manager who served as a foil for the duo,[5] while later shows replaced Wog with Zug, a ringmaster figure played by Rick Kunst.[6]

Outside their Mump and Smoot personae, Kennard and Turner ran The SPACE (Studio for Physical and Clown Exploration) in Toronto from 1997 through 2002, where they not only worked on their shows, but also taught clown and presented workshops, student theater, and other productions.[6] Along with Hines, they continue to present workshops and courses in clown, movement, and physical comedy.[7]

Background

Mump and Smoot live on the planet Ummo and worship the deity Ummo, as long as he might be responsive to their prayers.[6] Their dialogue is in their native language of Ummonian, which is nevertheless clear to the audience (who often play a part in the performance). They combine influences from sources including Monty Python, the Three Stooges, I Love Lucy, Alfred Jarry, Samuel Beckett, and Antonin Artaud to elicit in their audience the peculiar mix of sympathy, empathy, schadenfreude, and horror that stem from watching flawed individuals alternately fail and succeed at their petty but all too human schemes. Mump and Smoot shows are said to seem so spontaneous that people sometimes forget that they are scripted. To obtain this effect, Kennard and Turner use an improvisational technique rooted in an art called Canadian clown, developed by Richard Pochinko in the 1980s. Pochinko's style borrowed from many traditions including First Nations, American and European clowning.

Kennard and Turner have also trained with movement coach Fiona Griffiths and clown teacher Ian Wallace. Workshops with Philippe Gaulier in Bouffon and John Towsen in physical comedy have also been influential.

Mump (the Joey), played by Kennard, is the natural leader; authoritative, pompous, bullying, scheming and manipulative, alternately erupting in towering violent rages and completely collapsing from terror. Smoot (the Auguste), played by Turner, is the perpetual innocent; playful, childlike, silly, bullied by Mump but occasionally standing up to him.[6]

The plays occur in a world of surrealistic set design, with simple props combined with haunting and evocative music (by Greg Morrison) and sound effects providing an overall impression of a vast and uncaring universe inhabited by powers beyond the scale of mere Ummonians.

Productions

  • The Dentist (1989)[8]
  • Something (1989)[9]
  • Caged (1990)[5]
  • Ferno (1992)[6]
  • Pitooey (1995)[2]
  • Tense (1997)[6]
  • Something Else (1998)[6]
  • Mump and Smoot in Flux (2002)[10]
  • Cracked (2010)[11]
  • Anything (2014)[3]

Awards

Their 2002 production Mump and Smoot in Flux won two Dora Mavor Moore Awards in 2003, for Outstanding Production and Best Direction (Hines) in the independent theatre division,[10] and was nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award for Best Comedic Play.[12]

In 2015, the duo won a Canadian Comedy Award for Outstanding Performance in a Comedic Play for Anything.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Mump and Smoot's comic fright delight; Toronto's terror clowns back in Vancouver to tickle your horror bone". Vancouver Sun, April 29, 2017.
  2. 1 2 "After an Ummo eon, Mump and Smoot reunite". Edmonton Journal, July 17, 2004.
  3. 1 2 3 "Real terrors influence the clowns of horror". Calgary Herald, January 20, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Contrary fairy tale is class work". Toronto Star, July 2, 1993.
  5. 1 2 "Caged with Wog". Edmonton Journal, August 23, 1990.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Mump & Smoot live by clowns' laws ; Pair return to the stage with a new show drawn from their genre's traditions". Toronto Star, January 14, 1999.
  7. ↑ "Clown reveals what's behind greasepaint". Victoria Times-Colonist, October 2, 2003.
  8. ↑ "Theatre notes". Toronto Star, August 30, 1991.
  9. ↑ "Mump and Smoot in Something with Wog (Stage 6)". Edmonton Journal, August 27, 1989.
  10. 1 2 "Kareda's Tarragon is the star at the Dora awards with 13 wins". National Post, June 24, 2003.
  11. ↑ "Creepy clowns kick off festival: Magnetic North opens with a bang". Waterloo Region Record, June 11, 2010.
  12. ↑ "2003 Canadian Comedy Awards to be handed out at London comedy festival". Peterborough Examiner, July 26, 2003.
  13. ↑ "Mump and Smoot Win Comedy Award". Curious Arts, September 21, 2015.
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