Giffords Circus's Cal McCrystal is outclowned

AFTER a lifetime of clowning around, fine-tuning capers, injecting comic relief into Hollywood blockbusters and pulling class A pranks on all and sundry, serial farceur Cal McCrystal was caught at his own game - and quite spectacularly.

Minding his own business during a performance of One Man, Two Guvnors on Broadway, the show's co-director was summarily "dragged up on stage" (instead of the usual fake audience member waiting to be called up from the stalls) by James Corden who proceeded to roughhouse him and slosh gunk all over his Sunday best.

Ever the professional Cal patiently endured the jeers, shoving and slime.

"I was covered in muck - it was a good prank," he recalls, duffing his hat to Corden's cheek. "I just had to keep telling myself, 'Don't act, don't react, just be simple'. The audience actually believed it. They had to take me backstage and give me trash clothes from the wardrobe while they put mine in the tumble dryer."

You clown at your risk as he well knows.

The Giffords Circus director has more than his fair share of war stories as a fledgling Bozo.

His clowning career began in the late 1980s, when the 28-year-old answered an ad in Time Out magazine intriguingly branded: Find Your Own Clown.

Soon he was enlisted by master clown Philippe Gaulier to star in his show The End Of The Tunnel at the Edinburgh Fringe. This was a "painfully high profile flop," Cal concedes - at least, until they knocked the production into decent shape.

"It was panned and we had many walkouts. We would sneak down the fire escape after the show to avoid audience members loitering in the foyer. But, as they say, out of adversity we carried on working hard on the show with Philippe and by the time we went on tour it was in good shape. I am sure I could not be a director now was it not for that experience.

"I used to think everyone had a clown in them, but I don't think it's true now. Actors can rehearse, learn lines but as a clown you don't have a script. You're just the most stupid, vulnerable version of your own personality. You're very exposed. It's the most difficult type of performance to get right."

His knack for engineering physical comedy soon caught the eye of talent scouts for Cirque du Soleil. He was promptly enlisted as comedy director, based in Montreal and Las Vegas, and stayed with the troupe for three years.

The retired clown has since lent his expertise as comedy consultant on big-budget films, including The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (in which he also plays Principal Conway) and more recently The Nice Guys, starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe.

In one stand-out scene Gosling, caught in a compromising position in a toilet, scrabbles to hide his modesty with a magazine with one hand while pointing a gun at Crowe with the other and batting off the cubicle door which keeps slamming shut on him with his foot.

Is this his feat of farce his handiwork?

"I just gave Ryan some physical comedy advice," he replies modestly. "I haven't actually seen the movie yet so I don't how much of it they used.

"The main part of my job is coaching the actors and thinking up ideas, adding bits to the script. This is the same idea with the circus; that's why they have clowns. It would be very dreary to watch something all on the one note. You can't have people risking their lives all the times - you need something funny in there so audience have a good laugh. You need comedy to release the tension and then you can build it up again. It keeps things punching along."

Directing and consulting now form the bulk of his day job - with the exception of a little gurning as Paddington in the animated movie. He has just reprised his role as the marmalade-scoffing bear's 'face' in the upcoming sequel.

The silver screen aside, Cal has remained true to the essence of clowning and his own buffooning roots over the years as director of Giffords Circus.

This summer marks his fifth anniversary with Giffords and already the circus's new production, The Painted Wagon, has been hailed as his best yet.

Stalwart Madame Nancy Trotter-Landry, rodeo rider Dan Fortt, jugglers Bibi and Bichu, and Tweedy will make an anticipated return in the western-inspired show, with new tricks and horse stunts in store.

While Cal has a soft spot for resident clown Tweedy, he revels in the theatricality of circus and the endless possibilities to weave distinct acts into one cohesive and moving story.

"Circus is such a blank canvas," he enthuses. "It can be anything.

"Comedy has its place in it but it's not in every single scene. I like some pathos in the show. I love the audience to cry and to laugh. It needs plenty of emotions."

While the vintage family circus seems like small fry compared to the global behemoth that is Cirque du Soleil, he insists working alongside owner Nell Gifford and her motley troupe of acrobats and jugglers has proved his most rewarding job to date.

"Cirque du Soleil is a big corporation with a very slick brand, Giffords is a small village green family circus with a huge heart with a loyal audience," he says without hesitation. "It's a much richer experience."

He was never one for the American bigger-than-life approach to clowning, he admits.

"I don't think they understood how clowns work that well. They tried to have these poetic star clowns with strange painted faces. I prefer a much more human approach. My performances at Giffords are warm, smiling, welcoming. It's a very different style to the amazing, creatures from outer space style that Cirque du Soleil tend to do."

His tack is far more down to earth, to say the least. When it comes to devising new skits, he turns to his fellow man - preferably a particularly clueless or clumsy specimen - for fresh material. Others' stupidity is his fodder.

"If somebody says something very clever and funny it will get a laugh but it won't get the same type of roaring belly laugh as natural human stupidity," he deadpans.

"It's a very endearing thing. We love each other because of our stupidity, not because we're clever. It's that warmth and human frailty that makes me laugh. I don't watch a lot of comedy; I observe people. There are always silly things happening all the time. It keeps me amused - and inspired."

Giffords Circus returns to Marlborough Common from August 25 and September 5. For tickets go to www.giffordscircus.com.