MUMP AND SMOOT

'Mump and Smoot' are the stage names of Michael Kennard and John Turner, two Canadian clowns who exploit the interface between humor and horror for their unique performance artform.
Mump and Smoot live on the planet Ummo and worship the deity Ummo, as long as he might be responsive to their prayers. 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 as diverse as 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', 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', played by Turner, is the perpetual innocent; playful, childlike, silly, bullied by Mump but occasionally standing up to him.
The plays occur in a world of surrealistic set design, with simple props combined with haunting and evocative music and sound effects providing an overall impression of a vast and uncaring universe inhabited by powers beyond the scale of mere Ummonians.
Kennard and Turner met in Toronto in 1986 in Second City workshops, where they discovered a mutual talent for improvising with gibberish dialogue. While at Second City, they met Karen Hines, an integral part of the team who has directed all their shows. The final piece fell into place when they attended an innovative course by the late Richard Pochinko in the new field of what he called ''Canadian Clowning''. On May 13, 1988, fittingly, Friday the 13, Mump and Smoot presented their first show, ''Jump the Gun''. Since then they have played not just fringe theater throughout Canada, but moved on to regional theaters and festivals, and such venues as 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''.
Outside their Mump and Smoot persona, 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. Along with Hines, they continue to present workshops and courses in Clown, movement, and physical comedy.

Contents

Productions

See also

References

Productions

★ ''Something Else''

★ ''Something''

★ ''Ferno''

★ ''Caged''

★ ''Flux''

★ ''The Dentist''

★ ''Pitooey''

See also

★ Bouffon

★ Evil clown

★ Theatre of the Absurd

References

★ Mump and Smoot official site