Scholarships Available!
〰️
Scholarships Available! 〰️
NEW YORK CITY 2025
COOL FOOL SCHOOL
FOUR DAY INTENSIVE
AUGUST 19-22, 2025
Details
Join the Laughter League for our intensive playground for actors, instigators, interlocutors, improvisers, playful spirits and clowns!
WHAT
This course will guide performers in developing the tools required for being successful eccentric physical comedians, with an emphasis on bringing their gifts to the work of uplifting lives in marginalized populations, pediatric hospitals and memory care centers.
Faculty: Hilary Chaplain, Cleo DeOrio, Tiffany Riley and Dick Monday
WHERE
All classes will be held at the Brooklyn Art Haus in Brooklyn. Apply today. To begin the application process for this program send us an email: info@laughterleague.org. Full tuition for the week is $600. There are five full scholarships available.
WHO
Study with career clowns at COOL FOOL SCHOOL (scholarships available)
Circuses, theme parks, festivals, theatres. There have never been more ways to build a career path as a clown.
So let's get to work.
With lifelong clown pros as instructors and special industry guests we'll shape and direct your bits, dive deeper into character, and zero in on what work you need to be doing to get the gigs. For clowns who have already developed characters and comedic material but want to take their work to the next level and build toward a career. Featuring special guests: award-winning clowns from around the globe joining via zoom.
Tue Aug 19-Fri Aug 22 10 AM-5 PM. Brooklyn Art Haus, 24 Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn. Early bird discount for signups before July 1
Apply here: Cool Fool School Application
Faculty Bios
HILARY CHAPLAIN
Since 2005, Hilary Chaplain has been touring internationally with her award winning solo show A LIFE IN HER DAY, directed by Avner Eisenberg, and in variety shows worldwide with her short comic numbers. In 2018 she created a show in collaboration with other artists called THE LAST RAT OF THERESIENSTADT which won the top four awards when it premiered at the Lalka Tez Cztowiek Puppet Festival in Warsaw, Poland. Drawing inspiration from clown theatre, movement, objects and puppetry, Hilary has been creating solo and ensemble work for the past 40 years. She was an original cast member in Bill Irwin’s LARGELY/NEW YORK and appeared on Broadway in the Public Theatre production of THE TEMPEST directed by George C. Wolfe. She played a featured role in Forrest Gump, and a lawyer on LAW AND ORDER CRIMINAL INTENT. Hilary entertained children in NYC hospitals as “Nurse Nice” of the renowned Big Apple Circus Hospital Clown Program® (since 1987) and is a founding member of the New York Goofs, a clown ensemble created in 1996. She has performed and taught worldwide in over 20 countries and 5 continents. She is currently in development with a new show called BITE ME! with CB Goodman and Aitor Basauri.
CLEO DEORIO
Cleo DeOrio (she/her) is a Physical Theatre and Dance artist-teacher from Cleveland, Ohio. Cleo received a BA at Baldwin Wallace University, where she focused her studies in Directing and Choreography, and an MFA from Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, where she developed works such as Citizens of Nowhere and Visions of a Crying Girl. Cleo specializes in storytelling through movement, physical character development, emotional embodiment, and devising. Cleo is currently the Operations Supervisor at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse. Visit her website at cleodeorio.com
DICK MONDAY
Dick’s film and television credits include Brain Donors, Sweet and Lowdown, My Life, Saved by the Bell, The Late Show and The Tonight Show. Dick has been featured with Omnium Circus, Big Apple Circus, Circus Sarasota, Circo Atayde, Lone Star Circus, MadHattan in Las Vegas and Ringling. He co-founded the New York Goofs and Laughter League, a non-profit organization bringing the healing power of humor to top rated Children’s hospitals throughout the United States. Dick was Director of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Clown College and Director of Clowning for The Greatest Show on Earth.
TIFFANY RILEY
Tiffany was the first female clown featured in The Big Apple Circus, has performed with Omnium Circus, Circus Sarasota, Circo Atayde, Lone Star Circus and Ringling. She co-founded the New York Goofs and Laughter League, a non-profit organization that brings the healing power of humor to patients at top pediatric facilities in New York, Boston, Providence, Ft. Worth, Dallas, Atlanta and Seattle. She holds a BFA in Acting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and Master of Liberal Studies from SMU. Tiffany’s book, Beyond the Red Nose: The Serious Business of Healthcare Clowning, is available on Amazon, Kindle and Audible.