“What we play is life“ – How RED NOSES brings music into the hospital

Music and song in patients’ rooms, along corridors and in outpatient wards! Everyone automatically feels much better because music opens the heart and uplifts the spirit.

It also has the power to move you to tears or put a smile on your face. That’s what RED NOSES clowns do too! Clowning combined with music is the perfect combination to bring relief where it’s needed most.

Exactly for this reason the first clown workshop of the year 2011 held at the International School of Humour (ISH) in Vienna focused entirely on music. It was the perfect setting for training the 22 artists who attended from Germany, Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and other parts of Austria.

Vocal cords were lubricated, ukuleles pulled out, flutes cleaned, guitars tuned – and then they submerged into their very own musical world which lasted 3 days. The sessions were led by musician and teacher, Eddie Luis.

“What we play is life“ – this became their slogan as they rocked, jived, rapped and sang folksongs during the programme.

Taking part with all their hearts and filling the days with humour, the clowns practised ways in which to implement music in their everyday work and find out what reactions they are likely to trigger off.

Whilst they played music improvisation games and trained different styles and genres there was much laughter, singing and applause coupled with storytelling and reminiscing, which invariably evoked more songs.

“The sort of feelings I experienced here are exactly those which I want to take into the hospital with me. I’m not a great musician, but now we’ve learnt how to make patients feel our music deep down in their hearts. That’s what I desperately want to communicate and am eager to pass on,” a German clown rounding up his thoughts on the workshop said. His RED NOSES counterparts clearly agreed with him.

The clowns can improvise a song from just a few words or a name. This always leaves the patents surprised and really happy.

Watch for yourself and listen to such a piece of music: The task in the workshop was to improvise a song using famous quotations. Two Slovakian clowns turned Louis Armstrong’s “What we play is life” into a very touching song.