Clown Lab: A 6-Day Intensive to Build a Bit You Can Take Anywhere

Clown Lab returns to Third Coast for version 2.0 - to get more bits up on their feet, and more clowns out into the wild.

This intensive brings together performers ready to turn bold choices, delightful disasters, and emotional truths into original short-form clown pieces. If you’ve joined Clown Lab before, come back and take a new bit to new heights. If not, you’re right on time.

Co-led by clown duo Jamie Hultgren and Ryan Harrison (a.k.a. the sibling duo Chastity and Trevor from The Joe Schmo Show, and the absurd platonically romantic folk duo @heronandthehen), the work draws from their backgrounds in physical comedy, sketch, and character-driven storytelling. Fueled by their collaborative working style, this immersive workshop uncovers what’s funny, surprising, or oddly moving about you onstage - and puts it to work.

Clown Lab 2.0 unfolds across two weekends - six days total. Participants will play ensemble games, drill foundational exercises, and build a 5-minute piece, working from impulse and failure toward something ridiculous, real, and repeatable. The intensive culminates in a low-stakes, high joy showing on the final day, where every clown gets their moment - whether it’s a full-blown triumph or a beautiful mess. From there, it’s yours to keep building - and take wherever you want it to go.

Friday, June 19th 6:30-9:30pm

Saturday, June 20th 3:15-6:15pm

Sunday, June 21st 3:15-6:15pm

Friday, June 26th 6:30-9:30pm

Saturday, June 27th 11-3pm

Sunday, June 28th 11-3pm

SHOWCASE: Sunday, June 28th at 4:00pm

INSTRUCTOR BIO:

Ryan and Jamie met in 2015 training as clowns, studying in the methods of French master Ecole Philippe Gaullier, the same tradition that clowning great Sacha Baron Cohen emerged from. They developed their mainstay characters of Dalton and Venus over a series of years, building a repertoire of songs and performing their Heron and the Hen folk duo parody act in live variety and sketch shows on the Los Angeles indie comedy scene everywhere from UCB to The Broad Stages, eventually developing a standalone hour-long stage show in 2024. Ryan and Jamie wrote and starred in the Heron and the Hen van life digital series (2021/2022), and have played together as praise band leaders in the 2020 film ‘Faith Based,’ and as siblings Chastity and Trevor in ‘The Joe Schmo Show’ TV series on TBS (2025).