News 2023
I’m delighted this is happening as Bristol feels like a second home to me.
There are so many great friends and artists there, it’s such a hive of creativity and good vibes.
Directing the play
Clown workshop with Fraser Hooper
June 21 – 23 (10am – 4pm)
Pionirski dom – Art centre
Ljubljana, Slovenia
PRICE: 150 € (concessions 100 €)
Workshop (in English language with translation if needed) for people with experience in the field of performing arts (theatre, street theatre, clowning, dance, circus etc.) and with an interest in clowning or comical theatre.
Application and information: bufeto.info@gmail.com
Organisation: Bufeto & Klovnbuf Festival in cooperation with Pionirski dom – Centre for Youth Culture and European Capital of Culture GO! 2025
After a quick visit to my folks in London I was back in Christchurch NZ for The Bread and Circus World Buskers and then on to Nelson for their wonderful Buskers festival. In Christchurch I met a fabulous pair of Argentinian identical twin jugglers and I ended up doing a couple of days development work for them in Wellington. You can view them here.
www.thetwinstrip.com
Then it was down to Queenstown to work with a hula hooper artist Jodie Nakat on her new show.
https://www.instagram.com/jodie_nakat/?hl=en
I also had the big pleasure of helping out my old mate Shay Horay for a few days on his new Keith Preene kids show Dinosaur Bingo. We both then performed at the re-opening of The Art Centre in Christchurch at The Off Centre festival March 3 – 5.
Coming up in June I’m back in the UK again and I get to work with two great great acts who just so happen to be two great friends, Amazing Grace Billings from Flame OZ and Darryl Carrington.
http://flameoz.com/flameoz-fire-shows
https://www.darryljcarrington.com/
Most of my music choices come from my love of jazz, it just seems to go so well with clown. So to answer the question I often get asked after the show, “what was that track you played?” here is my current playlist.
ON BROADWAY, JESS RODEN
THREE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER, BOB DOROUGH
ITUMELENG 1974, BATSUMI
PIGMY PART ONE, BILLY LARKIN
BOOGALOO IN ROOM 802, WILLI BOBO
WACK WACK, YOUNG HOLT UNLIMITED
BLUE IN GREEN, MILES DAVIS
CANTELOPE ISLAND, HERBIE HANCOCK
SAMBA DE OREFU, BOSSA NOVAVILLE
EYE OF THE TIGER, SURVIVOR
CHARIOTS OF FIRE, VANGELIS
BAT MACUMBA, GILBERTO GILL
SOUL FOR SAHIB, KOOP
WALTZ FOR KOOP, KOOP
TUDO TOM, BRAZILICA
YO YO JAZZ, NICOLA CONTE
PARCHMAN FARM, MOSE ALLISON
MAS QUE NADA, SERGIO MENDES
News 2022
What a treat it was to perform in my first Christmas circus in Hanover Germany. It was a three week run in a 1500 seater heated Big Top, which was lucky because it was minus 8 degrees outside! Here are some photos.
There’s more about the circus here www.weihnachtscircus-hannover.com/
Last July I performed on an Italian TV show. It was a very odd experience, but it paid well! The show went out in October. You may have to be in Italy to watch this.
www.wittytv.it/tu-si-que-vales/quarta-puntata-sabato-8-ottobre/
This was fun, I got together with some friends last summer and we took to the streets of Wellington with The DOOR KNOBS show.
I performed at Te Papa here in Wellington and below are a couple of photos from the show.
Photo by Mark Tantrum. Courtesy of Te Papa
“It was an absolute delight to host you here at Te Papa this morning – great fun!
Many thanks and I look forward to next time.” Dave Treeby Event Manager Te Papa
Over the winter my great friend Jessica Arpin invited me onto her radio show for a long chat about my work and adventures.
It was a lot of fun and you can listen to it here.
https://cosmicfringeradio.com/podcast/
jessica-arpin-upsidedown-16-28_04_2021-fraser-hooper/
I started 2021 performing at one of my favourite festivals The Christchurch Bread and Circus World Buskers Festival here in New Zealand. It was so great to be performing again. To advertise the festival I was contacted by The Big Idea an online Arts Newsletter to write a short article on what I would tell my 22 year old self. You can read it here.
https://www.thebigidea.nz/stories/make-
funny-business-your-business
This is fun, my great friend Jon Hicks phoned me from London and said his son Eric is doing a circus project at school and wants to interview me. We set up a time and he fired off his questions. Eric is ten years old and he produced a fabulous biography which he deservedly got top marks for.
You can view it here.
https://fraserhooper.com/biography/
I got asked by The NZ Herald Newspaper to write a short article on my five favourite festivals.
You can read the article here.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=1221631
I was interviewed by Matt Boden for his Youtube channel charting the history of current street performers. It was fun to do. Here’s the link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKhETIIZxMU&t=56s&ab_channel=WhiningOn