If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like when chaos, comedy and art collide — it probably looks like Elf Lyons. The award-winning comedian and self-proclaimed “cult clown” is taking over Soho Theatre this winter with The Bird Trilogy (12–20 Dec) and Horses (7–10 Jan), following a year of Sky Arts Comedy Awards, five-star reviews, and international acclaim. Blending mime, music, and mayhem, Elf continues to push the boundaries of what comedy can be — turning the surreal into something sincerely human. We caught up with Elf Lyons to talk about creativity, chaos, and why laughter is the last form of rebellion.
Your work has always blurred the line between clowning, theatre, and comedy. What keeps drawing you to that in-between space where chaos, humour, and art all collide
Once you dip your toe into different art forms and genres, it is almost impossible to then restrict yourself and return back to the world of just you and a microphone. When you realise how much impact you can have with a well timed light, sound cue, magic trick or physical elements like mime, , audience interaction and game play, the inner addict in your brain who wants to push you to be the best prohibits you from taking the easy out and going ‘nah, let’s just have a microphone and a stool and be done with it’.
I love risk, and I grew up being encouraged to appreciate all sorts of art – from theatre, live art, clowning, installation art, public speakers, academics, and live music – even when I didn’t understand what I was watching. All forms of theatre and communication inspire me to make multi disciplinary work that appeals to as wide and as diverse an audience as possible. I want people to feel magic, enjoy the spectacle and be included in the worlds I try to make. Try as I might to make more ‘traditional’ and ‘simplified’ work, I just can’t really do it…. Every year the ideas in my head get bigger.
This year I did want to make a really simple character comedy show, and now, I am trying to learn how to fly a plane….
The Bird Trilogy revisits three of your most celebrated shows — Swan, ChiffChaff and Raven. What inspired you to bring these birds back together, and how do they connect as a trilogy?
What’s the point of running the same route every day. Put yourself on the highest incline possible.
I love stress, anxiety, not sleeping, forgetting to eat, ordering props at 2am on a friday night, trying to stitch costumes maniacally at 3.30am on a Sunday, having to hire an entire dance studio in the desperate bid to re-remember how to mime being a spider, meeting friends after a show at 11.30pm whilst absolutely covered in fake blood, with my tits out, with watermelon in my hair. I love having to try and source giant Watermelons in London, in December. I love doing things that make my parents look at me with extreme worry and concern. I love my siblings bringing their friends to my shows and watching my brother watch with pride and absolute horror at the same time as I mime biting lots of peoples penises off. I love getting to meet different people every night who say “I GET IT!” or “THAT”S HOW I FEEL!”. I love the fact that I get to pretend to be a lion giving birth to the earth on stage, and people get it.
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Each of the three birds reimagines wildly different worlds — ballet, economics, and gothic horror. What’s the thread that ties these eccentric universes together for you?
I think audiences learn more about you through what you love rather than what you have lived through. Shows and work can be deeply autobiographical and intimate without you ever having to utter a trauma or a revelation to the audience. Stephen King said that ‘Fiction is the truth inside the lie’ and I always think of that when making work. Though, in truth, ChiffChaff now, due to the amount of verbatim theatre in it, is possibly the most intimate and personal of the three shows.
Your latest show Horses, performed with Treacle the horse, has been described as “genius” and “imaginative.” How did the idea for a comedy show performed by a horse first take shape?
I thought the idea was funny. It made me laugh. It made my sister laugh. That was it. That was enough.
You don’t have to re-invent the wheel to make a unique show. If something feels good – even if it feels easy – trust it.
You’ve been called a “cult clown” and “one of the funniest comedians of the 21st century.” How do you balance the surreal and the sincere in your performances?
That is really hard to answer because I think it just comes down to being authentic and being you. I think Surreal comes from the idea of being the ‘super real’, what exists in real time in your brain and sharing everything at once. I don’t try to be ‘surreal’ or purposefully weird or clown-like. The ideas that I have, which I think are genuinely good and clear cut ideas and often really obvious ideas, end up being seen as being surreal and I suppose because I try not to overthink that too much, it means audiences know I am not being a performative weirdo and trying super hard to be ‘werid’. I HATE IT when people TRY to be more weird than they actually are. Just be you. Does that make sense?
Winning the Sky Arts Comedy Award and receiving rave reviews must feel validating after years of pushing boundaries. How do you process recognition while staying creatively fearless?
I still live with my parents. I still work seven days a week. This industry is tough. You adore the awards because they are fun and they are this beautiful ice cream at the end of a very hot, tiring day – but the reality is, the moment you finish one show – the first thing someone asks you is “what next” and that is it. No matter what you get, someone is always going to ask you “What’s next?”, which means you go to bed, you set your alarm, you wake up , and you start work on the next thing… and thus it continues.
You’re not just a performer but also a teacher, writer, and director. How do these roles feed into your clowning practice — and what’s the biggest misconception people have about clown work?
That it is being stupid and pretending to be a child (vomit). I would urge anyone who has any judgments around what clowning is, to come and do one of my courses. I adore teaching. Honestly , if I didn’t teach, I wouldn’t be the performer I am. Being a teacher is an art form which I spend a long time working hard to become an expert in, and every time I teach, I learn more about myself and about performance. When I eventually stop working at some point, I think teaching will be the thing I was most proud of in my life. That, and biting mens d*cks off on stage and punching a watermelon with my arm.
Both The Bird Trilogy and Horses explore imagination and play. In an increasingly serious world, what role do you think absurdity and laughter play in keeping us human?
They stop us from jumping off bridges and walking off the end of platforms and believing that the world is fixed and things cannot get better.
xxx
Elf Lyons is bringing The Bird Trilogy and Horses to Soho Theatre from Friday 12th Dec and Wednesday 7th January. Tickets available here.