Philippe Gaulier

Philippe Gaulier (French pronunciation: [filip golje]; 4 March 1943 – 9 February 2026) was a French professor of theatre, dramatic theorist, pedagogue, and master clown. He was the founder of École Philippe Gaulier, a French theatre school in Étampes, outside Paris. After studying under Jean Vilar and Alain Cuny at Théâtre National Populaire and then under Jacques Lecoq, Gaulier was an instructor at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. Known for his "legendarily terrifying teaching style", he published The Tormentor (Le Gégèneur), a book discussing his thoughts on the theatre and containing exercises designed to develop an actor's skill. Gaulier had a significant influence on British theatre, where his teaching inspired the creation of numerous theatre companies including the Théâtre de Complicité, as well as theatre companies throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Gaulier was known for performing in both clown and bouffon comic genres, in addition to his work as a playwright and director.

Emma Thompson, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Roberto Benigni, Rachel Weisz, Simon McBurney, Geoffrey Rush, Kathryn Hunter, Yolande Moreau, Viggo Venn, Anthony Wong, and Mathew Baynton numbered among his students. Baron Cohen has particularly praised him for "help[ing him] understand how to be funny", and called Gaulier "the greatest living teacher of clown and modern theatre, and the funniest man I have ever met."

Gaulier was born in occupied Paris on 4 March 1943 to a doctor, his father, and a Spanish mother. He grew up at 16 Rue de la Croix-Faubin, near a circus and opposite the former Petite Roquette prison, where stones in the pavement marked the site of the guillotine. His father, a general practitioner, told his children that looking at the stones "would be good" so that "they will not be idiots" and "will follow the rules of the society." Gaulier called his father "a bourgeois idiot" and described himself as "the rebel" of his family, adding: "I never been conservative." He attributed his sense of humour to his mother: "My father hated my jokes, but not my mother. She was my first spectator. And my first spectator thought I am a genius. So I carried on, because of my mother."

At 8 years old he was kicked out of school for punching his gymnastics teacher; he stated that he did not regret this as the instructor made students march as though they were in the army. Gaulier studied under Jean Vilar and Alain Cuny as a member of the Théâtre National Populaire. He had an ambition to be a tragic actor, but said he was laughed at every time he attempted to do serious work in drama school. He then began a class with Jacques Lecoq who trained him in clowning, improvisation, and mask work.

Throughout the 1970s, Gaulier had a famous clown act with Pierre Byland [de], which they performed extensively in Paris at the Odéon Théâtre de l'Europe and toured internationally. One clown show in particular, Les Assiettes, in which Gaulier and Byland broke 200 plates every night, became a legendary hit in Paris. Gaulier directed the show in collaboration with Roger Blin, director of the original productions of Waiting for Godot and Endgame by Samuel Beckett. Gaulier recalled that the Parisian theatre world at the time was preoccupied with the philosophy of Bertolt Brecht: "Us, we wanted to do the best idiot show in the world."

During the 1970s, Gaulier taught alongside Lecoq at L'École Internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq, where he disagreed with Lecoq's pedagogy and teaching style. Gaulier had never intended to become a teacher — "I was more or less a child of May '68... always I thought the teachers, they are like police" — and began teaching only because Lecoq asked him to: "I admired Jacques Lecoq. And I said yes." In 1980, after a decade of growing differences, Gaulier left to open his own school, École Philippe Gaulier, in Paris. When asked about pedagogical differences with Lecoq, Gaulier responded, "I did not want to accept his style, I did not like it. So after 10 years there I said, 'I'm going to do my own school.' If you see my students, you'll also see they have so many different styles that you can't say they come from Philippe Gaulier's school. I am happy with that. I don't give a style to my students. I want to give freedom, not my style."

In 1980, Gaulier opened École Philippe Gaulier, in Paris. The school received financial backing by Françoise Dolto and Madeline Milhaud, wife of Darius Milhaud. In 1991, Arts Council of England invited Gaulier to move the École Philippe Gaulier to London, in the neighborhood of Cricklewood, in the United Kingdom, where it was based for eleven years until 2002. Sacha Baron Cohen attended the school around 1996. After Lecoq's death in 1999, Gaulier's reputation grew larger as his school continued to take students.

In 2005, the school reopened back in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, until 2011, when it moved again, this time to Étampes, where it opened in summer 2011. Organized by Small Nose Productions, Gaulier returned to the UK once a year to run workshops at Trestle Arts Base in St Albans, Herts.^{[citation needed]}