The
Goof
Method

Chase is simply one of the best clown teachers and performers in the city. A warm, sensitive, and rigorous teacher who cares deeply not only about his students’ learning journeys, but about the state of clown pedagogy itself. Highly recommend watching him perform and taking his classes.

You feel like an idiot and it’s super vulnerable, but also funny. Chase does a great job of summing it up so you walk away with genuinely useful information. It’s enlivening and worth it, especially if practicing failure is useful to you. For me, it is.

In my stand-up sets after the workshop, I feel more playful and comfortable on stage. I trust myself more to be funny without planning or material, and I feel much more tapped into my creative instincts.

There’s a freedom to be vulnerable and to explore, a space to reconnect with what joy actually means to you. Life can often make you afraid to take up space, and Chase’s class recognizes the masks we wear. He creates an environment where you’re reminded that you’re okay, and that it’s all just play.

I would describe clown workshops as improv on steroids, with an emphasis on learning confident attunement. Through receiving no’s and negative feedback and improvising until material landed, I gained an increased comfort with eye contact and more advanced social skills — how to win over people in regular conversation, at parties, at work. After just one class, I found myself more comfortable communicating difficult information to relatives, meeting new people, being present without feeling the need to overpower or act in any particular way. I’ve never had such an effective training for attuning myself socially. Chase is encouraging and challenging all at once — someone you feel you can naturally trust to take you through the performing art.

Clown has been the perfect antidote for my overthinking tendencies as a writer. ‘Flopping exposure therapy’ builds a hard-to-come-by stage confidence that will make any future performance a slam dunk. But you don’t need to be a performer to benefit from clown — it will show up in other areas of your life. Chase is an empathetic and grounded teacher — he’s like cheese, he can be soft or firm depending on what’s needed. Even if I flop hard during a class, I feel safe, because it means I’m on the right track.

It’s like embarrassing yourself into becoming yourself. You get to fuck up in a room full of people, work through it, recover, and be better for it. Chase is playful, encouraging, and safe — my goofiest self used to be reserved for private spaces, but I’m now much more comfortable being silly in public. It’s been really healing.

Chase’s classes are terrifying and fun. They inspire me to do things afraid and remind me of the beauty in that, which I use on stage and in my life. The biggest shift for me was presence, and being reminded to bring more of myself into my work.

Chase creates a space where it feels safe to take risks. Even when I lack confidence, I never feel alone out on the floor. His skills are multi-disciplinary and solid, and I love his classes, even though they are challenging.

With warmth, care, and real skill, Chase creates a welcoming and stimulating space to explore beyond our habits and reconnect with spontaneity. It feels less like an invitation and more like a permission to be. The workshop supported me in finding my way back to a childlike, playful exploration, allowing me to take risks with spontaneity and with others.

A great intro to modern solo-improv clown — more stand-up adjacent than a traditional clown class, but closer to theatre than to stand-up. Very helpful for aspiring clowns and comedians because it provides you with a real, live audience and coaching in the moment. There’s no bullshitting: if you suck, you’ll know it. Chase helped me learn how to stick through a bit — even if it’s flopping — and stay locked in with the audience instead of running away. He did not need to give me detailed, tailored feedback as I was simply a drop-in attendee, but he took the time to, and that is a testament to his generosity.

Chase’s coaching helped me get back into clown after a hiatus. He creates an environment that encourages risk-taking and gives feedback that helps you get out of your head. His teaching was instrumental in helping me perform my first five-minute bit at an open mic. I don’t think I would have felt capable without his guidance.

What I love most about Chase’s approach is that he encourages you to find what works for you. He’s deeply empathetic and clearly cares about every person in the room, while bringing a level of organization and consistency that’s rare. I’m slowly finding the confidence to be weird on stage.

An excellent exploration applying clown principles of presence, playfulness, and risk to commercial self-tapes. Chase provides an informed, boundary-pushing, and supportive space. What shifted was my confidence on camera — especially in containing and communicating emotion through my eyes.

I walked in focused on getting everything “perfect” and left understanding that perfection isn’t the goal. Presence is. The workshop challenged me to sit in discomfort long enough to discover something more honest underneath. I left more confident, more present, and more willing to take risks.

A unique exploration of comedy training. Learning about the cycle of tension completely reframed how I view performance. It’s something I could have spent an entire week exploring.

No matter how hard I try to hide anxiety or nerves, they’re still visible — so the work has to be fun for me, not just what casting wants. Chase helped me understand I have control over the tapes I submit, and gave me clarity on how states of tension apply to script breakdowns.

A really fun class that prioritizes enjoying the work and finding your unique way through a scene or audition. Using clown as a tool, Chase helps bring play and life into commercial acting. What shifted for me was a willingness to take more risks and a clearer understanding of how auditions actually work.