COMEDY

Kiva is a clown, a stand up comedian and an improvisor

What’s going on at the moment?

Kiva is pretty busy on the comedy circuit in Barcelona. She has four improv teams: 3.5%, Gladys and Mabel, Puppet Prov and Barcelona Improv Group (BIG) with whom she performs regularly at Tinta Roja, Calabria 66, Zangamanga, La Rubia and Bar de Retro. One of the teams is free-form improv, one mixes long-form and short-form, one involves puppets and one is clown-based and is about two grannies trying to become mayor of Barcelona… you will have to see all four teams perform to figure out which is which! To see Kiva’s upcoming Improv shows…click here. 

Kiva also performs regularly on the stand-up scene in Barcelona. She uses the honesty and absurdity of her clowning to bring hilarious characters to life to tell stories and anecdotes that all Irish seem to be born with. She performs regularly at Hush Hush Club, Comedy Circus, Cave @ Las Cuevas, Limerick's, Comedy Bomb Shelter, Just Kidding, Atomic Comedy, Paraiguas and Craft Comedy. To see her latest stand up shows, you guessed it… click here. 

Very excitingly last August 2018 Kiva brought her first solo show - MATCH - to Edinburgh Fringe after a Barcelona run of the show. She gained great success and critical acclaim and is going to tour MATCH towards the end of 2020. To find out more about MATCH and previous shows from No Guilty Bones (her theatre company) you know the drill - click here.

Finally, Kiva’s bread-and-butter job has been hospital clowning for the last 10 years. She has worked in Ireland, the UK and Spain as Dr Scallywag - or Dra Escalivada in Spain. bringing humour, light and life to a world that needs it the most. Check out the incredible work done all over the world by Theodora Children’s Charity.

To see the full comedy gallery

Where she trained…

Kiva has been working in comedy for well over a decade. Having trained with clown maestros such Philippe Gaulier and Desmond Jones, as well as studying in Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris, she has always had an interest in comedic characters and prides herself on her spontaneity and ability to work with the crowd.

Her comedy work began quite randomly at the age of 18 when she started off working as a clown doctor with the Irish Humour Foundation in Dublin, entertaining children in hospitals with a mixture of clowning, storytelling, puppeteering and general madness. Here she trained with John Paul Bell as well as studying in Trinity College Dublin and with the Gaiety Improvisation Group.

This work led her to London where she worked with Finger in the Pie theatre and the Theodora Foundation once again as a clown doctor, carrying on her clown and character training with workshops with Aitor Bassuri, Doctor Brown and Gaulier.

Whilst in London she set up Alakazam Events, an entertainment agency based in the UK providing clowns, magicians, venue decorators and more for all types of events in the greater London area.  

Kiva moved to Paris to study in the prestigious physical theatre school Jacques Lecoq. She trained there until moving to Spain to further her studies in Estudis Berty Tovias. Now she is in Barcelona - it’s not a bad place to be! 

She has frequently played comedic roles in larger-scale productions, like in the award-winning show Caballo Negro, Caballo Blanco which had a Barcelona tour in 2016 and she played the part of Loby in Escapade’s The Visit.

To read about Kiva's Comedy shows with her theatre company, click here.