BUFFO is not the name of a show. It's Howard Buten's stage name when he's ‘playing the clown’, it's the name of his character, it's his clown name. If we often say of actors that they play (characters), we could say of clowns that they are (clowns). Born in the United States in 1974 in the shadow of Howard Buten, Buffo has since travelled the world with his fragile and deceptively awkward silhouette. Buffo speaks not with words but with his soul. A heavenly clown, gags are his daily life, song and dance his playground, and music his kingdom. ‘My approach is never to create a new show, but, as Grock did, to endlessly perfect a single act that evolves over the years,’ says Howard Buten of his work. The musical panoply varies over the years. We find the violin family, cellos and other violonceaux, the ukulele, maracas, drums or the concertino; sometimes a piano is added. Each instrument is the object of his or her revolts, exasperations, struggles and veneration.
A panoply of recalcitrant objects, brooms, dustbins and feather dusters are invariably part of the show. A vindictive, music-loving plastic chicken is also a recurring character. Some hair-raising dances and a ventriloquist's puppet are also part of this great music-hall act. After so many years, you don't come to see a Howard BUTEN show, you come to see ‘BUFFO QUOI QU'IL FASSE’, you come and you come again, for the pleasure of sharing with him a moment of delirium, enchantment, poetry and love. Tours of the 70s, and the European career sketched out in France in 1984 really began in 1987. Since then, more than a thousand performances have been given in major European cities, with France being the main venue. In Paris, the first port of call was the RANELAGH Theatre. Other stopovers followed: the OLYMPIA (1994), the CIRQUE D'HIVER (1997, with violinist Pierre AMOYAL), the Théâtre du Rond-Point (2005).

BIBLIOGRAPHIE :
* 1981 : Quand j'avais cinq ans je m'ai tué, Seuil, Collection POINTS VIRGULE
* 1984 : Le coeur sous le rouleau compresseur, Seuil, Collection POINTS VIRGULE
* 1987 : Monsieur Butterfly, Seuil, Collection POINTS VIRGULE
* 1989 : Il faudra bien te couvrir..., Les Editions du Seuil
* 1991 : Histoire de Rofo, clown, Seuil, Collection POINTS VIRGULE
* 1994 : C'était mieux avantSeuil, Collection POINTS VIRGULE
* 1995 : Ces enfants qui ne viennent pas d'une autre planéte, Gallimard, Collection GIBOULEES
* 2000 : Quand est-ce qu'on arrive ?, Seuil, Collection POINTS VIRGULE
* 2003 : Il y a quelqu'un là-dedans, des autismes, éditions Odile Jacob
* 2005 : BUFFO, Editions Actes Sud,