Jonathan Kay is recognised as a leading performer in the ‘Theatre of Immediacy’ of Fooling, and is a highly respected practitioner and teacher of Fooling workshops. He is the founder of the largest street theatre festival in the UK, The Hat Fair, and an Honorary Fellow of The University of Winchester.

For the last 50 years, he has worked as a performer and teacher, touring and teaching throughout the world as a Fool. He is part of the family at Glastonbury Festival with over 25 successive years in the main Theatre tent, and has performed at countless festivals across Europe including Rudolstadt, Sweden’s ‘No Mind’ festival and the Sunday Papers Live in London.

He has also performed and taught in Canada, the USA, Australia, South Korea and Jordan and extensively throughout Europe and the UK, including time at the prestigious Drama Centre and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. In 2019 he gave a sold-out talk at TedX Manchester, turning the event completely on its head to a rapturous audience, and was featured and interviewed on BBC World News to an audience of millions.

Jonathan’s stomping ground is on the cliff between inertia and speed, encouraging participants to fly or to learn how to land, not only in their imagination but also in their purpose. He helps us look at the hypothetical anchors that can tie people down for a lifetime, engaging them in a compassionate, humorous and sometimes challenging way so they can liberate themselves, turning what appears to be valueless into gold.