Jeff Raz explores the intersection of circus, theater and music from many different angles - as a clown, an actor, a teacher, a director and a playwright. His 35 year career has taken him from remote Alaskan villages to Broadway, across the continental United States and to Europe, Japan and China.

In 2000, Jeff founded The Clown Conservatory, the only comprehensive professional clown training program in the United States, and he directed the program until 2010. Jeff is now the Bay Area Casting Partner for Cirque du Soleil, the Artistic Director of the Medical Clown Project and a director with the global consulting firm Stand & Deliver.

A graduate of the Dell'Arte International, Jeff has performed with Cirque du Soleil, The Pickle Circus, Vaudeville Nouveau and Make*A*Circus and in such theaters as Berkeley Repertory Theater, The Goodman Theater in Chicago, Marin Theater Company, The Kennedy Center, TheaterWorks of Palo Alto, The San Francisco and Marin Shakespeare Festivals and Lincoln Center Theater in New York.

In 2007, Jeff spent the year touring the U.S. as the lead character in Cirque du Soleil's "Corteo". He reprised his role, in Japanese, in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka in 2009 and 2010.

The Medical Clown Project is the subject of a short video by Mike Kepka at vimeo.com.

Susan Zaro recently wrote an article on Jeff for the S.F. Examiner's web site.

Jeff's presentation to the Commonwealth Club is at http://fora.tv/2008/06/04/Jeff_Raz.

His interview on "Business with Passion" is at http://www.manygoodideas.com/2009/03/20/business-with-passion-jeff-raz.