Grotesque performatives (or ways of performing grotesquely) have not been the object of close study in neither general studies of the grotesque nor in Performance Studies. My doctoral study (in progress)2 centres around an inquiry into practice of gestural and vocal hybridity and excess in embodied performance. Non-compatible hybridity – where two or more things sit together unfit and in contrast – contributes to the grotesque, as does excess. In this article, I test the presence and extent of hybridity and excess as constitutive qualities of the grotesque in Artaud’s own embodied performance, in his theorizing, and in the theatricality of some of his scenarios and realized works. For Artaud the grotesque is an aesthetic corollary rather than a systematic method.