We had the good fortune of connecting with Natalie Marceau and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Natalie, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I simply have no other choice, as far as I can tell. The creative spirit has been with me for as long as I can remember and has shaped so much of who I am. When I’m not performing or working on performing, I feel a profound loss, like there’s a part of myself I’m neglecting. That must sound so wuwu and pretentious haha but it is a question about art after all!
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I consider myself a multidisciplinary artist but lately I’ve been very inspired by clown, including the specific flavor of it that’s developed in LA. I assumed everyone would be former theatre kids like me, but I’ve found that to not necessarily be the case. Surprisingly, I feel like my theatrical and musical training is somewhat of a rarity in the LA scene, at least with the clowns I’ve been lucky to work with. More of them are students of things like improv and stand-up than showtunes and jazz squares. So I think me bringing all that to the table gives me a somewhat unique style in the circles I perform in. Instincts I take for granted or don’t even think about, like stage presence, control of my body, precise timing, are things I regularly receive praise for from other practitioners.
But that all comes with drawbacks, too. I think one of my bigger hurdles to overcome is getting too stuck on my “plans” for a given show. Broadly speaking, clown is a very audience-reactive art form: everything we do is FOR them and the clown’s job is to follow their lead when they sense the audience latching onto something (or to change course when they don’t). Sometimes I think my old habits of sticking to a script and doing things exactly the way they were done in rehearsal can limit my responsiveness in those moments.
I guess I could say I technically started clowning as a kid. I grew up with this fascination for it and taught myself to juggle and ride a unicycle in middle/high school. For my birthday one year my mom bought me a nose, these big clown shoes, and an outrageous yellow polka dotted tie which I used when I was “busking” (by which I mean I was juggling in my family’s driveway for nobody but the occasional car driving by). I was more focused on musical theatre at the time, but I did get to show off a little bit of unicycling when I did Seussical as a teen (I played the Cat in the Hat, it was fitting). And I strong armed my senior year high school theatre class into doing a unit on clown where we learned all about the history of it, the various clown archetypes, its roots in Commedia dell’Arte, all of which culminated in a fantastic disaster of a show we put on for the school at the end of the semester.
After that I went off to Musical Theatre college where I was shortly thereafter diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease and had to drop out twice. The whole ordeal kind of changed the trajectory of my life in ways I’m still untangling. I lost my financial aid and needed to get a “real” job to pay rent. Spent a few years as a bank teller, then a banker, under the promise that my employer would pay for me to finish school once I was full-time. They never made me full-time and during the pandemic they effectively threw us to the wolves. I quit with no backup plan, which prompted me to reconnect with my roots and get a job working in theatre again.
I didn’t pick up performing again for like a year or two and didn’t start clowning again until very recently. I’d been living in LA for a few years taking the occasional acting or improv class, when I saw a poster for this show, Stand-Up and Clown, over at The Elysian Theatre. It piqued my interest enough to go see it and I walked away awestruck. After going to the show a few more times, one of the regular clowns in the scene (who’s now a dear friend) invited me to attend a workshop and I fell in love. Now I’m lucky enough to get to develop material and do shows all over the city.
Embracing authenticity has led me back here and carries me through every performance and extends to almost every aspect of my personal life, too. To borrow some wisdom from one of my teachers, “the thing you’re most afraid of showing is what the audience will love you for.”
When I’m on stage, it IS a performance. It IS all for show. But it’s ALSO as close to the real me as it gets. And when you get the audience on your side and create a moment of joy with them, what could be more beautiful than that?
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We’re definitely going to see plenty of shows! If I can’t convince them to go to a clown show at The Elysian with me (it’s a big ask for most people), I’m at the very least taking them to the UCB to catch some improv and to either the Ahmanson or Mark Taper Forum to see whatever’s running there. If Oh Mary! is in town, that’s a mandatory obligation.
Food wise, I’m taking them to all my favorite vegan spots: Monty’s Good Burger, Au Lac, Crossroads Kitchen, Ocado if we end up on that side of town. For drinks, I’m partial to Benny Boy Brewing Company (great ciders), Bar Sinister (great vibes), or Akbar (great gay people).
Hanging out time, I do well in any park. Definitely showing my friend the swans of Echo Park Lake, and if we have time I’d love to walk them around Lake Balboa.
They’ll probably wanna check out Hollywood and I’ll oblige them under the condition that they let me take them to Hollywood Toys and Costumes where I buy most of my props and costume pieces lol
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My mom for absolutely everything. For sparking my love of theatre, for raising me and my brothers by herself and working hard to let us access the arts, and for encouraging me to find my way back to it after life had taken me away from it for so long.
Website: https://linktr.ee/natalie.s.marceau
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natalie.s.marceau?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Youtube: https://youtube.com/@nataliemarceau?si=hk73MsRCyXZHYBES
Image Credits
Jasper Lewis, Jill Petracek, Josh Wilmott
Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
