Michelle Nicole Matlock is a professional American clown and former
"struggling actress", best known for playing the lead romantic role as
the ladybug in OVO, the twenty-fifth annual traveling production of
Cirque du Soleil.Matlock was born and raised in Washington state.
While visiting New York City from college in her taxicab was stuck in
traffic behind a gay rights demonstration. She describes joining the
march at the spur of the moment as a life-changing experience that
convinced her to quit school and remain in New York. She soon won a
scholarship to the National Shakespeare Conservatory, where she
studied classical Shakespearean acting. She was juggling in Washington
Square Park one day after graduating from theater school, when she was
spotted by a talent scout for a clowning program being developed by
the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. She spent the next year studying and
performing clowning, juggling, and stilt-walking on cruise ships,
after her friend convinced her to take the job. Matlock worked
on-and-off as a clown for the next five years with the Bindlestiff
Family Cirkus, the Daredevil Opera Company, the queer social justice
circus troupe Circus Amok's "Circus Inferno" project, and at the Big
Apple Circus, in a program performing for hospitals.As an actress
Matlock worked for several small regional theater companies. In she
developed a solo show, The Mammy Project. After the show was picked up
in by Performance Space her show toured extensively throughout the
United States at colleges and festivals, making her a celebrity in her
field. Inspired by Nancy Green, hired for the World's Fair as the
first actress to play Aunt Jemima, the show explores stereotypes of
black women, and has toured the United States extensively. Despite the
wide exposure she was "struggling" as an actress, and says she was not
able to afford to pay to attend the circus, even though her clowning
was a higher paying job in New York than acting.Matlock's connection
with Cirque du Soleil began in when an employee of the circus saw her
solo act and invited her to audition in Seattle. She was one of the
four finalists out of fifty clowns auditioned but was rejected and
told they were not sure how they could use her.
"struggling actress", best known for playing the lead romantic role as
the ladybug in OVO, the twenty-fifth annual traveling production of
Cirque du Soleil.Matlock was born and raised in Washington state.
While visiting New York City from college in her taxicab was stuck in
traffic behind a gay rights demonstration. She describes joining the
march at the spur of the moment as a life-changing experience that
convinced her to quit school and remain in New York. She soon won a
scholarship to the National Shakespeare Conservatory, where she
studied classical Shakespearean acting. She was juggling in Washington
Square Park one day after graduating from theater school, when she was
spotted by a talent scout for a clowning program being developed by
the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. She spent the next year studying and
performing clowning, juggling, and stilt-walking on cruise ships,
after her friend convinced her to take the job. Matlock worked
on-and-off as a clown for the next five years with the Bindlestiff
Family Cirkus, the Daredevil Opera Company, the queer social justice
circus troupe Circus Amok's "Circus Inferno" project, and at the Big
Apple Circus, in a program performing for hospitals.As an actress
Matlock worked for several small regional theater companies. In she
developed a solo show, The Mammy Project. After the show was picked up
in by Performance Space her show toured extensively throughout the
United States at colleges and festivals, making her a celebrity in her
field. Inspired by Nancy Green, hired for the World's Fair as the
first actress to play Aunt Jemima, the show explores stereotypes of
black women, and has toured the United States extensively. Despite the
wide exposure she was "struggling" as an actress, and says she was not
able to afford to pay to attend the circus, even though her clowning
was a higher paying job in New York than acting.Matlock's connection
with Cirque du Soleil began in when an employee of the circus saw her
solo act and invited her to audition in Seattle. She was one of the
four finalists out of fifty clowns auditioned but was rejected and
told they were not sure how they could use her.
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