Michelle Nicole Matlock is a professional American

clown A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. History The most ancient clowns have been found in ...

and former "struggling actress", best known for playing the lead romantic role as the ladybug in ''

OVO ''OVO'' (also released as ''OVO: The Millennium Show'') is a soundtrack album by English singer-songwriter and musician Peter Gabriel and his eleventh album overall. It was released on 12 June 2000 by Real World Records as the soundtrack to ...

'', the twenty-fifth annual traveling production of

Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; "Circus of the Sun" or "Sun Circus") is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Ju ...

Biography

Matlock was born and raised in

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

. While visiting

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

from college in 1994 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 The National Shakespeare Conservatory was an acting school in New York City, offering a two-year certificate program and an eight-week summer training program. The Conservatory was founded in 1974 by Philip Meister, Albert Schoemann and Mario Sil ...

, where she studied classical Shakespearean acting. She was juggling in

Washington Square Park Washington Square Park is a public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City's public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. ...

one day after graduating from theater school, when she was spotted by a

talent scout In professional sports, scouts are experienced talent evaluators who travel extensively for the purposes of watching athletes play their chosen sports and determining whether their set of skills and talents represent what is needed by the scout ...

for a clowning program being developed by the

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line Royal Caribbean International (RCI), also formerly known as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL), is a cruise line brand founded in 1968 in Norway and organised as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group since 1997. Based in Miami, Flori ...

. 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 Bindlestiff Family Cirkus was founded in 1995 by Keith Nelson and Stephanie Monseu. Initially, the duo was named "Fireplay. They toured the world with a mix of circus and sideshow. In 1999, the company became a non-profit organization incorporat ...

, the Daredevil Opera Company, the

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...

circus troupe

Circus Amok Circus Amok is a New York City-based circus and theater troupe that produces free outdoor performances every year in the NYC parks. Founded in 1989 by performance artist Jennifer Miller, who directs the company, the troupe began touring the city p ...

's "Circus Inferno" project, and at the

Big Apple Circus The Big Apple Circus is a circus based in New York City. Opened in 1977, later becoming a nonprofit organization, it became a tourist attraction. The circus has been known for its community outreach programs, including Clown Care, as well as its ...

, in a program performing for hospitals. As an actress Matlock worked for several small regional theater companies. In 2001 she developed a solo show, ''The Mammy Project''. After the show was picked up in 2005 by

Performance Space 122 Performance Space New York, formerly known as Performance Space 122 or P.S. 122, is a non-profitable arts organization founded in 1980 in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in an abandoned public school building. Origin The former eleme ...

her show toured extensively throughout the United States at colleges and festivals, making her a celebrity in her field. Inspired by

Nancy Green Nancy Green (March 4, 1834 – August 30, 1923) was an American former enslaved woman, nanny, cook, activist, and the first of many African-American models and performers hired to promote a corporate trademark as "Aunt Jemima". The famous Aunt J ...

, hired for the

1893 World's Fair The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

as the first actress to play

Aunt Jemima Pearl Milling Company (formerly known as Aunt Jemima from 1889 to 2021) is an American breakfast brand for pancake mix, syrup, and other breakfast food products. The original version of the pancake mix for the brand was developed in 1888–188 ...

, 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 2004 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. In ''OVO'' Matlock plays a ladybug, the "aviation-challenged" romantic lead of the show. Once OVO was converted from the Grand Chapiteau into Arena format in 2015 however, Michelle left the tour.

References

External links

themammyproject.com
- Mammy Project official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Matlock, Michelle American clowns African-American actresses Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American stage actresses Actresses from Washington (state) 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women