I became a clown by accident.
I moved to London to study design at Central Saint Martins and to my surprise ended up on stage finding ways to make people laugh.
As my design degree became more serious and commercial, the objects I made became more and
more absurd and surreal.
I graduated with what were essentially a pair of clown shoes called The Excessively Long Shoes, designed to slow people down. I then took my shoes, packed my bags and ran off to France to pursue clowning.
To enter a space that celebrated failure in a world that is so often obsessed with perfection became completely liberating.
Kat Gollock
The Others
On a night where I had no desire whatsoever to leave the house I was dragged out by my adopted twin at the time, Firdaws Saksena, to this venue she had recently discovered.
We were studying design together and were inseparable, galavanting around London with matching lipstick, outfits and accents (a mix of Parisian from Firdaws and northern Mexican from me, which made everyone confused as to where we were from).
We arrived at The Others, a venue tucked away in East London on top of a snooker bar and saw the magical Carlo Jacucci. He was dressed in a full tuxedo performing songs about nuns on a piano accordion.
I had no idea what I had just witnessed but it was the most hilarious and beautiful thing I had ever seen. I knew whatever it was I wanted to do THAT with my life.
We found out he was a clown, and that he taught workshops in the north of Italy so we booked our flights and escaped to the prosecco hills of Conegliano to do our first clown workshop.
Shortly after, Firdaws and I were offered our first gig in the same venue. We made an act called ‘Two Seagulls and the Last Shrimp’, which involved a keyboard, a lot of paper maché and some wild dancing.
Most people were completely confused by it but our new friend Alasdair Saksena loved it, so the three of us decided to form a theatre company together.
With a suitcase full of dreams, feathers and ball gowns, we made our way to Edinburgh
Carabet by Lobster Quadrille
The first show we made was called Carabet, stringing together a series of short surreal sketches we had concocted in our kitchens and living rooms.
With a suitcase full of dreams, feathers and ball gowns, we made our way to Edinburgh for our first Fringe experience in 2017. On day 1, we stepped out to perform to an empty room.
We quickly understood we had to fish for our audiences and set out to lure some people into the show. We experienced all the highs and lows of the festival, including misplacing props, crying backstage, performing to a singular bewildered couple and sharing a bed with four people. It was wonderful.
Fool’s Moon
Just before the first lockdown there was an exhibition at the Barbican called Into the Night that featured the most iconic cabaret nights and venues throughout history. I spent the whole of lockdown dreaming about these cabarets.
I became desperate to create a magical, anarchic place like the ones I had read about, where artists from all sorts of backgrounds could come together to play and experiment.
As soon as the world opened up again I rushed to buy metres and metres of red fabric to drape on the walls of The Others and started my own night called Fool’s Moon. I invited all the artists that I found exciting across drag, music, dance, comedy, performance art and cabaret to bring acts and created themes to then weave those acts together.
The night grew quickly and eventually moved to Soho Theatre for a two-year residency building a collective of artists including designer/maker Annika Thiems, ventriloquist/clown Lachlan Werner, dancer/choreographer Patricia Langa and musician/sound designer Barney Pidgeon forming the base for many future collaborations including Puella Eterna.
Finding Puella
Puella Eterna was born out of an existential crisis.
The show follows a poet as she performs the whole of LIFE in under an hour through a myriad of costume changes, in an attempt to answer the age-old question – what comes first, the chicken or the egg?
I will be performing it from the 13th -16th of November at Soho Theatre and would love to see you there.
Paulina Lenoir: Puella Eterna at Soho Theatre is on at 10:30pm from 13-16 November. Tickets are available at sohotheatre.com
