Clown Seeking Clown Review — Love, Loneliness, and the Female Clown at the Centre

Nat Habib's Down2Clown dating odyssey reframes who gets to be lonely, and who gets to be looked for.

Nat Habib's Clown Seeking Clown, a borzoid theatre production directed by Hilary Peck and Sadie Thomson, arrived at Ctrllab for Montréal Fringe 2026 fresh off a Best of Fest win at Ottawa Fringe 2025. A 55-minute solo clown show about a purple-wigged single woman working her way through a videotape of clown-didates, it displaces the assumption of clown as male and models a critical, queer, feminist clowning — one that insists loneliness is not a men's-only country.

Reviewed by Daniel Lukes.

The day after I saw Clown Seeking Clown by Nat Habib, an incel tried to shoot up the offices of Pornhub parent company Aylo two miles from my home, resulting in three casualties including himself. The event was a reminder of how it's overwhelmingly men who center themselves in the loneliness conversation, and overwhelmingly men who lash out with fatal violence.

Male incels frequently refuse to see women and girls as humans with the same desires and hopes and solitudes as them. But the word "incel" was coined by a queer Canadian woman. Any conversation on male loneliness needs to be part of the larger discourse about how late capitalism makes many of us lonely and disconnected, much of the time.

How can clowns help? For one, by not reproducing in their acts the kind of toxic masculinity that punches down, which we've seen a resurgence of across the board, from entertainment to politics. Clowning that emphasizes femininity, queerness, neurodivergence can open up and develop this valuable and much-needed space of vulnerability and honesty. That is the frame Clown Seeking Clown steps into, and the argument it makes with its 55 minutes.

Inside the room

In the midst of a summer rainstorm, the cool dark interior of Ctrllab is calming and inviting. I make sure to sit not too close to the stage (to avoid being called upon, though mercifully the crowdwork this afternoon will be minimal: the offer of some popcorn and some nail-painting). The person in front of me has a head of bright pinkish-red hair so I know I'm in the right place.

Kiss song "I Was Made For Loving You" heralds the arrival of Nat Habib as Macaroni, dressed in a little pointy hat and purple wig with pink clown nose make-up. Her affect and approach immediately sets a certain mood: one of vulnerability and empathy. "We're friends!" announces Macaroni. "It's ok to be vulnerable around friends!"

Macaroni announces house rules: put your phones away and live in the moment, and cross your arms if you don't want to participate in activities (phew), and mentions a "landlord Jef" whose photo is projected onscreen. People titter but I'm not sure it's an in-joke. And suddenly we're deep into an account of a bad date.

"Did you think we wear big clown shoes because we actually have big feet?" asks the dude. "Your feet are a lot smaller than I'd thought they'd be. I thought you guys wore those big shoes all the time." Then comes the last straw. "Have you ever been with another clown?" he asks. "I happen to have this friend who's also a clown. She's never been with another clown before, and I think you two would really hit it off. Maybe I could introduce you, and the three of us could form our own little clown car, if y'know what I mean- ;)))"

So here we are, gathered at a "let's help Macaroni not be single anymore" house party at her place, which she shares with her bestie Loonette, an orchid mantis (doll), who Macaroni interacts with frequently, even offering her a little bowl of popcorn at one point — a small gesture that quietly establishes the show's real proposition: that companionship, chosen and imagined, is already in the room.

The videotape of clown-didates

Macaroni has turned to clown dating service Down2Clown ("STOP DATING BOZOS, AND START DATING BOZOS!" "You won't be finding any John Wayne Gacys on here. He's dead."). A videotape compilation of romantic partner "clown-didates" has just arrived in the mail: "I'm so excited I could honk [honks]. I'm gonna finally open it!" We watch them together, and dramatic tension rises as each one seems more wildly unsuitable and self-absorbed than the last.

DJ Karen, who monitors kids at a disco, is hilariously obnoxious and definitely a Karen; Kyler Strongarms is a slightly scary dudebro, a "volunteer firefighter looking to be your full-time clown" who has "done it all, and would do it again for you!"; Lavender is a sex-obsessed horndog, constantly coming up with different ways she'd like to be railed. The parade is funny, but it is also the show doing what the opening argument set up: cataloguing, and gently indicting, the range of self-centred suitors a lonely person is expected to sift through.

From the audience you kinda feel you don't want her to get involved with any of them: but neither can you protect her from harm. So the ritual of watching the clown get hurt begins, on the battlefield of the heart. Transfixed, we watch the humiliating ordeal of exposure, risk, rejection, together.

Macaroni also visited the studio to record her own video, where she appears awkward and shy, nerdy and eager: fascinated by "scary airports" and attendant factoids, her passion for the topic represented in a way suggesting neurodivergence. It is relatable, all too relatable. We all have our niche interests and particular ways of being in the world: will we ever find someone to share them with?

Sprinkles is a gold-digger, whose philosophy is that "spoiling me is an investment, baby! Willing to overlook anything if you have the clown buck$$"; Periwinkle is kind of the sad clown of the bunch, needy and with low self-esteem; while Touchstaff is the fool who would play Hamlet: a bit aloof and lost in that Shakespearean vibe.

"I hope they like me," beams Macaroni, and a sequence of dates takes place over the phone. The use of old tech here is ingenious, with videos and phonecalls woven artfully and seamlessly into the whole. "Are you Down2Clown?" asks Macaroni over the phone, and each time you cringe a little inside, recognizing how tech companies make us use these silly words with no recourse.

Passivity, or openness

Macaroni herself seems to have no particular preference, asking us for advice about who to call. Her lack of distinction when it comes to the gender of who she's open to date reads as a quietly bold statement on queer and bisexual desire — and, at the same time, her willingness to be steered by an audience of strangers registers as something closer to exhaustion than freedom. The show, I think, wants us to hold both at once: openness as a political stance, and openness as what's left when the dating market has already worn you down. It doesn't resolve the tension, and it is more honest for not resolving it.

It looks like things might work out with the exuberant Bozo: both love the same Italian restaurant (Pesto John's), and maybe they could do the Lady and the Tramp spaghetti thing (though Bozo seems unable to pronounce "spatty, spagh, -spuggy?" correctly). But despite all his bravado, Bozo (who has seen a man die) is deeply afraid of insects. This is a deal-breaker, so Macaroni chooses her bestie Loonette with no regrets.

Then the videotape breaks (another classic), and it seems that with Down2Clown out of the picture, Macaroni's last resort is all used up, and she faces us bravely, starting to accept that maybe love isn't on the cards for her after all. "Love is cancelled, Loonette."

Right when you think all is lost, Macaroni receives a phonecall: someone liked her Down2Clown video — tangents on the history of Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport and all — and wants to connect. "Wait what's going on? Someone chose me?!"

Who gets to be centred in clown

With its purply pastel colors and story of a female clown looking for love, Clown Seeking Clown accomplishes much in its 55-minute running time: it subtly subverts clown expectations, displaces the assumption of clown as male, and models the kind of critical queer and feminist clowning theorized by Zed Cézard in their 2022 book Les clownes sont-elles politiquement incorrectes? Réflexions queers sur les pratiques clownesques des femmes. "By publicly addressing the sphere of intimacy, female clowns allow us to imagine new ways of existing," explains journalist Anne-Frédérique Hébert-Dolbec.

With its expression of wonder and hope, its openness to the world, Clown Seeking Clown shows that however lonely and needy we may be, there is hope for love for us all. Including clowns.

Clown Seeking Clown — a solo clown show written and performed by Nat Habib, produced by borzoid theatre. Ctrllab, Montréal Fringe 2026. Best of Fest, Ottawa Fringe 2025.

Written and performed by: Nat Habib
Directed by: Hilary Peck & Sadie Thomson
Stage manager: Tamara Laplante
Sound design, music & marketing: Charles Höppner
Makeup: Harley Wegner
Company: borzoid theatre
Venue: Ctrllab, Montréal Fringe 2026
Event listing: montrealfringe.online.red61.ca/event/2030:778
Header and production photos: courtesy of Nat Habib

Reviewed by Daniel Lukes.