With her genre- and gender-bending comedy special,Nate.
Natearrives on Netflix this fall.
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After all, inside this guy Nate a bellowing, grimacing Napoleonic bro is a very little lady.
But at any hour, playing any gender, her voice is her superpower.
As a production,Natedraws from discomfort comedy, clown-character traditions, even cartoons.
The show isnt merely drag mayhem.
), the macho little pepper pot asks often literally questions about agency and vulnerability.
Swaggering around in oversize boots, Nate talks earnestly about permission, but he constantly demonstrates coercion.
the audience chants obediently and on cue.
Can a half-naked Nate five-foot-one in shoes persuade some other fellow to wrestle topless?
Only every goddamn time.
This is not the typical journey for foulmouthed, outer-orbit Weird Clown stuff.
Students would stop her in the halls at school to do bits.
It was, Oh yeah, baby.
And my dad would be like, Yeah, dont say that.
But it was too late: She had worked out that being small and talkin smut could get laughs.
Her college experience, at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, couldnt have been more wholesome.
She missed the am-I-falling-or-flying freedom of true absurdity, though.
Philip Burgers, a Gaulier-trained clown with a deep footprint in cringey, awkward-hilarious character work.
Nobody looks cool while clowning: The failure is the point, the face-plant the reward.
Were just the most foolish versions of ourselves, he says.
She was so fearless and gross and funny.
At the Lyric, Palamides decided to develop longer, more theatrical pieces.
She began relentlessly workshopping bit after bit at variety shows, open-mic nights, and clown classes.
It also paved the way forNate.
Palamides had long been curious about wrestling an audience member.
How much danger would she be in?
What could she get away with?
(Kaufmans experimental comedy around inter-gender wrestling may have been murmuring in her memory.)
In her incubator show, she tried it with Nate topless.
At first, the entirety of the gag was the asymmetrical match.
After the incubator, she started to iteratively shape a love story for the chest-thumping pip-squeak.
It was only then that she allowed Nate to start asking questions about consent.
Palamides is not willing to call what she does true clowning.
Youre taught that theres only one pure clown that comes about every generation, she says.
These are the Charlie Chaplins, the Lucille Balls, the divine idiots.
There is an innocence to clown.
Theres not supposed to be any sort of sexuality or anger.
And inNate,there is certainly sexuality and anger, alongside a deep stripe of masochism.
Palamidess deepest pleasure comes from making the audience uneasy.
Laughter sours in your mouth.
The questioning becomes a means of control.
It was like a puzzle, she says.
But Nates eyes change too.
In one crucial moment, the mustache slips aside and we see what seems to be the real Natalie.
Is it Nate up there, naked and strong?
Or is that Natalie, naked and vulnerable?
The show ushered us there, coaxed and bullied us.
