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About Us

Who is Clown Cabaret?

In 2010, circus veterans Matthew Pauli, Karen Beriss, and Rich Potter founded Clown Cabaret as a performance laboratory with a simple goal: to promote and elevate the archetype of the clown in popular culture while providing a platform for performing artists to develop new material.


Since then clowns and other variety artists from across America and the world have found a home to create, play, learn, and fellowship in a supportive atmosphere.  It was not uncommon to see clowns, tap dancers, jugglers, musicians, physical comedians, and performers from all walks of life testing new material just to see what works.


Many shows workshopped at Clown Cabaret have toured the United States and internationally, including at Scotland’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The show, “Delusions of Grandeur,” developed at Clown Cabaret, was produced at Capital Fringe Festival, The New York Clown Theatre Festival, and other venues.


At the beginning of 2024 the original trio of Rich, Karen, and Matthew have passed the torch (or rubber chicken) to Christina Day and Jim "Crickett" McGrath, 2 clowns that have loved and supported Clown Cabaret for years and simply want to see it happen again. 

New Leadership

Christina Day

Christina Day

Christina Day

Producer

 Christina began her professional clowning career with All About Fun Entertainment in Richmond, VA. Walking globe, juggling, aerial silks, balloon animals, puppetry, fire breathing, and stage combat are just a few of the skills she has dazzled and dabbled in.  She also performed in the IAAPA award-winning juggling show Ed-Zoo-Cation Team for two seasons at Hersheypark.

Christina's a proud clown with a passion for physical comedy, honed by legendary instructors Dody DiSanto, Avner Eisenberg, Big Apple Circus, VCU Theatre, and the Stella Adler Acting Conservatory, among others.

Jim McGrath

Christina Day

Christina Day

Co-Host

Jim, aka Crickett, clowned with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for half a decade but you may have seen him around with Laboum Brunch, Cox farms as a stilt walker and fire performer, or in Shows by Crickett or Block Party Bubbles. 

A familiar face on and off the stage at Clown Cabaret, Jim "Crickett” McGrath was introduced to fellow Ringling Bros. clown, Rich Potter, through a mutual acquaintance who was selling a rubber chicken to Rich.  

Founders

Matthew Pauli

Matthew Pauli

Matthew Pauli

Matthew clowns regularly in hospitals and at events around town. He also performs stage shows at the Maryland Renaissance Festival and at any theater in the area that will have him. 

Karen Beriss

Matthew Pauli

Matthew Pauli

 Karen has been a professional magician for most of her adult life, performing around the world. She has performed for a range of celebrities and politicians, including her own favorite RBG. Karen has clowned in hospitals for the past 15 years with Healthy Humor. Most recently she pivoted and got her Masters in Social Work, but is confident she will never stop performing because it is the "funnest thing ever." 

Rich Potter

Chantal Martineau

Chantal Martineau

 Rich co-created (w/Matthew and Karen) “Delusions of Grandeur” and “The Heist. He also created “God! The One-Man Show.”  Other credits include “Late Show with David Letterman,” Kennedy Center, Wolftrap, and the Vice Presidential Mansion. He worked as a Big Apple Circus pediatric hospital clown. 

Since 2019, Rich has resided in NYC, appearing on Fallon’s “Tonight Show” in Macy’s Parade, and he teaches for National Circus Project where he brings circus skills to a new generation. During COVID, he published a book of his circus artwork. He recently published his book, 64 [Nikola] Teslas and hopes to have a few for sale at the show on May 19. www.richpotter.com

Chantal Martineau

Chantal Martineau

Chantal Martineau

Past Co-Producer

Chantal has clowned with Borealis Theatre, Clowns Without Borders, Occupy Circus, the Baltimore Physical Comedy Colloquium, and in a burlesque adaptation of a surrealist French opera by Appollinaire; and has also performed Commedia dell’ Arte with Faction of Fools. Other performance experiences include being a member of an imaginary theatre collective, a robot in a live-action video game, short- and longform comedy improv, and even straight theatre. Chantal has also taught improv to kids, stage-managed, and produced the one-man show Hysterical Blindness.

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