Arts In Review - Friday, June 19, 2026

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1. Remember, starting a monthly gift, donating a vehicle that you don't need anymore, and
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3. More about the advantages of donating real estate is at kpfk.org.
4. You're listening to KPFK 90.7 FM, Los Angeles.
5. And welcome to KPFK's Arts in Review.
6. This is your host, Julio Martinez, celebrating the best in live theater and cabaret in the greater Los Angeles area.
7. Today, I have the honor of meeting a young lady who's directing many shows at the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2026.
8. So please stay tuned to Arts in Review.
9. Thank you.
10. This is Julio Martinez, and I'm welcoming you to June 10th, a big national celebration.
11. But today, I'm going to be talking to a young lady, Natasha Mercado, who's directing plays,
12. a lot of plays, at the Hollywood French Festival 2026.
13. Welcome, Natasha.
14. Thank you so much, Julio.
15. Thank you for having me.
16. Oh, it's my pleasure.
17. So, this play, I'm particularly choosing the play Doofus because it sounded so goofy to me.
18. I love that.
19. I love that you chose Doofus out of the five that I'm directing.
20. So, how many plays in all are you directing at the Hollywood Fringe?
21. Well, this year I'm working with five different shows.
22. Doofus, Maniac, Diane Diane, Mr. Ow, and Syrian Soap.
23. Wow.
24. Yeah.
25. And you chose doofus out of all of them.
26. So doofus has already began playing on June 4th,
27. but it's also playing Sunday, June 14th at 11 p.m.
28. and Sunday, June 21st at 5 p.m.
29. Oh, no.
30. June 21st at 5 p.m., June 27th at 6 p.m.
31. Yes, yes.
32. And this is at the Broadwater Black Box in Santa Monica.
33. Yes. Our Father's Day show is going to be really, really fun at 5 p.m.
34. Wow. So I have to ask you, how did you get into directing?
35. I got into directing, I guess, not on purpose. Definitely not on purpose. It was something that
36. people had told me even when I was younger that I'd probably be good at. I think it's because I'm
37. the eldest sister.
38. And so that's just a naturally bossy thing that I have going on with me.
39. But I started directing Hollywood fringe shows in,
40. in 2022 with my first show Thank you so much for coming Yeah And that was an interactive clown party about femininity
41. and loneliness. And it was with Alex Kern and it was so much fun. And the year prior to that,
42. I had been touring, you know, and producing my own solo shows. And so I had all of those skills on
43. how to build something, but then to work with another performer was even more fun.
44. You've been a performer, a writer, and the creator of Soft Clown.
45. You've got to tell me what that is.
46. Yeah.
47. Well, have you heard of this whole clown takeover that's been happening in L.A.?
48. Tell me about it.
49. Oh, my goodness.
50. Well, I didn't know what clown was until I moved here.
51. I didn't even know it was an option.
52. I moved to L.A. eight years ago, and people are like, why are you here?
53. and I'm like, for TV and film, but I love the feeling of changing the air in the room.
54. And I don't know what that means, but I want to keep doing that.
55. And someone was like, oh, so you do clown.
56. I was like, what are you talking about?
57. But it just really stuck in my head.
58. And then like the next day I met another person who was so much fun,
59. and I'm like, you're like a walking improv game.
60. Why are you so much fun?
61. And he said, well, actually I'm a clown.
62. So I was like, I need to take a clown class.
63. What are you talking about?
64. And, yeah, it just changed everything for me.
65. I feel like it gave me a word for how all the things that I've ever been interested in in performance.
66. I feel like it's the most holistic way to approach theater making and connecting with people.
67. It's like improv, but without the fourth wall.
68. Yeah.
69. So if improv is yes and, I feel like clown allows you to play with failure.
70. Yeah.
71. Yeah, and it's way more fun because the room just feels alive in that way.
72. When you are a clown, do you have a particular costume that you wear?
73. Well, so now we're in like a modern clown wave.
74. I would say this L.A. sensibility isn't with a red nose or anything.
75. It's exactly what you were seeing in Doofus, right?
76. And Doofus, he's a landlord, and he wears a giant helmet and his little, like, sun protector shirt.
77. It's basically anything that makes you feel ridiculous.
78. So Doofus is a one-person show?
79. Yes.
80. Who is the person?
81. Doofus is Cole Triplett.
82. Oh.
83. A performer I've been working with for the last two years.
84. And they've moved here from Houston.
85. They?
86. Yes.
87. Yes.
88. He calls himself they?
89. He, they, yes.
90. Okay, all right.
91. Happy pride.
92. I've got to make sure my adjectives are correct.
93. Pronouns, but you know.
94. Oh, pronouns.
95. Julio, we love this.
96. This is good for pride.
97. This is teaching the masses.
98. Yeah.
99. This is great.
100. So now I've done a Hollywood Fringe show.
101. Oh, cool.
102. In fact, I've done the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
103. I took a play there.
104. but you don't have a lot of time to get your sets on and off.
105. Costumes are a problem.
106. So you have five shows in different theaters.
107. So how do you organize things so that you don't interfere with what's going on before and after?
108. Yeah, I did the Edinburgh Fringe two years ago as well with my show Number One Son.
109. And what I learned from that and just touring in general was I want all my costumes and props just fit in one big old suitcase And so if stuff can fit in one bag like it really has to be worth it in order to stay in the show So that what I tell all my performers is like you don want to make it a
110. headache to load in and load out your shows, especially when you're doing more independent
111. theaters, you know, where they don't have storage. So all the performers, we really maximize whatever
112. we've put in the show.
113. All the props are worth it.
114. Are all your shows
115. one-person shows? This year, yeah.
116. Oh, wow.
117. They're not all clown
118. shows, though. Yes, they are.
119. Oh, really? They're all clown shows
120. for sure. Yeah, I'm
121. very clown
122. coded.
123. So,
124. in terms of
125. doing this, how much rehearsal
126. time do you have with each show?
127. With each show, I generally say it's about 55 hours of work inside and outside of rehearsal to make 55 minutes.
128. And so Syrian Soap is a show that we've been working on a lot.
129. That's probably the most seasoned out of the new works that are debuting this year.
130. Doofus, this is their first run.
131. Oh, world premiere.
132. Yes, the world premiere.
133. So it's exciting to have all these different shows at different places as well.
134. So are you still performing yourself?
135. Yes.
136. Yeah, definitely.
137. I have to.
138. Well, directing and teaching, I feel like, makes me a better performer because I get to learn through seeing people in process all the time.
139. You know when they say, like, when you're sitting in class, even when you're not up on stage, you're still learning.
140. So, this French Festival, 2026, how has it been, totally?
141. The most clowns ever
142. Really?
143. Yes, I think there's like 40 or 50 different clown productions this year
144. Oh my goodness
145. It's just been getting more and more clowny
146. Well, we had this huge feature in New York Mag a couple weeks ago
147. Yeah, it was called The Rise of the Fool
148. and it was trying to do a deep dive on our community.
149. And I feel like people for the last, since I've moved here,
150. have been asking me, what's it like to be a part of the new improv?
151. And I've been asking, do you think clown will ever get as popular as improv?
152. I'm not sure.
153. Uh-huh.
154. Yeah.
155. Clown requires a lot of vulnerability and introspection and I think.
156. Physicality?
157. physicality
158. in the willingness to look
159. like a freaking doofus
160. you know and not everyone
161. feels comfortable with being
162. seen in that way
163. it's a real ego death
164. to claim being a doofus
165. now
166. do your actors all
167. use extensive makeup
168. no no no no
169. I mean they do they wear
170. makeup but it's not like white face
171. red nose clown
172. in any sense of the word.
173. I mean, one of my performers, Mr. Owl,
174. they're in a huge worm costume.
175. Oh.
176. Yeah.
177. And so we call that, you know, there's drag queens, drag kings,
178. and then there's also drag things.
179. And so that's their drag thing look.
180. Oh, I get it.
181. Yeah.
182. Happy pride.
183. And Mr Owl does a bunch of magic and as well as a narrative clown show that brings it all together So there are props involved in all this Oh yeah Oh yes
184. Yes, yes.
185. And it depends on the production as well.
186. Like for Doofus, there is, you know, what are these things called?
187. The A-frames that the Los Angeles like public city, he switches that around.
188. And that was found through not having something to represent a podium.
189. Yeah.
190. And so sometimes we'll use things in incorrect or unexpected ways to represent other things.
191. Seems like you should put on a clown show, a circus.
192. I did do what I called the Soft Clown Fest in January, which was a one-day festival of about 70 different performances.
193. And I transformed different spaces within the theater, the Lyric Hyperion, to be different stages.
194. So like the theater space was the main stage and then the patio was another space.
195. I used the bathroom as a stage space, the green room.
196. And then there was also a table in the cafe that I called the roaming table.
197. And that was for one-on-one.
198. Roaming?
199. Roaming, yes.
200. Not the Roman table.
201. Not the Roman.
202. No, roaming table where it was for up-close clowning experiences.
203. Oh.
204. So there was a performer, Adam Smith, who actually did a performance by putting a walkie-talkie on the table.
205. And then if people were walking by, you could pick up the walkie-talkie and he would lead you through an experience that culminated in them using binoculars to find the performer on top of a hill and watch him dance to their favorite song.
206. Oh, wow.
207. Yeah.
208. It sounds like stuff that used to be done at the Magic Castle.
209. Oh, yeah. I would say like Magic Castle maybe times 10 in the funny department, you know.
210. Now I have to let the KPFK audience, this is Julio Martinez.
211. I am talking to Natasha Mercado.
212. And we are going to be offering a couple of pairs of tickets.
213. When Julio told me this, I really was excited.
214. I can't wait for listeners to see Doofus.
215. So if you call 818-985-5735 or 818-985-KPFK, press 1, you can get a pair of tickets.
216. We're only offering two pair of tickets, and the shows are coming up on June 21st, two days, at 5 p.m., and June 27th at 6 p.m.
217. And the Broadwater Black Box is located at 6322 Santa Monica Boulevard, LA 90038.
218. so I'll mention that again before
219. the end of our half hour
220. but we're at the point where
221. I want to talk more about you
222. so I have to ask
223. where are you from?
224. I'm from Maryland originally
225. East Coast
226. and how did you get involved in the entertainment business?
227. oh gosh
228. one of those stories where
229. I've been doing puppet shows
230. for my family before I could even talk
231. you know, with my beanie babies.
232. And they would just watch me say gibberish and make stories.
233. Uh-huh.
234. Yeah.
235. Did you...
236. Did you study in grammar school or junior high or high school?
237. I did, yeah.
238. I mean, I tried everything.
239. I did cheerleading and horseback riding and soccer and softball and all that junk.
240. And drama class was the only thing that I wanted to do.
241. And my first big role, and it was actually a role that I did drag in, was Joseph.
242. in Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.
243. Yeah.
244. Was that in high school?
245. No, that was in middle school.
246. Oh.
247. Mm-hmm.
248. And did you go to college?
249. I went to college.
250. I went to college in New York City, and I studied acting.
251. And I mean, honestly, I didn't really like college.
252. It wasn't the best.
253. Which college did you go to?
254. I went to Marymount Manhattan College.
255. Oh, yes.
256. Unfortunately.
257. Sorry, guys.
258. I didn't like it very much.
259. But I learned so much from being in the city.
260. And I learned so much.
261. What changed my life was watching a production called Sleep No More.
262. And it was immersive theater.
263. It was over six floors in this hotel.
264. And it gave me that feeling that I mentioned before of changing the air in the room.
265. It really made me feel so alive and so connected.
266. And I had no idea what they were doing, but I wanted to follow that type of trajectory no matter what.
267. And in hindsight, it makes sense that I've always loved being deeply immersed in a new world and also just having a lot of fun.
268. Yeah.
269. Mm-hmm.
270. Did you – what was your first professional job where you got paid?
271. Oh, my gosh.
272. I can't believe.
273. I don't remember. I mean, my first professional, I mean, my first job was working at the mall, but that doesn't count.
274. It was, maybe it would be me working as a scare actor on a haunted trail at Markov's Haunted Forest that actually Malia Obama went to.
275. Oh, really?
276. It was a big deal. Yeah, there was like Secret Service scouting the forest for months before she went. Yeah. And I was like, every night you'd have a different scene that you were doing in October. And so I would dress up as a super scary creature. And I got paid for that.
277. Wow.
278. Yeah.
279. Now, have you ever ventured forth into the industry that pays a little bit more money like television and film?
280. In fact, I have.
281. Yes.
282. Oh, yeah.
283. Yes.
284. I was Maya on the Joe Schmo Show.
285. That is on TBS.
286. Uh-huh.
287. TBS made this – I mean, the Joe Schmo Show was the original – what is it?
288. The original thing that you, okay, Julio, this is crazy.
289. Yeah.
290. I'm going to tell you.
291. You trick a person.
292. And so you take a regular, regular, shmegular, degular American man.
293. Oh.
294. And he thinks he's on a reality show.
295. But what he doesn't realize is that everyone around him are improv comedians.
296. Uh-huh.
297. And I played Maya on the latest season of The Joe Schmo Show And the person that we tricked was actually from Maryland coincidentally
298. So it was wild.
299. And I had to play his best friend.
300. I had to play the person who we were going through challenges together.
301. I won't give too many spoilers.
302. Okay.
303. It was wild.
304. Wow.
305. Yeah.
306. So you started working in New York.
307. How did you get to L.A.?
308. I got to L.A. when I started getting into meditating.
309. Meditating?
310. Yeah.
311. I was like, what do I actually want?
312. I love the sun.
313. I love the beach.
314. I love my life in New York, but I have a hunch that it could be better.
315. And then I just decided to move.
316. And I was working at this theater called the Upright Citizens Brigade.
317. Oh, sure.
318. Yeah. And so I kept my job.
319. That's an improv-based theater.
320. It is an improv theater. Yes.
321. And I was very responsible, kept my job, moved over, kept working at the theater.
322. And then, yeah, my life did get better.
323. Oh, good.
324. Yeah. And I love it here. It's great.
325. And that was how many years ago?
326. That was eight.
327. Oh, so you're used to the sunshine now.
328. Oh, I love the sunshine.
329. Oh, yeah.
330. Definitely got used to the sunshine real quick.
331. Now, your parents are still in Maryland?
332. They're on the East Coast, yeah.
333. It's hard to see family, of course, when you're on the West Coast, but we stay connected.
334. Uh-huh.
335. Yeah.
336. Now, your parents weren't born here.
337. Where were they born?
338. My mom was born in Bolivia.
339. And so I'm a first-generation Latina.
340. Uh-huh. Yeah, my parents were both born in Puerto Rico, and I'm a New Yorkican. I was born in New York City.
341. Yeah, I love New York City. Do you feel like you have a New York vibe still?
342. No, I was, we left when I was about four years, during World War II.
343. Wow, yeah.
344. I was about four years old.
345. Yeah.
346. And then we lived near downtown LA.
347. Yeah.
348. So I'm more of an Angeleno.
349. Totally.
350. Yeah.
351. I've been back to New York to work.
352. My partner and I did the Playboy Club circuit.
353. Whoa.
354. L.A. to Chicago to New York to London to Atlanta back to L.A., just the circuit.
355. And that was fun.
356. Yeah, I bet.
357. I love going to London.
358. I went to London earlier this year to be a part of the Look for the Woman Festival.
359. Look for the Women Festival?
360. Look for the Woman.
361. Yeah.
362. Look for the Woman.
363. It's from old French movies where they're like, whenever they ask trouble, look for the woman.
364. Yeah.
365. And so it's a very, you know, layered, vaguely misogynistic phrase.
366. But using it now to empower and look for the woman on stage and it's all female clowns.
367. It's very, very, very fun to be a part of.
368. So you're a performer.
369. You're a director.
370. do you teach a regular class?
371. I do. I teach my classes that I call soft clown.
372. Oh, soft clown.
373. Yeah, soft clown.
374. Soft clown, I mean, and people are like, what the heck is that?
375. People were talking about different communities within clowning
376. and people were saying like oh this is kind of like maniac clown or this is kind of like being like a kind of culty clown And I was like oh gosh I just want softness
377. I want where the soft clown's at.
378. And then I decided to start calling my classes that.
379. And basically what it means is being unapologetically connected to other people
380. and vulnerable and using your emotions to access absurdity.
381. You're going to see that in Doofus for sure
382. I got my start in improv theater
383. At the committee in San Francisco
384. And it's right out of Second City
385. Yeah
386. And so it was straight improv
387. But we did invent something called the Herald
388. Yeah
389. And we invented it
390. You?
391. No, 12 of us invented it
392. Whoa
393. It was Del Close created something
394. He said, you're doing all these improv techniques
395. So I'm going to put all 12 of you on stage, ask you a big important question like, why do I have to work?
396. And then you're going to take an hour and using all your improv techniques, interact with one another, and we'll see what you got.
397. That was the Herald.
398. Wow.
399. Yeah.
400. So was it like a three-beat structure when you were doing the Herald?
401. What do you mean?
402. Do you know?
403. Well, now, like the Herald, there's three different beats and you pull from things.
404. And, you know, it all becomes like comedy math.
405. It gets very complicated real fast.
406. Well, when you have 12 people, it turns out that different people seem to do different things well.
407. So my big thing was someone would be doing a scene, and I'd get the idea, that's gotten along long enough.
408. So I'd interject something else and move it somewhere else and bring someone else in.
409. So I was a great interjector.
410. Yeah, doing your walk-ons and your sweeps.
411. I did that because I couldn't act very well
412. I readily
413. admitted there were much better actors
414. in the company than me
415. well they always say that musicians are good at comedy
416. because they understand tempo
417. yeah
418. yeah they do understand tempo
419. they just don't understand dialogue
420. yeah yeah
421. yeah man
422. I think that that's somewhere where
423. Clown lives
424. You know, in between the physicality and the improv, making up funny things, but also putting it in your body and following that kind of intuitive knowledge that we get when we're listening to music or enjoying poetry.
425. Uh-huh.
426. Oh, I have to say, everyone, that following my show is Donna Walker's show.
427. And I would be happy to mention her guest, but the screens keep shifting.
428. He's a documentarian, Nick Davis, who's talking about his film, This Ordinary Thing.
429. That's coming up at 2.30 to 3 p.m. in just about three minutes.
430. So what are you going to be doing after the festival?
431. After the festival, I'm going to start working on some new shows for myself.
432. Oh, really?
433. Yeah, there's one show in particular that I'm really excited about.
434. It's called Secret Show.
435. And I haven't figured out how not to give you spoilers.
436. But I will say this is my clown version of Sleep No More, the production that I was mentioning earlier that is so important to me.
437. Yeah.
438. How long do these shows usually last?
439. Like what is their lifespan?
440. Well no I mean like is it 70 minutes 60 minutes It 60 minutes Yeah Yeah It a well 60 minutes I feel like if you do a 90 show it better be freaking amazing
441. Yeah.
442. Okay.
443. Yeah.
444. So hour-long shows, and even though there is a set script or there are set cues, every
445. show is different because of the audience and the energy that they bring in.
446. That's true.
447. Yeah.
448. And the clowns, we want to play with that energy.
449. That's great.
450. Yeah, we invite all of that in.
451. So doofus, like if you see doofus multiple times, it will always feel a little different.
452. Well, it should, yes.
453. Yeah.
454. Well, Natasha Mercado, I'm really happy you've been my guest.
455. The half hour has just flown by.
456. Yeah, thank you so much.
457. So please stay tuned to Donna Walker's Pacifica Performance Showcase.
458. upcoming. This is Julio Martinez. I've been here since 1987, every Friday at two o'clock,
459. and I'll be back next Friday with another guest, talking about theater or a cabaret.
460. And as you listen to the music of Al Jarreau, I wish to say bye-bye, and I'll see you next week.
461. Coming up this week on L.A. TheatreWorks.
462. A parish priest undergoes a crisis of faith with potentially devastating consequences.
463. We were discussing how much we should be pushing Christ at people and how much they should be left to find him for themselves.
464. It's like a nail bomb. You touch that subject, it goes off. Are you crazy? In every direction.
465. Racing Demon by David Hare. Next time.
466. on LA Theatre Works.
467. That's this Sunday evening from 10 p.m. until midnight.
468. LA Theatre Works, right here on KPFK.
469. This is Gary Oldman.
470. You're listening to radio powered by the people.
471. KPFK 90.7 FM.
472. And
473. Welcome to Pacifica Performance Showcase, Arts and Culture, to enlighten, enliven, and educate.
474. I'm your host, Donna Walker.
475. And today I'm going to be running my prerecorded interview with documentarian filmmaker Nick Davis,
476. who's got a really remarkable film called This Ordinary Thing.
477. And it's about the non-Jews in Europe, throughout Europe, who helped save the Jewish people,
478. their neighbors, strangers, all across Europe during the Holocaust.
479. And it has never before seen footage, archival footage,
480. and it's narrated by an all-star cast of incredible performers
481. from F. Murray Abraham to Carrie Coon, Marcia Gay Harden,
482. Jeremy Irons, Bill Irwin, John Leguizamo, and, of course,
483. Dame Helen Mirren, one of the greats.