Keeping it Foolish

Nicole Medema’s art emerges from her lifelong role as a balancing act. By listening for the voice that is being purposefully or unwittingly ignored by individuals or groups, she finds the elements that need to be embraced in order for wholeness to occur. In this way, she attempts to promote equilibrium in the world.

Nicole began her clown journey in 2014, by creating a silent act for a talent show. Deep in depression due to a failing marriage, she found peace by conveying humor, loneliness, and a vulnerable desperation for connection while dressed in a clown suit. She has never turned back from the artform.

Nicole has performed on stages since she was a child. Her adult experience ranges from one-woman silent shows to musicals, from dramas to vaudevilles. Her passion for performing permeates across genres.

She has written and performed in a variety of solo clown acts as well as scripted comedy skits.

She is a co-producer and artistic director of The Coyote Call Circus, in which she also performs as a clown.

She has taken classes with The Clown School in Los Angeles as well as with teacher, Avner the Eccentric.

Nicole enjoys teaching improv theater and clowning to both adults and young people in order to help them relate to their intuition and multiple parts. She is also available to officiate your strange circus wedding.

Experience & Schooling

Ceremonial Leadership

Besides engaging with the profanity of the fool, Nicole is a ceremonialist fostering spiritual relationships in wilderness environments. She apprenticed to be a vision quest guide with Rob Miller, founder of the nonprofit Cascadia Quest. She now runs an annual women’s vision fast in southeast Oregon with New Moon Rites of Passage.

Nicole lives in Eugene, Oregon with her daughter, her best friend, and an array of animal skulls.

  • Of course you can! I offer improv theater courses as well as clown embodiment courses. Email me to learn how we can work together.

  • Certainly! Much of my work is stage-based, meaning it is a theater-style performance that should have a captive audience. If you are seeking more of an “ambiance” kind of performance art, I have characters that could fit the bill.

    If you are seeking to book a variety of circus artists to create ambiance at a large event, I can help with that, too. We have a large circle of circus artists available for hire at the Coyote Call Circus.

  • I take people out to the wilderness to facilitate a deep dive into their psycho-spiritual reality. It usually involves group circles, three days of fasting alone in the desert, and a period of incorporation time to bring the experience into everyday life. It’s totally a thing.