Short- ish Biography
Zuma Puma (aka Nelly Scott) is a Canadian/British clown, comedian, artist, NLP Master Practitioner and Creative Life Coach.
She is the founder of Clownlife- a body of work exploring how clown, improvisation, ritual, and personal development can support both artistic practice and a more connected, wholehearted way of living.
Alongside her facilitation work, Zuma is an award-winning actress (The Bernard Shaw Award, The Christopher Newton Award) and the creator of the International Lost Cabaret- London’s most alternative comedy night, now a global collective with shows across the UK, Europe, and Australia. Her creative work spans stage and screen, including her self produced YouTube series Grumpy Lettuce and Quarantine House, as well as her internationally touring solo shows; The Hero's Journey, Don't Do it, Don't Do it, Do it and most recently- The Clown Arcana.
Zuma has taught and performed in over 14 countries, working with universities, festivals, theatres, and communities as well as offering one-to-one intuitive coaching, creative direction and online courses.
Zuma Puma (aka Nelly Scott) is a Canadian/British clown, comedian, artist, NLP Master Practitioner and Creative Life Coach.
She is the founder of Clownlife- a body of work exploring how clown, improvisation, ritual, and personal development can support both artistic practice and a more connected, wholehearted way of living.
Alongside her facilitation work, Zuma is an award-winning actress (The Bernard Shaw Award, The Christopher Newton Award) and the creator of the International Lost Cabaret- London’s most alternative comedy night, now a global collective with shows across the UK, Europe, and Australia. Her creative work spans stage and screen, including her self produced YouTube series Grumpy Lettuce and Quarantine House, as well as her internationally touring solo shows; The Hero's Journey, Don't Do it, Don't Do it, Do it and most recently- The Clown Arcana.
Zuma has taught and performed in over 14 countries, working with universities, festivals, theatres, and communities as well as offering one-to-one intuitive coaching, creative direction and online courses.
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In- Depth Biography
Zuma Puma (aka Nelly Scott) is a Canadian performer and the founder of Clownlife — a body of work merging clown, performance, and personal development.
Her work explores how the practice of clown can profoundly influence both our artistic expression and the way we live.
Since 2016, Zuma has facilitated more than a thousand participants across 14 countries, working within universities, theatre companies, retreats, weekend workshops, online courses, residencies, and international training programmes.
She is also the founder of the International Lost Cabaret — London’s most alternative comedy night since 2012- which has since grown to become a global phenomenon run by an incredible collective of performers (now running regular shows in: Bristol UK, Munich Germany, Barcelona Spain, Paris France, Melbourne Australia and is regularly found at both the Edinburgh and Adelaide Fringe Festivals.
What began as a weekly cabaret evolved into a global collective supporting contemporary comedians to push creative boundaries. Many artists emerging from this space have gone on to receive international recognition, including Netflix specials and major awards.
Zuma began forming the concepts for her Clown Arcana Tarot deck in 2020 and went on to paint the 22 card herself as well as writing the 120 page booklet and the larger reference book to accompany the deck- she launched the first edition print in March 2026! You can find her decks above in the Clown Arcana Deck Tab.
🎓 Training
Zuma has over 16 years of extensive clown training with more than 50 international teachers.
She trained at some of the world’s most renowned schools, including:
Alongside her performance training, Zuma has a deep commitment to personal development.
She is a certified NLP Master Practitioner and has studied embodied dreamwork, ritual, rites of passage, shadow work, inner child world and various spiritual and therapeutic practices.
🎪 Research & Performance
Zuma’s work is rooted in lived experience and ongoing research across different clown traditions and performance contexts.
She toured with Bread and Puppet Theater for 3 summers (USA), a political circus company that deeply influenced her approach to performance and activism.
She also performed with Tickles & Co. (Canada) for 3 years, exploring traditional circus clown and physical comedy.
After moving to London in 2012, Zuma immersed herself in contemporary clown, developing work through weekly performance at The Lost Cabaret- a space that became central to her artistic evolution.
She has since performed internationally across festivals including the Edinburgh Fringe, Brighton Fringe, Leicester Comedy Festival, Adelaide Fringe and London Clown Festival.
Her solo show Don’t Do It, Don’t Do It, DO IT! has toured internationally to critical acclaim with more than a handful of standing ovations..
She is also the creator of the Clown Arcana Tarot- a 22-card deck and performance piece combining tarot, clown, and improvisation. In her live hour long shows she improvises a Live collective tarot reading of the audience with her very own hand made dec. Deeply rooted in the here and now, revealing what wants to be seen and expressed- Zuma is supported by her partner Rowan Quarry who improvises with Sound and Lighting playing off of Zuma's prompts, the cards that emerge in the reading and the energy of the audience.
🌍 Personal Development & Life Research
Zuma’s work is equally shaped by her deep exploration of personal and spiritual development.
Following a near-death experience in her teens (caused by an accidental drug overdose and slightly skewed by her addictions at the time), she committed to a path of healing, self-inquiry and expression that has taken her across the world - through vision quests, ritual practices, silence retreats, mentorships, shamanic apprenticeships and immersive life experiences.
She has lived in extreme and diverse conditions- from travelling without money for 3 months, spending a winter in a homeless shelter, living in squats, dumpster diving, organising political protests with giant puppets and devising clowning flashmobs, to living in community, engaging in ceremony, and working closely with spiritual teachers and mentors, developing drag acts and non gendered characters, performing Buffon dark satirical comedy shows, touring the London Comedy circuit, living in Eco Villages and ultimately committing to finding a life that feels true and authentic to her.
She trained in Ayurvedic fire ceremony practices, facilitated at Present Moment Retreat Centre in Mexico, and continues to integrate ritual, embodiment, and transformation into her work.
🔥The Art of Zuma's Facilitation“Clown is an incredible tool to get to know the self- how we treat ourselves, how we treat others, our coping mechanisms, our beauty, our ridiculousness, our ugliness, our liberation, and our humanity.
For me, clown is the vehicle to living wholeheartedly.
You can learn clown to perform, to succeed, to achieve- but what is success if your heart and spirit aren’t behind you?
My work is not only about developing performance.
It is about meeting yourself more deeply.”
This is also why I work with the Tarot.
Embodying the archetypes of the Tarot has brought a depth and breadth to the work that is rare to find. I have been working with Tarot since 2007, and began integrating it into performance in 2012 and later more seriously through collaboration with Daniel Hernandez (Divine Ridiculous). Through creative residencies, we explored Tarot through what I call now the Clown Lens — the way we perceive and play with the world. Together, we created films, performances, and collective tarot decks.
This embodied practice led me to develop my own body of work exploring clown through the 22 Major Arcana — which became both a performance (The Clown Arcana) and a tarot deck which you can find above in the tabs.
I now weave Tarot, non-religious ritual, psychomagic, embodied dreamwork and NLP into my facilitation- working with imagination, belief, and the subconscious to shift how we experience both performance and life.
I see my work as a playground- always evolving.
No two workshops are ever the same.
Through clown, we explore how to face ourselves honestly, move through conflict, take responsibility, and express what is real.
My role as a facilitator is to support people in reconnecting to their true nature- to express fully, to laugh, to cry, to be liberated and to be human. To create spaces where we are challenged and truthful, and also supported, connected, and seen.
This is the art I wish to see.
This is the world I want to live in.
And so it is.
Zuma Puma (aka Nelly Scott) is a Canadian performer and the founder of Clownlife — a body of work merging clown, performance, and personal development.
Her work explores how the practice of clown can profoundly influence both our artistic expression and the way we live.
Since 2016, Zuma has facilitated more than a thousand participants across 14 countries, working within universities, theatre companies, retreats, weekend workshops, online courses, residencies, and international training programmes.
She is also the founder of the International Lost Cabaret — London’s most alternative comedy night since 2012- which has since grown to become a global phenomenon run by an incredible collective of performers (now running regular shows in: Bristol UK, Munich Germany, Barcelona Spain, Paris France, Melbourne Australia and is regularly found at both the Edinburgh and Adelaide Fringe Festivals.
What began as a weekly cabaret evolved into a global collective supporting contemporary comedians to push creative boundaries. Many artists emerging from this space have gone on to receive international recognition, including Netflix specials and major awards.
Zuma began forming the concepts for her Clown Arcana Tarot deck in 2020 and went on to paint the 22 card herself as well as writing the 120 page booklet and the larger reference book to accompany the deck- she launched the first edition print in March 2026! You can find her decks above in the Clown Arcana Deck Tab.
🎓 Training
Zuma has over 16 years of extensive clown training with more than 50 international teachers.
She trained at some of the world’s most renowned schools, including:
- L’Ecole Philippe Gaulier (Paris)
- L’Ecole du Comédie et Clown with Francine Côté (Cirque du Soleil, Montreal)
- Pochinko Clown (Sue Morrison, Toronto)
Alongside her performance training, Zuma has a deep commitment to personal development.
She is a certified NLP Master Practitioner and has studied embodied dreamwork, ritual, rites of passage, shadow work, inner child world and various spiritual and therapeutic practices.
🎪 Research & Performance
Zuma’s work is rooted in lived experience and ongoing research across different clown traditions and performance contexts.
She toured with Bread and Puppet Theater for 3 summers (USA), a political circus company that deeply influenced her approach to performance and activism.
She also performed with Tickles & Co. (Canada) for 3 years, exploring traditional circus clown and physical comedy.
After moving to London in 2012, Zuma immersed herself in contemporary clown, developing work through weekly performance at The Lost Cabaret- a space that became central to her artistic evolution.
She has since performed internationally across festivals including the Edinburgh Fringe, Brighton Fringe, Leicester Comedy Festival, Adelaide Fringe and London Clown Festival.
Her solo show Don’t Do It, Don’t Do It, DO IT! has toured internationally to critical acclaim with more than a handful of standing ovations..
She is also the creator of the Clown Arcana Tarot- a 22-card deck and performance piece combining tarot, clown, and improvisation. In her live hour long shows she improvises a Live collective tarot reading of the audience with her very own hand made dec. Deeply rooted in the here and now, revealing what wants to be seen and expressed- Zuma is supported by her partner Rowan Quarry who improvises with Sound and Lighting playing off of Zuma's prompts, the cards that emerge in the reading and the energy of the audience.
🌍 Personal Development & Life Research
Zuma’s work is equally shaped by her deep exploration of personal and spiritual development.
Following a near-death experience in her teens (caused by an accidental drug overdose and slightly skewed by her addictions at the time), she committed to a path of healing, self-inquiry and expression that has taken her across the world - through vision quests, ritual practices, silence retreats, mentorships, shamanic apprenticeships and immersive life experiences.
She has lived in extreme and diverse conditions- from travelling without money for 3 months, spending a winter in a homeless shelter, living in squats, dumpster diving, organising political protests with giant puppets and devising clowning flashmobs, to living in community, engaging in ceremony, and working closely with spiritual teachers and mentors, developing drag acts and non gendered characters, performing Buffon dark satirical comedy shows, touring the London Comedy circuit, living in Eco Villages and ultimately committing to finding a life that feels true and authentic to her.
She trained in Ayurvedic fire ceremony practices, facilitated at Present Moment Retreat Centre in Mexico, and continues to integrate ritual, embodiment, and transformation into her work.
🔥The Art of Zuma's Facilitation“Clown is an incredible tool to get to know the self- how we treat ourselves, how we treat others, our coping mechanisms, our beauty, our ridiculousness, our ugliness, our liberation, and our humanity.
For me, clown is the vehicle to living wholeheartedly.
You can learn clown to perform, to succeed, to achieve- but what is success if your heart and spirit aren’t behind you?
My work is not only about developing performance.
It is about meeting yourself more deeply.”
This is also why I work with the Tarot.
Embodying the archetypes of the Tarot has brought a depth and breadth to the work that is rare to find. I have been working with Tarot since 2007, and began integrating it into performance in 2012 and later more seriously through collaboration with Daniel Hernandez (Divine Ridiculous). Through creative residencies, we explored Tarot through what I call now the Clown Lens — the way we perceive and play with the world. Together, we created films, performances, and collective tarot decks.
This embodied practice led me to develop my own body of work exploring clown through the 22 Major Arcana — which became both a performance (The Clown Arcana) and a tarot deck which you can find above in the tabs.
I now weave Tarot, non-religious ritual, psychomagic, embodied dreamwork and NLP into my facilitation- working with imagination, belief, and the subconscious to shift how we experience both performance and life.
I see my work as a playground- always evolving.
No two workshops are ever the same.
Through clown, we explore how to face ourselves honestly, move through conflict, take responsibility, and express what is real.
My role as a facilitator is to support people in reconnecting to their true nature- to express fully, to laugh, to cry, to be liberated and to be human. To create spaces where we are challenged and truthful, and also supported, connected, and seen.
This is the art I wish to see.
This is the world I want to live in.
And so it is.
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Videos and articles...
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Interviews and blogs (click the buttons to read the articles)
BBC RADIO 2- Claudia on Sunday
Clownlife was mentioned on BBC's Radio 2 last Sunday! And NOW you can have a listen on BBC iplayer- link below!
Thanks to Emily Howarth for the mention :) It's great to see, hear and feel this work being appreciated in all its forms.
Not to mention, Im a total fan of Claudia Winkleman- I Love Strictly Come Dancing!... Whoop whoop! Also a solid hour of enjoyable music etc. for those on the search for something good to listen to.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/…/m000dqqthttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sound…
Clownlife was mentioned on BBC's Radio 2 last Sunday! And NOW you can have a listen on BBC iplayer- link below!
Thanks to Emily Howarth for the mention :) It's great to see, hear and feel this work being appreciated in all its forms.
Not to mention, Im a total fan of Claudia Winkleman- I Love Strictly Come Dancing!... Whoop whoop! Also a solid hour of enjoyable music etc. for those on the search for something good to listen to.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/…/m000dqqthttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sound…
Wandsworth Radio- Al Cowie Interviews Nelly Scott
April 28th 2015
Al Cowie gets the low down from Zuma Puma aka. Nelly Scott on the development of Grumpy Lettuce the webseries. She gives tips on how to plan for a film project, retrospective- what not to do's and the kind of team you want involved in the making of your own webseries.
April 28th 2015
Al Cowie gets the low down from Zuma Puma aka. Nelly Scott on the development of Grumpy Lettuce the webseries. She gives tips on how to plan for a film project, retrospective- what not to do's and the kind of team you want involved in the making of your own webseries.
