From Paris to Punchlines: Marine Sergent Finds Her Voice in Brussels

Marine Sergent is a stand-up comedian and co-creator of Atout Comedy Club, a collective promoting visibility for cis and trans women and gender minorities in comedy. She performs on stages like What the Fun, Kings of Comedy Cluben Comedy Ket. She also co-wrote the show Fin de Soirée and is a columnist on BX1.

“I arrived in Belgium 6 years ago. I used to work in Paris assisting producing stand-up comedians, with the company Juste Pour Rire. Later, I became the administrative manager of a theater, le Sentier des Halles. When I arrived in Brussels, I understood that I didn’t want to work for these people, I wanted to be where they were. I started stand-up in 2021 and I have performed as much as possible since then. Interesting timing : I welcomed my bisexuality at the same time. It took some time for me to accept that i was also attracted to women. I come from a traditional background, and homosexuality wasn’t part of my culture. I became a feminist in the same time. It all seemed to arrive at the same momentum, and although it was challenging, it felt like everything was coming into place.”

“I am working on my show at the Petit Kings in Brussels. It’s about pleasing people and how to stop being a people pleaser. There will be music (I have a wonderful ukulele with me). It’s quite a challenge to try and offer 1 hour of quality show to people. Very stressful, but exciting. I will also be working on a new version of Fin de Soirée, a show that I co-created with Moana Genevey and Lola d’Estienne, which is mainly about friendship and mixes stand-up and musical. I also co-created the collective Atout Comedy Club, which aim is to offer safe spaces for women and queer artists in the stand-up world. Our 3rd season starts, and we have a lot of news projects!”

“The Brussels queer community helped me connect with myc. I was never part of a queer community before I arrived here. I arrived in Brussels to follow my boyfriend at the time. When I broke up with him, I was free to embrace this side of who I was, even if I didn’t exactly know it at first. I started to attend more and more queer events. I performed on queer nights (at Crazy Circle or Grands Carmes) and never felt freer in what I wanted to say, wanted to laugh about.”