It’s hard to picture Marc Rebillet as anything other than an improvisational musician and actor. But before Rebillet stepped into his silk robe and signature boxers full-time, he worked a decade’s worth of odd jobs.
“I worked at a movie theater. I worked at a mortgage loan servicing company. I did real estate for a bit, and I worked at a call center doing all sorts of cold calling,” Rebillet said.
“Some of the jobs were a little bit more miserable than others.”
Despite some bad days, Rebillet looks back on this period of his life with nostalgia.
“Between all of the dreaming and failing, it was a pretty happy existence,” Rebillet said.
“I got by. I was living paycheck to paycheck, and I was basically free to pursue the things in life that made me happy. Collecting records, playing board games, being around my friends, smoking weed. Just a simple, easy life with work that paid the bills and not much else.”
Now Rebillet can’t clock out of work. “There just is no clocking out because of the pressure of sustaining yourself creatively. But the trade off has been the greatest joy of my life. It’s hard to complain.”
First trained in piano and acting, Rebillet’s trademark ability to improvise his performances comes from years of methodical practice.
“I allowed the improvised part of this to play to the skills that I had been developing my whole life, which is a natural inclination towards theatrical performance, and a love for the piano, and soul, and funk, and dance.
“It was not something that I plotted out or calculated. When I turn a camera on and use the looper, I can’t help but perform while I’m doing it.”
Rebillet’s ability to not take himself too seriously has led him to a lifetime of happenstance, which is–unsurprisingly–one of his secrets to success.
“I say this in a lot of interviews, but I say it because it is the truth. Where I have arrived has been mostly an accident. If I could point to one really definitive sort of thing that tipped the scales in my favor, it would probably be getting this looper, and that was mostly inspired by Reggie Watts.”
Rebillet didn’t just fall into a career as an artist—he resisted it. Ironically, his father’s encouragement to follow his talents continued to push Rebillet even further away from the pursuit. “It was extremely annoying, and I didn’t want to care.”
Though looking back, Rebillet can see his father’s motivation in his success.
“There was this lifetime of encouragement by him,” Rebillet said. “It was a huge driving force in the first few years, overwhelmingly, because he passed within several months of my first tour. Just as everything was beginning to take off.”
Rebillet’s reflections on his father have made him realize that you can’t escape becoming like your parents, no matter how hard you try.
“I guess you realize as you get older just how much of your parents are inside you, whether you like it or not. You can choose how you use it, but they are in you.”
With multiple major-market tours now under his belt, Rebillet is spending the rest of the year performing in smaller cities—many of which he’s never been to.
“I do not like being stagnant, or feeling like I’m doing the same thing again.
“We called this tour ‘Places I’ve Never Played And Will Never Play Again’ to get people motivated to come out. It’s just kind of an ultimatum, like, I’m coming here once, get the fuck out to the show.”
Each performance by Rebillet is unique and unreplicable. He creates his sets live in-the-moment, looping sounds and melodies for the entirety of his show. Sometimes he’ll become completely immersed in improvisation as he performs, finding a flow state that many creatives can relate to.
“The best way I can put it is that it feels like a current that’s already moving. If I can let go enough, or get lucky enough, to find the right kind of momentum to slide into that current, then I’m just moving.
“I’ll go entire shows without feeling like I really got in it, like I was just floating on top and trying, trying, trying but never really entered that state. You get better at accessing it the more you do it, but it’s still never a guarantee.”
But if Rebillet’s art is anything like his life, then he has become the master of following his instincts—from ten years of odd jobs and the guiding voice of his father, to a series of accidents that have ultimately led him to become an artist.
“It’s an incredibly liberating way to create and to exist. You’re not even thinking about knowing exactly what to do. You’re just doing it.”
Marc Rebillet: Places I've Never Played & Will Never Play Again Tour
GLC Live at 20 Monroe
11 Ottawa Ave. NW, Grand Rapids
Oct. 5, 7 p.m.
glcliveat20monroe.com
First Thought, Best Thought
Revue ended this interview with what Rebillet does best: improv. We said a series
of words at random, and Marc replied with the first thought that came to mind.
New York City
Filthy. Filthy f*cking place. Beautiful. Filth.
Synthesizer
Difficult. Too many wires. Too many dials. I don’t like it.
Baguette
Very difficult to find a good one. Pretty much have to go to France.
Bubblegum
Love it. Sweet mint. Orbit.
Breakups
No thank you.
Sunglasses
I wear prescription glasses, so I need a pair of prescription sunglasses. Super inconvenient. I have to carry my glasses and my sunglasses. Sucks.
Michigan
Literally the greatest place on planet Earth.
