Unbelievable Clown Hating Bullcrap

So far, the New York Times has yet to approve my response to Neil Genzlinger's review of Banana Shpeel. Until then, I'll reprint the review and my response here.

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The review:

Dear Theater Ethicist: Should I feel guilty that, for me, the most satisfying moment of Cirque du Soleil’s “Banana Shpeel” came when a clown was riddled with mock machine-gun fire?

Dear Theatergoer: No. For one thing, the “mock” suggests that the clown was probably not seriously wounded. For another, clown eradication is something that would benefit all of humanity and would certainly benefit this show, which is not as entertaining as something that lasts almost two and a half hours ought to be.

“Banana Shpeel,” written and directed by David Shiner (who created the wonderful “Fool Moon” with Bill Irwin), is partly a vaudeville-ish variety show and partly a scripted story involving some clowns who vex an impresario named Marty Schmelky (Danny Rutigliano). The variety-show acts — Coney Island with very, very high production values — are diverting enough: a woman (Vanessa Alvarez) who juggles mats with her feet; a hat juggler (Le Tuan); a muscular fellow (Dmitry Bulkin) who does all sorts of gymnastic things around and atop a pole; three somewhat creepy contortionists.

These elements are, in short, the kinds of polished routines Cirque fans have come to expect at the troupe’s ever-growing collection of shows: impressive physical feats performed in cool costumes (by Dominique Lemieux) and bathed in arresting lighting (Bruno Rafie). But they take up less than half of this extravaganza, whose New York opening — a retooled version of a show that critics treated harshly last year in Chicago — was delayed several times. The rest is devoted to production numbers and the lazily written story of Schmelky and the clowns.

Schmelky is a bombastic showman who early in the show oversees “clown auditions.” The three competitors escape backstage and spend the rest of the show harassing him. In the process Schmelky tries on a personality change — trading his anger for a more Zen-like approach — but it’s hard to care because the character is thinly drawn, and Mr. Rutigliano doesn’t invest him with any sympathetic qualities. You know your show has a bad book when the audience spends its time wishing the lady with the juggling feet would come back.

Give the clowns their due: they are sometimes funny, with Patrick De Valette getting the most laughs, primarily because he’s wearing a raincoat and isn’t shy about flashing his orange undies. But with clowns, less is always more. By Act II these have worn out their welcome. The high point of the show’s second half — besides that machine-gunning — is provided by the lighting and costume designers, who combine for the production’s most eye-popping bit, a dance under black light featuring outfits that seem to change color as the number goes along.

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And my response:

I have not seen this show, so I cannot speak on Mr. Genzlinger's review of it. And I have, in the past, worked intimately with four of the clowns in this show, as well as the director, so I am not without bias.

However, I take umbrage with Mr. Genzlinger's blanket distaste for all clowns. He snarkily writes of the benefit of clown eradication and in the next breath calls Fool Moon "wonderful"--a clown show created and performed by clowns. This leads me to believe that Mr. Genzlinger really doesn't dislike all clowns, but rather he was making a cheap and artless remark against an art form that is already much maligned these days. Do you wish Buster Keaton's work be eradicated? Dick Van Dyke? Carol Burnett? Roberto Benigni?

I wish my friends Claudio, Daniel, Gordon and Wayne, as well as Patrick, Danny, and the rest of the cast and crew a long and successful run. And I wish Mr. Genzlinger many fitful nights as he is haunted--nay, devoured--by creatures in rainbow wigs and polka dot pants in his dreams.

Sincerely,
Jimmy Slonina
Clown

Social Media - LIVE!

I'm on Twitter. And I enjoy reading news, what my friends are doing, ephemera, and also what people think about Kooza. I keep an eye on people coming to see the show as well as people who have already seen the show and sharing what they think. That's not a new concept. Businesses often look to Twitter to see what their customers are thinking and then use that information to their advantage, or not.

For me, I'm mostly just curious. But every once in a while, more often than I'd like I run across a tweet like this:

Off to Cirque de So Lame with my family despite a particular dislike of clowns.

Now right off the bat, he's knocking the Cirque company, eluding that he's probably just gonna have a bad time no matter what. But add to that, he mentions the clown thing. Any follower of my blog should know how I feel about clown haters. This one too. But I thought I'd let it go. Then, less than an hour later, he pushes further:

"Coulrophobia is abnormal or exaggerated fear of clowns." Bugger off! If there's anything that's abnormal or exaggerated, it's a clown.

Okay, so the guy is starting to have an annoyingly good time with his clown-bashing venom, and does so by popping onto Wikipedia for some zinger fodder. I'm trying to keep my cool. A follower of his pipes in, somewhat ignorantly:

Last I checked, there aren't really clowns at Cirque du Soleil...

To which our first guy says:

 My ass there are no clowns at Cirque desolé!. It's like the friggin' Blaire Witch Project with grease paint.

And with that, I held my tongue no longer. During the show I wrote to him, knowing full well he'd read it at intermission:

"Blair Witch Project with grease paint"--Great line! Hope we didn't totally ruin your night. See you in your nightmares!

Intermission rolls around. This pops up:

"Hope we didn't totally ruin your night. See you in your nightmares! *<:o) /via @jimmyslo". From the clown. In the show. On stage!

And then three minutes later:

Totally p0wn3d — or should that be c70wn3d by @jimmyslo from somewhere in the tent about 2 minutes into intermission.

And then five minutes after that, directly to me:

Well played. Truly well played, my funny friend. How on earth did you even see my tweet? I'm not sure if I'm reassured or freaked.

Then Ron, my fellow clown chimed in to both of us:

Why don't you two just get a room? Geez.

To which I respond to both of them:

Well I DO know where he's sitting. Hint: Look behind you!

Quoth the guy:

aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!

And then even his wife got in on the action:

This is his wife and I SO want to tell you where we're sitting.

Despite my encouragement, she didn't. At the end of the show, our guy gives his final thoughts:

I had a great time, guys, and should be able to sleep with the lights off in a few weeks.

Mission accomplished? Have we won this guy over? By playing into his bullshit fear or hatred of clown, have I turned him around?

I'm mostly tickled by the idea of using Twitter as another performance layer. Meta-cyber-theatricality. Taking audience reactions, or even pre-actions, from the web and using them in the performance. At one point in the show when I'm screaming with fear, I screamed this guy's name, followed by "I'm...so...scared!!" ala Blair Witch Project.

It isn't even the first time this was done in Kooza. My former clown partner, Christian and I would scour through Twitter for just this kind of opportunity. It not only gives us instant feedback on the show from the public, but we also get their preconceived notions and, when possible, we can use them as an added advantage for our control. It's like a performance within the performance JUST for them!

The evil clowns just got evil-er.

Zombies, Tigres, and Close Friends--OH MY!

After closing a run of Kooza in San Diego, the whole family drove right away up to Los Angeles to stay with Leo's godparents, Voki and Anais. Also staying with them were our good friends Jonathan and Anne, who all were prepping for their brand new tent show/mini-circus/travelling cabaret, Le Tigre.

Getting into LA late night on a Sunday was easy traffic-wise. And little Leo had no problems sleeping through the drive.

The next day, Monday was reserved mostly for Voki's zombie character workshop. It's one of the first steps in creating a huge zombie circus show. So about a dozen of us gathered in a theatre in Atwater Village, and for about five hours, got into zombie makeup, improv-ed zombie scenarios, and by the end of the night, put on a mini zombie circus. It included zombie acrobatics, zombie ultimate fighting, zombie burlesque, and yours truly featured in a zombie clown scene--a classic damsel in distress being saved by a hero, yet we were all zombies of course.

Through the entire evening, our son Leo was nothing but an enrapt audience member. At no time was he freaked out or fussy. In fact, he seemed to really enjoy the attention of all these zombie-clad performers.

The next few days were spent intensely on helping Jonathan and Anne with Le Tigre. They found a space in the courtyard of the Powerhouse Theatre in Santa Monica--a perfect location to pitch their tent for their inaugural show. Robin had been working on two beautiful banners (shown below) to be hung on the sides of the tent, and she also painted the tiger above the tent's entrance.

A lot of painting, sewing, shopping, done all in and around Voki's apartment in Los Feliz. Three couples (and one baby), all tight friends working together for a common, fun, fulfilling, historic experience. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to surround myself with.

On Wednesday, we went to visit our friends Lisa and Richard in their sweet Downtown LA pad for lunch and good times. They got to meet the little man, and we entertained each other with various YouTube viral vids. But we had to cut it short to get back to Santa Monica for more Le Tigre set up.

Thursday was opening night. Lots of last minute running around and finishing touches. Fish Circus set up to entertain the crowd in the courtyard next to the tent. All members (sans Anais) were facepainted as tigers by my beautiful and talented spouse, Robin. It was a cold evening, but everyone seemed to have a good time before the actual show. Our friend Sarah was bodypainted with a snake boa. Sarah was there to bartend and mingle, but the cold weather made us rework her role for the evening. She would be my lovely assistant, as I hosted the show.

Showtime! Fish Circus marched the audience into the 40-seat tent to begin the show, and I stepped up to the stage with Sarah to welcome everyone and introduce the first act, The Honeymoon Cabaret. Good clean, naughty fun as always from Jon and Anne as Marc and Svetlana Buttersworth. The crowd was instantly charmed, and it became quickly apparent that this mini circus experiment was going to be a huge hit. They brought on their special guest, Voki and Anais for some good old fashioned Zombie Juggling!

Some racy contortion and a few spent bananas later, the first intermission was announced. Everyone exited the tent for more fun in the cold and listening to the DJ spin tunes.

I introduced the second act of the evening--[with French accent] American Stupid. These are the newest characters from Gazillionaire stalwarts, Voki and Anais, as a rude French gameshow host and his hilariously elderly mother poking huge fun at the mostly (but not all) American crowd. Wheel spinning contestants, funny hats, lame American prizes, even an apple pie eating contest--another successful romp.

Second intermission. More drinks and DJ'ing outside. The final act was about to begin.

I started the final act with a ukulele solo, a reprise of my Creep song that I did originally at the Illusions Bar in Baltimore, this time dedicating the song to my new little bundle of joy, Leo. Good times wailing out Radiohead on the uke. And then I introduced Freaks in the Box. And Jon and Voki came out with their awesome ventriloquist act, with Jon as puppeteer and Voki as puppet. Seemingly harmlessly silly at first, but things go darkly hilarious real quick. At the end of this first part, Anais and I stepped up to start our duet, Tonight You Belong to Me on uke and accordion. During the song Anne popped up from behind to join us on, of all things, a kazoo. Anais and I played it up as though three's a crowd through the whole song. Then Jon and Voki returned as Freaks Clowns, a horrible pair of seemingly ordinary yamma clowns, but again things go way south and disturbing in no time. At the end of the second part, Anne, Anais and I returned to the stage for our final ditty--Anne singing a beautiful rendition of Amado Mio, with Anais and I accompanying. Anne donned a not-painted-but-only-a-little-more-animated snake boa during the song. Then Jon and Voki returned for their final magic act, with Jon as magician and Voki as his high-pitched and high-heeled wife/assistant. A running theme, a lame-seeming premise gives way to a gutbustingly dark undercurrent.

Once Jon pulled the appropriate card out of Voki's absurd prosthetic vagina during a handstand, they exited the stage, and I reentered with Leo in my arms--much to the audible chagrin of the audience. "What?! Oh NOW you draw the line?!" I exclaimed. I brought back everyone to the stage for a final bow, thanked the Powerhouse Theatre, and asked everyone to drop some money into the hat for them, since they let us use the space for no money!

A big success, and an obvious long and successful road ahead for Jon and Anne's Le Tigre. We all went back to Voki's apartment for Thai food and regaled the evening's hilarities.

The next day, Robin, Leo and I met with our good friend Krissy and her beautiful 16 month old daughter, Olive, who of course was smitten with Leo and promptly showered him with hugs and kisses.

Day two of the show, things were even more under control, since we had one show under our belt, and the Powerhouse Theatre let us use the actual theatre for the audience to enjoy Fish Circus and the bar before the show and at intermission. This time the lovely Sarah was bodypainted as a tiger as she tended bar and assisted me on stage. A bigger, even more hip turnout this time, and I didn't think the laughs could get any louder. All the acts went off without a hitch and much to the delight of all attending. Afterward, we all celebrated in class and style, at Denny's, with old friends, Chris and Jen and artist Christopher Ulrich.

The next day, we had to say our sad farewells to our friends and start the long drive to Portland. We swung by to give a quick hello and goodbye to our good friend Joy, whom we tragically missed the whole week we were there!

Being in southern California with Kooza for so long afforded us a lot of great time to spend with our friends there. The drive was long and arduous, but traveling thru wine country and the majestic redwood forests was phenomenal. The whole time, we thought of the Le Tigre crew who had one more show to do without us! Word was out that it all went very well.

It was, in all, a most artistically and spiritually fulfilling week. And rather than wish I didn't have to leave, in an odd way it really made me appreciate what I have. I'm overly thankful that I have a steady, fun job in a field that I love, making thousands laugh each day, that affords me security and (relative) comfort for myself and my family. It suits me to a tee. I mentioned in an earlier post, that I'm a company man. I'm not the kind of performer who is comfortable living hand to mouth and hustling for the next gig. Coming back to Kooza was bittersweet, especially leaving the warm sun of SoCal to the rainy cold of the Pacific Northwest. But this whole week came together perfectly for me BECAUSE of where I'm at and what I'm doing. And thanks to that, I'm making a concerted effort to rid my circle of negativity and shed sour grapes for much sweeter ones. Taking what I have for granted ends now!

Thanks Jonathan, Anne, Voki, Anais, Fish Circus, Lisa, Richard, Chris, Jen, Sarah, Krissy, Joy, K.C. (for the amazing pictures!) and all that came to the workshop and Le Tigre, and of course my Robin and my Leo!

The Big Date

The Big Date @ Yahoo! Video

My good friend and former colleague Christopher Johnson has completed his first film called The Big Date. It was shot on film (no digital camcorders here) in Chicago with a band of usual suspects from the Chicago theatre scene, including some former Defiant Theatre stalwarts.

Chris almost single handedly started Defiant Theatre. Without his determination, along with the hard work and talents of a small core group of his former college buddies, the incredible 11-year institution that was Defiant could not have happened.

This film offers a very keen representation of the theatre company's fundamental spirit and artistry. Please enjoy.

The Cold Civil War

Last night I watched the unedited interview with Jon Stewart on the O'Reilly Factor. It was a riveting and eye-opening look into the media circus and the great divide between the right and the left. I recommend watching the whole thing here. That same day I listened to a Fresh Air interview with John Oliver from the Daily Show. He also provided a great insight into the current tea party movement.

Both interviews solidified my notion that we are under a cold civil war in our country. It used to be that democrat and republican citizens could actually live and work side-by-side and have healthy arguments about their differences and come out of it unchanged but affable. That doesn't seem to be possible any more.

As both interviewees have illustrated, the tea party movement--the grassroots GOP gatherings--are a formidable force that's sweeping the heartland. These are angry, determined men and women who are hell-bent on steering the country more to the right, mostly by venting their anguish over what they consider a tyrannical president. These everyday Joes and Janes have a lot of venom in their movement. All the while, Fox News gives an illusion of washing their hands of it all, yet at the same time fanning their flames. "Obama is a muslim." "He's a socialist." "He's a tyrant." It's almost as though the tea partiers themselves don't know what they're talking about, but they need to spout out bad-sounding epithets to quicken their blood and the blood of those around them. And Fox has the cameras well-focused on it all.

And the differences between Stewart and O'Reilly confirm my rationale of being a democrat. Stewart is a comedian whose passion is politics, and O'Reilly is an political opinionist whose passion seems to be bullying. Stewart was his usual self-effacing funny man with many good points--not all of which necessarily fell in line with the left. O'Reilly kept this smug, 'gotcha' look on his face and really only stood out when he was name-calling. He called the Daily Show audience a bunch of 'pot-smoking slackers' and its writers 'pinheads'. But that's how I see a lot of intelligent right-leaning folks, like it's all a big joke or a game. It doesn't seem like they're FOR anything. They're scrambling to reverse things or keep things from happening. There's no progression in their politics, just prevention, reversal and maintenance of the status quo.

There were lots of shades of gray in Stewart's set of beliefs, which showed thoughtfulness and care. O'Reilly was dismissive and priggish, which was off-putting, and it didn't really get any point across. I agree that Obama's first year in office has been flawed. But this mainstream GOP media outlet has whipped the public into so much an irrational frenzy, that it seems impossible for this president to get anything done.

Jimmy Slonina: Instructor

When Anthony Gatto asks you to do something, you should probably do it. Anthony and I collaborated on a grassroots Barack Obama ad right before the elections. It was such a success, that CNN called to enter it in their contest at the time, and it made it into the top 20 (it was robbed from winning if you ask me). That vid can be seen here.

Then a few months ago, Anthony approached me to do a pratfall how-to video. I wasn't convinced at first that A) I was the right guy for the job or B) that an instructional video of that kind was possible or marketable. Anthony was creating juggling how-to videos himself, and he wanted to expand it to include other circus skills, effectively providing a suite of instructional vids to would-be circus performers. After seeing his instruction style, I could see how to piece together and break down several basic pratfalls--funny or stage combat--into a tutorial.

Here's the result! Thanks to Gatto's keen sense of fancy directing and editing, for a measly $12 you can own a download of a slick video of how to pratfall effectively. I think we did a pretty good job of it.

Hope you enjoy, and please forward to anyone you might think would be interested. Thanks!

CLICK HERE FOR GATTO'S DOWNLOAD PAGE.

Unfriend

Yesterday I was hostilely 'unfriended' on Facebook for the third time in six months, that I know of. If it wasn't so unsettling, I would wear that sort of thing as a badge of honor. Pissing people off is what gets people laid, better salaries, and generally more interesting lives. But it just made me ponder the difference between unfriending on Facebook and unfriending in real life.

It's so much more devastating to be unfriended on Facebook. It's a light switch that gets thrown off. Whereas in real life, you're never really sure where you stand in friendship status even after a heated argument. None of these unfriending Facebook friends were really my friends in real life. In fact, I'm surprised some of them accepted my friend request in the first place. I shouldn't feel sad that any of them have gone, but the "off" position of that light switch is a pretty effective knife to the gut.

The word "unfriending" calls to mind Orwell's Newspeak--removing words with opposite meaning because they're redundant. Ungood. There have been calls to add an "Unlike/Dislike" button in addition to the "Like" button on Facebook. How about an "Enemy" status? Might be nice to have a social network of everyone you hate. All would get together and call each other names and send each other bile-laden apps to each other. Instead of "Poke", one could "Give the Finger".

These unfriending experiences also really broadened my circle of awareness. Chicago was such a warm, comfy blanket of community. Even some people I didn't like somehow remained close friends. Since leaving it, the rest of the world reared it's ugly head. In real life, as well as in cyberspace. My mom was right. There ARE people out to get you. There ARE people only looking out for themselves. There ARE people who are jealous, spiteful, and insecure, and they're not looking to be my 'friend'.

Since I left the comfy blanket in my mid-thirties and didn't really explore the world in my youth, the shock of these "unfriendlies" is still big. I'm still trying to grapple how to move on and take it in stride.

UPDATE: Huh! Apt: 'Unfriend' Picked Oxford Dictionary's 'Word of the Year'