A Wonderful Day Full of Free, Populist Theatre

It was a glorious late summer day yesterday (Yes, it’s still summer. Why is Labor Day held several weeks PRIOR to the end of summer, I want to know?! Even now, there’s still a week of summer left!) But anyway I took the opportunity to catch the final performance of this year’s Theater for the New City Street Theatre production Home Sweet Home, or a Life in New York at Tompkins Square Park, followed by the free show/ celebration to launch the second annual session of the Coney Island Clown Skool.

The TNC show, written and directed as always by the tireless Crystal Field, struck me as the best one yet in terms of content, maybe because it was so NEEDED. The world of mainstream entertainment, movies, television, pop music, is letting us down MAJORLY at this crucial time. (By comparison with, say, illustrators and graphic artists, who tends to get to the heart of things with less shilly-shallying). Even performing artists who are ostensibly dealing with what’s going on (late night comedians, some musicians) have done so in what I feel is a toothless and ineffective fashion. But Crystal’s street theatre show was like a balm. I was especially moved at the climax in which we meet the Statue of Liberty. If I recall correctly that’s usually Crystal’s role in these shows, but she appears to have passed the torch.

The most powerful moment in the show was when an ICE agent came to arrest Lady Liberty, but couldn’t get the cuffs on. You can’t arrest an ideal, Liberty informs him, and that was just one of the show’s heartening messages. It’s always been the case that the human race has been groping and stumbling towards Liberty for all, without having come as close as we would like to attaining it. If we look at it like that, without dwelling on the difficulty of this particular moment, it strikes me as a healthier way to approach the struggle somehow. It has to be about the long game. It will take a long time, but set-backs don’t mean the game is lost.

And speaking of games, that was the overarching metaphor for the show. The framing device was a couple of guys playing chess in the park. And at the end, the characters articulated the same point in a different way, which I also really appreciated. The chess game they’re playing reaches a stalemate. The lesson of the show was that when that happens (stalemate), you don’t stop playing chess for good. You start over with another game.

From the East Village I next trekked out to the People’s Playground, Coney Island to see the opening night show of the Coney Island Clown Skool. I was enjoying myself way too much to take pix of the show, but this lady in front of me in the audience put on an equally colorful presentation with this excellent clown blouse. Anyway, all in all, this may be the most solid variety bill I’ve ever seen and it stands to reason because Glen Heroy, boss and founder of the clown school, said that these were all performers who had influenced him over the years. The whole bill consisted of widely admired clowns — or, for better accuracy, clowns widely admired within the clown and clown-fan community.

The bill started with Joel Jeske (who has always reminded me a lot of Hans Conried) as a classical musician whose instrument is a row of burning candles, which he “plays” by burning his hands on the flames, to provoke his own screams at the appropriate pitches. Charles Addams would have loved it!

Then the hilarious Hilary Chaplain (see how I spelt that right?) did a joyous set as a supremely self-confident yet terrible lip syncer who performs Peggy Lee’s “Fever” with the gusto of a Vegas lounge act yet complete indifference to the lyrics.

CIUSA’s own Adam RealMan did one of his tried and true bits, a stunt of which the surgeon general would not approve, and which mixes elements associated with Frakson, Frisco, and Chaz Chase…not to mention the sideshow.

Then came Michael Trautman, a physical comedian of ASTONISHING physical control whose silent character first worries about the uneven lengths of his arms before moving on to a mouthful of ping pong balls. I was impressed enough by this act before learning about a tragedy the performer suffered six weeks ago that would lay most of us out for years, if not permanently. Knowing what I know now, this clown gave a HEROIC performance last night.

Trautman was followed in the line-up by one “Joe”, a grad of last year’s clown school session, and the only young ‘un on the bill, just for balance. He did a bit around a trained flea named Hugo, adding further to the vaudeville vibe of the show.

Lastly the great Matt Mitler did his character Schmendrick the Shaman, transforming himself into a 90 year old Native American holy man, whose name indicates that he may a member of a certain Lost Tribe that perhaps originated in the Levant. It’s funny of course, but I was particularly dazzled by the vocal work that he does, which must have taken a LOT of random caterwauling in some remote location until he achieved just the effects that he wanted. Mitler is like a cross between Andy Kaufman and the Dalai Lama. If he started a cult, I would like to be its recording secretary.

Lastly, Glen Heroy himself took the stage, with hilarious interruptions by surprise guest R. David Robinson, whose literal onstage donation of great piles of books reminded me of guys like Harpo and Buster Keaton.

That was the show! One tight hour and I considered it a great privelege to be there for it on a beautiful night in Coney Island. All of these performers are teaching at the clown school, along with the famous Jeff Gordon, a.k.a. Gordoon, et al. this week. To find more about the Coney Island Clown Skool go here.