The Art of the Circus Steal: The Indiscreet Harms of the Bourgeoisie

THE GREAT CLOWN BANK SHOW: Theater Review

I can’t stand to watch shows such as HBO’s Industry and Succession. I did view an episode of Succession once, and to be sure, the highly acclaimed, award-winning HBO series was indeed extremely well-written and well-acted. But Succession was such a truthful representation of the capitalist class and how they operate that it was unwatchable for me. With their cutthroat, self-serving wheeling and dealing motivated by a bottomless greed and need for status, the bourgeoisie are utterly despicable, the worst creatures on the face of the Earth. Trump is the embodiment in one person of all of the worst characteristics of capitalism. Responsible for the looting and despoilation of the planet they’re relentlessly heating up, the capitalist class is good for only two things. The first is overthrowing them.

The second is they serve as perfect foils for the foibles, flaws and madness that can befall individuals. As such, they are endlessly amusing to behold when satirized and subjected to the ridicule these capitalist pigs so richly deserve. And playwright/director Hank Jacobs strikes just the right note in sending up money-grubbing members of the 1% in his hilarious spoof The Great Clown Bank Show. Through the framework of a circus Clown deliciously, maliciously pokes fun at those penny pinchers who render life so unbearable and miserable for the rest of us, from mass layoffs to financial scams.

Clown follows the Greedy family as the steal their way to the top of the heap through the type of financial shenanigans that manipulative capitalists foist upon the masses they prey on. For instance, the insurance scam, wherein workers pay pricey premiums, but when misfortune befalls them, policyholders have lots of trouble actually collecting the payouts they were assured they were insured for in case of calamities. In Clown, when one woe-is-me victim tries to collect on his/her policy but can’t, the cast member laments having bought insurance and wonders why he/she paid for the policy in the first place. The immediate response is that because being covered by insurance is the law – and of course the politicians who enact the laws are in the pockets of the captains of industry (if are not capitalists themselves, like Trump).

Clown would be a good fun spoof if there wasn’t so much truth in it – just ask survivors of California wildfires who were hit by a second (if unnatural) disaster after their homes burned to the ground: Dealing with bloodsucking insurance companies. As such, Clown is arguably closer to being a tragedy than to a comedy.

But to be fair to this madcap capitalist takedown, with its circuslike antics and rapier-like wit, Clown really is heaps of fun, with lots of dancing (choreo by Raquis Petree) and music (most of it recorded; sound design by Jeremy Thompson; Robby Good is music director; Mike Messer the composer). There is a bawdy burlesque number and along with other parts of the show and performers, Clown is pretty risqué business. It also features a knife throwing act (here’s a theater credit I’ve never seen before: “Knife Apparatus” by Morgan Samuel). The costumes by Benny Lee Harris Lumpkins Jr. are also quite hysterical and sometimes revealing.

Bethany Koulias and Torrin Kelly (left) • Kevin Brennan and Elle Engelman (right)

Before entering the theater proper, a “carnival” has been setup where you can play games of skill; such as a beanbag toss to win prizes; “Indulge in the evils of social media by posting a picture;” dial the “Customer Disservice Phone” (a hotline to bureaucratic blah blah blah familiar to anyone who’s ever tried to call corporate customer service); or purchase popcorn with “clown bucks” (distributed to ticket buyers along with an “agenda” before entering the carnival space).

The Great Clown Bank Show’s cast includes: Tambrie Allsup (Grizz Greedy), Davis Barber (Gus Greedy), Kevin Brennan (Glenn Greedy), Elle Engelman (Greta Garrotte Greedy), Matthew Goodrich (Gary Greedy), Torrin Kelly (Griffin Greedy) and Clara York (Glenda Greedy). The ensemble features: Amiée Conn, Carmella Jenkins and Bethany Koulias.

In addition to mercilessly lampooning and harpooning the elite, Clown includes circus acts, notably Avery Shannon Lynch, a stunning gymnast who performs feats of derring-do on a hoop suspended from the ceiling with great panache. This aerialist’s breathtaking performance defies both gravity and credulity and has to be seen to be believed. (“Aerialist choreographer,” Sita Acevedo, is another brand new credit – but then again, there’s lots of one-of-a-kind stuff on this zany stage I’ve never seen before, but am now glad I did.) Avery is also quite ravishing as a “human statue” in a separate dance number. Bravo!

During its run Clown is also presenting “A New Special Circus Guest Each Week!” and at the end of Act I on opening night, comedian/juggler extraordinaire Michael Rayner regaled the audience with his balancing act that is as uncanny as capitalists are mentally unbalanced. WOW!

(Exhibit A, of course, is Trump, who appears to be a clownishly deranged imbecile who, in just the past few days, celebrated America’s “25^th” – not 250^th – anniversary at Mt. Rushmore; on national TV pronounced “Thank you, President Trump” to himself with the kind of self-dealing, self-adulation that only self-absorbed elitists and other psychopaths are capable of; and unleashed his inner Roy Cohn, Trump’s redbaiting mentor, attacking “communists” who have been winning elections, because deep down inside like all capitalist pigs, Trump knows that as long as there’s class struggle, the specter of communism – which would expropriate his ill-gotten gains, redistribute them to the poor and truly needy, and if his ballroom was ever built, would turn it into a homeless shelter for D.C.’s unhoused population – persists and threatens the exploitation and oppression he revels and thrives in, at everyone else’s expense.)

The apparently delirious, dementia-addled Trump, who has never been known for nuanced public discourse (or, for that matter, discrete private intercourse) is, of course, referring to the electoral triumphs of Democratic Socialists (and other non-DSA socialists), that are sending shivers up the spines of businessmen terrified by the prospect that they may actually be compelled to pay their fair share in taxes, and spooking the well-paid spineless politicians who enable their campaign-financing patrons. To some extent, Clown is expressing onstage many of the complaints socialists are expressing in the electoral arena, with dialogue about: “Some of the great excesses of late-stage capitalism,” uttered by the ringmaster, portrayed by the helmer/bard himself, Hank Jacobs, who also cites a pithy line by the revolutionary playwright Bertolt Brecht: “What is the crime of robbing a bank compared to the crime of founding one?” Touche, Bertie!

In Act II, federal regulators and citizen activists named, I believe, the United Federation of Dazzling Dames, try to reign in the power and wrongdoing of the fiscal fiascos running show. Will they succeed in their efforts to tame the out-of-control Greedy family as unbridled capitalism runs rampant? To find out, Dear Reader, you’ll just have to see this anticapitalist revue, a literal Clown show, yourself featuring the bourgeoisie under the big top. Kudos to ringmaster Hank Jacobs, who helms his troupe with the artistry of a populist Barnum & Bailey. As America celebrates the 250^thanniversary of our Revolution, this is an apropos immersive theater extravaganza to behold – even if the laughs (and swords!) might stick in your throat.

Open Fist Theatre Company presents the The Great Clown Bank Show through Aug. 1 on Fridays at 9:00 p.m.,Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., Sundays at 7:00 p.m. plus Thursday, July 30 at 8:00 p.m. at the Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039. For info: www.openfist.org; (323)882-6912. (FREE parking in the ATX (Atwater Crossing) lot one block south of the theater.)

For info about the fourth book co-authored by Ed Rampell and Luis Reyes about filmmaking in Hawaii.