Fool Moon

Review © by Richard Gist | February 27, 1999

When you have two premiere circus clowns of this caliber united on the same stage with the Red Clay Ramblers, you know you are in for an inspired evening of fun and antics. More significantly perhaps, the synergy is much greater here than the sum of the parts, as these two clowns are as different on their own as night and day. Together, they provide as demonically hilarious an evening in the theatre as one could possibly ask for, while the Red Clay Ramblers punctuate the sketches with their unique yet varied collection of musical parody.

David Shiner is the one who works the audience at every opportunity from the moment the lights go down and he climbs over everyone to find his seat. His humor is of the hostile kind, and he can humiliate with all the power of a Don Rickles, despite his having to do so without speaking a single word. Bill Irwin is the more gentlemanly of the two, and his humor is more in the Buster Keaton/ Charlie Chaplin mode.

The many sketches provide a full and fluid evening of family entertainment (complete with intermission), one that has been delighting New York audiences on- and off-Broadway for most of the past decade. Originally a sort of improvisational piece that was done on the streets of Paris, Shiner brought his part of the act to the accliamed Cirque du Soleil in 1990. (Despite his degree from the Ringling Brothers Clown College, Irwin has more acting credits in his background, including a recent recurring role of a mute circus performer on the CBS series "Northern Exposure.")

This show, which will have audiences howling nearly all month at the Kennedy Center, is a perfect performance blend by proponents of an art form that refuses to die -- making people laugh without the benefit of the spoken word. Add to the formula the (not always) country band, The Red Clay Ramblers (who recently wowed Washingtonians in the Ford's Theatre hit-run production of Kudzu: A Southern Musical), and it might just be too irresistible to stay away. A final word to the wise: steer clear of those first couple of rows if you find heavy-duty audience participation not to your liking.