The surprising following of ‘the Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies’
[NOTE: This essay was originally published in 2014. This year, 2021, marks the 30th anniversary of the film's release.]
On a rain-drenched afternoon, my long-time pal Bob Goldthwait sent me this text: “I’m assuming no one from SketchFest has been in touch with you. It’s a cluster fuck. Can you come and be in the Shakes reading…?”
Bob was right. No one had contacted me, and I had no idea what he was talking about. What Shakes reading?
On February 9, 2014, the annual San Francisco SketchFest was wrapping up its two-week-long run with a live performance at Cobb’s Comedy Club. The show was billed as “a lively live reading” of the shooting script for Bobcat Goldthwait’s “1991 cult comedy classic” Shakes the Clown. “Reprising their film roles,” the website stated, were “Julie Brown (‘Judy’), Tom Kenny (‘Binky The Clown’), Florence Henderson (‘The Unknown Woman’) and Goldthwait himself (‘Shakes The Clown’).”
I replied to Bob’s text that I would be there and, without hesitation, got in my car and drove into the city.
The organization of the staged reading at Cobb’s (or the lack of organization) was reminiscent of the filming of Shakes the Clown – slapdash, improvised, and all in the name of having some laughs. Goldthwait called for a rehearsal at 1 pm. He showed up at 2 o’clock. He’d spent the morning recruiting local comedians to join the live show at the last minute. Paco Romane, Caitlin Gill, and Mike Speigelman had less than an hour’s notice. Hastily printed scripts were collated and bound. Chairs, tables, and microphones were spread across the stage.
As promised, Julie Brown had arrived from Los Angeles. So had Tom Kenny and Florence Henderson (yes, the Florence Henderson). Also joining the group onstage were comedian/actors Rick Overton, Kevin Pollack, and SNL star Laraine Newman. None of those three comics appeared in the film, but they graciously appeared for the one-time staged reading. The only other original Shakes cast members in attendance were Goldthwait and me.
“Doors open in ten minutes!” said the nightclub manager. Goldthwait had to cut the rehearsal short. We’d only read through half the script. No matter. The audience was about to be let in, so we had to clear the stage. We retired to the green room.
We wondered whether an audience would show up. When Shakes the Clown premiered in theaters in 1991, almost nobody saw it. Some of those who did hated the movie and walked out. How many people were likely to show up 23 years later on a rainy Sunday at 4 pm to watch us read from the script?
——
Bob Goldthwait’s rise from comic sensation to indie film auteur was, pardon the pun, shaky. Most people who followed comedy in the 1980s remember his nerve-rattling hyperactive alter ego, Bobcat. Some will recall that same character as Zed from the Police Academy movies. Goldthwait also appeared in Scrooged with Bill Murray, One Crazy Summer with John Cusack and Demi Moore, and other films.
Nearly everything you think you know about Bob Goldthwait is probably wrong. Although that crazed, screeching comic creation made him a star, Goldthwait’s real personality is nothing like that. He’s relaxed, modest, and approachable. He’s a proud father to his 30-something daughter. He avoids eating meat and hasn’t touched drugs or booze since he was a teenager. His only vices are cigars and an occasional tattoo. And offstage he never speaks with what he calls ‘the Voice.’
Yes, he once appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and set the sofa on fire. He regrets that.
Goldthwait went on to direct music videos. He toured as the opening act for Nirvana. He then directed TV segments of The Man Show, which featured Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla. When Kimmel went to late night television, he took Goldthwait with him. Goldthwait directed the nightly talk show for three years.
Upon leaving Kimmel’s show, Goldthwait returned to writing, producing, and directing indie films. He made Sleeping Dogs Lie (2005) on less than a shoestring budget. Then came World’s Greatest Dad (2009) starring long-time friend Robin Williams, a movie that garnered the best reviews of Goldthwait’s career. More recent films include God Bless America (2012) with Joel Murray and the Bigfoot found-footage horror movie Willow Creek (2014). [He also directed the documentary "Call Me Lucky" (2015) and his standup concert film with Dana Gould called "Joy Ride" (2021).]
Long before those projects, though, came a cult classic called “the Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies.”
——
“Hey, Dan, I’m gonna make my own movie, and I’ve got a part for you.”
That was how Goldthwait approached me, and others, to appear in his directorial debut. I’d known Bob since our salad days as struggling comedians in Boston, and his generous offer filled my head with delusions of stardom.
Then I read the script.
A movie about drunken, coke-snorting, obscenity-spewing clowns…? I worried that Bob was pissing away his nascent career.
I wanted to express my misgivings, but only a fool would turn down a pal who was offering him his first film role. Many of my other friends had agreed to appear in the movie, so I went along without complaint. If nothing else, we were sure to have a good time.
Shakes the Clown is set in fictional Palookaville where nearly everyone is a miserable clown. Literally. It tells the tale of Shakes, a full-blown drunk who fails to keep kiddies entertained. He curses, threatens children, vomits, and passes out during birthday parties. His girlfriend Judy (Julie Brown) tries to keep him sober. Meanwhile, Shakes’ arch-nemesis, Binky (Tom Kenny), gets the coveted TV cartoon show hosting gig (ironic, given Kenny’s real-life future profession) and eventually tries to pin a murder on Shakes.
If that plot seems strange… well, it is. No one would mistake it for an Oscar contender. But many people find the weird movie hilariously funny. Goldthwait’s oeuvre consists of dark, dark comedies. Shakes the Clown was his first.
Even people who never went to film school can see the movie’s flaws. A media critic described the directing as “pedestrian.” The costumes and makeup are low-rent. Everything about the film looks a bit cheap. Yet some people overlook those defects. They just find the movie funny.
Part of the appeal is the cast. Goldthwait collected a troupe of veterans and unknowns who went on to comic fame.
Like Goldthwait, Julie Brown was a 1980s phenom. Her trademark Valley Girl character landed her on MTV. She wrote, directed, and starred in the movie Earth Girls Are Easy.
Tom Kenny, who portrayed the hilariously villainous Binky, is the voice of Spongebob Squarepants. He and Goldthwait grew up in Syracuse, NY, and have been friends since grade school.
Mime Jerry is a cameo role attributed to an actor named Marty Fromage. He’s actually Robin Williams.
Adam Sandler played Dink, a clown too nervous to score with women. Shakes was his second feature film.
Comedienne Kathy Griffin appeared as Judy’s best friend, Lucy. It was her second speaking role in a movie.
Florence Henderson, immortalized as Carol Brady from The Brady Bunch series, made a cameo role as a mother who sleeps with Shakes.
Paul Dooley (Mr. Cheese) is an instantly recognizable veteran actor who has appeared in hundreds of films and television shows.
The late LaWanda Page had perhaps the most memorable line in Shakes the Clown, which should not be repeated to your mother. She played Aunt Esther on the TV series Sanford and Son.
Most of the remaining cast members were established standup comedians making their film debuts: Jack Gallagher, Jeremy Kramer, Tony V, Blake Clark, Paul Kozlowski, Bob Nickman, Steve Bean, Greg Travis, and Bruce ‘Babyman’ Baum.
Goldthwait not only wrote, directed, and starred in the picture, he also produced it with his then-wife Ann Luly. IRS Films backed the project. The company is now defunct. They put up slightly over $1 million to make the movie. Even by 1991 standards, that was low budget.
The movie shot in the San Fernando Valley during the scorching hot summer of 1990.
The movie landed in theaters with a giant thud.
The New York Times’ Janet Maslin hated it. Leonard Maltin gave it his lowest rating. As with most of Goldthwait’s dark humor, people either liked the movie or couldn’t stand it. Opinions rarely fell in between. (Roger Ebert was an exception. He kindly gave Shakes 2 out of 4 stars.)
Audience reactions were mixed at best. At the San Francisco premiere, Goldthwait and I watched a few moviegoers walk out midway through the screening. That was dispiriting.
The box office receipts barely touched $150,000. In fairness, the movie played in only a handful of theaters for two weeks.
Shakes was eventually released on video, set adrift in bargain bins, and largely forgotten.
“My son found a VHS copy lying around my house,” Tom Kenny said. “It was a rental that was way overdue. So I took it to the video store and said, ‘Sorry, but I’ve had this for, like, a year, and I know its overdue but I’ll pay the charges.’ The clerk looks at me, shrugs, and says, ‘Keep it.’ That’s how insignificant the movie was. Even the video store didn’t want it back.”
Over the years, though, the movie acquired a peculiar underground following.
On their 1996 album New Adventures in Hi-Fi, REM released a song called ‘Binky the Doormat.’ The song title directly references dialogue from the movie.
Over the years, several people asked me if I’d ever seen a movie called Shakes the Clown. When I admitted to them that I acted in it, they were stunned. “You’re in it? I love that movie!”
Tony V, a Boston comic and actor who also appeared in Shakes, told this story. “I got to audition for a role in the Scorcese movie The Departed, and I never got the role, but I talked to Scorcese… I said, ‘You’re on record as saying Shakes the Clown is one of the best movies you’ve ever seen.’ And he said, ‘No, no, no, I said it was the Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies.’ And then he defended his thesis for about 45 minutes.”
Then came a 2009 showing in Los Angeles at a silent film movie theater. Goldthwait, Kenny, and Paul Kozlowski attended and were stunned to see a full house.
In 2010, college students invited Goldthwait to Washington for a private screening of Shakes. They were infants when it premiered. “If you’re not familiar with my movies,” he told them, “people tend to either don’t know about them, or really like them a lot, or hate them. And this is the one they hate the most.” The frat boys in the crowd cheered; incurring the hatred of people who ‘just don’t get it’ has always been a rebel’s badge of honor.
But then Goldthwait told the crowd, “I watched the movie recently with my friend Tom Kenny, and in the middle of it we turned to each other and said, ‘What the fuck were we thinking?’”
Even Goldthwait is a bit mystified about the movie’s cult following.
Eventually, Shakes showed up late at night on cable TV, and it can now be found in some dark corners of the Internet. The movie has acquired kitsch appeal. Shakes’ cult status doesn’t rise to the star levels of This is Spinal Tap or Fast Times at Ridgemont High or The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It falls closer to the extra-cult-ish category of Louis CK’s Pootie Tang or John Waters’ Polyester. But the movie’s fans, though not legion, are surprisingly loyal.
It just goes to show: Given enough time and patience, everything can find its audience.
——
On that rainy Sunday, we waited in the green room as the crowd was ushered in. With the pissing rain and the unusual 4 pm starting time, I wondered whether people would show up for the staged reading. At $32 per ticket, the odds seemed slim.
Cobb’s Comedy Club is a cavern. A small turnout in the 350-seat room looks pathetic. We worried the ten people onstage would outnumber the audience.
The house was packed.
We took the stage to a huge round of applause. Goldthwait gave a brief introduction and then launched into the reading. The movie’s first scene involved Shakes awakening from a drunken bender in the home of a one-night-stand. Cue Florence Henderson. When she walked onstage, the audience rose to its feet as if she were Dame Judi Dench. After her brief cameo, Ms. Henderson then exited to another standing O.
People were entranced. Broad smiles all around. A woman in the front row lip-synched much of the dialogue. The crowd howled when Laraine Newman did a pitch perfect reading of LaWanda Page’s role. They cheered Julie Brown’s first words of dialogue, complete with her character’s baby talk speech impediment. They roared for Tom Kenny. Kevin Pollack’s reading of Jerry the Mime was a dead-on impersonation of Robin Williams. Each comic line got big laughs, and the nostalgic crowd loved every minute of it. The reading ended to huge cheers.
Fans had brought posters, DVDs, and VHS tapes of Shakes for us to sign, and we obliged. Other people wanted to take photos with us or just to say hello.
Unlike the movie premiere 23 years earlier, nobody walked out before the show was finished. When it was over, nobody wanted to leave.
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