A character in a Hallmark Christmas movie says forlornly that people having a good time stress her. Actor Madelaine Weymouth goes one better.
“I can only sit through ‘It's a Wonderful Life’ and ‘White Christmas’ and ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’ so many times before I start messing with my family,” Weymouth admitted. “We have all these inside jokes and now we're making fun of it as much as we are enjoying it. And ‘Clown Bar Christmas’ is making fun of those stories we've heard over and over while also really embracing the fact that people really do love this time of year. But there's no reason why we can't have a laugh at the same time. Not everything has to be super serious.”
Weymouth channels these sentiments when she performs her “Clown Bar Christmas” parody, “How the Snitch Stole Christmas.”
The clowns in Clowntown are having clown fights
Committing clown crimes, carousing all night.
And the snitch says, ‘If only there was a way to indict.’
Then Christmas won’t come, won’t that be a sight.'
Popo is the Assassin Clown.
Dressed in a blood-splattered white schoolgirl dress and knee socks, she wields an electric saw connected to an outlet in her wide pink sash. She’s no Betty Haynes or Mary Bailey.
“She's so unlike anybody else I get to play,” said Weymouth. “She's just so scary and so insane and bizarre. Not many roles like that, so it's a lot of fun to play her.”
So, if you’re into bizarre this season, Weymouth dares you to catch a performance of “Clown Bar Christmas” … that is, unless you’re a snitch.
“Clown Bar Christmas” is at Lab Theater through Dec. 21.
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This is Weymouth’s third time playing Popo. She appeared in the role of the homicidal clown in both “Clown Bar 1” and “Clown Bar 2.”
“It's a blast. I love her so much,” Weymouth said.
To get in character, she simply focuses on whatever gets under her skin prior to going to the theater.
“Whatever I get mad at during the day, it just all comes out. Right?” said Weymouth, who notes that the drive to the theater in snowbird traffic will make anyone homicidal.
“Like the most insane you've ever been at 3 a.m., when you're wondering what you've done with your life. It's like that. But all the time, and then they hand me a chainsaw. It's perfect.”
What makes Popo so chilling is that she’s cold, calculating and extremely violent. She’s also psychotic, tempestuous and unpredictable. One review goes so far as to say that she has “a violent streak that would make Quentin Tarantino blush.”
She scares the other clowns. So much so that they utter her name in hushed tones. They are always cognizant that she can lose control at a moment’s notice. Her mere presence places those around her in peril. Her beige world corollary is Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) from “Goodfellas.”
So what’s one to do who’s afraid of clowns?
Weymouth has some simple advice for anyone suffering from coulrophobia (fear of clowns).
“Don't sit in the front row,” Weymouth cautioned. “Row H is perfect for people who don't like clowns but love Christmas.”
Rule No. 1 at the Clown Bar is “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
So govern yourself accordingly.
So many clowns come, they break the door hinges
‘How could this be?’ the snitch shouts in fear
‘Maybe Christmas,’ he thinks, ‘will always be here.’
Like those clowns in Clowntown
And unlike Van Gogh’s ear.
And the snitch has to run because his roast beast is cooked
And he knows if they catch him, they’ll have his neck on a hook.
So he runs, runs, runs,
He’s still running to this day.
Or possibly sunk in the middle of the bay.”
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
