''Shakes the Clown'' is a 1991 American
black comedy
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
film directed and written by
Bobcat Goldthwait
Robert Francis "Bobcat" Goldthwait (born May 26, 1962) is an American actor, comedian, director and screenwriter, known for his black comedy stand-up act, delivered through an energetic stage persona with an unusual raspy and high-pitched voice. ...
, who performs the title role. It also features
Julie Brown
Julie Ann Brown (born August 31, 1958) is an American actress, comedian, screen/television writer, singer-songwriter, and television director. Brown is known for her work in the 1980s, where she often played a quintessential valley girl charac ...
,
Blake Clark
Blake Clark (born February 2, 1946) is an American actor and stand-up comedian. He is best known as Chet Hunter on ''Boy Meets World'' and Harry "The Hardware Store Guy" on ''Home Improvement''. Clark has voiced Slinky Dog in the ''Toy Story'' f ...
,
Paul Dooley
Paul Dooley (born Paul Brown; February 22, 1928) is an American character actor, writer and comedian. He is known for his roles in ''Breaking Away'', ''Sixteen Candles'', and ''Popeye''.
Early life
Dooley was born Paul Brown on February 22, 1 ...
,
Kathy Griffin
Kathleen Mary Griffin (born November 4, 1960) is an American comedian and actress who has starred in television comedy specials and has released comedy albums. In 2007 and 2008, Griffin won Primetime Emmy Awards for her reality show '' Kathy ...
,
Florence Henderson
Florence Agnes Henderson (February 14, 1934 – November 24, 2016) was an American actress. With a career spanning six decades, she is best known for her starring role as Carol Brady on the ABC sitcom ''The Brady Bunch''. Henderson also appeare ...
,
Tom Kenny
Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for voicing the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media. Kenny has voiced many other characters, including Heffer Wolfe in ''R ...
,
Adam Sandler
Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, producer and singer. He was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1990 to 1995, before going on to star in numerous Hollywood films, those of wh ...
, Scott Herriott,
LaWanda Page
LaWanda Page (born Alberta Peal; October 19, 1920September 14, 2002) was an American actress, comedian, and dancer whose career spanned six decades. Crowned "The Queen of Comedy" or "The Black Queen of Comedy", Page melded blue humor, signifyin ...
,
Jack Gallagher, and a cameo by
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...
as Mime Jerry using the
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
"Marty Fromage".
The film is a satire of performance art and portrays different communities of clowns and other performers as clannish, rivalrous subcultures obsessed with precedence and status. Goldthwait made the film as a satire of the dysfunctional standup comedy circuit at the time he was first starting out as an entertainer. When the film was first released, it was widely panned, but in recent years, reaction has become more favorable, largely due to how the film handled the serious topic of alcoholism. ''Shakes the Clown'' has since become a
cult classic
A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
.
Plot
In the fictional town of Palukaville, Shakes (
Bobcat Goldthwait
Robert Francis "Bobcat" Goldthwait (born May 26, 1962) is an American actor, comedian, director and screenwriter, known for his black comedy stand-up act, delivered through an energetic stage persona with an unusual raspy and high-pitched voice. ...
) is a good natured but depressed and alcoholic birthday-party
clown
A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms.
History
The most ancient clowns have been found in ...
. After his father died, Shakes was raised by his father's friend, Owen Cheese (
Paul Dooley
Paul Dooley (born Paul Brown; February 22, 1928) is an American character actor, writer and comedian. He is known for his roles in ''Breaking Away'', ''Sixteen Candles'', and ''Popeye''.
Early life
Dooley was born Paul Brown on February 22, 1 ...
), who gave Shakes his job as a clown and owns the local clown
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
, the Twisted Balloon. Shakes is excited because he auditioned to be the host of a children's clown show on television called the Big Time Cartoon Circus, after its original host, Peppy (
Sydney Lassick), was fired for sexual harassment. Shakes falls deeper into his depression when he learns that he has been passed over for the position in favor of Binky (
Tom Kenny
Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for voicing the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media. Kenny has voiced many other characters, including Heffer Wolfe in ''R ...
), a
cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...
-addicted clown who is a neurotic and vindictive sexual predator and psychopath.
Shakes's clown friends, Dink (
Adam Sandler
Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, producer and singer. He was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1990 to 1995, before going on to star in numerous Hollywood films, those of wh ...
) and Stenchy (
Blake Clark
Blake Clark (born February 2, 1946) is an American actor and stand-up comedian. He is best known as Chet Hunter on ''Boy Meets World'' and Harry "The Hardware Store Guy" on ''Home Improvement''. Clark has voiced Slinky Dog in the ''Toy Story'' f ...
) are concerned that he drinks too much and often encourage him to quit. On top of that, his alcoholism is damaging his relationship with his girlfriend Judy (
Julie Brown
Julie Ann Brown (born August 31, 1958) is an American actress, comedian, screen/television writer, singer-songwriter, and television director. Brown is known for her work in the 1980s, where she often played a quintessential valley girl charac ...
), a waitress in the Twisted Balloon and an aspiring professional
bowler. Shakes continually denies the extent of his alcoholism until Cheese finally orders Shakes to sober up, or be fired. Shakes wants to make his father figure proud and is able to get through
alcohol withdrawals, and for a time, seems to be doing well. However, Shakes suffers a
relapse
In internal medicine, relapse or recidivism is a recurrence of a past (typically medical) condition. For example, multiple sclerosis and malaria often exhibit peaks of activity and sometimes very long periods of dormancy, followed by relapse or r ...
at a birthday party and trashes the house in a drunken rampage until he is knocked out by the child's mother.
Shakes returns to the bar later that night, where Cheese angrily fires him for upsetting the party guests. Ashamed and heavily intoxicated, Shakes goes into the back room and passes out. Judy, Dink and Stenchy are able to convince Cheese to give Shakes another chance, and when he attempts to find Shakes, he instead comes across Binky, his sad clown friends, HoHo and Boots, and some
rodeo clowns
A rodeo clown, bullfighter (in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) or rodeo protection athlete, is a rodeo performer who works in bull riding competitions. Originally, the rodeo clown was a single job combining "bullfightin ...
, Ty and Randi, doing cocaine. Cheese is angered that they would be selling and doing drugs in his bar, and a panicked Binky beats him to death with Shakes'
juggling club
Juggling clubs are a prop used by jugglers. Juggling clubs are often simply called clubs by jugglers and sometimes are referred to as pins or batons by non-jugglers. Clubs are one of the three most popular props used by jugglers; the others b ...
in a fit of rage. Shocked, Binky frames Shakes for the murder.
Shakes goes on the run. Convinced of his innocence, Judy, Dink and Stenchy decide to help Shakes clear his name. Until he can find the truth, Shakes goes into hiding, posing as a hated
mime
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message ...
in a class taught by the domineering Jerry the Mime (
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...
). Shakes is concerned deep down that he may have actually committed the murder while blacked out and forgot. Later, Shakes, Dink and Stenchy go to a rodeo clown bar called the Broken Saddle, where they learn from the rodeo clowns that Cheese was actually murdered by Binky. Meanwhile, Binky attempts to seduce Judy, who again rebuffs his advances. Binky again gets nervous and accidentally admits to Cheese's murder. Binky knows that he cannot let Judy leave with this information, so he kidnaps her and takes her to the studio where he attempts to kill her live on the air with
throwing knives
A throwing knife is a knife that is specially designed and weighted so that it can be thrown effectively. They are a distinct category from ordinary knives.
Throwing knives are used by many cultures around the world, and as such different tacti ...
to make it look like an accident.
The rodeo clowns are arrested for their involvement, and Shakes, Dink and Stenchy fight Boots and HoHo, which ends with one of the clowns shooting Shakes. Shakes survives, as his flask stopped the bullet. Shakes, Dink and Stenchy arrive at the studio and fight Binky just in time to save Judy, and Binky is arrested for his crimes. Grateful that he saved her life, Judy gets back together with Shakes, and he promises her that he will stop drinking. Some time passes, and Shakes is shown attending an
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual aid fellowship of alcoholics dedicated to abstinence-based recovery from alcoholism through its spiritually-inclined Twelve Step program. Following its Twelve Traditions, AA is non-professi ...
meeting, sharing with the others that he is still sober and is proud of his accomplishment. With Binky in jail, Shakes is now the new host of the TV show, which proves to be a big hit with children. Shakes, Dink and Stenchy are the stars of the show and entertain the audience by chasing Jerry the Mime.
Cast
Reception
''Shakes the Clown'' was not a financial success, earning an estimated $115,000 in ticket sales against an estimated budget of $1.4 million.
Critical reaction to the movie was mixed:
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...
gave it his lowest rating, while Betsy Sherman of ''The Boston Globe'' called it "the ''
Citizen Kane
''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...
'' of alcoholic clown movies".
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
gave the film
two out of four stars, writing that while some isolated scenes were "very funny" the plot was scattered and the performances often seemed under-rehearsed. The film has a 41% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on 22 reviews, with the consensus; "''Shakes the Clown'' has a handful of memorable moments, but they're scattered in a movie whose best ideas were left undeveloped on their way to the screen."
The film was nominated for Worst Picture at the 1991
Stinkers Bad Movie Awards
The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards (formerly known as the ''Hastings Bad Cinema Society'') was a Los Angeles-based group of film buffs and film critics devoted to honoring the worst films of the year.
The society was founded by Mike Lancaster and Ray ...
but lost to ''
Nothing but Trouble''.
In an interview with
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (19 ...
, Goldthwait revealed that
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...
had defended the movie from detractors. When a film critic derided the movie in order to make a point about good and bad movies, Scorsese revealed, "I like ''Shakes the Clown''. Haven't you heard? It's the ''Citizen Kane'' of Alcoholic Clown Movies!"
In popular culture
* A sample from this movie was used in the song "Interloper" by the heavy metal band
Slipknot.
* The song "Binky the Doormat" by
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternati ...
, from the album ''
New Adventures in Hi-Fi
''New Adventures in Hi-Fi'' is the tenth studio album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M. It was their fifth major-label release for Warner Bros. Records, released on September 9, 1996, in Europe and Australia, and the following day in ...
'', is titled after a supporting character of this movie.
* In the song Daddy Took Me to the Zoo (Theme from Dads) by
The Bogmen
The Bogmen are an indie rock band from Huntington, Long Island, New York. The band was formed in 1993 by Billy Campion, Bill Ryan, Brendan Ryan, Mark Wike, P.J. O'Connor and Clive Tucker. Although they were signed by major label Arista Rec ...
the movie is referenced in the line "We ended late with Shakes The Clown."
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakes The Clown
1991 films
1990s black comedy films
American black comedy films
American comedy thriller films
Comedy films about clowns
American satirical films
I.R.S. Media films
Films directed by Bobcat Goldthwait
Films scored by Tom Scott
Films with screenplays by Bobcat Goldthwait
Films about alcoholism
1991 directorial debut films
1991 comedy films
1990s English-language films
1990s American films