{"id":14202,"date":"2014-09-18T13:55:21","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T20:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=14202"},"modified":"2014-09-18T14:27:50","modified_gmt":"2014-09-18T21:27:50","slug":"2-clowns-at-a-c-t-entice-laughs-via-old-hats-new-bits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/2-clowns-at-a-c-t-entice-laughs-via-old-hats-new-bits\/","title":{"rendered":"2 clowns at A.C.T. entice laughs via old hats, new bits"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bill Irwin (in drag) and David Shiner stylishly exaggerate the norm in \u201cThe Magic Act,\u201d one of the segments of \u201cOld Hats.\u201d Photo by Joan Marcus.<\/p>\n

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Bill Irwin (left) and David Shiner comically confront each other in a segment of \u201cOld Hats.\u201d Photo by Kevin Berne.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0Woody’s [rating:3.5]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFool Moon,\u201d a Tony Award-winning show with Bill Irwin and David Shiner clowning up a comedic storm, made me blissfully happy.<\/p>\n

So I impatiently waited for an encore\u00a0 \u2014 for 16 years.<\/p>\n

Finally, the baggy-pants pair is back, in a mostly non-verbal collaboration at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, \u201cOld Hats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Irwin and Shiner are no longer chronologically young (they might be called middle-aged if they plan to live to 120), their bodies seem as rubbery, as lissome and acrobatic as ever.<\/p>\n

And their inventiveness is nearly as agile.<\/p>\n

They easily, and almost continuously, induce laughter with old-style chapeaus and new-style bits.<\/p>\n

With a slew of newfangled technology tossed in.<\/p>\n

This production, in conjunction with New York\u2019s Signature Theatre, is quite different from their first go-\u2018round: Original musical interludes (heavy on country rock) by singer-songwriter-pianist Shaina Taub separate, and then overlap with, the twosome\u2019s individual and dual segments.<\/p>\n

Irwin and Shiner are, in effect, theatrical Renaissance Men.<\/p>\n

They create hilarious comedy and prickly poignancy, they invent silent but sympathetic characters, they dance and play instruments and sing, they improvise and they inveigle audience members to play along fully with slapstick shtick.<\/p>\n

I saw Pickle Family Circus co-founder Irwin not that long ago at the San Francisco Opera House, where he stole the show in a presentation of \u201cShowboat.\u201d I\u2019d also thoroughly enjoyed his work in A.C.T.\u2019s \u201cEndgame\u201d in 2012.<\/p>\n

As for Shiner, a grad of Cirque du Soleil, he also starred as The Cat in the Hat in Broadway\u2019s \u201cSeussical: The Musical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both are masters at the characters they assume \u2014 Irwin the good-natured schlub, Shiner the darker, more aggressive onstage persona.<\/p>\n

Their 105-minute show is somewhat uneven, but its high points are extraordinary.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Such as \u201cMr. Business,\u201d spotlighting Irwin\u2019s exquisitely timed playfulness with his own images on a tablet (my writing about it can\u2019t compare to my joy watching it).<\/p>\n

\u2022 Such as Shiner\u2019s goading and mimicking four audience members in an extended bit about filming a mute old-fashioned Western, the side-splittingly funny \u201cCowboy Cinema.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Such as the opening number, \u201cOld Hats,\u201d which features projections that envelop the two spotlight-craving clowns as they flee an explosion in space.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Such as \u201cThe Encounter,\u201d with two guys waiting for a train initially badgering each other in highly amusing ways, then finding commonality via the sharing of pills.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Such as an excursion into the sublime, similar to a lightning-fast riff by the late Robin Williams, when they break their silence barrier and convulsively swap lines from \u201cWho\u2019s on First\u201d and \u201cOver the Rainbow,\u201d with a couple of quotes from Shakespeare added to the mix.<\/p>\n

Alas, not everything is a 10.<\/p>\n

Shiner\u2019s \u201cHobo Puppet Waltz,\u201d a solo set piece that finds a tramp getting more and more depressed as he jerks a predicable series of broken items from a trash bin can\u2019t be saved by his imaginative creation of a woman companion from a white fabric.<\/p>\n

And \u201cThe Debate,\u201d a sketch about a political face-off, is filled with all-too-familiar lowbrow humor and standard pot shots.<\/p>\n

But, overall, director Tina Landau ensured that \u201cOld Hats\u201d was an evening\u2019s entertainment that kept me smiling.<\/p>\n

And she proved that old clowns never die \u2014 they just slip into baggier pants.<\/p>\n

\u201cOld Hats\u201d plays at the American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco, through Oct. 12. Performances Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Tuesdays, 7 or 8 p.m.; matinees, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $20 to $120. Information: (415) 749-2228 or www.act-sf.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Woody’s [rating:3.5] \u201cFool Moon,\u201d a Tony Award-winning show with Bill Irwin and David Shiner clowning up a comedic storm, made me blissfully happy. So I impatiently waited for an encore\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"