Interview: Creator/Director Hank Jacobs of THE GREAT CLOWN BANK SHOW

Step right up to Atwater Village Theatre, where Open Fist Theatre Company presents an immersive theater extravaganza. Under the cracked neon glow of the Big Top, a wild-eyed, clown-capitalist circus fantasia erupts in a fever-dream spectacle of greed, glitter and grotesque excess. Created and directed by its ringmaster, Hank Jacobs (pictured), and featuring original circus music by Stephen Jacobs, songs by Michael Messer with lyrics by Jacobs and Messer, music direction by Robby Good and choreography by Raquis Petree, the world premiere of The Great Clown Bank Show opens on June 27 for a six-week run through August 1.

The gleefully deranged story follows the rise of the Greedy family — a scheming dynasty of powder-faced hustlers who transform their tiny carnival cashbox into the most powerful clown bank in America. Wildly funny, sharply satirical and packed with playful circus acts (a different guest performer every week), The Great Clown Bank Show skewers capitalist America with razor-toothed humor, exposing a world where wealth is the greatest magic trick of all — and everyone outside the ring is paying for it. 

I spoke with creator/director Hank Jacobs about the genesis, themes, characters and social commentary in his new play.

Thanks for speaking with, Hank. What first sparked the idea for The Great Clown Bank Show, and how did the concept evolve from early sketches into a full immersive circus-theater production?

I made a circus show last century in New York City called Delicious Vaudeville. We were a cult hit, but after a couple of years performing around the city, we just lost steam. After that, I went through a lot of life, and felt unfinished. The circus vibe has stayed with me, and I wanted to make another theatrical circus. Meanwhile I was doing a lot of the sketch show This Week This Week at Open Fist, and Ron West started to trust me to direct and run the show when he was unavailable. And I loved directing again. When Amanda Weier (the Open Fist’s Associate Artistic Director) asked if I had any ideas, I knew it was time. We just had my third daughter, so it was a lot of late nights with one eye on the baby monitor, the other eye on the computer monitor, processing, processing, processing the insanity of the America our girl was just born into.

The Ensemble
Photo courtesy of Open Fist Theatre Company

The show blends clowning, satire, and critiques of capitalism. How did you find the balance between comedy and pointed social commentary without one undermining the other?

Clowns are the perfect lens through which to view our current situation. This whole thing is so absurd. We’re all getting clowned right now, by a bunch of greedy clowns. Many of the things we care about as a society are under threat. And everyone believes this — the difference is who you think is clowning you.

It’s the insatiably greedy taking advantage of the rest of us, we who genuinely care about one another, our shared home Earth, about being right and decent, and are perfectly willing to share the abundance of our world. So I named the family at the heart of our tale the Greedys, because why beat around the bush? Then we just get to enjoy watching them clown their way to the top, with plenty of spectacle to keep the pointed social commentary palatable and fun.

Matthew Goodrich
Photo courtesy of Open Fist Theatre Company

You describe the experience as a “fever-dream spectacle of greed, glitter, and grotesque excess.” What guided your visual and tonal choices in building that world?

The circus aesthetic is a gift that keeps on giving. We’re making a show about the morbidly rich, but we have very little money. What do we think life is like beyond those gates, within the walls of privilege? Maybe we don’t know, but we can put on our clown-goggles and pretend.

What we do have is a fabulous community of creatives, and an abundance of odd objects and such to use to tell the story. Let’s apply craftiness, creativity, and playfulness and use found objects to make a world. Of course, having a space like the Atwater Village Theater is such a gift. Lack of space kills small theater. The greed of land owners kills small theater. And when theaters die, the community atrophies.

Avery Lynch
Photo courtesy of Open Fist Theatre Company

Your background includes training with Théâtre de la Jeune Lune and running a vaudeville circus in New York. How did those experiences directly influence the structure and physicality of this production?

Theatre De La Jeune Lune, in my hometown of Minneapolis, used to put on a yearly show called “Circus” which is a direct antecedent of this show. My memories of seeing it, which are probably highly inaccurate now, inspire me. I did a production of Cyrano with them at 15, and we ran over 200 performances. I spent most of a year watching these LeCoq-trained clowns work up close, weaving that style into such a wonderful play, and seeing how the blend of absurdity and emotion really delivered a punch to the audience. Folks would sit in the house and weep for 30 minutes after the show ended. That doesn’t happen without the disarming qualities of a great clown.

From running Delicious Vaudeville, I learned a lot about the process, the family, the music, the vibe, the marketing, and what ego does to a troupe. Especially my own. Physical theater is intimate, sensitive, and challenging. It takes a lot of courage on the part of the actors to live in all this discomfort. So how do I lead them to the place where they break through the discomfort before they start to really live in their bodies? Leaving our bodies to embody clowns is a turbulent experience, and I have a very brave group trusting me to get them there.

Kevin Brennan
Photo courtesy of Open Fist Theatre Company

The Greedy family forms the narrative core of the show. What inspired this “clown-capitalist dynasty,” and what do they represent to you beyond the satire?

Going in I wanted to have a through-line. And families are a great way in. How do they treat each other? What are their rivalries, and when do they close ranks and turn on everyone else? What do they desire? What do the warped lenses of great ambition, mindless hunger, and extreme entitlement do to a being? We know they are out there, but what is it like to see one in the flesh? Theater demands that we look at each other.

The Dynasty aspect is a way to explore American Capitalist Greed through the years. The elders represent the gilded age and the old robber barons. The next generation is like ’80s, Reagan-era greed. And the youngest represent the cold calculatedness of our current robber barons. Deep inequality is not new, and it is never a wise path for society to take. Do we realize it while we’re in it? And can we stop it? For a while? It keeps coming back.

Raquis Petree
Photo courtesy of Open Fist Theatre Company

Immersive theater can blur the line between audience and performer. What do you want audiences to feel—or even question—when they’re physically inside this “Big Top” environment?

I want you to have a circus experience from the moment you arrive in the theater. You smell the popcorn, you hear the music, there is fascinating stuff to explore. There may be people to interact with. Costumes to try on. Pictures to take, tasks to complete. And because we are great capitalists, we want you to spend money. There’s adventure around every corner. Creating welcoming, exploratory artistic environments is something I love about Burning Man. And we want you to feel you are in a different world when you come into our home. Get ready to watch the show in an active and uninhibited way. We won’t ask much of you but to access your playfulness. And your wallet…

The lead for the Carnival Space is DJ Hand-Crank, who is highly witty, playful, and masterful at creating environment. They have a very popular Twitch stream that revolves around old records played on Victrola. So expect some elevated whimsy.

The Ensemble
Photo courtesy of Open Fist Theatre Company

Have you worked with any of your collaborators previously? (original circus music by Stephen Jacobs; songs by Michael Messer, with whom you co-wrote the lyrics; music direction by Robby Good and choreography by Raquis Petree) previously? If so, where?

Stephen Jacobs is my older brother. In some ways making music for shows is a family business — he was/is the founder of the Dirty Sock Funtime Band, which included our little brother Adam (Mr. Clown) and Mike Messer. He was the composer and music director of Delicious Vaudeville, which had a live band. His skills now far surpass what they were then. He’s a brilliant classical guitar player, and he has a fascinating musical imagination.

Mike Messer and I go back to college at Carnegie Mellon Drama. He’s simply one of the best dudes anywhere and one of my favorite people to play with. He makes great, complex, and tuneful music under the name Adoraborealis. We haven’t worked together before, but we understand one another deeply, and he turned my irregular lyrics into some seriously catchy tunes. This show is full of ear-worms. Simply as a musical, this show is really fun.

Robby Good is a recent find — he music directed a great production of The Fantasticks at the Main in Santa Clarita earlier this year, which was directed by our producer Jeremy D. Thompson, a true madman of the theater, and a technical theater savant.

Raquis Petree I knew from going to Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington DC together. This man simply dances through life, and we are blessed to have his energy both helping create the show and being in the cast.

The costumes are by Benny Lee Harris Lumpkins, Jr., who I know from the world of verticals.

And, finally, I met our Executive Producer Drew Thaler on an improv version of Law and Order a couple years ago. That show was a blast. Without his yes, this show isn’t happening. People who say yes are a gift to the world.

Bethany Koulias
Photo courtesy of Open Fist Theatre Company

Working with collaborators across music, choreography, design, and clown apparatus, what is the most challenging part of keeping a cohesive vision across such a multidisciplinary team?

The hardest thing is keeping track of all the tasks, the schedules, the people, and the details. I have to trust a lot of folks to get things done, and for the most part they do. I forget things. Ha. It’s like herding cats, and also monkeys, gators, peacocks and lions. It’s important to remember which protective gear to wear and when.

The production features a rotating guest circus performer each week. What was the intention behind that choice, and how does it shape the energy or unpredictability of the show?

We want to provide tremendous entertainment value to our audience. I want the spectacle to balance the satire. It’s good to get to witness someone who has worked really hard on their craft, and just fall into enchantment at the showmanship. We as a troupe get to meet new people. And circus people are lots of fun. I love the visceral qualities of circus. A little thrill and fear for someone’s safety helps to release cortisol. We’re all about that transmutation.

Carmella Jenkins
Photo courtesy of Open Fist Theatre Company

The press materials frame the show as both “fun-filled” and deeply critical of inequality. Do you see laughter here as a form of relief, resistance, or something else entirely?

All of the above. It’s relief in that we are all carrying a lot these days. Laughter, wonder, and music are great medicine. The resistance is the very act of coming together in a room with people to laugh, dance, be joyful, and connect with one another. Togetherness is resistance in a society trying to constantly divide and isolate. Things may be shitty, but we are gathered here to celebrate being alive in the face of it all. It’s the bisexycentennial, y’all! Let’s F*cking Go!

For me, as a writer observing our current world, it’s just so dumb and self-defeating. We keep creating more things to make us miserable, and making really bad collective choices. In that way, this is my YAWP in the face of such frustrating absurdity.

Avery Lynch
Photo courtesy of Open Fist Theatre Company

Open Fist Theatre Company is known for its collective, artist-driven structure. How did that environment support—or challenge—you in bringing The Great Clown Bank Show to life?

I can’t understate the importance of the support of the Open Fist Theater Company. Martha Demson and Amanda Weier (and so many others) have built it into one of LA’s finest home-grown theaters. They take big swings, and many of them succeed. The company is dedicated, passionate, and willing to challenge each other at every turn, all in the interest of creating great works of theater and community.

Many of the actors in this show come from that community, particularly from This Week This Week (Elle Engelman, Kevin Brennan), and the fabulous holiday show Both: A Hard Day’s Silent Night (Amiée Conn, Carmella Jenkins). Some are part of the vibrant core of actors that the Fist has developed (Matthew Goodrich, Tambrie Allsup, Bethany Koulias, and Clara York). Then there were those who are brave enough to have come through the audition process (Avery Lynch, Torrin Kelly, and Davis Barber) — much respect to any actor who cares enough to put themselves out there.

The Open Fist has been my theatrical home in LA, and it means a lot to a lot of people.

Raquis Petree
Photo courtesy of Open Fist Theatre Company

What do you hope audiences are talking about on their way home after seeing the show?

As they leave the theater carrying their new t-shirt or hat or beer cozy and singing Let’s F*cking Go!, I hope they feel lighter, that their joy has been activated. I hope they talk about the absurdity of our current situation, and that they are able to laugh at it. I hope they are fueled up to go out there and keep fighting the good fight, making good trouble, and loving the people in their world. I hope they are arguing over who their favorite clown was, and posting about it on their socials.

Anything else you would like to add about yourself or the production?

Creating joy is serious work. It takes trust and patience. It takes courage to step into the light. And it takes an audience that shows up, ready to receive it. That’s where you come in. You complete the circuit. Show up. Bring whatever you have, and let’s transmute it into joy together.

Thank you for your care and support of homegrown American art.

Thanks so much!

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