by Paul J. Pelkonen
Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Actor Bill Skaarsgaard) visits LoftOpera.
Pennywise image © 2017 Lions Gate Studios. LoftOpera image © LoftOpera.
Photoshop by the clown that writes this blog.
There is no word on whether said clown was made unavailable through the agency of the Losers' Club, seven plucky kids who came together and forged an alliance to fight the depredations of Pennywise, the monstrous title character of the recently remade Stephen King thriller It. Rumors of the clown's demise may have been exaggerated, and the large pile of floppy shoes seen on a barge heading out of New York Harbor is probably just a coincidence.
"We all float down here. I mean, y'know that's show biz" said Bob Gray, a representative of the Street Mimes Local 440-3094494-3 said in an interview. "However, That book gave us a bad rep. And then there was the Gacy thing. Hell, it took forever to recover from the Tim Curry mini-series. And then the Ringling Brothers folded their tents. And then the ICP covering Mozart. Now when we've finally got our marketing team in place to combat the remake of It, there's this opera?"
It has not been confirmed whether the company's music director, last seen in a yellow slicker sailing a boat down Myrtle Avenue in a recent torrential rainstorm, will be available to lead these performances, whenever and wherever they take place. He was unavailable for comment.
If he has in fact disappeared, that will be a shame. Pagliacci is one of the great operas, and its trademark aria "Vestia la giubba" has appeared in everything from James Bond to Seinfeld to the classic thriller The Untouchables. It is a fast-moving story in which the leader of a company of actors discovers that his wife is unfaithful. During the performance of a commedia dell'arte piece, he goes mad and stabs her onstage.
"Those clowns scare me," local business owner Mike Hanlon said. "Particularly when they sing. That's why I always carry an olive loaf with me, for protection. Excuse me, I have to get to the delicatessen."
There is no word when or where LoftOpera will mount its much-anticipated Pagliacci. Visit their website for details. As far as getting a clown-related entertainment fix in these troubled times, Superconductor recommends either watching White House press briefings or seeing It before the thriller floats out of the theaters.
