Take Me to CLURCH
Writer & Photographer: Nick Blevins
On a balmy Sunday evening in the city’s north central side, a deeply silly congregation was amassing. The propulsive rhythms of Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes / Arpeggi” pumped from the Rah Rah Room’s low ceilings, filling its long, cavernous space with a sense of anticipation. Save for the glow from the bar, the stage sat illuminated at the far end of the room; I’d scanned the social media beforehand, but walking the floor minutes before showtime, it remained unclear what exactly I was about to witness. Thankfully, six large, fuzzy letters planted directly in front of the stage spelled it out for me: CLURCH, they read.
A raucous, bawdy, and joyfully irreverent affair, Clown Church treats audiences as participants before you ever step foot in the building. From a kaleidoscopic array of red-nosed Bozo bounds to maximalist harlequin couture, dressing up was both recommended and fully heeded.
Beyond the stage, the venue’s rear doors opened to a market filled with vendors selling art and apparel, jewelry, stickers, plushies, accessories, and more; much of it clown-themed, but primarily cute. The variety of colors, textures, shapes, and sizes in the items on display were matched by the frequently imaginative outfits of their purveyors
As folks filed into their seats inside, the big and energetic stylings of art rock trio Powdered Wig Machine — who also served as the backing band during the show itself — set the tone for the proceedings. Two brief stand-up sets followed, and with a few chuckles still ringing in the room, the performance began in earnest.
The brainchild of husband and wife duo John and Kristin Paredez Tuttle, the show is, as John — a comedian of 10 years — tells it, “supposed to be a classic husband [and] wife variety show like Sonny & Cher, or The Johnny Cash Show. Unfortunately,” he adds, “our lead couple aren’t as in charge as those couples were with their show, and things often fall off the rails quickly.” An element of chaos indeed pervaded the show, with many stage effects extending out into the audience, and opportunities for crowd participation throughout: at various points, audience members could use their phones to vote on events that impacted the direction of the performance, and one segment saw participants competing for the dubious superlative of “best blower,” taking turns seeing who could clear the most candles at once from a long table filled with cakes.
Varying from month to month, the theme this time centered around relationships, with sketches like a Newlyweds-style guessing game where couples predicted each other’s answers to various questions, and another that was revisited throughout the show that saw a motley crew of contestants vying for the affections of Paredez Tuttle’s bleach blonde bewigged Rio Grande Valley Girl; It had been quite some time since I’d last seen a form of media where I simply did not know where it was going next, and on that front, Clown Church delivered in spades. More creative, inclusive endeavors like these, please.
The next Clown Church is scheduled to assemble on Sunday, March 29th.
