What does super-circus-clown Larry Clark do when he has some time off from work? Clark, whose showbiz resume includes time served as a magician, sideshow geek, gentleman juggler, and stand-up comedian, has a month off from his national circus tour, so he’s putting on a one-man show exclusively for his hometown.
“People always ask me why I don’t tour my shows,” says Clark, whose adult variety shows always sell out. “But this is just something I do when I’m at home in Memphis.”
Larry Clark
Clark’s new show is called “Parlor Tricks” and features — you guessed it — parlor tricks! “I realized the space I’d picked for this show was smaller,” he says, without complaint. While he won’t be juggling any chainsaws this time around, the intimacy of the Brass Door’s downstairs performance space allows him to do a completely different kind of show. “I love card tricks and card manipulation,” Clark says. “Barely a day goes by that a deck of cards doesn’t touch my hands.” But since up-close magic gets lost in larger theaters, he never gets to do many of his favorite tricks.
“I do this thing where I swallow a needle and thread,” Clark says. “But it looks terrible on stage.” In a cabaret space he can take that sort of thing directly to the audience.
“I’ve always used mentalism,” Clark says, alluding to the psychic-style performances pioneered by artists like the Amazing Kreskin. “Parlor Tricks,” he says, lets him put his observational skills front and center and determine the name of a volunteer’s first puppy.
