So, there's this guy, Clay Jenkinson. Those of you who had something to do with Lewis and Clark College may know of him because he's a scholar-in-residence there. Those of you who've had something to do with the Public Access or Institution-Affiliated Channels may know him, as he provides fodder for any number of Seattle channels (including "the Seattle Channel!").
He likes to get up on stage and play dead white guys, most famously as Thomas Jefferson--he was one of Ken Burns' talking heads in Burns' documentary about Jefferson. But he also has donned pantaloons to portray Sir Francis Bacon, buckskins to appear as Merriwether Lewis, chopped off an arm to be John Wesley Powell (who may have not been the first person to navigate the Colorado River, but was certainly the first white, one-armed, half-mad Civil War veteran to do it...in a canoe), and shouldered a lot of guilt and weltschmerz to play J. Robert Oppenheimer. Jenkinson knows how to keep the talk lively, the points pithy, and he doesn't hedge the facts by making his people more of "our time" to make them go down more easily. In fact, he's been known to piss off a few "enlightened" individuals, and when he does his Library shows, there's always some blowhard who wants to "debate" the character (He's dead, guy, go sit down). The talk consists of a presentation by the character...the character doing a Q-and-A...and Jenkinson dropping the guise to answer questions as himself, and smooth over any ruffled feathers.
Jenkinson's doing his yearly tour through the Northwest...and he'll be at our lovely Town Hall (Eighth and Seneca) on Friday December 1, at 7:30 pm as 26th President Teddy Roosevelt...of whom his daughter Alice once said "He wanted to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral..." No doubt there'll be some discussion on self-actualization, the role of America in the world (*cough*), and the appreciation of our Great Outdoors. And...bears.
It's Free. But tickets are on a first-come-first-served basis, so that'll involve some line-waiting. I'm going. Wanna wait with me? Details of pertinence are right HERE.
Bring your own Big Stick.
