A friend in high places

Bill Clinton probably knows about good performances, having been
on stage as a jazz musician and president.

“He’s the closest thing we’ve had to Elvis
Presley. He has that rock-star charisma” said Rick Cleveland,
an award-winning playwright, screenwriter for “The West
Wing” and former executive producer for the hit HBO series
“Six Feet Under.”

Clinton gets another go as an object of performance in
Cleveland’s world-premiere one-man show “My Buddy
Bill” ““ which begins Friday and runs through Dec. 18 at
the new Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse.

Cleveland glibly narrates his strange encounters with the former
president, such as getting the first dog, Buddy, to stop peeing in
the Oval Office; getting Secret Service agents to scrounge a beach
for a throwing stick; and flying with Clinton from England to
Amsterdam.

The trip culminates with a scene involving a bistro and
Christopher Walken ““ one of several celebrities in
Clinton’s entourage ““ proving Cleveland’s point:
“Washington is not starstruck by Hollywood; Hollywood is
starstruck by Washington.”

Cleveland emphasized, however, that this performance is neither
political drama nor performance art. This is a monologue.

“When I was in college, everyone seemed to treat
monologists as performance artists, not as theater. But I’m
not a performance artist; I don’t paint myself blue and roll
around on the floor,” Cleveland said.

This is not to say “My Buddy Bill” won’t leave
the audience laughing.

“Most of us feel like we know something about Bill
somehow,” said Geffen Playhouse artistic director Randy
Arney. “Anyone who feels that way will find this to be a
hilarious rendition of the ex-president.”

For this “F.O.B.” ““ “Friend of
Bill,” as Cleveland refers to himself in his act ““ this
parodic story is both a return to form and a departure from the
norm.

With a background in improv comedy at The Second City in Chicago
and studying with renowned monologist Spalding Gray, Cleveland came
to Hollywood and established a respectable career in film and
television after performing a monologue called “Skinny White
Boy.”

Cleveland said that while he loved working on hit shows, he is
glad to write and perform something for himself again.

“Usually they want me to do the Hollywood stuff,” he
said. “But I like to do the stuff that interests me, like my
fear of asteroids hitting the Earth.”

The Geffen has previously showcased acclaimed and established
monologues such as “I Am My Own Wife,”
“Golda’s Balcony” and “Nine Parts of
Desire,” all of which have been well received by audiences.
But “My Buddy Bill” stands out at the Geffen because it
is a world-premiere performance.

This is a critical opening for the Skirball Kenis Theater, and
Arney feels that this monologue is a risk worth taking.

“One of the main goals of the new Audrey theater is to
take more risks by having brand-new works,” Arney said.

“My Buddy Bill” is certainly a tale that would
appeal to anybody who remembers the ’90s. Arney said
“My Buddy Bill” is so influenced by L.A. culture that
simply seeing the play performed in the city can connect the
audience to the story.

Whereas popular author and monologist David Sedaris reads his
stories, Cleveland will perform “off-book,” which will
allow him to interact with his audience as Mark Twain did in his
monologues. One of the challenges of doing a monologue is that
there is no other character on stage for the monologist to interact
with, making the audience the other character.

And Cleveland plans to interact with the audience the same as
Twain did ““ especially if Clinton comes to the show.

“Twain would have famous people in the audience, sometimes
ex-presidents. If he knew they were in the audience, he would
incorporate them in the stories he was telling,” Cleveland
said.

How much of this is fact and how much is fiction is beside the
point to Cleveland, who doesn’t say if his performance is
stand-up comedy or a play.

“That’s what you have to come see and decide for
yourself,” Cleveland said, following Twain’s lead.
“Twain could tell a tall tale and make it as entertaining as
an everyday act. And he could tell an everyday act and make it as
entertaining as a tall tale. So you never knew where he would cross
the line.”