Shakes the Clown

Released 1991
Stars Bobcat Goldthwait, Julie Brown, Tom Kenny, Paul Dooley, Adam Sandler
Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait

Bobcat Goldthwait, who earned his fame in the Police Academy series of films, wrote, directed, and starred in the title role of Shakes the Clown, a story of an alcoholic clown in a fantasy world. In the mythical city of Palookaville, clowns make up a sizable portion of the population and drink, carouse, and are basically coarse people while remaining in their makeup 24 hours a day. They drink in clown bars, have cliques, and await their chance at the brass ring; being chosen to host the children's television show (a spoof of "Bozo the Clown"). Clowns attack on sight their archenemies, the mimes. There is "our" group of clowns led by Shakes, including a sidekick played by the then relatively unknown Adam Sandler and the mean clowns led by disco clown Binky (Tom Kennedy). Binky tries to work out a drug dealing conspiracy with the superior acting rodeo clowns, who have their own bar and beat up on "party" clowns. When things go wrong, Binky frames Shakes for a murder, who must then dress up as a mime to keep the police off his trail. Here Shakes gets his introduction to the mimes, led by Robin Williams in an uncredited role.

Summary by Norman Short

"The Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies." -- quote from the trailer

This movie knows alcoholism. It knows the rhythms of their lives: the countless hours spent in bars, the wake-up drinks to prevent the shakes, the vomiting, the effects on friends and jobs, etc. It takes a darkly comic view of alcoholism and places it in a subculture of clowns, and the idea is wickedly funny. I loved the town of Palookaville, with its pecking order of rodeo clowns, party clowns, and mimes who don't have alter egos. Everything was set up perfectly, but the movie doesn't quite follow through. It's easy to pick on a movie like this. It's Bobcat Goldthwait's debut writing and directing effort. Obviously, Bob isn't going to direct Citizen Kane on his first attempt. Ok, it wouldn't happen in his millionth attempt, but I think he should be proud of what he did accomplish here. He never goes soft on the alcoholism, which is the heart of the movie. He does lose his nerve and his way in the third act, however, when he decides to introduce a murder. He could have done something really interesting after Shakes is fired, but he goes with the tried and true frame-job. Boring. Still, the Shakes character is well realized, and I enjoyed the wickedly dark humor. --Bill Alward, June 13, 2002