Cash
Me If You Can is
a one-man show in which a non-actor tells his story about depositing a
non-negotiable cheque from one of those get-rich-quick snake oil sales companies.
Stop yawning. It is a terrific show that succeeds on all counts including the
completely unexpected.
A
few facts. Patrick Combs, a young San Franciscan, got a junk-mail letter which
contained a cheque for $95,093.33. As a joke, he deposited the cheque and
waited for it bounce. Days went by and the money remained in his account. He
made inquiries, told friends, asked lawyers, worried about having committed
fraud but the money stayed in his account.
He
never seriously considered keeping his mouth shut and spending the money which
he probably could have done. He told the bank and its lawyer about what had
happened and he asked the bank for an apology for its incompetent and idiotic
behaviour. He told his story to the Wall
Street Journal and other media outlets. He got a lot of attention including
heavy-handed threats from the bank’s Mafia-like enforcer and representatives.
The
incident from the deposit of the cheque to final resolution of the problem took
about six months in 1995. If you want precise dating, the incident came to an
end the day the verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial was announced.
Combs
took the incident and created a brilliant, touching, funny and resoundingly
successful show which has finally reached Toronto. He is the writer, director
and performer of the show and its success is well deservedly. It is the type of
feel-good show that is an amazing example of human decency and resilience that
makes superb theatre as well.
Combs
if a great story teller. He knows how to pace his performance, involve the
audience, build up suspense and do a bang-up job with the punch lines. The outline
of the story sounds unprepossessing but the structure and performance by Combs
makes it utterly successful.
Can
you deposit a cheque that is marked clearly “non-negotiable” and expect the
bank to honour it? It should be an easy question to answer but it is not. Combs
goes to legal libraries, finds a foot-thick legal treatise (without a table of
contents) and tracks down the author of the book. What is the answer? Combs
keeps us in suspense (and laughter) until he gives us the answer. That is a
good example of how he makes the performance work.
He
makes very good use of video projections that provide illustrations and
humorous cartoons and he rarely stays still.
You
will ask yourself, why does he not spend the money when he can and keep his
mouth shut? Why does he not keep the money and his mouth shut? These and many
other questions will occur to you during the performance and afterwards. I have
all the answers. Go see the show and tell me if you do as well.
__________________________
Cash Me If You Can by Patrick Combs, produced by
Horse and Hound Productions, continues until December 21, 2019 at the Marilyn
and Charles Baillie Theatre (aka Berkeley Street Theatre) 26 Berkeley
Street, Toronto, Ontario. www.canadianstage.com
James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press
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