The Big Shill
Rick Miller has found inspiration in Jesus Christ, William Shakespeare and Homer Simpson. This time around, the master mimic is mining the world of advertising By Stéphanie Verge
Image credit: Beth Kates/Canstage
When actor-playwright Rick Miller created MacHomer—his hit one-man Shakespeare–meets–The Simpsons mash-up—in 1994, he tapped into the zeitgeist. Ten years later, he captured the hearts of theatre nerds with Bigger Than Jesus, his multimedia collaboration with director Daniel Brooks. Now the pair is back with Hardsell, the story of a cynical clown driven mad by jokes, jingles and the likes of Morgan Freeman, Ayn Rand and Bugs Bunny. Miller may not be happy about the choke hold advertising has on the modern world (yes, he subscribes to Adbusters), but he has no intention of moving to the country to grow rutabagas. Here, the reluctant consumer on the art of the sell.
Hardsell is about the lies in advertising. With all the big bads in the world, why tackle that one? I’m in a privileged position—whatever piques my interest can be turned into three years of work. Daniel and I both have children, and they see thousands of ads a day. You can try to ignore that or you can try to understand how we got here, where it’s going and what effect it’s having.
There are some pretty clever ads out there. Do you ever get sucked in or are you immune to their voodoo? Some of the most creative people in the world work on ad campaigns. But I’d say I’m more immune than most. I’m always wondering what they’re trying to get me to do.
C’mon, there must be one jingle that you could never get out of your head. Some of the older ads are really effective—mind worms that just stick and seem to replicate. When I want pizza, the first thing that comes to mind is “967-11-11, call Pizza Pizza, hey hey hey.” I’m not alone in that. And it’s not because they make good pizza.
Bigger Than Jesus certainly lived up to its name. Any jitters about Hardsell measuring up? Expectations are high, but we’ll deliver. It’s true, we had a hook with Jesus that was harder to find with Hardsell—turns out the Catholic liturgy is a big draw.
Hardsell hawks its wares at the Berkeley Street Theatre from April 13 to May 9. From $20. 26 Berkeley St., 416-368-3110, www.canstage.com.
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