Temporary Paradise : 50 Proud Fools Aren’t Kidding About Nonsense

The 50 members of the Fools Guild do more than fool around for the fun of it. They’re fire-eaters, jugglers, mimes and clowns dedicated to old art forms that are gaining new fans.

“People either define themselves as fools or they don’t,” said humorist Andy Davis. “The fool was the social commentator of the Renaissance.”

The guild was created in 1979 at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Agoura when four young actors appearing as Elizabethan fools and jesters decided to band together to “spread foolishness.”

Members ply their trade in TV commercials, at fairs, in small theaters or on the street, where a hat is passed at the end of each performance.

“The guild is a vent for the nonsensical part of my soul,” said actor Jeffrey Weissman, 28, who has appeared in feature films and commercials. “They inspired me to start collecting (playing card) jokers. I have over 450 of them.”

One successful guild offshoot is the Reduced Shakespeare Co., which includes actors Daniel Singer, 27, and Adam Long, 26.

30-Minute ‘Hamlet’

“We do half-hour versions of Shakespeare classics,” Singer said. “We started with a 30-minute version of ‘Hamlet’ and we’re now boiling down the complete works--all 36 plays--to 90 minutes.”

The rapid-fire performances have been featured at arts festivals, schools and on cable television. As an encore, the play is performed backward in less than two minutes.

The guild also presents a series of seasonal costume parties, some drawing as many as 200 people. One of the causes for celebration is the feast of fools--the fool’s Christmas--at which a new king of fools is crowned each year.

“Fools can be mean,” said guild member John Mackey, 31. “One year they told me I was going to be the next king. So, at the feast they had me climb a pole in my fool costume. Then they turned around and crowned somebody else.”

As membership grew, the guild produced vaudeville and burlesque workshops, mask-making sessions, Laurel and Hardy film festivals, clown volleyball and fire-eating lessons at an unusual rented house in West Hollywood.

But a fool’s paradise is sometimes temporary and in June, the three performers who lived at that house were served an eviction notice to make way for a seven-unit apartment complex.

Located in a prime rental area two blocks south of the Sunset Strip, the now-vacant house has a unique layout.

“There are four tiny upstairs bedrooms, a funky little kitchen, a crooked bathroom and an enormous central room with a 25-foot ceiling,” said fools guild member Paula Foster, 24. “There’s also a huge front yard and a little brick courtyard in the back. The rent was $800 a month, which is not cheap when you’re a poor fool.”

Under the redwood porch, members found playbills, Academy Awards lists and other Hollywood memorabilia from the 1930s. One downstairs room could have stored prop trunks when the original owners, said to be traveling comedians, were not touring.

About two dozen guild members invaded a recent West Hollywood Planning Commission meeting to testify on the cultural and architectural merit of the house. City law requires a predemolition hearing if there is some question of historical value.

“A neighbor told us she went to show business parties there in the 1930s,” Mackey said at the meeting. “The house has been used as a gathering place for over 60 years.”

Frank Lloyd Wright biographer Robert Sweeney, asked by the commission to research the house, said he was certain that the architect and his son lived and worked there between February and September, 1923.

“It’s a George Washington-slept-here situation. On the other hand, the area has a lot of architectural significance, including work by Wright, his son, Lloyd, and R. M. Schindler,” Sweeney said.

“We plan to incorporate and find a new place to rehearse,” said founding guild member Joe Gragg.

“We’ll just have to find another place to revel,” Mackey said.