Mark Twain did not hold much interest for writer Ed Tasca until a few years ago, when someone from Lakeside Little Theater (LLT) asked if he’d be interested in putting on a show about Mark Twain.
Figuring it would be too big of an undertaking, Tasca declined the offer.
“Apparently, my writing reminded him of Mark Twain, and he also thought I looked like Twain,” says Tasca. “Actor Hal Holbrook pulled it off well in the 1980s and I didn’t want to try to recreate his successful show.”
Tasca eventually agreed to do it, but only if he could write his own script. “Mark Twain, Uncensored,” had its run last August at LLT. To get it off the ground was a two-year process, including having to wait five months for LLT’s approval.
Says Tasca, “LLT had never done a one-man show that had been written by a local artist. I created a completely original script, taking almost all of Twain’s ideas and using as many of his quotes as I could. About 60 percent of the script came from Twain; 40 percent came from me.”
While working on the script, Tasca realized that much of Twain’s writing was dated, philosophical and not very funny in the tradition sense.
“His writings were ironical,” says Tasca, “and would not get laughs from today’s audiences.”
Tasca humbly admits that he has the uncanny ability to duplicate any writer: “I can read a writer’s work and copy his style. With the Twain script, no one, not the audience, not even Twain aficionados, could tell if the writing was Twain’s or mine.”
Tasca tried to give the audience a “Twain” that they wouldn’t have known from school, the comical and familiar Twain. He chose to omit the very serious Twain who dealt with many social issues at the time, such as his sources of where bigotry came from.
“I found that I couldn’t use much of what I found in his work. It was all heavy stuff and I wanted the audience to laugh.”
According to Tasca, Twain attributed bigotry to seven things: religion, slavery, willful ignorance, royalty (privilege by birth), imperialism, jealousy, low self-esteem, and the dismissal of women. Interestingly, Twain was one of the first males of any importance to come out for women’s suffrage.
“In American high schools,” says Tasca, “Twain is portrayed as the grandfatherly writer of children’s stories, such as Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. “He was much more than that — a major activist in the early 20th century. He hated royalty and aristocracy. He was anti-Roosevelt, anti-manifest destiny. He made a lot of enemies because of his so-called ‘un-Americanism’.
“Twain was the quintessential liberal at the time, proud of America’s freedom of press, speech and religion. That was unusual in his time. A major part of Twain’s active and literary career ranged from 1860 to 1910 – about 50 years. It wasn’t until the late 19th century that he became a social activist.
“Most people who think they knew Twain in their younger years didn’t know the real Twain. My presentation will be an attempt to show his darker side. He became very critical of any institution. He was a naysayer and he certainly wasn’t a grandfatherly figure.”
Born in Canada, Tasca learned early on that he had a knack for humor writing. As a kid in Catholic school, he was always goofing around and getting in trouble with the priests and nuns. In high school, he wrote humorous articles and essays, saying that “I figured that everyone could do it. It’s then that I realized I had a gift for writing humor.”
In his 20s, Tasca worked as a copywriter in Philadelphia. When his co-workers went off to lunch, he headed to the library, reading through all of the humor books. American writer Robert Benchley became his chief influence.
“Benchley wrote nothing but nonsense,” says Tasca. “I think that he was the inventor of nonsense humor. I read all of his books.”
Later, when a writer asked him where he learned to write humor, Tasca replied, “Some people have a lens to see the world this way. It has to come natural, like being a standup comic. Also, it takes a lot more time than it appears. I have to really work to get the text flowing right and to get a laugh.”
Having written for a number of literary magazines, Tasca also wrote a humorous newspaper column in Ontario, Canada, dabbled in screenwriting and submitted stories to humor magazines. Says Tasca, “Most of those magazines folded since humor tends to be very individual and specific. It’s tough to be universally funny and become universally famous.”
In December, Tasca will perform a one-man show at LLT, “The Terrors of Pleasure”, one of Spaulding Gray’s comedic monologue plays. Using a simple set consisting of a desk and chair, Tasca will tell a story during the length of the play, half of which is acted out, the other recited as if at a read-through.
“As far as I know, Gray is the only one who has ever performed this play of his, which details his process of buying a house. I only hope that, when I’m performing it, I can capture his goofy innocence,” said Tasca.
Tasca will present Mark Twain: the Anti-Bigot, Sunday, July 9, at Open Circle, 10:30 a.m., at Lake Chapala Society.