‘Bedutzed!’ is an afternoon of heartfelt storytelling through the eyes of a clown

By RJ Crowley, Standard Correspondent

Michael Zerphy, whose one-man show “Bedutzed!” opens (and closes) at Damon Hall on Sunday, Feb. 16, has devoted his entire career to uncovering truths about life through the medium of clowning. The show was written by Zerphy and is directed by his daughter, Olivia, who is in the process of achieving international acclaim herself through her own creative endeavors. 

The Standard sat down with this father-daughter duo recently to discuss the genesis of the show and its inspiration. If the content of the show is half as entertaining as Zerphy’s life story, then the audience on Sunday is in for a treat.

But first things first, that title: “Bedutzed!”

“‘Bedutzed’ is a word from Pennsylvania Dutch country, where I grew up,” Zerphy offered. “It means confused or bewildered. Kind of like the character of a clown who is oftentimes stuck in the middle and unsure of which way to turn.”

If left unchecked, Zerphy will offer an improvised master class on Jungian psychology; the archetype of clowns versus fools; commedia dell’ arte; and the fine line between comedy and tragedy. 

“I graduated from high school in 1970 and went off to college in Michigan. I was never a ‘class clown’ in high school. In fact, I was quite studious. I was attending Thomas Jefferson College, (now Grand Valley University) just outside of Grand Rapids. They had a great theatre department, where working professionals would come in to teach. I got involved immediately, studying all aspects of the art of storytelling, including mime, clowning, and improvised theatre. It was a non-traditional approach, and it was excellent training.”

Zerphy’s curiosity into human nature wasn’t completely quenched so he began taking classes in psychology and theology at Calvin College across town at the same time. He cites a man named Ken Feit as one of his major influences. Feit was studying to become a Jesuit priest before transitioning to the art of storytelling.

“Feit was a unique performer, who played the role of an itinerant fool. He was intelligent and a historian. I was his apprentice for a time,” Zerphy said. Other influences were a professional mime, who happened to be a Zen Buddhist priest, as well as Viola Spolin, whose son Paul Sills founded Second City Improv Company in Chicago.

There isn’t enough space in this paper to track the vast landscape of Zerphy’s career path once he graduated from college. A brief account reveals that he teamed up with various other creatives and began touring the country, writing and performing shows for local schools, theatres, and community centers out west and in the southwest before traveling extensively throughout Europe, including the iconic Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Ultimately, he found a niche here in the Northeast, toggling between Boston and New York City, teaching part-time at Emerson and Boston University while often performing in NYC, and in the late 1990s, he found himself in Hartland beginning a family. 

“I would still go out touring,” he said, “but limited my work to the New England area.”

As for “Bedutzed!,” Zerphy said the creative seeds for it were planted during the pandemic.

“I began writing songs on the Banjo just a few years ago, and I folded that talent into my storytelling capability. When I performed them for friends (along with stories of my life on the road), they suggested I should do it publicly. But I was resistant at first. Until I began talking to my daughter Olivia about it. And I shared with her that I also wanted to scratch beneath the surface of my stories, to express some underlying meanings. And she had insights, and support. Our conversations evolved until I asked her to direct me in this project.”

Bringing his daughter, Olivia, on board as a director seemed like an obvious choice. After all, who knew his humor and personality better than her? Yet, Olivia is now in her late 20s and has carved a creative path for herself that is both successful and extremely busy.

“I’ve been working on the show with my dad for the past two-plus years. During which I’ve been all over. I’m in New York now, doing an Off-Broadway show, but I live in Paris, which is an even farther distance in terms of collaborating. But I do come home often, so whenever I’m home, we find time to sit down and work on it. We also talk all the time about theatre, creativity, and art and always about this show. He shows me the stuff he’s working on or sends me stuff over email. We also do “Zoom call rehearsals” where he’ll play songs for me, and I’ll give him feedback, so we’re able to keep working on it even though we’re not geographically in the same place.”

As readers may recall, Olivia is one of the founding members of ”Voloz Collective.” She and her fellow company members performed their award-winning show: “The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much” at Town Hall in Woodstock last summer.

“It was so meaningful for me to bring this work that I developed in Europe back home to Woodstock,” Olivia shared.

When asked about specific challenges of directing her dad, Olivia offered this:

“Editing the material is challenging because my dad is so creatively generative. He’s had such a rich life. We say all the time that he has material for at least 10 full-length shows, therefore a big part of the process has been choosing which direction to go in because there’s so much material.”

“Zerphy the Elder” chimed in, “The show started off with songs and stories that came out of banjo playing and entertaining myself during the pandemic. And banjo-playing was new to me. Along with the songs, I began weaving stories and anecdotes about being on the road. That is what it started off as. But I always wanted to add a deeper level to it. For example: what got me into clowning? This deeper stuff involving the philosophy of the clown or the archetype of the fool. What is the line between the sacred and the profane? How can being a clown and looking at the world through a clown’s eyes help you when you’re NOT being a clown? For example, I had open heart surgery a few years back and I discovered that that ability for me to laugh and play and have fun with the situation was very helpful for me in dealing with the nurses and the doctors. That ability helped me to get through that. And that’s also part of this show.”

Zerphy exhaled: “And so ‘Bedutzed!’ came out of all that.”

When Zerphy was asked what he hoped the audience would take away from the show, he replied, “If I think that my show has anything valuable to teach other people, [the] main thing is that I’m encouraging people to play… Play with the things in their life. My story is just an example of how I did it — how I played with things. I embraced that playfulness as a central part of my life/work/career. I’m not saying that that’s something that other people need to do. I’m just encouraging them to play with what’s important in their life. Don’t get stuck in one way of seeing things. Give yourself permission to play with things and you may develop perspectives that are very helpful. Just try it.”

Zerphy emphasized that the Feb. 16 show is a “work-in-progress” and welcomes audience comments during the post-show talkback.

Olivia recalled an anecdote from childhood, “My dad was always making jokes all the time, when I was growing up. I remember saying to him when I was a young girl: ‘Dad, it’s a good thing you’re funny because otherwise it would be so-o annoying.’”

Zerphy added, “And we said that between us for like 10 years. ‘Good thing you’re funny…’”

“Bedutzed!,” written & performed by Michael Zerphy, and directed by Olivia Zerphy, will play for one performance only on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 3 p.m. at Damon Hall in Hartland.

The show is free of charge. Donations will be accepted at the door. Running time is 80 minutes with no intermission.

There will be a talkback following the show between the audience and Mr. Zerphy.