A Night of Professional Theater

Adam Carpenter and Zack Steel

The word of the night: Professional. As I entered the Fringe Main Stage to see Four Clowns’ Me Rich You Learn, the energy of the full house carried me to my seat. I knew I was seeing a comedy, but I had no idea about the story. Turns out, that’s the joke. The “show” never comes off as the seemingly improvisational shenanigans of the talented Adam Carpenter playing “Martin” and Zach Steel playing “TR Hammer” delay the show’s agenda of teaching the audience how to become rich in order to deliver the real story:

Underlying the digressions, Carpenter and Steel have seamlessly written a play about the sweetly diabolical love/hate relationship between Martin and TR Hammer. That is the story: their quirky, competitive, co-dependent, endearing relationship, delivered with such conviction of character, such exquisite timing, such athleticism and vocal acuity, the audience is on the seat of its pants. The directing of Turner Munch is nothing less than magical, in the true definition of the world. I don’t know how they pulled it off. I guess I said it from the start: These are professionals. —June 23, 2013