Stephanie Ratanas

Ever thought about what would happen if you deposited one of those checks you got in the junk mail, fully addressed and just so authentic-looking? Before you throw it in the trash with the direct-mail advertising and the Land's End catalogs, consider Patrick Combs, who dared to do such a thing.

Combs visits Chicago's Lakeshore Theatre May 11th and 12th with "Man 1 Bank 0," his one-man show. The comedy tells the true story about how Combs deposited a check he received in the mail marked "non-negotiable" for $95,039.35, intending it to be a simple joke. Seven years after the initial deposit, a friend of Combs dared him to create a one-man play about the legal battles, publicity and threats of jail time that Combs experienced from cashing the check, and enter himself into the San Francisco Fringe Festival.

"I thought I was going to the theater to embarrass myself," says Combs. "They gave me six shows and I thought it would be cancelled by show two, or I'd do six and be done." Instead, for the past few years, Combs has been traveling and selling out shows across the country. He's also taken the act to the tube, on shows such as "Good Morning America" and the "Late Show with David Letterman."

He says that part of the fun in doing the show is seeing the audience's reaction. "[The audience] is thinking, `Oh man, I'm gonna go home and put one of those checks in.' Twenty minutes later they're thinking `Oh god, I'm glad I didn't do that!'"

Combs claims he isn't the funny one in the show. "It turns out that the banking industry is right for comedy--they're the humorists in my show, not me. [The show] is all the truth and that's what makes it funny. The truth is ridiculous."

So...did he get the money? In the end, he did--but you'll have to see the last five minutes of the play to find out what he did with it.

"Man 1 Bank 0" runs May 11-12 at Lakeshore Theatre, 3175 North Broadway, at 8pm.

(2007-05-07)

Also by Stephanie Ratanas

Teacher Tussle
It's Friday night, and sixty-seventy college professors, students and high-school teachers sit patiently in folding chairs in UE Hall near Ashland and Ogden for the first screening of "Renaissance 2010: On the Frontlines." The film is an amateur documentary, made by teachers Jackson Potter of Englewood High School and Al Ramirez of Ruiz Elementary, who are also Chicago Teachers Union delegates
(2007-05-01)

Spit Take
On the first warm day in weeks, dozens of people crowd into the small Andersonville bookstore for "Sister Spit: The Next Generation," an event (originally conceived in the 1990s) that features a group of eight lesbian writers touring the country together in one van to share their stories of spontaneity, lust, resentment and humor
(2007-04-24)

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