KICK YOUR ENTHUSIASM (15)
By:
February 21, 2022
One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of a favorite sidekick — whether real-life or fictional.
MARTHA BROOKS
The prevailing question of modern times is probably: what does it take to have a successful career in clowning? You could ask Bakersfield Costco insurance adjuster Martha Brooks, sidekick and erstwhile manager to rodeo clown Chip Baskets, but she is exhausted and has no idea. She will, however, put on a coin belt and run your Meemaw’s yard sale if you need her to. Beleaguered by neighbors haggling over Pat Boone records, she’ll never raise her voice or abandon ship. Martha knows Chip needs her, even if he can’t quite acknowledge it, or sometimes, acknowledge her. A superhero in a tan Cutlass Ciera, Martha has the power to be invisible and absorb endless blows.
Loyal, lonely, and the lowest of low-keys, she’s an angel with her arm in a dirty green cast. A confidante with a canker sore. A CB radio hobbyist in a floral dress who perks up at the thought of soft-boiled eggs. The genius of Martha is that she seems uncomplicated but she’s not at all simple. When she reveals she’s got two secret boyfriends, a Basque shepherd and a cross-country truck driver she met on her CB, it makes perfect sense.
And of course she falls off the stage into the audience while getting a lap dance at a male strip revue in Vegas. She has to walk with a cane and ice her shoulder, but it allows her to get what she wants: She remains faithful to her beaus and doesn’t have to endure the awkwardness of the dance she’s pressured into. Plus she seems genuinely pleased with her consolation prize: a pink hat with a ripped hunk on it that says License to Drill.
Martha Brooks elevates the female doormat trope into a deeply inhabited character study. Not merely a pushover or a punching bag, but a practitioner of the therapeutic use of self. Instead of coming in hot, she comes in lukewarm. The Cumulative Martha Brooks Effect. Without bombast or catharsis, an epiphany occurs.
KICK YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Annie Nocenti on RATSO | Barbara Bogaev on TRIXIE | Sara Ryan on SWIFT WIND | Carlo Rotella on BELT BEARERS | Adam McGovern on JACKIE McGEE | Josh Glenn on RAWHIDE | Gabriela Pedranti on KUILL | Douglas Wolk on VOLSTAGG | Serdar Paktin on CATO | Deirdre Day on TRAMPAS | Dean Haspiel on TIN MAN | Flourish Klink on THE APOSTLE PETER | Miranda Mellis on FAMILIAR | Peggy Nelson on COSMO | Beth Lisick on MARTHA BROOKS | Bishakh Som on CAPTAIN HADDOCK | Stephanie Burt on SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE | Greg Rowland on SPOCK | Adam Netburn on SENKETSU | Mimi Lipson on ROBIN QUIVERS | Jonathan Pinchera on GUTS | Tom Nealon on TWIKI | Mandy Keifetz on DR. EINSTEIN | Judith Zissman on IGNATZ MOUSE | Anthony Miller on DOCTOR GONZO.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!