Crispin Glover brings THE BIG SLIDE SHOW to The Charles on Nov. 19th

Great Scot! It looks like George McFly himself is headed to Baltimore this month and he’s bringing some interesting work with him. The actor will be appearing at The Charles  for one performance of his Big Slide Show at 7:30 p.m. on the 19th of November.

Crispin Glover, best known for his work in Back to the Future (arguably the most normal thing he’s ever done) is an actor who has always positioned himself just off-center from the norm. Glover, who proudly displays Helli0n as his middle name, has made eccentricity and outsider antics an art form. Literally, he’s made it art, and he’s bringing a portion of it to The Charles with him when he comes.

From a really odd stint on Letterman  that would make Joaquin Phoenix envious to some of his musical work (really creepy covers of ‘These Boots Were Made For Walking’ and ‘Ben’), Glover likes to break down preconcieved notions and expectations. About ten minutes of internet perusal and you will have all images of the lovable McFly patriarch out of your head. Recently he’s been doing voicework for films like Beowulf and 9 and directing his own series of avant garde films that he has been taking on tour. Combining surrealistic sets, performers with mental and physical disabilities and odd distortions of classical music, Glover’s trilogy–currently consisting of What is It? and It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE –is challenging even by The Charles arthouse standards. I have personally never seen them, and based on reviews and the like, I’m not completely sold on the idea that I should.

Here’s an excerpt from Chuck Wilson’s review at The Village Voice:
 “Drawing deeply from his own life, Stewart stars as Paul Baker, a bookish, middle-aged man with cerebral palsy.Paul’s a learned man, but illness has made his speech too slurred to be intelligible to most people (including us). Certain women, however, understand Paul perfectly and are so charmed by his insight into their inner woes that they go to bed with him—in sex scenes that are clearly the product of Paul’s imagination and are so disturbingly frank that you may well look away. Paul is blissed-out with each conquest, but inevitably, his date will say something that rattles his idealized notions of womanhood, such as “I’m going to cut my hair.” Enraged, Paul strangles that one.”

Read the whole review HERE.

In addition to a viewing of the second film in the trilogy, It is fine!, Glover will be performing the BIG SLIDE SHOW which is apparently a performance piece that combines material from several different books. I’m not completely clear on what any of this will look like, but if Glover is involved, it won’t be easily forgotten and the audience should prepare for something transgressive.

For information regarding the whole event, here’s the listing from The Charles’ website:

Crispin Glover will appear to present his BIG SLIDE SHOW for one performance only! Crispin Hellion Glover performs a one-hour dramatic narration of eight different books that are profusely illustrated. Crispin Hellion Glover’s Big Slide Show will begin at 7:30 and will be followed by a screening of “It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE” (2007. Part 2 of the “It” Trilogy), a Q & A and a book signing. ADMISSION: $20. crispinglover.com

“Glover’s co-director- David Brothers’ art direction create streets and apartment interiors of hallucinatory luridness. That, mixed with the thunderous soundtrack of Beethoven, Smetana and Tchaikovsky give the movie a relentless nightmare quality. What Diane Arbus was to photography, Crispin Hellion Glover is swiftly achieving as a filmmaker. Training his sardonic eyes on the strange and afflicted he achieves a mad dark poetry on celluloid.”? -Dennis Dermody of PAPER magazine on “It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE” (2007 Crispin Glover. 74m. 35mm. Color).