Life is a Carnival
At rock bottom, life may be just another circus
About two years ago I started writing a series of connected pieces meant to describe the fall of Trump. Two years, that’s a long fall. Still, he’s far from fallen. People have to train themselves, try hard NOT to think or talk about him.
Still he sneaks into our lives in the morning when the paper arrives and later steals away in the evening as the six o’clock news fades into yesterday. But he always comes back; that is because we cannot suspend disbelief. We cannot ever quite recognize that we elected this terribly unfit, incomplete human, and that we may do it again.
With Trump as our leader we are uncertain. In doubt. COVID19 has forced a mysterious, scary pause while we try to figure out what is happening and who is in charge. The wham-bang arrival of the corona virus exposed us, caught us unaware and unready. We thought we had more than enough of everything we could have. Then all of a sudden it was gone. Regular life disappeared. Work, jobs, money, going outside to take a walk, baseball, basketball, movies, shopping, visiting friends and family, travel, church, school, and transportation and television as we had known it.
Seeing Trump’s desperate efforts to stay in the television spotlight has saddened and tired America. It has become obvious that we are never going to get rid of him. And then, as if to highlight Trump’s style and need, along came Joe Exotic.
Like Trump, this guy is not going to be easy to look away from, we thought. “I can’t believe I’m watching this guy,” wee said. He is another Trump, a poor man’s Trump, It doesn’t come quickly, the realization that Joe Exotic is another Trump; it oozes up around us.
Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage (formerly Joe Schreibvogel) (now known as Joe Exotic) (try to pronounce his real name and you will understand why) is what has come to be known as an internet personality. Joe got to be an “internet personality” by being a former zoo operator in Greater Wynnewood, Oklahoma. The “zoo” was a shabby park that had a lot of feeble tigers in it, and Joe Exotic was the trainer and handler of these wildish tigers. He put on daily shows. Joe says that people flocked to see him rather than the tigers. You might think Joe Exotic appeals especially to people who prefer roadside attractions as their #1 choice of entertainment. But no, he apparently has broader appeal.
Early on, Joe’s claim to fame was that he was “one the most prolific breeders of tigers in the United States.” Which isn’t such an accomplishment when you realize no one ever knew there was such a thing as a tiger breeder in Oklahoma, let alone a “prolific” one. Joe’s not a regular guy in any sense.
He began as a police officer in Eastvale, Texas. But he thought he could succeed as a politician. Later he ran unsuccessfully for public office,”first for President of the United States in 2016 as an independent, and then for Governor of Oklahoma in 2018 as a Libertarian.”
He’s a fifty-seven year old peroxided blond dude who dressed up like a carnival cowboy, has had two or three wives (young men under the age of twenty), sings to the crowds, is an obvious showman, raised and trained tigers, eats crummy food and could talk the head off a brass monkey. I am not sure about the brass monkey part, but somehow a brass monkey always works his way in there.
His was the popular path for someone who wants to become very well known if not necessarily well-respected. But it may not be the typical route for someone trying to get a CD of romantic songs out there. Every thing about Joe shrieked LOOK AT ME. Joe always felt that people came more to see him than the tigers. As soon as he was discovered by someone wanting to make a some quick cash by filming a long documentary about Joe’s semi-carnival life, Joe was everywhere. But singing may not have been his best suit. You can see how his ambition resembles Trump’s.
Luckily, the time was ripe. Long documentaries about bizarre topics are gobbled up by Netflix. And Netflix is the new television. What did you watch last night?
Netflix understands that what people want is a diversion, something that will move us away from daily misery, lock us into a good story, and keep us there. And what do you know? Joe Exotic fills the bill. Joe is not a bad guy; he is warm, friendly and likes to sing a happy tune.
Again, it is that darned ambition. It got MacBeth and his wife. It got Trump, and it got Joe Exotic. Joe’s docudrama follows his career searching for the limelight. He had occasional trouble with a rival tiger trainer named Carol Baskin. She brought early and frequent allegations of animal abuse against him. That gave him worries. He was upset.Then she was mysteriously threatened. When it was discovered that Joe was behind a murder-for-hire plot to kill Carol Baskin, his tiger training days were over. Joe Exotic is now serving a 22 year sentence in a federal prison for threatening Ms. Baskin. Now Joe is hoping to be pardoned by President Donald Trump. What comes around goes…
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