Trump meets Lear. Well not quite. This is David Carl doing an impression of Donald Trump doing Lear.
David Carl lets us know that this is the David Carl show. This really fits more into the “skit” category than theatre. The food issues (here a burger is dipped into a soda in order to get it down in one minute) represent a certain genre of comedy.
David Carl lets us know this at least a half dozen times in the first couple of minutes that this is the Carl David / David Carl show: “one-man Carl David performs Trump Lear.”
The other political figures are represented by “puppets”, photo-heads adhered to condiment bottles, cups and miscellany. (Clinton, Bush 1 and Bush 2, Ivanka, Putin, Kim) figures are represented by “puppets”, photo-heads adhered to condiment bottles who are then assigned characters from Lear. The performer’s Trump imitation is not his forte. Nor are the voices of Pacino, Gene Hackman, neither Bush (many others)—although he does manage a convincing Clinton.
But this is really more about the voice-over Trump and his tolerance with not just being portrayed as Lear but the value of Carl David / David Carl at all. If the voice-over Trump does see any redeeming value to this skit, he will be eliminated. And for some reason Carl David / David Carl feels the need to justify himself to voice-over Trump.
There were audience members who loved this. (This was great. I really needed this.) You’ve got to love a good food fight and bad animal house.