WIRX “Decoding Carnivale” call-in with Clancy Brown • 02-07-05

This is the transcript from Clancy’s radio call-in segment on Southwest Michigan’s WIRX/Rock 107.1, with Shelley Morgan.

Shelley Morgan: HBO, that’s the only place you need to be, even during the Super Bowl, as “Carnivale” showed us a new chapter in “Carnivale” last night. And the man who plays Brother Justin Crowe, Clancy Brown, is on the phone with us. Clancy, talking about “Carnivale” opening with, well, with a little bit of… another vision, I guess. Another vision of Ben’s…

Clancy Brown: I think that was a post-Apocalyptic vision, at least as per the script, that was supposed to be a post-Apocalyptic…

Shelley: Yeah, after The Bomb, because everything was black ash.

Clancy: Exactly.

Shelley: I assume that the black ash were people.

Clancy: Ooh, nice! Yeah! Why not? Why not?

Shelley: Mm-hmm.

Clancy: Absolutely. It was a little dark for my taste, I mean it was lit very darkly.

Shelley: Well, until you popped out and went, “Raaargh!”

Clancy: I remember it from the script. Yes, that was difficult.

Shelley: (laughing) That’s a question that I have. (The “Carnivale” theme song starts to play in the background.) Because, this is what you do, this is your job. But at some point, some of the things you have to do, you just have to go with it, don’t ya?

Clancy: Yeah. You do. You know, you gotta make funny faces and do funny voices and do funny walks. That one was, for some reason… That was very difficult. It was far more difficult than standing there with the tattoo, for some reason. The me, jumping up and going, “Raaargh!”

Shelley: (laughing) Because…

Clancy: Thank goodness they put in that lion roar or bear roar, or whatever it was. I’m so glad that they enhanced that, because my little growl (laughing), wasn’t scary enough!

Shelley: I’m sure your growl was quite scary. (laughing)

Clancy: Nope. (laughing) No! No, they made is scary, thank goodness.

Shelley: Wow, that had to have been hard to do.

Clancy: It was just one of those movie moments where you think, ya know, you need this piece. Everyone knows what it’s supposed to be. But in reality, it’s like the dumbest thing in the world! It’s like, you know, Boogey Man kinda, and it’s not surprising to anybody, cuz it’s all set up, you know. So it’s not like you can turn to somebody and say, “Hey, how’s that? Did that scare ya?” (chuckles)

Shelley: (laughing)

Clancy: They’re just trying to stifle their giggles – as was I! But hopefully, it’s effective when it’s all put together.

Shelley: And it was.

Clancy: Good.

Shelley: Yeah. It was… It was still funny, cuz, like I said, I was sitting there going, “Oh, boy! That had to have been… Yeah, you had to have felt really silly. REALLY silly, doing that.”

(Station/Music Break)

Shelley: Clancy Brown, on the phone. Clancy plays Brother Justin Crowe on HBO’s “Carnivale.” And last night we had Super Bowl, and the first half of the Super Bowl, and then Paul MacCartney, singing Beatles songs, making me sing along. And then I turn on “Carnivale” and I’m disturbed!

Clancy: That was a creepy, CREEPY episode! (chuckling)

Shelley: (laughing) And actually, the creepiest thing was the guy who made the masks.

Clancy: Oh, my Goodness! That Truman Capote voice of his, and ugh! Like, what was that about? He was… He’s a scary dude.

Shelley: There was that, there was the whole, ya know, his house was immaculate, and he was very clean, compared to the people we normally see, or at least half of the people we normally see on “Carnivale.” They’re very dirty. He was SO clean!

Clancy: Yes, and he seemed very well-to-do and, ya know… Maybe that’s one of the themes of the show is that everyone that seems to be thriving during this period, during this Depression, this period of great poverty… Everyone that thrives is on the side of evil or something. I dunno…

Shelley: They’re pretty messed up.

Clancy: But did it really happen, that’s the other thing? Well, we know it DID happen, because of the scene later with Justin…. But that kinda freaked me out, too, that Ben woke up on the couch, and maybe it was another one of those weird visions. And it really wasn’t until we saw the mask get unpacked that you know that it was a real event. And the impression I got from how it was written and how it was played, was that this was a fatal endeavor by anyone who was getting a mask done.

Shelley: Yes.

Clancy: That it killed the person who was getting the mask.

Shelley: I would agree.

Clancy: So, when he woke up and he was alive and on the couch, I had to kinda do a doubletake. Like, well, maybe it didn’t happen.

Shelley: But it did happen, didn’t it? Well, and that’s when you just kinda go, “Okay…” Because it’s “Carnivale”, and you sit there and you go, “I dunno what’s going on.” But it’s fun to watch!

(Music/Station Break)

Shelley: It’s Clancy Brown from HBO’s “Carnivale”, on the phone, we are “Decoding Carnivale”. And last night, on the show, Tommy Dolan brings Justin proof that Justin’s sister Iris set the orphanage fire. Justin’s taking it okay, in front of Tommy.

Clancy: Justin seems to be a bit more theatrical about it. When he was standing at the window and said, “I said, ‘Follow the road’, and here it is at my door.” He didn’t know that would happen?

Shelley: I think he’s playing it out for both Iris and for Tommy.

Clancy: You think so?

Shelley: I think so!

Clancy: I wonder if there’s not some other thing that he was hoping, perhaps, he didn’t have to make the choice between Tommy and Iris. That perhaps Tommy wouldn’t be able to definitively identify Iris as the culprit. And maybe that’s what’s working with him, rather than some grand master plan he had from the beginning, when he set Tommy on the trail. I mean, Nixon said, “We’re gonna investigate this.” And he knew exactly what happened from the get-go.

Shelley: (laughing) Right.

Clancy: “We’re gonna fully investigate this and all the perpetrators are gonna be brought to justice.” And somehow, in the back of his mind, he was hoping, of course, that it would dead end someplace.

Shelley: An interesting analogy.

Clancy: Ya know?

Shelley: Richard Nixon/Brother Justin Crowe.

Clancy: Right. Well, I mean, ya know, conspiracies and cover-ups.

Shelley: No, I understand…

Clancy: So, yeah, Nixon wishes he was Brother Justin, ya know? (laughing)

Shelley: (laughing) He wishes he had that badass tattoo!

Clancy: He wishes he had that tattoo and those speech writers, I’ll tell you what! They built that story in an interesting way, differing slightly from what was scripted to what is presented. That always makes me think of the problem in performance, but… enough about me.

Shelley: Oh, it’s not a problem in your performance!

Clancy: (chuckling)

Shelley: It would have to be a problem in someone else’s performance.

Clancy: And is it kinda weird that Balthus, at that point, turns into a piece of furniture?

Shelley: Yeah! I find that very odd. If he’s just gonna be there to witness things, why even have him there at all. There’s gotta… Once again, it’s “Carnivale”, there had to be a reason for him to be there.

Clancy: Remember that.

Shelley: Okay.

Clancy: Remember that moment. Remember what Balthus learned, what Balthus discovers…

Shelley: I love it when you give me direction to watch the next show…

(Music/Station break)

Shelley: Let’s do it! Let’s finish up “Decoding Carnivale” with Clancy Brown, from HBO’s “Carnivale” and… Let’s see, next week, they’re going to Damascus.

Clancy: Yes, Damascus, that’s the one shot I hated in this show last night.

Shelley: Really?

Clancy: The Animal Planet shot.

Shelley: (laughter)

Clancy: I thought that was just awful…

Shelley: (laughing) That’s pretty funny!

Clancy: And it’s only because the show is so expertly built from a visual standpoint that that shot stood out to me as particularly not effective. But that’s probably why it was so short. The other images in that little flash, I have NO idea what they were.

Shelley: No idea why the guy’s face melted off? Very “Raiders of the Lost Ark”-like?

Clancy: Oh, was that what that was?

Shelley: That’s what it looked like to me, yeah.

Clancy: Okay.

Shelley: And especially since, I mean, that happened after… We’re talking about Sofie’s card reading. Um, she had… There was the Two of Wands…

Clancy: Right.

Shelley: There were The Lovers, and then there was The Moon. With the first one Ben saw a vision. With the second one, she saw a vision, and it was of she and Ben kissing after the big Bomb blast.

Clancy: Yes, I love that. That was actually the funniest moment, to me. “Did you see…? What did you see?” “Nuthin! No… I didn’t…”

Shelley: Yeah

Clancy: That was lovely.

Shelley: She’s not gonna tell him, “I saw us makin’ out, baby!”

Clancy: Ha!

Shelley: So, pucker up!

Clancy: Yeah, pucker up!

Shelley: And uh, so then, the last part, you know, with the Animal Planet shot, then it followed that there was a face. And to me it looked like it was Henry Scudder with his face melted off.

Clancy: Oh, okay. It looked like some kind of African mask, to me, I couldn’t tell what it was. Well, maybe I just wasn’t paying attention that hard. I dunno.

Shelley: Hey, you had a couple of beers in you. It was post-Super Bowl.

Clancy: That’s right.

Shelley: You were allowed. So, thank you, Clancy, for hanging out with us again, and for helping us “Decode Carnivale”. And if you didn’t see it last night and you’re intrigued, tonight at 8 o’clock, HBO2, and a couple of different reruns through the week. And then, new episodes on Sunday night. HBO’s “Carnivale”!