Comedian cashes in on bank joke

By Donald Munro
The Fresno Bee

(Updated Sunday, March 7, 2004, 4:35 AM)

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We're talking about the stuff that's cold and hard. Not checks or credit cards. Not the electronic blips that flit between accounts like impossible-to-catch fireflies.

In many ways, money has become a strangely abstract concept in our society. Most of us never see the majority of what we earn before it's whisked away.

Anything more than pocket change can be titillating -- and nervewracking. Cash has an aura all its own -- a pungent sensibility. It even smells.

So when Combs sets up the stage for his touring solo show "Man, 1, Bank, 0," which he's bringing to the second weekend of Fresno's 2004 Rogue Performance Festival, he gets a kick out of spreading money on the floor. Real money. At least a couple of hundred dollars' worth. And between shows, he wears a special shirt to which he's pinned dozens of bills.

"That shirt freaks people out because I'm walking around outside in it," Combs says. "It gets the most amazing reactions from people."

Considering the topic of his one-man show, the emphasis on cash is appropriate. Combs has a story to tell that audiences love. In 1995 he received a phony check in the mail for $95,093.35 as part of a promotional campaign. You know the kind: quasi-official, sort of flimsy, with "NON NEGOTIABLE" in tiny letters stamped at the top.

So what did Combs do? He deposited the check in his bank account. And it cleared.

The story even made the Wall Street Journal.

"The beauty is that it's the craziest story most people have ever heard," he says this week from Hawaii, where he's performing for a few days before heading to HBO's Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. "It's certainly the craziest story I'll ever live."

Then again, the appeal of "Man 1, Bank 0" rests mostly on his telling of the story -- especially when he's describing how the bank officials try to get their money back. (The part where he throws money at the audience helps, too -- especially when people realize it's real, even though you're supposed to give it back.) The show won the Best of San Francisco Fringe Festival award and Combs won for best solo male comedic performance last September.

Though it's his first full-fledged solo show, Combs has a lot of experience in front of a crowd. He appeared on Paramount's "Real TV" and "Hard Copy." And he's toured the country for years as a comedian. In 1996 he worked with award-winning mono- logist Spalding Gray. And he's studied with Mark Travis, a solo-show coach who helped actor-writer Chazz Palminteri develop "A Bronx Tale."

Which makes him a little more national in scope than most of the entries at this year's nonjuried Rogue Festival. If there's such a thing as a headliner, he's it. The first weekend of this year's festival is dominated by local talent -- from names that are familiar to Good Company Players subscribers to mystery players eager for a first-time stage experience.

But Combs says that more than big names, the important thing about a fringe festival is the atmosphere of creativity and optimism.

"I felt all the artists at the San Francisco Fringe Festival were taking risks with their shows," he says. "And they were people with exceptionally good moods. If the performers are really enjoying themselves, the audiences have much more fun."

A good strategy for an audience member, he says, is to see at least a few shows -- and to purposefully pick performers or genres with which you're not necessarily familiar. Fresno's Rogue Festival includes 40 performing groups along with an independent film festival and a slate of art gallery shows.

"There's really a pleasant surprise of having something sneak up on you that's great," he says. "And even if it isn't, just go in with an open mind and appreciate all the small great moments that are in every performance."

Especially if the performer throws a $5 bill at you.

The reporter can be reached at dmunro@fresnobee.com or 441-6373.