Mark Twain

The other night my husband and I had the opportunity to see Hal Holbrook perform as Mark Twain a.k.a. Samuel Clemens live at our local performing arts center.  To say that it was an enjoyable experience would be down playing it immensely. Mr. Holbrook, who has been performing as Mark Twain since he was twenty-nine and is now eighty-four years young, continues to wow his audience with his award winning performance.  I first saw Holbrook do his one man show in 1967 sitting in front of my family’s small black and white television set. At even that very young age I became totally smitten with Mark Twain,  humorist and humanist extraordinaire. The mere fact that the comments made by “Mr. Twain” are as much true today as they were nearly one hundred years ago is both poignantly stimulating and distressing. In the nearly two hour show the audience was treated to a discourse on numerous topics including, but not limited to, the impotence of Congress, rural life and childhood growing up on the farm, the depravity of Wall Street, and the ironic “marriage” of religion and war. All in all an experience I wouldn’t have missed for the world. Thank you Hal Holbrook for your unparalleled channeling of Mr. Twain.