RINGLING: The Sink Gag

Video courtesy of Steve Copeland



The sink gag with Ryan Combs and Steve Copeland from the 134th edition in Memphis, TN 2005.

"Super Steve" Copeland says...

"This version was filmed in Memphis, TN (Larry, if you are reading this you can see you and your family watching on the ring curb....don't look so bored!) in 2005.

The sink gag was not in the Adventure at the start of the tour, but Ryan had been talking with Greg DeSanto about the gag and we started writing it in Trenton, NJ, mapping it out with some very crude props. We even had a scout family that had arrived for a PR early to give us our first audience feedback (not sure what their initial reaction was to see two twenty year olds out of make-up and in clown boxers hitting each other and throwing mop heads around).

In Fresno, CA Ryan built the sink and in each town after that we got the props needed.

Our big debut came in San Jose, CA. We showed the gag and got the best reaction the gag had ever gotten. People were screaming with laughter all the way through, and they were about to piss themselves during the blow off.

Needless to say, we were on Cloud 9 that show and couldn't wait to put it in the regular rotation the next week in San Francisco, CA.

Little did we know it was a bad thing to open with the gag so strong....San Francisco is not known for having the best audiences, and we got next to nothing from them when we started doing the sink gag regularly there.

We couldn't figure it out. In other cities as well we didn't reach the same level of hysteria in our audiences that we had reached that first night.

Some shows we would get decent laughs, some shows we would get nothing. It was very frustrating!

Finally in Memphis, over a year later, Ryan and I decided to come in early on Sunday morning and rework the gag. We cut some bits, moved others around, worked on the flow, etc.

We struck GOLD! We got a very good reaction (especially for a Sunday afternoon show), and after that the gag got stronger and stronger and we knocked 'em dead every time we performed the gag! (Except for one time we foolishly did the gag for a morning show....NEVER AGAIN! Nothing is funny before noon....right Mr. DeSanto?)

Despite all the headaches of the gag (setting all the props, getting the water ready, cleaning the water up off the floor, dealing with management about water that shot up on the rigging, etc.), the response we got from the audience made it all worthwhile.

I wish I had a more complete version of the gag. This version is missing some great bits from the beginning where I get rolled up in the tarp, and the start of the gag where I pull the counter top off with a plunger, but it is the newest version of the gag I have.

So just imagine it as it was at the end of the tour with all the timing down perfect and every bit milked to its fullest potential.....

and that will have to tide you over until I can work with Ryan again and revive the gag! Until then, enjoy!"

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