A comic is someone who says funny things. A clown is someone who does funny things, or does things funny, depending on how you look at it. George Burns, Milton Berle were comics while Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd were the great clowns. Clowning requires an acrobatic or physical element which joke telling does not require although some great comics like Groucho Marx and W.C. Fields and his juggling would augment their funny patter with physical humor.

Red Skelton was probably the last great Television clown. Skelton's joke telling was terrible because he would giggle and convulse himself as he told his own jokes. It was at pantomime that he was a genius, generating pathos and humor. Sid Caesar was the other great television clown although Jackie Gleason, remembered best for his comic acting in the Honeymooners, performed in pantomime as Reginald Van Gleason III.

More recent years have produced few entertainers with the talent of these greats, however, I believe the two funniest clowns performing today can be seen at the Signature Theatre in New York City in the stunning vaudeville-style review, 'Old Hats.' This incredible show is extended until June 9th.

Bill Irwin and David Shiner are the two greatest clowns living today. Their performance in OLD HATS must be seen.

Bill Irwin is this generation's Buster Keaton. He contorts his body in ways one would not think possible. Inventive costuming allows him to utilize the physicality of his humor in a way that is difficult to describe but simply which must be seen.

Irwin was born in Santa Monica, California. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1973 with a degree in theater arts, and from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College the following year. In 1975, he helped found the Pickle Family Circus in San Francisco, California. He left the company in 1979, and decided to pursue stage work.

Irwin, a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant, developed his silent clown persona in such shows as 'The Regard of Flight' and is also known by children as Mr. Noodle on Sesame Street's Elmo. He is one of the original members of San Francisco's Pickle Circus, has made a number of film and TV appearances and won a Tony Award for a dramatic role on Broadway.

Irwin's co-star is veteran clown David Shiner. More traditional than Irwin, Shiner is as good as the great Sid Caesar when it comes to mugging to the audience for humorous effect, including the eye-roll and nose-snort which he uses to let the audience in on the joke. Shiner interacts with the audience throughout the show and communicates perfectly even though he, like Irwin, never speaks a word, although both have hysterical singing interludes.

Shiner was born in Boston, Massachusetts,The lanky Shiner, usually donning a small dunce cap, started as a street mime, first in Colorado, and later in France and Germany. He managed to get multiple gigs with various circuses, including performances with the German Circus Roncalli and the Swiss National Circus (Circus Knie). In between he toured performing a dual act with Rene Bazinet.

From 1990 he was featured in Cirque du Soleil's production Nouvelle Experience, touring for 19 months through Canada and the USA and playing for another year in Las Vegas. With his antics, including stepping through, on and over much of the crowd and the staging of a mock silent-movie melodrama with four members of the audience, he may be the best-remembered of the Cirque's clowns.

I first saw Irwin and Shiner in Fool Moon during the 90s. That show featured the music of the Red Clay Ramblers, and consisted of a series of sketches and stunts featuring the two masters of physical lunacy in an evening of sly humor, chaos and music. In that show,as in OLD HATS, Irwin plays his sweetly mischievous persona off Shiner's more astringent one.

Joining Irwin and Shiner for Old Hats is Nellie McKay who plays piano, ukulele, sings and has a pretty snappy patter with the audience of her own, although she of course talks. A cute, engaging and funny performer, the house technicians would be wise to boost her voice in the theatre audio. Many of her best lines and quips are lost because of the inadequacy of the volume of her voice.

This minor quibble aside, all three performers put on a show that must not be missed. This will be one of the most memorable theatrical events you will ever experience. This maybe the last opportunity to see two of our last living clowns. See this show. Don't delay. For tickets go to http://www.signaturetheatre.org/tickets/production.aspx?pid=2366

In 1962, at the Carlyle Hotel in New York, a man "peeled off his clothing and began prancing around his hotel suite." His bodyguards were cautiously amused, until the man "left the suite and began roaming through the corridor of the Carlyle."

The man in question was delusional, paranoid and suffering a "psychotic break" from the effects of an overdose of methamphetamine.

He was also the president of the United States.

The reason for John F. Kennedy's bizarre behavior was that, according to an explosive new book, the president was -- unbeknownst to him, at first -- a meth addict.

The man who supposedly made him so was Max Jacobson, a doctor who had invented a secret vitamin formula that gave people renewed energy and cured their pain, and was given the code name "Dr. Feelgood" by Kennedy's Secret Service detail.

This formula was actually methamphetamine, and over the course of a decades-long practice, Jacobson became doctor to the stars, making unknowing drug addicts out of a long list of the famous and distinguished, including JFK and his wife, Jackie, Marilyn Monroe, Mickey Mantle, Eddie Fisher, Truman Capote and many more.

In "Dr. Feelgood" (Skyhorse Publishing), authors Richard A. Lertzman and William J. Birnes allege that Jacobson had an incredible effect on world events, influencing Kennedy's election, the Cuban Missile Crisis, even Roger Maris' 1961 home-run record.

MIXING 'THE FORMULA'

Jacobson, born in 1900 and raised in Berlin, began experimenting with strange concoctions in the 1930s, when he would consult with Carl Jung, whose guidance "led him to first experiment with early psychotropic, or mood and mind-altering, drugs."

Experimenting on "animals, patients and himself," Jacobson "looked for ways he could mix early mind-altering drugs with vitamins, enzymes, animal placentas and small amounts of hormones . . ." and believed that these drugs could not only cure disease, but could "effect remedies on a cellular level."

The doctor's concoction -- which evolved to become a mixture of methamphetamine and goat's and sheep's blood -- caught the attention of Germany's National Socialists, who demanded the formula. Jacobson, who was Jewish, later said that his drug was fed to Nazi soldiers, making them more vicious. He also believed that Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun eventually became addicted to his formula.

Escaping the Nazis, Jacobson had a brief tenure in Paris -- where he took on celebrity client Anais Nin -- then wound up in New York in 1936, establishing a practice on East 72nd Street and Third Avenue. In the years to follow, he'd hone his formula; reconnect with celebrity patients he'd served in Europe such as Nin, director Billy Wilder and author Henry Miller; and take on many new ones, including Nelson Rockefeller, Maria Callas, Bob Fosse, Ingrid Bergman, Leonard Bernstein, Tennessee Williams, director Cecil B. DeMille and writer Rod Serling, who, the authors say, was high on Jacobson's meth when he furiously wrote "The Twilight Zone" series.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_kennedy_meth_4gGCkatf61gYCpkTZhg4FM

While both Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg were elected as Republican mayors of New York City, both did so by utilizing the cross-endorsement of minor parties, giving Democrats and Independentsin an overwhelmingly Democratic city a place on the ballot to vote for them.

It is important to note, however, that the demographics of New York City have shifted dramatically since Mayor Bloomberg's first election, explaining the "closer-than-expected" re-election race with Democrat Bill Thompson after the unpopular repeal of term limits. Today, the Democratic Party nominee has an even larger advantage than when Bloomberg and Giuliani were elected. The number of white voters has dropped - New York has gotten browner, blacker and more Asian.

Clearly, in today's New York City it would take an extraordinary set of developments for Republican Joe Lhota to win the mayor's office. At the same time, it is just as evident that only Lhota offers voters something different and could, conceivably, save the Big Apple.

New Yorkers could be treated to a hot five-way race for mayor: John Catsimatidis will buy the Liberal Party nomination; Adolfo Carrion, Jr. vows to stay on the ballot as the Independence Party nominee; Joe Lhota will prevail in the Republican primary; and Christine Quinn should edge out the aforementioned Thompson for the Democratic nomination. Union-controlled candidate Bill de Blasio could even snag the Working Families Party's nod. Unlike the Democratic primary, which requires a runoff if no one wins a majority, the next mayor could win Gracie Mansion with just a plurality of the votes.

Properly positioned, Joe Lhota could win a four or five way race.

There are three wild card factors to also consider. First, former Congressman Anthony Weiner, an outer-borough Jewish candidate with a heavy war chest, could jump in the Democratic primary providing an assist to Thompson, who is more than likely a stronger general election candidate for the Democrats. Governor Andrew Cuomo also could jam electoral reform legislation through Albany which opens party primaries to any registered voter, doing away with the ability of party bosses to control their nomination. Lastly, Joe Lhota could attract a second and perhaps third line where disaffected Democrats and moderates can vote for him.

It would be a mistake to assume that Lhota is a Giuliani Republican just because of his service in the Giuliani administration. Lhota is a more convivial and accessible manager with a greater interest in results than ideology. He is the only candidate who would hold the line against the tax increases that virtually all the Democratic candidates propose and who has delivered for the taxpayers when it comes to better management for transportation. When New York's Public Employee Unions all have to renegotiate their contracts, Lhota is the man to have at the helm.

Lawyer Sam Nunberg contextualized Lhota's peerless libertarian judgments on Breitbart:

Make no mistake; while Joe is both personally and professionally close to Rudy, on policy Joe follows Rudy's fiscal conservatism but is certainly not a knee jerk conservative on social issues. Joe supports both legal and civil marriage rights for all. Joe is pro legalization of marijuana and watering down the draconian Rockefeller drug laws which have flooded our prisons with non-violent criminals. Joe is also a supporter of hunting and is as close as this city will ever get in respecting the gun rights of law-abiding citizens.

Joe is certainly a Barry Goldwater acolyte when it comes to making government more efficient. He believes government works for the people and should provide tangible services to the taxpayer. Besides his aforementioned fiscal bona fides during Rudy's term, Joe took a scalpel to the MTA during his tenure as Chairman. Joe brought the "most aggressive internal cost-cutting ever undertaken, resulting in annual recurring savings of $809 million in 2013, which grow to more than $1.2 billion in 2016." Besides reigning in administration costs, Joe paid down the MTA's debt. And remarkably he did this while providing pay raises for MTA employees which is not only fair and equitable but should insure no future strikes.

On April 9th, the New York Libertarian Party cross-endorsed Joe Lhota at their New York City Nominating Convention. Lhota urgently needs a second line to win votes. If I were running Lhota's campaign, given the fact that the Board Of Elections has just slashed the number of signatures required for ballot access, I would petition my way onto the ballot under a "Citizen's Union" or other good government oriented ballot position as well as accepting the Libertarian designation.

History indicates that Democrats and Independents are less likely than ever to vote on the Republican line given the party's high unfavorable ratings with New York City voters. Minor parties, such as the Libertarians, would provide Lhota a bridge for these voters. Polling shows that the Libertarian label is identified with neither left nor right by most voters while its generally conservative economic and fiscal philosophy and its progressive social issue positions are popular with voters who are educated about the Libertarian philosophy.

It remains to be seen whether Lhota accepts or declines the Libertarian nomination in August when party petitions are filed. Based on his own writings, Lhota should be comfortable with the Libertarian label.

"Don't confuse libertarianism with anti-governmentism," Lhota told Capital's Dana Rubenstein. "I don't work in a part of government that infringes on people's rights. If anything, I work in that part of government that gives people freedom and gives people rights, and always have."