The Marshmallow Show Is Cancelled
By Debby Regan
Outcast Press, 2023
Paper, $12.99
Genre: Fiction
Reviewed by Danny Gamble
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas—unless it happens in the satirical romp through pop culture, The Marshmallow Show Is Cancelled. Debby Regan has conjured up a zany desert town inhabited by Marshmallow, a benign bunny puppet with its own kids TV show; Findley Luker, Marshmallow’s puppeteer after his father Kevin dies and a fledgling actor turned international movie star; Andrea Rizzo, a beautiful media heiress and Findley’s fiancé; Robbie Roberts, a drug and disease addled local talk show host; his colorful band leader Gouda; and an eccentric film director named Provocateur. And that’s just the major characters. Whew!
Readers meet most of these characters long after The Marshmallow Show is cancelled and bought out by Sparkle, Inc., a Disneyesque media conglomerate, anchored not by a mouse, but by Mr. Glitz—a man in an orangutan suit. When Mr. Glitz shows up drunk for the Mr. Sparkle Christmas Special, Finley dons the orangutan suit and takes a turn at “Putting on the Ritz” as “Putting on the Glitz.” (Young Frankenstein anyone?)
Roberts offers Marshmallow and Finley a recurring gig as an insult comic and the mellow bunny becomes Marshmallow, the Insult Comic Rabbit, without the cigar, you might say. “This isn’t reality,” Regan writes. “It’s ‘magic theater.’”
Enter: Provocateur, the avant-garde auteur who’s filming Fidelity. Findley gets the lead role as Castro in this singing, dancing Busby Berkley meets Bob Fosse of a film. “Castro represents many things,” says Provocateur, “but mostly he is a god of art.” Jason, Provocateur’s Che Guevara, adds, “Revolution is improv…. It’s like jazz dance. Except with guns.” You get it—absurd. The film gets horrible reviews.
Along the way, Regan lampoons everyone from entertainers Elton John and Liberace to fashion designers Versace and Vera Wang.
Readers shouldn’t skip to the book’s ending. They’ll miss the wedding between Finley and Andrea. The bachelor party and the reception are even better than the wedding. Robert Altman couldn’t have directed a better script.
Debby Regan has given readers a comic treasure with The Marshmallow Show Is Cancelled.
Her deft eye toward parody and satire will keep readers chuckling. Who says whimsy is dead? Not Regan!
Beach weather is approaching. Do yourself a favor and carry a copy of The Marshmallow Show Is Cancelled in your beach bag. You won’t regret it. Oh, and take a pencil with you. Count the number of times someone takes a bite out of a cheese Danish, if you can count that high.
Former Alabama Writers’ Forum Communication Director Danny Gamble writes from Montevallo, Alabama.
