Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping
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The Church of Stop Shopping is an activist performance group based in New York City, led by Reverend Billy, the stage name of Bill Talen. Using the form of a revival meeting, on sidewalks and in chain stores, Reverend Billy and his gospel choir exhort consumers to abandon the products of large corporations and mass media; the group also preaches a broader message of economic justice and anti-militarism, protesting sweatshops and the Iraq War. Though it continues its street theatre activities, the Church has also appeared on stage and has toured internationally.
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[edit] Origin of Reverend Billy
Bill Talen is a Minnesota-born actor who moved to New York from San Francisco in the late 90's, where he had originally created a character based on a hybrid of street preacher and televangelist called Reverend Billy. This character was performed in various San Francisco alternative theater venues, where Talen had earned a considerable reputation as both a performer and a producer (Life On The Water theater, the Solo Mio Festival, Writers Who Act, etc.) Upon relocating to New York, Talen began appearing as Reverend Billy on street corners in Times Square, near the recently opened Disney Store. Times Square had recently begun its transformation from a seedy but lively center of small-time and sometimes illicit commerce—and also of New York theatre—to a more gentrified and tourist-friendly venue for large companies like Disney and big-budget stage productions like The Lion King. Whereas other street preachers chose Times Square because of its reputation for sin, Reverend Billy's sermons focused on the evils of consumerism and advertising—represented especially by Disney and Mickey Mouse—and on what Talen saw as the loss of neighborhood spirit and cultural authenticity in Rudolph Giuliani's New York.
Talen's chief collaborator in developing the Reverend Billy character was the Reverend Sidney Lanier. A cousin of Tennessee Williams with an interest in avant-garde theater, Lanier was then the vicar of St. Clement's, an Episcopal church in Hell's Kitchen that doubled as a theatrical space, where Talen was working as house manager. Lanier encouraged Talen, who was suspicious of religious figures after rejecting the conservative Protestantism of his youth, to study radical theologians and performers; of these, Talen credits Elaine Pagels and Lenny Bruce as particularly strong influences. Though Talen does not call himself a Christian, he says that Reverend Billy is not a parody of a preacher, but a real preacher; he describes his church's spiritual message as "put the Odd back in God."
[edit] Activism
After beginning as a solo performer, Reverend Billy soon acquired a loose organization that assisted in his in-store actions. These were originally centered around the Disney Store. In one early action, Talen and his associates pretended to be shopping at the store and talking on non-functional cell phones, carrying on increasingly loud conversations about the evils of Disney and its products; once the ruse was discovered, Reverend Billy began preaching to the actual consumers until the police removed him from the store. The Starbucks coffeehouse chain became another frequent target of the Church's actions, due to its displacement of local small businesses[citation needed], its unfair labor practices[1], and its role in creating what Talen calls fake Bohemia[citation needed].
On December 25, 2005, Reverend Billy and his choir performed an action at Disneyland. He led the choir down Main Street, U.S.A. singing anti-Disney and anti-shopping songs. After ignoring requests from park security to cease, an on-site Anaheim Police officer attempted to intercede and was ignored. Reverend Billy was then arrested for trespassing and resisting an officer; his choir left peacefully after that.
The cross-country journey that Reverend Billy and his choir made in the month prior to Christmas 2005, culminating in his arrest at Disneyland, is depicted in an upcoming documentary, tentatively titled What Would Jesus Buy? which is produced by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. "What Would Jesus Buy?" is also the name of Reverend Billy's new book, subtitled "Fabulous Prayers in the Face of the Shopocalypse." It was released in March 2007.
As of 2005, the Church of Stop Shopping is a non-profit organization that includes Talen, theatrical director Savitri Durkee (who is married to Talen), a 32-member choir, and a 4-piece band. They attend the Burning Man festival and put on performances there.
[edit] References
- Talen, Bill. What Should I Do if Reverend Billy Is in My Store? The New Press, 2002. Paperback ISBN 1-56584-979-5; hardcover ISBN 1-56584-824-1
- Talen, Bill. What Would Jesus Buy?. PublicAffairs, 2007. Paperback ISBN 1-58648-447-8
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Reverend Billy Preaches on Shopocolypse Tour of the Country In transcript, audio and video format.
- The Reluctant Religion of Reverend Billy
- Radio: Bio of Reverend Billy from Mother Jones magazine.
- Film (DVD): First Feature Documentary about Reverend Billy
