What Should I Do If Reverend Billy Is In My Store

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Description

The Reverend Billy is a revivalist preacher who leads the Church of Stop Shopping, an anti-consumerist communion devoted to putting the odd into God. Created by the actor Bill Talen, the Reverend first appeared alongside the sidewalk preachers in new York's Time Square during the Guiliani years, bringing his new post-religious theology to eager crowds. Now Reverend Billy has a cult following, and has been featured in profiles in The New York Times and The Observer. In these pages we go inside The Disney Store on forty-second Street ("the high church of retail") to witness stated dramas against consumerism that employ eight hundred Disney characters with their "reeling eyeballs and sky-cracking grins" as the mise-in-scene. We encounter the icon-twisting logic of credit card exorcism performed in front of astonished tourists and listen to a gospel choir made up of "recovered preachers' kids" singing anti-Starbucks anthems at the cash register of the USD5 latte. We watch as the defence of a community garden is turned into an Off-Broadway hit and join with the Reverend as he preaches love and peace to the crowds that gathered spontaneously in Union Square after the attacks of September 11.

Reviews

"A natural hero." -The Observer; "The collar is fake but the calling is real." -Village Voice; "A mind-bending blend of street theater, political grandstanding and performance art... Talen's act has made him something of a media darling. He's become so popular that he almost never rests." -San Francisco Chronicle; "The zeal of a street-corner preacher and the schmaitz of a street-corner Santa." -New York Times; "It's a funny rant against developers and supermodels and everything that feeds off authentic humanness. But there's a potent, delicious kernel of truth here." -Los Angeles Times"

Author Bio

Bill Talen (Reverend Billy) is an actor and activist form Holland, Michigan. He has appeared regularly on National Public Radio and has been featured in The New York Times and The Observer (London). He lives in New York City and gives regular sermons at the St. Marks Church.