Tom Clyde, donned in his Depression-era costume, gives his opening monologue during a past “Park City Follies” production. Clyde, one of the production’s original creative team members, says it’s time to take his final bow after 25 years. Credit: Photo courtesy of Tom Clyde Tom Clyde wi ll jump off the “Park City Follies” rodeo. After serving as a member of the annual musical spoof and Egyptian Theatre fundraiser since its inception 25 years ago, Clyde, who is known for his hilarious opening monologue, is ready to hang up his boots after this year’s run April 17-May 3 at the Egyptian Theatre. “We’ve been in kind of a transition phase for a couple of years,” he said. “The old creative team are at a point where moving on made sense. It’s been a long, long run, but it’s also an enormous amount of work.” Part of the work is filling in the gaps left by the script, which is inspired by the quirky happenings that can only be found in small towns like Park City. “We would cover as much as we could that had gone on in town, but there were a lot of loose ends that weren’t getting dealt with in the show,” he said. “While we’d pick up things with videos, there were always other stories that weren’t getting covered, so I would do some cleanup with the intro.” Doing a cleanup soliloquy requires Clyde to write his own script. “I have a folder on my computer, and every now and then something will hit and land in there,” he said. “Nine months later I’ll look at it and have no idea what it means anymore. And other times, it will be something that really took off and needs more work.” Clyde finds the mechanical process of pulling the script together “interesting.” “I’ve been sitting here this morning trying to edit this year’s piece,” he said. “You have to come up with the topic and what you can say about it. Then you have to get the right image. If you can’t get the image you have to redo the text to match the image you have.” Clyde doesn’t use AI to generate images for the presentation. “I’m still going on to Google Images and pulling this one and that one,” he said. “So every year I have to learn a new version of Photoshop.” Mastering Photoshop is only half the battle, according to Clyde. “One of the things I’ve been working on this morning is the idea of putting a hotel at the Olympic Park,” he said. “I’m trying to imagine what a hotel at the bottom of a ski jump or bobsled run would look like, you need to find a hotel lobby with a luge run for a staircase and parking for bobsleds in the garage.” For every image that appears on the screen, Clyde has probably trashed three.  “It takes a little over an hour to create each one, so putting it together is probably equivalent to a month’s work,” he said. “I love it. It’s great fun, but there are taste levels and so on.” Clyde’s introduction, like the “Park City Follies,” has evolved over the years.  “In the earliest days, ‘Follies’ was more of a variety show with unrelated, disconnected skits,” he said. “There was a process of introduction and setup. So I would do that.” Clyde’s “cleanup” presentation began once the “Follies” started taking on a through-line narrative. “Park City Follies” cast go through some vocal warmups during a rehearsal at the Egyptian Theatre for this year’s upcoming production that opens a three-weekend run on April 17. The annual musical spoof, which is also a fundraiser for the theater, pokes fun at all things Park City. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record “I can’t remember when our first show like that came along, but that really improved things,” he said. “That’s when I first started doing the intro as a set piece, rather than me just being a sort of emcee.” Aside from his introductions, Clyde will miss the energy of the “Follies,” which always includes abrupt changes to the script — on the fly. “I remember there was a year when Bill Clinton’s secret service detail were arrested with a bunch of prostitutes in a hotel while on a South American trip,” he said with a laugh. “We originally had a skit about Park City resort changing hands and Mother Urban not able to make the rent on her brothel. We had a bunch of miners for the first part of the run, and then after the Clinton news, we changed them to secret service members for the rest of the run.” Clyde believes the best “Follies” production was in 2014 when it spoofed Vail Resorts’ acquisition of Park City Mountain and introduced the town to Vailiens. “We’ve always tried in the past to base the show of what’s been going on in town, and we hit the news on that perfectly, not that we had anything to do with it,” he said. “A week before the show opened there was a court hearing, and it looked like Park City ski area wasn’t going open for the first time in 50 years. The entire town — everything from the ski shops to the hotels to the burger joints — were on edge.” Still, Clyde’s favorite production hit the state in the mid-2000s.  “We did one about a guy who was so fed up with the constant activity in town and just wanted a weekend where nothing happened,” he said. “But he had to go through a Khafkaesque nightmare to get a permit in order to do nothing.”  From left: Tom Clyde, Andy Cier, Terry Moffit and Josh Mann, part of the “Park City Follies” creative team, take a backstage snapshot at a past performance at the Egyptian Theatre. Credit: Photo courtesy of Tom Clyde Clyde will also miss being a part of something that has become a fabric of Park City. “This is important economically for the Egyptian, and it’s important to the town that something like this keeps going,” he said. Seeing how important the “Follies” has become to town is one of the reasons why Clyde had taken some time to actually leave the production. “Three or four years ago, everyone on the old creative team was at a point to call it quits, so we’ve been trying to work with a succession plan for about four years,” he said. “After you’ve built something like this after so many years, it’s difficult to let it go.” The original creative team includes Pau Tan, Andy Cier, Terry Moffit and Rick Klein, Clyde said.  “We wanted to make sure we have things properly bridged so it can keep going, and I think we’re there,” he said. On a final point, Clyde said his longtime participation in the “Follies” has made him popular with the local residents. “I get recognized in weird places,” he said. “I remember one winter I was picking up a new hydraulic hose for my tractor at an auto parts store in Heber. The guy on the stool next to me looks at me and says, ‘Hey, how’s the ‘Follies’ coming?’ I felt if we have a following at Wasatch Auto, we’re covering the community appropriately.” The chairlift, however, is the place where most people recognize Clyde. “I remember riding up the lift once, and a guy said, ‘I recognize you. You’re that guy from the ‘Follies,’” Clyde said. “I said, ‘Yeah, that’s me.’ And then he said, ‘That picture of you in the newspaper must be ancient.’” ‘Park City Follies’ When: April 17-May 3 Where: Egyptian Theatre, 328 Main St. Phone: 855-745-SHOW Web: parkcityshows.com The post A ‘Park City Follies’ original creative team member readies his curtain call appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less