🎠One Court Jester’s Story
🎠One Jokers Tale I became Ray Cycle—the joker who always comes around. For 45 years, I’ve played the court jester of resource saving, mocking how the consumer is consumed by our affluent waste. Only the fool can mock madness without losing his head. But these days, even the jester must dodge the trash compactor. I meet tragedy with comedy now. The comic can change; the tragic cannot. The jester decodes insanity, reframes unbearable reality. Satire is my alchemy—turning sorrow into survival. Laughing is better than crying; otherwise, despair wins. It all began on April Fools’ Day, 1988. In full jester regalia, I appeared on the Capitol steps. My Republican congresswoman sponsored the act—and even showed up at noon to watch. My first live comic act of resource saving? A line that bombed on the Capitol steps: “You’re not dealing with a full deck when you throw out the joker! Recycle our nation’s capital.” I called it...
