by Tammy Peacy

He’s a self-promoting, women’s foundation garment peddling, performing and visual artist. It’s Ron Kelly.
As I arrange myself in a chair upstairs at Carolyn’s Coffee Connection, I push a decorative throw pillow to the side.
“I think pillows [on furniture] are just to cover people’s bellies to be honest with you,” Ron quips.
“Yea, honesty!” I think to myself. And while we’re being honest, “That’s exactly what I usually do with the pillow! But nobody is supposed to know that’s what the pillow in my lap is for.”
Ron Kelly is offering “the perfect antidote to the inevitable Ryan Seacrest holiday special.” Fa-La-La THIS started in Chicago with a theater company called Hell in a Handbag.

Tammy: What was Hell in a Handbag?
T: Yeah, Screw Christmas is a little too obvious.
T (indicating the space): You guys are doing the show right here?
T: Is everybody all lined up?
One of them is incorporating the seven deadly sins with the gifts her husband gives her for Christmas. You know, “Is it a sin that I hate this gift so much?” And the other girl does this character where she’s kind of like your bawdy aunt, with the leopard coat and all that. And in between, the first week my friend Jill [Plaisted] is gonna do the kind of twisted Christmas carols. So, there’ll be an intro, a little schtick, a monologue, like a three- minute musical interlude, a monologue, another three-minute music interlude and then a monologue. Hopefully, the show will last around an hour ten.
T: I would have just assumed that in Kenosha it would have been difficult to find people for this. I thought it was a cool idea when I heard about it, and I’m a writer, but not a performer. And I know writers and I know performers, but I don’t really know anyone who does both.
T: Oh, right. Haunted.
When I got here I realized I wasn’t gonna sit around and whine. There’s a lot of whining going on in this city. My thing is no one makes it out of this city. No one is discovered here and then they go on, you know? And I think that has something to do with it and that’s just my opinion. But I wasn’t gonna sit around and pick my nose. Since I couldn’t get cable I can’t watch endless reruns of America’s Next Top Model, so I gotta do something.
T: You’re a visual artist as well?
T: What do you do?
A guy named Joseph Cornell, who’s like the epitome of collage art from the 70’s, his stuff is kind of repetitive, but he really turned me on to the concept of found as art. I like what a lot of people refer to as sleaze. Human behavior is like the last thing to bore me. I actually spend more time conceiving a piece than I do creating it. And that’s kind of the way I live my life.
With this show I’m finally going to lay something down and it’s done, it’s over. I’ll probably never get a date in this city after the show. At least not a cocktail date (laughs). This show that I’m doing is about the death of a friend of mine. He and I we were the shit at Christmas, and hopefully when you see the show you’ll understand. But for me Christmas isn’t easy. I think this year I’m finally able to say, “Okay.” He’s been dead three years now, but he was like my sister for thirteen years, we lived together ten years. We were twenty-two year old kids in San Francisco. Twenty-two year old gay kids in San Francisco. It’s like being in a candy store.
But you know there are two things I miss the most in Chicago: Falafel, I miss the falafel. And I miss the movies. I love going to the movies and for me every time I go to the movies there’s the potential that it could be a life-changing event. For me that’s the transformative nature of art; when it really just attacks something in you. It forces you to see that situation or that object or that person in a different light and I hope that’s what Fa-La-La THIS can do for somebody this Christmas.
I love Christmas. I’ve got a pink tree. But I don’t like what I’m fed. My part of the show [Fa-La-La THIS] is a little dark, don’t get me wrong it’s pretty funny too, but Christmas can be tough for some folks. And I want people to acknowledge that.
Ron Kelly, you have been “exposed”
Fa-La-La THIS “A Nite of Merry, Music and Monologues.” Hosted by Ron Kelly with additional performances by Dirty Ramirez, Dr. Destruction, Dove, Mel Miskimen and Jill Plaisted.
Fa-La-La THIS opens Upstairs @ Carolyn’s, 5706 6th Ave., Downtown Kenosha
December 13, 14, 20, 21, 22 at 8:00 pm
Tickets are $5.00, available at the door
FOR MORE INFORMATION
You can contact Ron Kelly at:
262.515.8167
rkelly68@gmail.com
savetherobotsktown.com
Tammy Peacy writes and lives in Kenosha.





8 comments ↓
Tom is one of my favorite artists and people. He is a wonderful addition to art community and I can’t wait to see Fa la la This! Break a leg my friend.
He is such a good friend I called him Tom…lol…Ron! It’s those roots Ron.
It’s really, really neat to see so diverse an artist in exposekenosha. To think in Kenosha(K-No-where) as some uncool people pronounce it, we have Theater, Art Galleries, Writing groups, Book groups, and any number of other art ventures for the public to taste. exposekenosha is somewhere !
And we’ll be more Somewhere with more pieces from you, Bill.
Joe
Once agen GREAT JOB
ohmygawd…I can’t wait to see the show!
Ron, It’s great that you and Kelly were able to make something like this happen. Keep it up!
Hey Ron, thank you so much for asking me to be a part of FA LA LA THIS!! I really loved it and would like to do another show in the near future!! Thank you!! You are a fantatsic person!! I am very lucky to have met you!!Thank you Kelly McKay too!! You guys are heroes!!Save K-town from dying from reality television!!Support local art, theater, and music!!
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