KIRBY'S LAST CIRCUS

by Ross H. Spencer ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 21, 1987

Some of Spencer's absurdist mystery-comedies (Echoes of Zero, The Missing Bishop, etc.) have flared with imagination and infectious drollery--but this lame spy-fi-parody is a dull-witted, labored effort, reminiscent of the many ""wacky,"" ""zany"" James Bond sendups that proliferated in the early 1970's. Birch Kirby is a dumb, seedy Chicago shamus who--for inane reasons--is mistaken by the CIA for an espionage genius: this mix-up is one of several running gags here that is repeated ad nauseam. (Another is that Kirby's fly is always open.) Thus, he is recruited by nymphomaniac spymaster Dixie Benton as her partner in a major mission: to locate the KGB agents who've been sending radio messages to Moscow from Grizzy Gulch, III. In Grizzly Gulch, Dixie goes undercover as a belly dancer at the local circus; Kirby becomes bullpen catcher for the Grizzy Gulch No Sox, owned by nymphomaniac senior-citizen Matilda Richwell (who constantly attempts rape). Eventually the CIA duo decides that the circus ""is supported lock, stock, and jockstrap by the goddamned Kremlin!"" And it's up to Kirby--now undercover at the circus, working with the human cannonball--to (by mistake, of course) foil a dastardly KGB plot to launch a nuclear-tipped missile. Even without lines like ""Y'know, I got a hunch that Jane Fonda is mixed up in this,"" the sophomoric high jinks here would seem badly dated: vulgar comic-book silliness--and a definite step backward for Spencer's comic muse.

Pub Date: May 21, 1987

ISBN: 0595006604

Page Count: -

Publisher: Donald Fine

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION