Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Val Kilmer to deliver William Woods commencement address... as Mark Twain.

Really, the headline says it all. This has to be the most head-scratching Missouri news in quite some time. I'm still not sure whether to call this career evolution or revolution. From the Columbia Tribune:

Val Kilmer will perform his one-man show as Mark Twain on the William Woods University campus in Fulton next month."Citizen Twain" is scheduled for 7 p.m. May 1 in the Dulany Auditorium. Tickets are $50 and went on sale yesterday. For reservations, call (573) 592-1176 or email box.office@williamwoods.edu. Kilmer will take questions from the audience after the performance.

My wife told me he's a bit too paunchy to play Twain. "He's ballooned out," she said. I replied, sadly looking myself over, "uh, yeah, that happens eventually."

Still, my default mental image of Kilmer is from the Zucker brothers classic Top Secret! It's a bit much to consider Nick Rivers as an older, paunchy man, dressing up as Mark Twain. But time can be cruel.