Introducing “The Haircut Who Would Be King” by Robert Trebor
This is a satirical portrayal of Donald Trump’s ascent to power and his unconventional alliance with Vladimir Putin. Trump, depicted as egotistical and emotionally stunted since childhood, transitions from real estate to reality TV before entering politics. He recruits shock jock Alex Clamz for his presidential campaign, facing off against the sensible Mallory Claxton. Despite scandal and controversy, Trump wins the presidency with covert support from Putin. The narrative humorously highlights their contrasting personalities, with Putin portrayed as a former KGB agent with unique coping mechanisms. The story unfolds with absurdity and farce, reflecting on contemporary political dynamics through a comedic lens.
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- Are you planning a sequel or a follow-up to “The Haircut Who Would Be King?”
At this point, no. But if a publisher makes me a nice offer, and Trump tries to steal the election again, or is actually re-elected (I spit on the floor twice), I might reconsider. I already have a title, “Buy This Book, While You Still Can.” And on the back, ”Want to Burn this Book? This Side Up.”
2. What other genres or topics are you interested in exploring in your future works?
I love work about theatre, film, biography, true crime and comedy. Maybe I can do some sort of mash-up, although William Goldman did a pretty good job with “No Way To Treat A Lady”. But if one compares or is cowed by Goldman, you might as well throw your keyboard out the window. Although, I played a character on the Hercules and Xena TV Series for five years, neither science fiction nor fantasy appeals.
3. Can you give us a hint about your next project?
I can give you more than a hint. I have two: one is essentially finished; the other is basically beginning. The first is called “And They Pay You For that?”, subtitled either “An Actor’s Unreliable Memoir” or “Acting from New York to New Zealand.” It received a wonderful review from Kirkus as an unpublished book, and an award from The Readers Favorite. It needs a little tinkering and polishing, but mostly it needs an agent or publisher. The second book hasn’t taken its form or narrative structure yet. It may be a monologue, it may be a play, it may be a novella. The working title is “In the Middle of a Dark Forest.” It is based on a recent, gruesome tragedy. I won’t go into details here, but I feel lost in a dark forest, and I’m trying to write my way out.
4. “What lessons from writing this book will you carry into your future work?”
Well, a specific comparison, and maybe lesson, is how to handle pain through writing. I would call Trump’s election in 2016 a Macro-pain. I was one of millions of people around the world who were outraged, shocked, confused, wounded and worse. Was it time to leave the country? Just become an ostrich and bury our heads in the sand? Let me refer to Dr. Strangelove, as I’ve done in previous blog responses. Stanley Kubrick wanted to make a thriller about the Cold War, and bought the rights to the Peter George suspenseful Red Alert. Kubrick and George worked on a screenplay for a few weeks, but it seemed the narrative was verging into comedy, that it wanted to be a comedy, especially the notion of “Mutually Assured Destruction.” So, Kubrick hired Terry Southern, a raucous satirist with a flair for political burlesque.
I knew Haircut was going to be a comedy from the start; it was a matter of leading the reader (and myself) through the minefield of outrageous fact and comic distortion. The subject of Dark Forest is suffused with Micro-pain, emotionally impacting maybe a few dozen people at most. It’s an intimate horror story that came with no warning or preparation, and I’ve spent months trying to get factual detail as to the “what” let alone the “why”. I may have to invent the facts in order to find my way out of the pain and confusion. Transforming my anger about Trumpworld into comedy was very healing. There is no anger in this current tragedy, just loss and pain. Not a lot of laughs in this one.
Author Info
Robert Trebor is a character actor with more than 40 years experience on stage, film and television. Two of his noteworthy roles are The Son of Sam in the film Out Of The Darkness, and Salmoneus the merchant in the Hercules and Xena TV series. Playing both a psychopath and a salesman was enormously helpful in preparing this book. For more information – https://roberttrebor.net/
About The Author
