If you live within an hour of San Francisco, I hope you will consider an evening of theater at The Marsh, this holiday season. On most nights, Carlo D’Amore performs No Parole, an autobiographical one-man show that points to the fact that “family is a life sentence.” Carlo has a great deal in common with all of us since he grew up in the shadow of his late mother who was a con artist.
Although Carlo left home as soon as he could at age 18, he continued to have contact with his mother. Towards the end of her life, she suffered a right brain stroke and could not live alone. Carlo took her in and cared for her. Even in this state, his mother continued to con and manipulate him. He explained to Chad Jones, “After 30 years of going through these experiences, it came home to me,” he says. “I went ballistic. I came close to”¦I don’t know.” He confronted his mother, who at the end of her life did finally stop the conning.
Following those events, Carlo decided to write about his experiences and turned them into the theatrical production which is described as a “wry, energetic adventure play, No Parole takes you on a kaleidoscopic journey through the life a flamboyant, live-for-the-moment con artist mother, who has no trouble posing as an attorney, professor, daycare worker, or nun. From Peru to the Hollywood Hills to an illegal New York City walk-up, No Parole provides a hilarious and gut-wrenching look into the life of an extraordinary woman who saw the world as her playground.”
Many have found that writing about life with a sociopath/con artist helps them sort out their feelings. Carlo takes this a step further, since he not only wrote his story, he performs it in this production in which he plays both himself and his mother.
I am thankful to Carlo for pointing out that family is indeed a life sentence. Even for those of us who have no more contact with the con artist family member, the person continues to be part of our lives. Carlo told me No Parole is about coming to peace with that reality. I am impressed with Carlo who has been able to come to a place of integrating both the good and the bad experiences he had with the mother he loved.
In addition to showing us that at least one sociopath finally stopped conning, Carlo shows us that many at risk kids are capable of great things. The same genes that can contribute to antisocial choices can also make for leadership and creativity-including acting. Carlo made the decision early on that he was going to use his talents in a prosocial way through acting. His Broadway credits include the Round About Theater Company’s production of Tennessee William’s “Summer and Smoke” directed by David Warren, and most recently “Latinologues” directed by Cheech Marin where he played seven different characters to sold out crowds at the Helen Hayes Theater.
Carlo has another solo show in the works, Feet First. This show is based on his mother’s brother. As is common, Carlo’s mother was not the only sociopath in the family. Carlo told Chad Jones, “My uncle died in San Quentin chained to a hospital bed. It’s a tragic story,” Carlo says. “The title comes from Incan lore: if you’re born feet first, and you make that journey, you’ll be blessed to waltz through life. It’s basically about a man looking at his life from prison and attempting to pass a positive image on to his son.”
Carlo hopes to bring No Parole to the New York City area which he considers his home. I wish him success in that effort. He was kind to speak with me and share some stories of his mother. Even before I had a chance to share my views on the subject, he pointed to the quest for power which is central to the personalities of con artists. He also shared that his mother was very high energy and required little sleep.* He and the rest of his family were not surprised that she had a stroke, given the fast paced frenzy that was her life. He also spoke of the fear he lived through as a young boy worried that his mother would be arrested and imprisoned.
Carlo said he was glad I told him about Lovefraud, he was glad to see our efforts to reach those who have sociopaths/con artists in their families. We all take a certain amount of comfort in the fact that there are others who understand the mind games, unless you’ve been there… Can you really know what it’s like?
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
No Parole at The Marsh, 1062 Valencia St., San Francisco. Tickets are $15-$35. Call 800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org.
*(I have gathered a lot of evidence that points to con artists being sociopathic and manic).
Links for story
http://www.themarsh.org/no_parole.html
http://www.sfbaytimes.com/index.php?article_id=6593&sec=article
http://culturemob.com/events/5651063-the-marsh-presents-carlo-d-amore-s-no-parole-ca-san-francisco-mission-94110-the-marsh
http://www.theaterdogs.net/2008/11/13/carlo-d%E2%80%99amore-lands-a-parole%E2%80%99-hearing/#comment-1019
OxD: You may be interested that the P in my life had a dog who was also a P. The guy “loved” his dog. (Translation: he was always showing it off, and he liked how it was unpredictable in its attacks.) With some effort, I worked with my Australian Shepherds to accept his Shiba Inu. They got so they would play together, but I never knew when the Shiba Inu would sneak in an unprovoked bite. The P said this was because the dog had been hit when he ran into traffic as a puppy. I believe — having watched his behavior over 18 months — that he was a selfish, unpredictable, malicious little spirit from the get-go, but was good at (mostly) hiding it. One “trick” the little dog pulled several times was that he would jump on my head with his four feet while I was sleeping in the middle of the night. As I think of it now, I have a flicker of a suspicion that the P might have egged the dog onto me, but I remember that at the time the P also seemed to be asleep or far enough away to be blameless. But isn’t that how the Ps play?
One time the dog turned on the P while he was holding him in his arms and took a bite out of his lip. He tried to blame me somehow! I begged him to not let his daughters hold and cuddle the dog next to their faces and sleep with it because he was so unpredictable, but the P just laughed.
Who would believe this if they hadn’t lived with it?!
Rune, some breeds of dogs have that aggressive gene(s?) bred into them as well as the unpredictability. A certain amount can be trained, but there is some genetic stuff going on with it too. A researcher at Ft. Roots, Little Rock, AR spent 20+ years starting out with one litter of pups and breeding the most aggressive to the most aggressive and the most timid to themost timid and in 20 generations he had two completely different groups of dogs, all from the same two parents he started with one group would faint or cringe and the other group were like pit bulls on speed.
Interesting experiment.
This experiment is fact
Russians use Character traits for breeding Foxes. They discovered that gentle ness also carried a color trait. Did you know Dogs evolved over only about 15000 yrs.?
True. My ex wanted an Akita because of aggressiveness. I wouldn’t go for it. I’ve seen them in action. So, I opted for an Akita/Lab mix and got a real mush. Love him.
I want a Heina
Indi:
You had a Hyena. Your ex. Wasn’t he a scavenger?
There are no Animals deserving of the Malignancy of these people!
The Closest assessment is a Parasite Leaching Life from you!
Parasite? I’m thinking of the thing that erupted from the astronaut’s chest in “Alien”!
Alien
Was copied from a real Fish! that lives very deep and never ever sees Light ever!
my son has a pitbull ( Brutus) he used to escape the back fence and one of the neighbors called the police and said there is a pitbull in my house!! The police said what is he doing? “sleeping on my couch!!! the lady said. Brutus is huge and the strongest animal I have ever seen – I love him but I told my son I can not take care of brutus because he wants to eat my weiner dogs! Brutus sleeps with my 4 year old grandaughter – that used to bother me – but brutus is a gentle giant – now I have neighbors that keep pitbulls on chains – they are trained to be mean – the owners should go to jail I think – again that is just my mindless rambling at midnite….