What Should I Do If Reverend Billy Is in My Store?

By Bill Talen

Book Overview

The Reverend Billy is a revivalist preacher who leads the Church of Stop Shopping, an anticonsumerist communion devoted to putting the odd into God. Created by the actor Bill Talen, the Reverend first appeared alongside the sidewalk preachers in New York's Times Square during the Giuliani years, bringing his new post-religious theology to eager crowds. Now Reverend Billy has a cult following across the country and was recently featured in a profile in the New York Times Magazine.

In these pages we go inside the Disney Store on 42nd Street ("the high church of retail") to witness staged dramas against consumerism that employ eight hundred Disney characters with their "reeling eyeballs and sky-cracking grins" as the mise-en-sc ne. We encounter the icon-twisting logic of credit card exorcism performed in front of astonished tourists and listen to a gospel choir made up of "recovered preachers' kids" singing anti-Starbucks anthems at the cash register of the $5 latte. We watch as the defense of a community garden is turned into an Off-Broadway hit and join with the Reverend as he preaches love and peace to the crowds that gathered spontaneously in Union Square after the attacks of September 11.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565849795
• ISBN13: 9781565849792
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: New Press
• Length: 151 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 3.3" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

What is a Vente Mochacino anyway?

You know that local store in your town that has been there for years? Maybe you even know the name of the nice woman behind the counter, or maybe she knows yours. Yeah, that one. Soon it will be gone. A large corporation from another town in another state will move into that store and that nice lady won't work there anymore because they pay somebody from another town less money. Over time you will notice this happening alot. Look around YOUR neighborhood, do you see a Home Depot where the hardware store used to be? Is there an Applebees where your favorite restaurant as a child used to stand? If not, there will be. Unless we listen to the message of Bill Talen, an out of work actor from Hells Kitchen. When in character as "Reverend Billy" he preaches to anyone willing to listen about the serious problems that consumerism and relentless advertisment and big business in general cause in our neighborhoods. He also preaches about the solution to the problem, simple things that we, you and i, can do in our own lives to combat this problem. We can practice consumer disobediance, we can avoid shopping at places like Walmart and go to the local grocery. Or you can actually walk past the fifteen Starbucks' on your block and buy coffee from your local deli. Maybe the guy who owns the deli coaches your kids soccer team. Who owns Starbucks? Does he care about your family or your neighborhood? Rev. Billy cares about your neighborhood and so should you.

Mighty Mouse

Mickey on the cross, credit card exorcisms and the anti-consumerist gospel are just a few of the wonderful things you can expect out of Reverend Billy's shows. All of this has been captured on the page in this captivating and passionate book. Funny and wise, who needs a Starbucks coffee when you have Bill Talen to wake you up.