This is Drama Masks, a Bay Area performing arts column from a born San Franciscan and longtime theatre artist in an N95 mask. I talk venue safety and dramatic substance, or the lack thereof.
Scott Wiener has always been the villain of his own story.
Yes, it’s once again time for this longtime arts critic and lifelong San Franciscan to look at a mainstream media narrative and point out its glaring plot holes.
Did you hear? Poor, poor Scotty was run out on a rail from last week’s Trans March. Imagine that: one of the city’s most famous gentrifiers (which is saying something) wasn’t welcome amongst the proletariat. Who coulda seen that comin’?
Mainstream media would have you think his life was threatened by “some DSA radicals” sent by… I dunno, Mamdani supporters or something? That narrative was bullshit when Lurie falsely blamed the DSA, and it’s bullshit now.
The truth is that Scott Wiener’s career is defined by corporate boot-licking, historical erasure, targeting the unhoused, demonizing sex workers, and an outright apotheosis of Israel and its war crimes. Those facts and more are a matter of public record. He wrote his own story pretending his villainy was heroic.
He can’t even rewrite it well. Like his pal Lurie, he forgot we live in the digital age, with cameras running at all times. Danny likes the cameras. He gave his SFPD storm troopers* brand-new flying cameras. Yet, Danny didn’t think any cameras were running on March 5. That’s when he and his thuggish bodyguards (off-duty SFPD, natch) when slum-touring in the Tenderloin. They harassed unhoused resident Tony Phillips. When Phillips wouldn’t simply vanish into thin air, Danny’s henchman attacked Tony… who then kicked the henchman’s ass.
*(Incidentally, SFPD bodycams are the cameras that can, most notably, be turned off-and-on at the officer’s discretion. Go figure.)
As expected, Mayor Dockers played the victim, saying he was accosted by some street ruffian as he was minding his own business. His statement is so close to cry-baby Scott’s that I wonder if they used the same template? Maybe their AI pals advised them on the same “spin this as if I’m not the aggressor” prompt?
Here’s the kicker: Not only do Danny and Scotty’s stories lack credibility, but Wiener’s cowardly retreat proves he’s doesn’t have the chutzpah to fill Pelosi’s seat. I have a great many thoughts about outgoing-Speaker Pelosi, but at least she’d happily mock, condescend, and piss-off someone like Trump to his face. Scott would never do that.
Hell, he supports the very people we’re fighting against. I write these words hours after the Supreme Court gave the A-OK to transphobia. Wiener weaponized his own queerness to happily support transphobes. He’s the bully who won his state senate seat through skullduggery against Jane Kim. He’s so bereft of any progressive cred that he faked an SF Bay Guardian endorsement. And he wonders why the Trans March sent him packin’?
Like all narratives, it’s easy to overlook a subplot going on in the background: Jackie Fielder’s returning to City Hall. She took a sabbatical when the pressure of putting up with this city’s worst (aka. Lurie and Wiener’s friends) began to take its toll. She acknowledged that toll and did the best thing in taking time off before it became too much. That’s commendable. Now, she’s back in the fight. That’s inspiring. Fielder’s story is one that speaks to all San Franciscans who can’t afford to rub elbows with 1%-ers. Hers is the sort of story where one roots for the happy ending.
Scott Wiener’s story is the opposite: His m.o. is to glad-hand the Lex Luthors of the world as he wonders why no one thinks of him as Superman. He wrote his own story long ago. He lacks the courage to be a hero. He has too much power to be a victim. That leaves only one other option. If he doesn’t like that story, he should complain to author in the mirror.
Circus Bella presents Ah Ha!
It’s always inspiring to see people respond to the times in a way that encourages others. Circus Bella shows deviate very little from year to year: they’re preceded by stilt work from the talented kids at Prescott Circus; they open a loose clown narrative; they put together an hour-or-so of routines from gifted Bay Area performers; they wrap it all up with one large group routine. It’s as predictable as it is entertaining, and that’s the point.
There’s no specifically political focus. They’re not the types to proffer watered-down euphemisms, like a certain show that replaced Beach Blanket Babylon, nor do they primal scream their politics—like that other clown-y company that likes to play SF parks. A Circus Bella show is where you and the little ones “ooh” and “ahh” at fantastical feats that are mere, well, feet away rather than in a large stadium.
This time is different. Their 2026 summer tour, Ah Ha! (through July 26 at various Bay Area parks) doesn’t endorse any candidate or hand out reading material for any group, but the show uses one of the most overtly political contemporary slogans as its central theme. It was so unexpected that I’m hesitant to reveal it here, as part of its appeal was catching the audience by surprise. I’ll say this: The story-writers of the show embraced the idea of joy as an act of rebellion.
In addition to that, we have ten athletic acts by CB regulars like Toni Cannon (strength), Mia Fan (acrobatics), Elise Hing (contortion) Ori Quesada (Rola Bola), and Chloe Somers Wallers (hula hoops). They’re all skilled at what they do, and it’s no surprise ringmaster Abigail Munn brings them back every year. Also along this time are juggling youngsters Kali Huang & Paige Grieco, sky-high chair-stacker Garrett Allen, and Munn’s pint-sized assistant Giusy Gentile.
Returning from last year is the Bay Area’s own Tristan Cunningham, whose red-nosed clown Didi is part of the branching story, with her boisterous laugh winding up trapped in a box that she has to find and open. (When audience members see the box, they’re supposed to alert her with the titular “Ah ha!” call.) It’s the conclusion of this arc that results in the unexpected joy-as-rebellion statement. The show opened on Pride weekend, and the theme can almost be looked at as a premeditated rebuke to the aforementioned anti-trans SCOTUS ruling. That sort of thing would go over kids’ heads, but the wording of the theme is so specific that viewers of all ages can see it as self-affirming, if not a call to action.
As this was an outdoor show at Yerba Buena Gardens, my Aranet4 read CO² levels around a healthy 437ppm the whole time. (Yes, I masked.) Once again, Circus Bella started the summer with a show that helps to brighten a world that looks darker all the time. That they’re starting to say the quiet part out loud makes it easier to notices the enablers who stay silent.
CIRCUS BELLA’S AH HA! runs through July 26 at various parks throughout the Bay Area. Further info here.
