Folks were laughing it up the second night of Slava’s Snow Show last month at the Moore Theater. Only trouble is, the man they were laughing at wasn’t Russian clown Slava Poulinin, the man whose act they’d paid to see. With no notice to the Moore management and no announcement to the audience, Slava had decided to have his understudy perform so he could take the night off-to watch some other clowns: the cast of One Reel’s Teatro Zinzanni.

The outfit handling Slava’s tour, New York’s D-Touring, is thinking about presenting him again next year. If they do, maybe they ought to post a memo backstage in the theaters he plays: “Stage-manager: Do you know where your star is tonight?”