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Layne’s Twain finally to pay debt to Carson church

McAvoy Layne, who has made more than 4,000 performances as the ghost of Mark Twain and is a winner of the Nevada Award for Excellence in School and Library Service, will perform for a benefit for the First Presbyterian Church of Carson City on May 4.

McAvoy Layne, who has made more than 4,000 performances as the ghost of Mark Twain and is a winner of the Nevada Award for Excellence in School and Library Service, will perform for a benefit for the First Presbyterian Church of Carson City on May 4.
Jessica Garcia/Nevada Appeal

By Jessica Garcia

Monday, April 25, 2022

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McAvoy Layne, Nevada’s great ghost of beloved writer and humorist Samuel Clemens, or Mark Twain, says “Sam” owes First Presbyterian Church and the Carson City ladies a debt, and it might take more than once to fully pay them back.
“Sam accidentally had a piece slip into the paper that he didn’t mean to get into the paper that he was scribbling on,” Layne explained. “I think he might have been drinking at the time.
“And he said the money that the Carson City ladies raised, including many of the First Presbyterian Church ladies – because (his sister-in-law) Mollie belonged there, she was part of that group – there was going to be a fundraiser for the Sanitary Fund, it was a precursor to the Red Cross for the Union, and Sam scribbled they didn’t send that money to the Sanitary Fund. They sent it to a miscegenation fund, a fund for the intermarriage of the races, which is not in the top 10 of the Carson City ladies’ charities at the time.”
Layne will present a show as a fundraiser for the church at 7 p.m. May 4 at 115 N. Division St. Doors open at 6 p.m. with music to be performed by Mary Berge and Lynn Zonge beginning at 6:30 p.m. Tickets cost $25 for the evening.
The effort is to help the church’s old sanctuary preservation effort to restore the building’s aging, historical site originally constructed in 1864. Samuel Clemens and his brother Orion Clemens, who attended the church, were well-connected to the state’s oldest religious site.
Restoration costs had been estimated between $1 million to $5 million several years ago according to local engineering firms, and church members, who now are worshipping in a newer sanctuary, want to keep their history intact as much as possible.
Layne, whose portrayal of Mark Twain is vividly thought-provoking and true to Clemens’ records and literature, has made more than 4,000 appearances as a humorist and a writer.
Layne calls Twain “limitlessly human and a prodigious noticer” of life as a Nevadan from the 19th century.
“They (my audiences) like the idea he’s a critic of society, and it depends upon the audience how subtle I get,” Layne said. “If I get a bunch of teachers or librarians or people that are cultured, I can go as deep as Twain wants. … But his humor has something for everyone, and once you get your handle on a certain spectrum, you can pretty much read your audience and hopefully deliver something that’s going to connect to them.”
Layne offered Twain’s own philosophy on humor.
“He said for a piece of humor to last, it must preach and teach,” he said. “If it does those two things effectively, that piece of humor will last forever, which is 30 years.”
Layne said the “seeds were planted” to begin portraying Twain and he got a “tap on the shoulder” years ago when he was snowbound in Lake Tahoe, began experiencing cabin fever and begin reading through a series of Twain’s essays.
Since then, he’s constantly learned things about the writer to pass on his audiences that amuse and amaze anyone in modern times. He operated under several pen names, beginning as “Rambler,” then “W. Epaminondas Adrastus Blab,” “Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass“ and “Josh” before settling on Mark Twain.
“He loved cats; his favorite was named Sourmash,” he said with a smile.
He also traveled to Hawaii, where Layne believes some of his best work was derived while he spent time in the Sandwich Islands.
He also hopes to pass the torch to other mentees through local Chautauqua events or programs by taking on mentees to help Nevadans or others understand contemporary issues through a historical lens in theatrical monologues like he does.
“You’re never too old to start becoming Chautauqua to start thinking about becoming the character you’d learn,” Layne said. “And I’ve had people follow through and do it. I have a mentee I’m working with doing Mark Twain. He lives in Florida, and he just retired from the (Environmental Protection Agency) as a scientist and has a great shock of hair, and he’s got a great sense of humor in his own right.”
Layne said he looks forward to supporting First Presbyterian in his show May 4.
“Well, I knew that he owed them,” he said. “And it was a wonderful opportunity to make good at least partially on that debt that he owes to the Carson City ladies, especially the First Presbyterian ladies because that was Mollie’s homebase.”
For information about Layne, visit https://ghostoftwain.com.
For information about First Presbyterian Church, visit www.fpccarsoncity.org.

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