CAST

The Star is James Charles Clark, also known as Jim Clark.  He is known around Indianapolis for his late night Informercials of the 80's  Clark began his career as an Insurance Agent selling Life Insurance with some modest success.  In the late 80's he decided to try and teach others to use his method. His concept did not translate well for others and they all eventually drifted back to doing what they had been using before.

Jim Clark is also well known for not paying his bills. Hundreds of Vendors have been stiffed and a large number of them have had to sue to get anything from him. Sadly, even many of those who sued him have yet to be paid.

Clark is a short, over-round fellow who dresses in sweat pants and sport shirts.  He has perfectly dyed red hair, perfect fingernails and toe nails from his weekly manicure and pedicure.  His nails always have a buffed and polished appearance.

He raised several million dollars in investor money in the 90's to launch his new NATIONAL COMPANY. Unfortunately for his investors it never achieved any real success.  Despite his additional borrowings and selling investments he was unable to make the PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE profitable. In the process hundreds of individuals turned over their life savings to Clark for him to spend as he saw fit.  Sadly, he squandered it on resorts, first class travel, luxury travel, extensive room service, expensive cars and luxurious offices.  Many of those people were retired or soon to be retired folks who thought they were putting their money into IRA Accounts, only to find out that the accounts were hollow and unfunded. Clark took all the money and spent it as though it was his own.

Unfortunately, for the hundreds of investors, PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE was forced to file for Bankruptcy.  At the same time Clark and his wife filed for Personal Bankruptcy Protection to shield themselves from the many who wanted to sue him.

In the process he spent more than $13,000,000 on his opulent life style and ended up with a company that had no value, no customers, and no revenues.  Its only cash flow was from selling and reselling the same few clients and employees life insurance policies, collect the commission and then cancel it to rewrite with another company.  The process created a long list of agents who never got the commission but got hit with the chargeback when the policy cancelled. As always Clark left them hanging out to dry as he recruited new suckers to be the fall guys for the next round.

Jim Clark is a master of deception, by his selling of ideas that are just SMOKE AND MIRRORS.  He sells the concept of getting rich to decent folks, talks them out of their hard earned pensions and savings and then POOF!, their money disappears into the pockets of Jim Clark.  All they get is a sense of getting screwed without even getting a kiss.

Clark is also an expert in the Bankruptcy process having had two (2)  personal bankruptcies and one (1) business bankruptcy.

Co-Star is Larry Whitlock.  Larry is a tall, affable fellow, who spent many years in the auto service industry.  He is a co-star in the truest sense since he is just as good an actor as Jim Clark.  He is cast in the role of "Aide-de-Camp" from the notion that Napoleon had a aide that catered to his needs.  Whitlock is cast in this role to the extreme as is evidenced by his fawning over Clark at every opportunity. It is rare to see one without the other.  Whitlock carries Clark's briefcase, opens all doors for him, pulls out his chair in restaurants, packs suitcases for him, unpacks as well, and also steams and presses all of Clark's clothing when they travel.  Whitlock is also responsible for drawing Clark's baths, laying out fresh clothing, turning down the bed, and  setting up the laptop computer.  The situation becomes even more strange when they are driving together.  Clark will lounge in the front passenger street and have Whitlock look up phone numbers, dial them and then ask the recipient to "Please Hold For Mr. Clark".  Whitlock is also required to stop each hour to buy snacks (sandwiches, junk food) so that Clark can nibble why they are driving.  Finally, Whitlock is required to handle all cash transactions since Clark never seems to have any money on his person.  Yet when Clark wants to put on a show he gets a "Franklin" ($1 Hundred Dollar Bill) to waive and show that he is a big man. Larry even convinced his father, Thurman, and his ex-wife, Connie to invest in the dream.  They lost everything as well.

SUPPORTING CAST

The supporting cast is huge!  More than a hundred individuals have worked in the oppressive world of Jim Clark.  Many have been fired for minor infractions of a "RULE" which is never fully explained until someone breaks one. The employee policy book is in the hyperspace of Clark's mind and cannot be written because then he would be bound to it.  Many have been fired for not making coffee correctly, or serving peanuts and cookies correctly. Several have been fired for not standing when Clark enters the room, and far too may have been fired for failing to show him respect he thinks is due the "FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN AND CEO OF A NATIONAL COMPANY".  Sadly, this caricature of a real person and manager is caught up in his fantasy world of success.

One hapless young woman was fired for being pregnant, another key employee was fired when Clark found out that the employee had Prostate Cancer, yet another was fired for asking for a well deserved day of vacation, and another was fired because she referred to Larry Whitlock as "Larry", instead of "Mr. Whitlock".