The Wonderful Life of Clarence Oddbody


Title: The Wonderful Life of Clarence Oddbody
Genre: Romantic Comedy / Historical Fantasy
Tone: Whimsical, heartfelt, and slyly subversive--Shakespeare in Love meets Monty Python

Synopsis:

On Christmas night in 1168, court jester Roland the Farter cements his place in history with a perfectly timed blast through an ornate megaphone. Five hundred years later, his descendant Clarence Oddbody, a redheaded dreamer raised in Suffolk, brings that very megaphone to an audition at the Globe Theatre.

Cast as the fool in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Clarence’s onstage “accident” becomes comic legend. But it’s more than laughs he wins—it’s the attention of Rachel Turner, a curious and clever young woman with a keen eye for authenticity. Unfortunately, her hand is being pursued by the ruthless and well-connected Robin Jeffreys, whose family has their own sinister designs.

When Rachel invites Clarence for tea, it’s clear: she sees something more in him. And for the first time, Clarence begins to believe he might be worthy of something greater—onstage and off.

Clarence’s rising star in the London theater—and his deepening love with the luminous Rachel Turner—seems unstoppable. From puppet shows to Shakespeare, from love spoons to proposals, their courtship is a comic and heartfelt triumph. But lurking just beyond the footlights is Robin Jeffreys, a vengeful prosecutor on his way to becoming known as “The Bloody Judge,” whose obsession with Rachel festers into a violent scheme.

Clarence refuses Jeffreys’ offer of wealth and theatrical influence in exchange for abandoning Rachel, setting into motion a series of ominous threats and attacks. Still, Clarence and Rachel marry in defiance of privilege and fear, finding simple joys beyond Lond in the Suffolk countryside.

Then the unthinkable happens.

On a rain-slicked night, as Rachel dons an ill Clarence’s costume to busk in his place—her gesture of love and support—she is struck and killed in a horrific, orchestrated carriage accident. Clarence arrives seconds too late, his grief erupting into anguished flames on cobblestone. His muse gone, his joy extinguished, Clarence is left to rage not just against men, but against God Himself.

What began as a whimsical legacy of laughter now darkens into a tragic reckoning. For Clarence Oddbody, the stage is no longer a place of delight—it is a crucible.

Rachel is gone, and with her, Clarence’s light has gone out. When Robin Jeffreys, the one Clarence suspects was behind Rachel’s “accident,” smugly attends the wake, Clarence snaps. A full-blown brawl erupts—Clarence’s righteous fury answered with violence, fish pie, and a glorious crotch squeeze from his adopted grandmother Mrs. Burgess. But justice, as always, arrives late.

Rachel is buried. Clarence retreats into grief and silence, the manor growing as wild as his beard. Alone with a mourning ring and fading memories, he plans to follow Rachel into death—until fate intervenes in the form of a stranded kitten named Nicholas. The creature becomes his lifeline, softening the grip of despair and igniting a flicker of hope.

Meanwhile, the empire begins to crack. As the Glorious Revolution explodes in London, the Bloody Judge Jeffreys tries to escape disguised as a sailor. He’s unmasked by commoners, mocked for his luxurious eyebrows, and delivered—via mob, stocks, and poetic irony—to a brutal end in the Tower.

Back in Suffolk, Clarence descends into a life of seclusion with Nicholas as his only companion. One cold Christmas Eve, now 78, Clarence accidentally locks himself out. In a tragicomic scramble to save Nicholas, he slips and fall from the roof and falls headfirst into a frozen-over rain barrel, and begins to drown.

As he sinks beneath the ice, his experiences a strange sense of peace. He is finally ready. After a lifetime of laughter, love, and loss, Clarence descends into darkness... dreaming of Rachel’s light.

Clarence wakes in Nivelle, a surreal liminal realm where lost souls await their next chance. He’s not alone for long. First, a mysterious man named Joseph tells him he must complete Quests to earn his angelic wings. Then comes Oberon, a peg-legged, coconut-fearing former seafarer who may or may not be what he claims.

Clarence’s first assignments spiral through history: saving Crispus Attucks in colonial Boston, dodging lanterns in Mrs. O’Leary’s barn, and helping cats, kids, and countless calamities along the way, hilariously high on catnip. But even as he gains friends (and whiskers), his heart still aches for Rachel, the love he lost and longs to find again.

Clarence’s story—once marked by slapstick and sorrow—finds surprising shape as he embraces his purpose: not to forget his grief, but to transform it into hope for others. That journey brings him, finally, to Bedford Falls, where a suicidal George Bailey leans over a snowy bridge.

spoiler alert! spoilers beyond this point.

Clarence must now draw upon every loss, every triumph, every friend—and every fart joke—he’s gathered across the centuries to convince a broken man that no one is a failure who has friends. But the well-meaning counsel Clarence offers George sorely misses the mark and George leaps to his death before he can be stopped and floats away, face down in the icy river.

At last, Clarence Oddbody is confronted the harsh and horrifying truth: his jolly pirate companion Oberon is none other than Robin Jeffreys—the man who stole his beloved Rachel’s life.

Betrayed and out of time, Clarence appeals to the powers that be to do the unthinkable: return to Bedford Falls, relive the night of George Bailey’s despair, and collect proof of Jeffreys’ sabotage—or risk eternal banishment to Gehenna.

As Clarence hurls himself into the river to save George, cosmic hijinks and soul-rending revelations collide. Party girls. Snow angels. A luck-granting gargoyle. A flaming Baked Alaska. Even Mark Twain himself finds himself in the mix. But none of it matters if Clarence cannot convince a broken man to choose life.

Through this madcap final quest, Clarence earns more than his wings. He earns his wholeness. He discovers love, not as memory, but as reunion. And when Rachel finally appears, brighter than he’d ever imagined, their embrace becomes the climax of a journey spanning centuries, souls, and the very shape of grace itself.
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With The Wonderful Life of Clarence Oddbody penned by Mark Twain and "George Bailey" engraved on his finger, Clarence's legacy is sealed—not as a hero, but as a man who loved ferociously, laughed uproariously and cannonballed headfirst into eternity.

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