#shrevy

In a way, Shrevnitz is the only agent besides Margo who's sort of "survived" the phasing out of agents in recent Shadow stories. Thanks to the radio show, Shrevy has been able to carve a niche for himself as comic relief, the closest thing The Shadow has to a "sidekick", often made into a stooge in the show despite not being one in the pulps, and even in a lot of later adaptations Shrevy is generally prone to mistakes as the go-to comic relief. A lot of fans don't like it and I certainly am not a fan of Shrevy being just a bumbling idiot, but I don't actually mind at all that Shrevy's come to take on a role of comic relief. I mean, someone has to, in a world so dominated by shadows.

I like Shrevy a lot because he might have overall the most consistent personality out of all the agents, in the adaptations. He's a shrewd and friendly NYC cabbie who works as The Shadow's main driver. He is an incredible, if reckless, driver who's not afraid to jump into a fray with his fists if necessary. He loves to scare tourists with reckless driving and tell outlandish stories of life in the big city. He loves to read anything he can get his hands on and even collects comics. He can be rude and even a little brutish. He talks in a more rough, common language than the other characters, and makes mistakes at points, but is by no means stupid or mean to anyone other than people who threaten him and his friends. He's got a likeability to him often reminiscent of Ben Grimm.

I’m thinking, while you’re gone...I’m gonna go to night school. Maybe then I can figure out what you’re always talkin about - Midnight in Moscow

He's an ex-boxer, sometimes he's got a family, he's Jewish and proudly so, he's a little on the ugly side but has a great smile. Clyde hates his driving and the two don't get along. He looks after Margo and often frets over her involvement in these grisly affairs. He's a little scared of the Chief sometimes but never lets that get in the way of his interactions with him. While a lot of the agents are created as audience surrogates, Shrevy to me feels like not just the most consistently characterized of them, but also the one who feels the most like a real person. We all know, or knew, someone like Shrevy. We all met someone like Shrevy at some point in our lives. 

I think all of us have known, at some point or another, a stranger who helped us in a way, big or small, even if they had no particular reason to do so. Someone who just took a moment out of their days to make your life a little easier. A cleaning lady whom you've helped pick up garbage off work and she never forgot your name for it. A cashier at the market who took the time to wrap up your products with extra care so nothing would tear or spill. The cooking lady who lets you grab an extra bite when no one's looking. A janitor at school who lets you hide from bullies in his break room. A doorman who talks to you about a funny little thing he saw on tv the other day. Just small interactions with people that we are generally told to overlook or dismiss, but who often have so much kindness to spare and even more so to repay.

I've seen a couple of Shadow fans displeased at moments when Shrevy interacts more closely with The Shadow, citing that "The Shadow shouldn't be chatting with his cab driver", like that's some form of insult or something too "low" for The Shadow, and it saddens me to imagine having that kind of thinking. They seem to forget that The Shadow himself mops floors in disguise a lot of the time and never looks down on good people regardless of their station.

I've always learned a great deal through the various drivers that I've met or worked with at one point or another. It can be an incredibly personal thing, to share a trip with another person, something that most of us take for granted or don't engage in. So many stories can be shared, so much can be learned in such small details and such personal conversations, even with people you may never meet again after the trip is over. People who often find you at moments where you are getting ready for something, steeling yourself for something, most exhausted and tired or even injured by something. I recall fondly a lot of conversations I've had with drivers, even people whom I've only talked to once, who just happened to be there at a particular moment that made a difference.

(And to be honest, part of the reason I bring this up is because of my uncle, who was the closest thing I had to a father and whom I mostly interacted with as he drove me to school and college. And, as I discovered while I was writing this post, has now just passed away after a grueling struggle with brain cancer, something I haven't really begun to process and probably won't for a while).

Shrevy is the Shadow's driver, yeah, but being someone's driver, for any extended period of time, isn't something that goes by unnoticed. Having any kind of extended contact with someone who drives for you opens a doorway not just to learn much about them (which may not be a good thing, to be clear, I've obviously had terrible driver experiences as well), but also for them to inevitably learn much about you. The horror of being known, and all that. Shrevy is the Shadow's main driver, for himself and his agents. He has to interact with all of them, ferry them through their journeys and rescue them from trouble, speeding through the streets with his expert knowledge on them, and jump out of the car to rescue them if necessary.

He's often there when The Shadow has to switch back and forth to Lamont Cranston, or apply disguises via a hidden kit and mirror stashed in the backseat of Shrevy's cab. Shrevy picks up The Shadow when he's injured, when he's in the middle of gun fights, when he has to make a quick get-away. There are people who are closer to knowing The Shadow's secrets, people with whom he entrusts more information about his secret identity. But nobody ever quite sees The Shadow the way Shrevy does.

Nobody gets to watch The Shadow transform the way Shrevy does. Nobody gets to pick up the pieces and rescue The Shadow the way Shrevy does, and regardless of how close they are, this is something that inevitably would affect their dynamic. I've seen a couple of takes on Shrevy that play up the fact that he's more elderly than The Shadow, and even sort of turn Shrevy into a pseudo-paternal figure for the agents and even The Shadow himself, and to be honest, I don't mind that at all. Maybe not that close, but, I don’t mind the idea of Shrevy sort of being one to look out for The Shadow in his own way, even when he scares him, even when he’s cold and distant and grimly focused, because Shrevy looks out for everyone and he’s not gonna let the fact that his boss is terrifying to get in the way of that.

I think the premise that The Shadow has to stay distant and cold and unassailable from his agents (and the completely wrong idea that he treats them like cogs in a machine), as necessary as that has to be, inevitably doesn't last once you start giving the agents focus, once you start humanizing The Shadow through interactions with them, as the pulps did. You cannot put a group of people fighting crime and getting into danger and rescuing others together and not expect bonds to form, and I think Shrevy is the kind of character who would be right at the center of a lot of them. 

The one guy who's always got a bad joke to share or a piece of urban wisdom to impart, a guy who really is just like anyone else you may have known in your family or friends, or someone who you could have met and made friends with, if only you'd paid more attention to your surroundings. The kind stranger, and in The Shadow's case, a part of legions of kind strangers all of whom united under one cause, under the guidance of one mysterious being. And when that mysterious being needs to get around quickly or escape trouble, there's one kind stranger he can always rely on.

I guess ultimately, that's what Shrevy means to me. Fond memories I have and wish to impart on others. That’s part of why I think the agents are so special, and why I want so badly for them to get the appreciation they deserve.