On Stage: A live episode of Old Scout (2019)

Troy Foundry Theatre kicked off its 2019 Dark Day Monday series tonight with a live taping of Christian Strevy's YouTube series, Old Scout, complemented with an earlier episode, and two short films.

Alabama native Strevy, who now makes his home in Philadelphia, had been in the Cub Scouts until he dropped out at age 10 or 11. The premise of collecting every badge available up to Eagle Scout will remind some of one of Adam Sandler's screwball comedies from the 90's, "Billy Madison", but while Sandler went through grades K-12 in the course of a two hour or so movie, Strevy's quest should last another few weeks, as he's planning to put the wraps on Old Scout next month with partner Julie St. John.

The production process for each episode takes less than a week, a la Comedy Central's long running South Park, and Strevy & St. John make it work. Scope out "Canoeing, what could go wrong?":



Tonight's taping had David Girard joining Strevy on stage for "A Clearing in The Woods". Strevy's camping in the Adirondacks. Girard is an obnoxious, unfriendly hustler. As soon as that's available on YouTube, which should be in the next week or two, we'll have it up. On stage, it felt like a skit worthy of Saturday Night Live.

Also:

"Ready or Not": Produced & directed by TFT regular and Theatre Institute icon John Romeo, a game of hide & seek between a mother and her daughter has a bizarre ending. And I do mean bizarre, like right out of, say for example, Night Gallery (which Romeo later owned up was what he was going for), or any number of horror comics from the 50's through the 80's.

Rating: A+.

"The Check": David Girard stars & co-directed this short piece about--what else?---a missing check. The ending is one you can see coming a mile away, but the trick is how they get there.

Fun fact: An extra, wielding a wooden staff/tuning fork, was sighted downtown one day, probably the day of filming, at the end of last year, but hasn't been seen since. Hmmmmm.

Rating: B.

Old Scout, based on what I've seen, merits an A.

Next week, TFT moves up the road to Superior Merchandise on 4th Street. Details to follow.