April 20th 1997
Well another year and another list of bloopers and Practical Jokes. Needless to say there were some doozies
BLOOPERS
1. Opera #1: Falling Sets
You know you are in trouble when on opening night in the first big scene the actor brings down the set. Here the barber (Xavier) goes into his barber shop and accidentally cuts the hair off of his girlfriend Brunhilda (Anna). The barber shop is several set pieces with two windows and a door. After her hair is accidentally cut off Anna exits the door and runs away. To exit the actor is supposed to pull on the door. On this night she pushed her way through the door. This brought down the barber shop sign but the rest of the set was still standing. Then Xavier goes through the door and he also pushed his way through. It is here that the entire set came down. The funny part is when the set came down on top of Xavier the door opened and he was relatively unharmed. Looked like it was planned. Several scenes later Xavier is lamenting to his friends that he has lost his girlfriend. On this night he also added that his barber shop is in ruins
2. Opera #2: Side Door
In the jail scene some cast members are supposed to enter the audience through a side door and proceed to the stage. On Thursday the door was accidentally locked and the cast members couldn't get out. They started banging and trying to pull the door open. At the same time they were turning switch beside the door hoping this would open it. This switch was for turning the lights on in the audience. Luckily one of the crew realised this and in a flash was there to open the door. A bit late getting on stage but I don't think most of the audience didn't noticed too much.
Opera #3: Music please?
Parts of the opera was recorded music. Some of the cast who are Valkryies gather in an alcove and sing a short song. On a couple of occasions there was no music and the actors were left standing (and sitting) there doing nothing. Realising there was a problem the actors tried to fill the void with idle chatter between each other. Of course the audience doesn't know something is wrong but for those who know the show it can be extremely funny
3. Scooby Doo: Scooby Snacks
In this scene the box of Scooby Snax are stolen by the bad guy (Spirit of UC). In reality Shaggy (Travis) takes the box and throws it off stage when the lights dim briefly. For some unknown reason one of the crew members (Bill) places it back on stage. Travis then says the lines "The Scooby Snacks are gone!!" when in fact the box was right beside him
4. VD24 #1: Boxes
In this scene the actors are supposed to throw some stuff into a box, mix it up and out comes a working transmitter. Before this is supposed to happen they mix the box twice and junk comes out. They accomplish this by have two separate boxes hidden under the covered table. One with the junk and another with the finished transmitter. On Wednesday the wrong table was used and the audience could see under the table. Of course the extra box wasn't there and the actor had to think quickly on how to get the other box with the transmitter on to the stage
5. VD24 #2: Boxes
The same scene as above but this time they picked up the wrong box. The junk box is supposed to have a book and a roll of duct tape that is used later on in the sketch. A few nervous moments as the cast members realised they had the wrong box and was missing the above items. The crew realised the mistake and quickly rolled the duct tape on to the stage for the cast member to pick up. For the show we used a disco ball and one side of the box was marked "Skule Nite Disco Ball". Can you guess which side was facing the audience?
6. VD24 #3 : F-18
A few cast members are supposed to give a speech and walk off stage. At this point the curtains open and the model of the F-18 flies down and crashed. On Thursday the curtain opened while the cast members were still on stage and the plane flew down. Confused the cast members as well as the audience.
7. Wonderful Province #1- Candace and phone
In this scene after a speech the actor (Candace) is supposed to sit down and answer a ringing phone. On one night after her speech she sat down and wait for the phone ring. And she waited and waited. it appeared that the sound effect wasn't going to come so she went to pick the phone up. Of course it started to ring after she picked it up
8. Wonderful Province #2 - Halo
In this sketch there are two angels one with wings (Kern) and one without (Michelle). Kerns costume has the halo joined to the wings. He has always had problems with the halo not staying in place. On several occasions doing a speech the halo would fall off. Looked very funny. He never did get that halo working properly
9. Cheaters - Stutter Boy
For this sketch there is some chatter between students as they get ready for a dance number. During one speech one of the students (Yuval) has a few problems with his lines. The next students (Travis) jumps on this and called him "Stutter Boy". Got a great response from the audience and Yuval has earned the nickname Stutterboy for life
10. Mission Improbable #1- Sound Please
In one scene agent Bush (Teresa) pulls out a machine gun and mows down a bunch of people. In one show the sound effects didn't work and there was no machine gun noise. Sounded like the machine gun had a silencer
11.Mission Improbable #2- Xavier and phone
For this scene the actor (Xavier) is cut off during a phone call. This is done with sound effects of a dial tone. On one night there was no dial tone and Xavier kept talking and talking. We wondered if he was ever going to stop
12. Mission Improbable #3- Bush
In this scene the actor (Jack) is supposed to hide behind a bush. On one night the set piece fell down. So after telling the other agent that he will be hiding behind a bush he walks over and picks the bush up to hide behind
PRANKS
1. Dmitrivsy and Dmitrevsky
There is a sketch that mimics one of the professors. During this sketch he asked for a volunteer from the audience to solve a problem on the blackboard. The usual line is a specific seat number in the theatre. For Thursday the professor they were making fun of was in the audience. They found out which seat he was in and changed the line to this seat . As an added bonus they also put the spotlight on him
2. Dmitrevsky & Alex
Same prank as above but on Saturday and they shone the spotlight on the director (Alex)
3. Wonderful Province - Sand bag
During this scene a bag full of money is passed to another actor. For Saturday they decided to replace it with one filled with sand. The actor receiving it (Jason) caught onto the joke but the person (Candace) he passed the bag onto was caught out
4. VD24 - Unplugged oscilloscope
In this scene the actor (Travis) asked "What are all those funny lines?". The machine was an oscilloscope and another actor (Xavier) was supposed to bang it to get rid of the lines. For Saturday Travis changed his lines to "What are all those funny lines on that unplugged oscilloscope?". It seemed Xavier was a bit caught out by this but replied "Static"
5. Mission Improbable - I am Superman
During this sketch the hero is supposed to be lowered down a rope like in the movie. During this scene his stunt double (Travis) is lowered for a few seconds and is then pulled back up. After he is pulled up he is supposed to remain still while the actors underneath say a few lines. For Saturday Travis decided to do his best impression of Superman flying.
OUCH
1. Galileo
I heard from the crew that just before this sketch Xavier turned to go onto stage and tripped over a riser. He fell flat on his face and was motionless. The crew thought he was dead when he popped up and proceeded on stage. A fine example of the show must go on
VD24 - Chris & Samia & duct tape
During one scene they are rummaging through a box looking for any interesting items. Chris pulls out a roll of duct tape in yells "Hey duct tape". For one night Samia was also looking in the box when Chris pulled out the duct tape. Unfortunately her nose got in the way of his elbow. She appeared stunned for a few seconds but continued
Opera - Samia and Xavier and hammers
During this sketch at the end there is a big fight scene where everyone dies. The last two actors (Xavier and Samia) are duking it out with large hammers. They are made out of Styrofoam and Xavier has one about 30cm(12") long while Samia has one 120cm (4 feet) long. They are supposed to fake hitting each other but sometimes they accidentally hit each other. On one night Samia hit Xavier with a heavy blow right on top of the head. There was a loud thump and there was a gasp from the audience. Xavier looked a bit stunned and tried to return the favour to Samia. Unfortunately she was wearing a hard-hat and was relatively unaffected.