History of The Talented Talent Bros -- Chapter VII

Prologue

The four years I spent living in Greensboro, NC in the late '90s were easily among the happiest of my life. Sure, they were filled with the day-to-day struggles that all of our lives are filled with, but they were chock full of happy times. My so-called “acting career” was not the top priority, although I did do a number of plays and television episodes. All in all, it was just a great time.

Among the few negatives from this period were the frequent trips back to Texas. My son lived in Corpus Christi, my parents in Baytown and my in-laws in Lubbock. Many was the time that Tammi and I jumped in the old Mitsubishi and drove from North Carolina to Texas – 24 to 30 hours of straight driving, depending on where we were going and who we were going to visit. To keep awake and prevent boredom, we would play a number of traveling games. One of my favorites was a word game where one of us would say a word and the other had to think of the most inappropriate word to match it. A highly amusing game … give it a try on your next long drive. It’s even better when you are trying not to go stir-crazy.

Early one morning while speeding through Louisiana, Tammi and I were playing this game. We had already been on the road for over 20 hours and were well beyond being “simple minded.” Tammi thought of a word and came up with “weasel.” I immediately responded “erotica.” We laughed uncontrollably. In fact, my eyes watered up and I could barely see the interstate.

Weasel Erotica. May not sound funny to you now … but hop in the car for twenty hours and you just might be amused by it. Weasel Erotica. I would have to remember that.

Now Back To Our Story

Somewhere over the course of the months that followed the closing of Abnormal Stew I had made up my mind that The Talented Talent Brothers were not over. Not yet. I still hung my career hopes on this idea. All I needed to make it work was a little consistency within the group, some like-minded individuals and a better, more noteworthy vehicle. I was knee deep in writing the latter. I had high hopes for the former.

If we were going to be something of a modern day version of the Marx Brothers, then we needed a modern day Marx Brother story. So I began to outline a story that would borrow heavily from A Day at the Races. The plot would be almost non-existent – just something to hang a little Talent Brother insanity on – and would feature a young couple in peril who are assisted by an assorted band of crazies. And we would have puppets. I like puppets.

This is where the term “weasel erotica” provided inspiration and the title of our next play. There probably are very few writers who come up with a title first, but then again I’ve never really claimed to be much of a writer. Weasels might make for interesting puppets. And if we’re going to have weasels, where are the weasels going to come from – where do they live? Answer: a zoo. Now we just had to threaten the weasels and the zoo and we could be off and running.

The play would center around this zoo … owned by the lovely Alison Standish (named for the Standish Sanitarium in A Day at the Races). If I was going to create a Maureen O’Sullivan character, then I would obviously also need an Allan Jones-type to be her boyfriend. My alter-ego from Abnormal Stew, Professor Wagstaff (obviously named for Groucho’s character in Horsefeathers) would return as a weasel expert hired to train the weasels and save the zoo from financial ruin. You can’t have a Groucho-type character without a Margaret Dumont, the wealthy dowager, so I created the insane Ms. Rittenrotten (as opposed to Rittenhouse - this time the reference dates back to Animal Crackers) who would have the money necessary to save the day.

See, this thing practically writes itself.

Many hours were spent tweaking and revising this script. Bits and pieces from Stew would reappear. The Monster-That-Lives-Under-Your-Bed would make an appearance. Evil would come in the form of a melodramatic Snidley Whiplash character named Mr. Grimm. Naturally, Grimm would need a sexy cohort to seduce Wagstaff … so Flo was added to the mix. A Chico/swindler-with-a-heart-of-gold character would be perfect for Matt, so he was included. Finally, in loving tribute, we would need two “zoo girls” to run the zoo and manage the weasels.

The play was starting to take shape. Those that are familiar with my “writing style” know that I write in bits and pieces on everything from yellow legal pads to scratches of paper and then begin to assimilate the pieces. By spring, Act I was together and Act II was well on its way.

Calling All Characters

The new team was assembled … myself, Matt and Mel. Added to the mix now was Tony King (another veteran of Hamlet and LLL who had run lights a time or two for Stew) who is a talented and fun leading man type. Tony presented the problem of having the last name King. We already had a "King Talent" and it certainly would seem silly to have a "Tony King Talent" and "Tony Talent" just seemed like a waste of a perfectly good and marketable name. A new backstory would have to be developed for Tony.

The four of us met one Saturday afternoon on the back patio at Rudy’s on 9th Avenue to drink a pitcher or two of beer, eat a little bar-b-q and give Act I a good read. I was pleased to find that the script had some life to it. I was even more pleased later that week when I made contact with The Looking Glass Theatre and booked the show. Mel was recruited to direct the show (Stew hadn’t really had a director, per se) and Tony, Matt and I would play the male “hero” characters.

Less than a year after Abnormal Stew had opened, The Talented Talent Brothers would return to the New York stage in Weasel Erotica. I was going to give this ridiculous idea one more chance. But first, we had to survive a summer filled with casting and rehearsals and get this thing ready to roll. A new adventure was about to begin.