The Council Room

[Mike Freeland]

Jim Graves brought this up in the "1st time checking in" thread, which wandered so far off topic that I decided to start a new one with it, and post my response.

[Jim Graves]

One skit I remember was councilor telling a story( a western?), and while he was telling the story h painted the scene on a stretched out sheet. I think it may have been Jeremy Cripps.
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Jim Graves
67 J-2 Jerry Hoyt
68 J-5 Todd Whittimore
69 J-9 Charlie Thomas
70 S-1 Bob Arnot
71 S-5 Russ Vaughn
72 J-2 Dan Mannis
74 J-? (The small cabin across road from J-2) Councilor
75 J-5 Councilor

[DavidAyars]

Yeah, Jim, you gotta lot of nerve threadjacking the thread which I'd already jacked. huh???

Anyway, I also remember enjoying the watch skit very much. It was done at least three times in my years by different failed "magicians" (Charlie Thomas, yes, but I think also Justin O'Connor, and maybe Andy Harris?? somebody else... maybe a camper, too) and was always well received, mainly because BMB was very good about selling his role in the skit as the seething owner of the smashed watch.

And of course, The Golden Arm was always a campfire favorite, though not really a skit. As was Mike & Pat & Friends' singing... and did I mention that audio recordings of many of their most famous songs could be purchased on the camp DVD?? http://wyanoke.com/Prods.htm

I also remember how hard it always was to write skits when your section was doing campfire. Very hard to pull those off.

The other night, I saw part of an SNL special on TV game show parodies that had a skit that, as soon as I saw it, I thought, wow, that would have worked great as a camp skit, with the right "actors". They were parodying a ~1980s TV game show based on Charades, which would have a panel of about six celebrities who were trying to guess the charade being played by one of two contestants. You take six campers and counselors who are good at mimicing a celebrity, and cast them in that role. That adds a lot of humor right there. Then you select a camper and a counselor as game contestants without them knowing in advance they'll be picked. The camper can give bad clues for hard charades but the panel (told in advance the answer that's "secretly" shown to the campfire audience on a sign) still figures the camper contestant's charade out. The counselor contestant either gets impossible charades to act out ("Mrs. Murphy's Chowder"), or gives good clues to easy charades ("baseball"), but the clueless panel pretends to be unable to figure it out, wildly misinterpreting the counselor's charade actions, so the counselor contestant grows increasingly frustrated at the unfairness of the game. For that role, you pick a highly competitive counselor with a short fuse. It's gold, Jerry, comedy gold.

Somebody at camp now would do an American Idol parody. Jeremy Cripps would make a good Simon Cowell. Who could play Paula Abdul?
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Camper: J-8 1965 (Kevin Ryan), J-8 1966 (Mike Freeland), S-6 1967 (Russ Hatch), S-3 1968 (Jeremy Cripps), and JA-2 1969 (Dan Mannis).
JC: J-2 1970 (Bill Bettison) and J-3 1971 (Gene Comella). Councilor 1972, J-5 1973, and JA-1 1974 & 1975

[Mike Freeland]

Strange, I remember that watch sketch only the one time. I think the thing that made it so convincing is that Charlie was an incredibly good actor (remember, that was one of his aspirations - shakesperean, If I remember correctly)-- there was not hint that he was acting contrite and apologetic.

Oh, and thanks for the plug, Dave.

Some other campfire features, mostly non-skits which were memorable to me were:

Dave Clemens, Howie Dunbar, Bob Nickels and Dan Mannis singing Barbershop

Norm Risser's annual reading of the Grange Anecdote

BMB's mostly-annual (and, dare I say, dreaded) reading of "Prunes Alaska" Or was that a rainy-day treat?

BMB's annual reading of "Adventure at Sunrise" (that title sounds slightly off. Little help here?) He used to read "Damn the torpedos...", but later changed it to "Confound the goddam torpedos...", or something like that. Didn't want to offend anyone's sensibilities.)

Bob Fox

Mr. (Ted) Berard's story of how Barn Door Island got its name.

The midget 2-by-4 dance (bump bump SLAP,bump bump SLAP,bump bump thud OWW!), and the "helicopter" trick.

More?

Paula Abdul, huh? I posted some great pictures of Alex Kennedy as a saloon girl at the '63 Cabintown Fair (I can still smell the perfume those guys doused themselves in for that gig. Man that stuff was AWFUL, especially in those quantities.) Alex could have done it.
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'56-C-9 C. Mosher '57-C-9 Bill Feaster
'58-J-14 H. Peavy '59-J-11 G. Wood, C. Duncan
'60-S-8 R. Leavitt, D. Hemphill '61-S-1 E. Slocum
'62-JA-1 H. Dunbar '63-C-2 (JC)
'64-C-5, (JC) Councilor
'65-C-9 '66 - '72-J-8
'73-JA1 '75-J-6

[Jeff G]

Jamie Bacon's cover of Bill Cosby's "Noah : Right" was pretty outstanding.
He must have been what...10, maybe 11 at most? Solo skit... everybody laughing. Still makes me smile after all these years as I recall his performance. Summer of 1967.

Jeff G

[DavidAyars]

Funny you should mention that...

I just this week heard a clip of Bill Cosby doing his Noah routine way back then, and I thought to myself, damn, Jamie (though I couldn't remember who the camper was) did that routine at campfire funnier, with better timing and more energy, than Bill Cosby!

/vrooopahhh, vrooopahhh, vrooopahhh... BING!
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Camper: J-8 1965 (Kevin Ryan), J-8 1966 (Mike Freeland), S-6 1967 (Russ Hatch), S-3 1968 (Jeremy Cripps), and JA-2 1969 (Dan Mannis).
JC: J-2 1970 (Bill Bettison) and J-3 1971 (Gene Comella). Councilor 1972, J-5 1973, and JA-1 1974 & 1975