Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for July 24, 2017

Well, this theater camp is going down the drain… FAST! (Joey Chestnut would eat all those hot dogs.)

Where’s Ox when we need him?

I like Fay even more now. :)

This is the reason why you register kids in advance so you can answer all those questions about diet and availability. By the way, you also usually have to check to make sure that ride is authentic and Axel is not getting a ride with some teenager. Now, I can understand why Prudence might not understand this, but Luann works in this business and she should know all about dealing with kids with dietary issues and permission to leave.

So it looks like no theater camp. We need a role for Fay – she’s a keeper.

there does seem to be a concensus that Fay is a character to keep around.

I’m sure a homeless shelter would appreciate the donation of the hot dogs. And I agree with KENHENSE; Fay should become a permanent character.

This thread must be an exercise in Murphy’s Law. It all goes wrong, because it can. At least so far. Maybe it will get better.

In any event – down to just one. And she’s a vegan, who’s not into typical kid’s lunches.

Maybe the vegan will try a hot dog and be converted. One can only hope!

@SukieCrandall Yesterday you mentioned that some who don’t like seafood probably didn’t grow up in a coastal area.

Since you do, you might enjoy the movie, In the Bedroom if you’ve not already seen it. I consider it one of Sissy Spacek’s best, and it was made when she was in her 50s. She played a high school music teacher, married to a doctor. It’s a romance and crime thriller, amongst other things. It takes place in Rockland, Maine – a real coast town. It involves lobster fishing, and shows people eating carp and other local stuff. The film was extremely well produced.

“86 Ways”

“Downhill Abbey”

“The Dark Side Of The Mood” (♩)

“Deflator-maus” (♩)

“He’s Got Beef, And They’re In A Pickle”

“The Kaibosh On The Kielbasa”

“The State Of 50”

“With All The Hope They Could Have Mustard”

“You Can’t Catch Up, Now”

“Catsup And Dogs Down”

“Some Sau-sage Advice”

“Franks…But No Franks…”

“Who Let The Dogs In?”

or

“C’est La Vegan!”

One question- Prudence is saying a “Correction of 48 dogs”. But… Prudence has had Pot Pie and stuff, in strips from a couple of months back…Luann has had Burgers and dogs…. I’m sure that Les is neither Vegan, nor Vegetarian. So, wouldn’t there still be 47 dogs left (if the three of them still ate one)? ….Though, at this point, maybe someone has lost their appetite, at the rate that things are going…

Well, Axel is off to take a baseball bat to some mailboxes as they drive by. Perhaps some cow tipping later at night.

Wanna bet Nancy returns with Shannon and finds the camp empty and trays full of hot dogs uneaten. She confronts the girls and inquires them on their advertising methods and lack of pre-prep and the wasteful way of cooking food for unknown number of campers due to no pre-registration. That’s crazy. Nancy probably should have supervised. She must a blind trust in these girls, especially Pru since she believed she had theatrical experience, of which I now question. Maybe she will call Quill and ask him about Pru. I think the whole thing has a common denominator – Pru. We don’t know much about her and her epic failure at facilitating a camp raised a red flag.

Don´t worry, she will eat when she gets hungry.

For an experienced New York City theater pro, Pru seems to have done a terrible job of planning out this theater camp. They don’t seem to have done any outreach to local high school or college drama clubs or theater groups. Luann and Quill were active in their theater classes, didn’t Luann contact the teachers there to get the word out about the camp? Didn’t they do advertising? There’s obviously a theater crowd where they live, they should have gotten with them to prevent this expensive disaster.

And Fay seemed so likable.

I guess nobody shared with the kitchen that only 2 kids had showed up for drama training. They should have done a pre-registration deal on this and they would have realized that this idea was a turkey from the start.

I guess nobody shared with the kitchen that only 2 kids had showed up for drama training. They should have done a pre-registration deal on this and they would have realized that this idea was a turkey from the start.

I can’t remember. Maybe I’m making up these background items myself. Someone doubtless can verify. Didn’t a fair amount of the seed money to get the café, the theater, the art space, and all the rest of this establishment come from TJ? I don’t mean he “gave” it to Luann’s parents, but didn’t he invest it in the enterprise? The money he’d gotten from the insurance settlement over his previous exploding restaurant? And I just had a flashback to The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Also, didn’t Prudence and Luann hand out lots of flyers about the upcoming theater camp? And didn’t they say that many people asked for the flyers and expressed interest? I took that to be the reason the infinitesimal turn out took them by surprise. And, yes, that’s a rookie mistake, but not an outlandish one. People keep saying Luann should have known better because she works with kids, Prudence should have known better because she has theater experience. But neither is known to have had any business experience, right? I don’t assume, for example that being a great actor or musician or writer or whatever makes one a great business person. Think of all the accounts of this or that individual who has earned millions only to find that they’ve lost it all to an unscrupulous agent or financial manager. Weren’t they smart enough to know better?

This is one dull arc.

This is quite a disaster, but given its only Monday, the arc still has a way to go before it develops to some point where a new arc starts. I like the boy who does not want to be there, although Fay seems like a nice girl, one who could benefit from an activity that would help increase her confidence.

I definitely want to see where they go with Fay. She seems sweet.

So, this “Drama Train Wreck,” arc is collapsing under it’s own weight. And We got Ma Berger and Mr Gray, Yesterday and Les, and decent food (hot dogs) today.

Why Am I getting the BAD feeling that all this leading up to another “Berger Family Dinner” Arc where Gunther is going to be the “Main Course?”

I’m not buying that Les had no idea how many people were in the room.

Nor am I buying that Pru and Luann wouldn’t tell Les how many campers were present. This whole arc depicts a lack of intelligence on Pru and Luann’s part that strikes me as nonsensical.

Geez … the Kafe could serve the other hot dogs as an extra – (kid’s special, etc.). Or is that too low-brow for the place?

Fay: “I’m vegan…”

.

Luann: “I thought you were Fay!! No problem – I have LOTS of name tags!!!”

.

On that note, “Hello, I must be going…” ;)

“Downhill FLABBY. YOU ARE FRABBY”

“The Dark Side Of The NO NO NOPE Do NOT invoke PF into your STOOOPUID ” (♩)

“Deflator-HAW HAW That’s a Play” (♩)

“He’s Got BEER, And They’re In A PISSSSOOOO!”

“The Kaibosh On The YUCK YUCK YCUK….Wait. NOT”

“The State Of WTF?”

“With All The Hope They Could Have ENOUGH!!!!!!”

“You Can’t STOP JUST STOP Up, Now”

“No No NO And Dogs Down”

“Some Oh Please! Enough Already! Advice”

“Derp…De Derp Derp…”

“Boo! Let The Frogs In!”

or

“C’est La VV!”

I would like to know more about why Axel (who i think of a Prince Power Pout because of Shannon’s game) came to the camp and why he left. There are two possibilities i can readily envision. The first is a possible genuine interest in theater, so the approach would have seemed too light weight. The second is that he is a pouty spoiled brat for whom no one sets more than half-hearted limits which Axel is used to overriding in the way of spoiled brats everywhere.

Hot dogs take maybe five minutes to prepare, why are you cooking them now?

While criticizing the stupidity of LuAnn and Prudence, I cannot help but applaud the intelligence of the town for not signing up for their lame theater camp.

BTW – Did Axel buy all of Brad’s old shirts at a rummage sale?

Also hot dogs are a snack not a meal, dumb dumbs….

Do they have spicy kimchi for the hot dogs? If so, then Fay can have just the kimchi.

I had first cousins twice removed (i.e. my grandfather’s cousins) named Lena and Fay. Fay’s daughter was Fayette. Lena is someone i still miss decades later; she was very dear to me.

Kind of interesting to me: in the first frame, Luann and Fay have very similar worried expressions, but Luann is looking in the direction of Pru and Fay is looking in the direction of Axel. But the expressions are very similar.

I am starting to wonder if Nancy and Frank chose the wrong location for Fuse. It does not appear to be in a business district or semi-business zone. The Fuse is a restaurant-theater with a stage so in a semi-business zone, it would be difficult to draw a theatrical crowd. I think Nancy and Frank would do better to rent their stage to theatrical groups after this fiasco when they realize the locals are not into the theater. Renting their stage out would generate revenue they need to support the business. If are lucky, these theatrical renters would do plays at their place and allow them to take some percentage of the profits.

Or sell The Fuse and use the money to buy another downtown. Or drop the theater half and run it strictly as a restaurant – - perhaps a karaoke night once a week to put the stage to good use.

Is the camp only meeting once a week? Or did it start on Friday and “next week” would mean Monday? I’ve never heard of a summer camp that meets once a week or starts on Friday.

Maybe a tour bus full of kids will stop at this very moment, amazed at how well prepared they find KK to feed their starving wienervores.

5

The way the camp is going, while “horribly wrong” in terms of success, is pretty interesting to me in terms of a story arc because of the many questions it causes me to ponder as I take a coffee and pipe break:

I would say that obviously Greg knows a camp such as this would have typically had students pre-register for participation. I would also say that Greg would also obviously be very well aware that in the scheme of things, with the cooking of hotdogs not taking especially long, the likely time frame of at least a few hours between the start of the first day of camp and lunch, and the open-air environment of The Fuse (it is typically shown as a big, open space with the Kafe Kablooee at one end… that it would have been very likely that anyone preparing the lunch would have attempted a generalized head count before going to all the trouble to prepare the meal.

So, with those rather obvious things that I feel 100% confident in that Greg would be aware of and would take into consideration…. the real questions for me are all about why Greg has chosen such a distinctly different story route? To me, I am suspicious that Greg is setting us up for something PRETTY BIG in terms of plot twists, because it is atypical for him to focus a lot of something going this much into a failure sort of pathway. But, what might it be? …..

…. continuing from my last comment ….

1. Perhaps Greg is going to have this “failure” be a mechanism to have the DeGroots sell “The Fuse”? This would seem very unlikely as Greg has been building up this business arc for quite a while.

2. Perhaps Greg is going to use this less than stellar camp performance have the DeGroots reimagine the purpose of The Fuse, and they develop it into something vastly different than it has been? Again, in general Greg has been having The Fuse be a multi-use space, so this also seems unlikely.

3. Perhaps Greg is simply trying to find a way to introduce us to “Fay” and she will become a long term character? Again, this seems a somewhat convoluted way to do this, so I am not convinced.

So….. as I ponder this, I am reaching the conclusion that I cannot really figure a logical reason for Greg to have chosen this “failure” arc. I am sure it will make itself clear eventually…. but I just have this gut feeling that this is leading to something BIG that will really change the dynamic of the comic.

Pipe and coffee are finished, so I am back off to work.

I’m surprised Tiffany didn’t come, she sees herself as an aspiring actress/model. As for Axel, the fact he is willing to just leave means he didn’t pay for the class, his parents did. I think Luann and Pru are better off without him, but odds are we will see him again.

.

JIMMJONZZ “I find there’s much more disdain directed toward them than comes from them.”

Airs of superiority on both sides, each thinking the other is unreasonable or unsocial. Just consider how many are offended when someone won’t drink alcoholic beverages with them. They act like it is a slap in the face.

“You think you’re too good to drink with me?!”

“I just don’t drink.”

“Come on, one drink won’t send you to Hell.”

“No, but I’m not in a hurry to get to Heaven, either.”

(In days gone by, folks were often offended if you wouldn’t smoke with them, but those are mostly dead by now.)

@NATHANLEETURNER: Since the camp was specifically directed to what seems to be a younger set of teens inexperienced with theater, I am puzzled by those who assumed that Tiffany would show up. She’s closer to her 20s than her teens, first of all, and secondly, she would not consider herself to need an introduction to theater. She does have experience with both theater and movies, so why would she be drawn to a camp for those without experience?

Is Axel old enough to have an Uber account?

Good lord, the incompetence of these dingbats is downright painful to watch. Fay seems like a nice enough kid though. Too bad her time (as well as whatever money her parents paid) is being wasted on this bush-league, low-rent, amateur hour excuse for a “theater camp” that inexplicably only seems to operate one day per week (judging by Pru’s comment to Axel).Still, it’s nice to see a sympathetic character being shown. Hopefully she doesn’t disappear after this arc concludes.

Just when you’re thinking “what else could possibly go wrong?”

Luann, Pru, and Leslie can each eat one, or maybe two, of the hot dogs. That still leaves over 40. Where’s the nearest Food Bank or Soup Kitchen?

We’re down to one student. maybe Shannon can join. Jonah shows up and we have a theatre group.

The question is how will Pru and Luann regroup and attempt to recover from this? Perhaps another Fuze Follies.

Luann openly mocked him, why would he stick around?

Veganism stunts kids’ brain development. There’s a protein that I forgot the name of which your brain needs in massive quantities. The bacteria in your gut make some of it, but they can’t make enough. The only other source of it is meat. I hate to break it to everyone, but if you don’t want your kids to be mentally disabled, they have to eat meat, which means some poor animal has to die to feed them. Sorry but that’s how it is.