Returning favorites—Joseph Scrimshaw

by Matthew A. Everett • June 24, 2008 • In the time it takes me to finish this blog post, Joseph Scrimshaw will write another script. He is depressingly prolific. And extremely funny.

2003 – Look Ma, No Pants
2004 – Look Ma, No Pants – The Last One
2004 – Jack & Ben’s 10th Annual Bar Crawl and Moveable Feast
2005 – The Scrimshaw Show
2005 – Adventures In Mating
2006 – Die, Clowns, Die
2007 – Macbeth’s Awesome Scottish Castle Party

(and these are just the ones I saw – there is also, of course, among many others, the enormous hit that was “The Worst Show In The Fringe” – no, really, that was the title)

Single White Fringe Geek (and Mom) is the blog of Matthew A. Everett, one of four bloggers covering the Minnesota Fringe Festival for the Daily Planet.

That’s quite a list of shows up there. He didn’t do all of them alone. In fact the Scrimshaw Brothers (and their cast of irregulars) are quite the theater factory.

Joshua’s ping pong ball didn’t make the cut this time around, but Joseph is doing —

a children’s show?!

Baby’s first beer?

I kid. Joseph, and Joshua, and company actually do a lot of theater for young audiences as well as comedy of the more adult variety. This year, it’s one for the kids (and for their parents who will doubtless be able to read between the lines and find some sly entertainment of their own).

The show…

An Inconvenient Squirrel

Preliminary blurb…

“An all new family friendly morality tale about squirrels!

In the lost village of the Squirrel-People, all the Squirrels are named for their most distinctive trait. There’s Clumsy Squirrel, Wise Squirrel, Socially Awkward Squirrel. But the village is thrown into chaos when a young squirrel refuses to pick a name—the inconvenient squirrel!

An Inconvenient Squirrel is a live action cartoon for the stage packed with chattering, scampering and existential identity crisis!

Designed to engage kids and adults on their own level, the show is a morality tale full of wit, intelligence…and a lot of grown men dressed as squirrels!”

One thing you can count on, this won’t be a dumbed down kiddie show. Scrimshaws don’t do dumb. Silly, maybe, but always extremely clever. Well worth checking out.

And of course there’s also the Fringe-spawned Adventures In Mating every Monday.

The return of Stitch Bitch ‘N’ Die! in the fall.

And the holiday offering Fat Man Crying.

The squirrel is just your summer fix of Scrimshaw.

For more info, visit josephscrimshaw.com and/or www.scrimshawbrothers.com

An Inconvenient Squirrel

U of M Rarig Center Thrust stage
330 – 21st Avenue South, Minneapolis

August 1, 7pm
August 7, 5:30pm
August 8, 5:30pm
August 9, 2:30pm
August 10, 4pm

Entering his sixth year of blogging about the Minnesota Fringe Festival (and bringing Mom along for the ride as a guest reviewer), Matthew A. Everett is also a local playwright and three-time recipient of grant support from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Information on Matthew and his plays can be found at matthewaeverett.com.