Rob and the California George Family

By request...

The basics of the Egor skit are pretty simple. The beauty of the skit is in the execution. This is something that we had down pretty well in our Boy Scout days. Not everyone needs to be good. As long as everyone provides some basic level of acting ability and talks loud enough to be heard by the audience then a few standouts will make for an excellent skit experience.

Rise, Egor - plot summary:
We open on a mad scientist gleefully announcing to the audience that he has made the ultimate invention with which he can take over the world (very Pinky & the Brain-like). The invention is Egor, a monster that follows the mad scientist's murderous directions by choking the victims to death. From there, a series of visitors come to the door (one at a time). The mad scientist has Egor dispatch each of them with a series of simple comments: "Rise, Egor", "Walk, Egor", "Kill, Egor". After dispatching the visitor, then Egor is sent back in hiding for the next victim.

After going through a number of visitors, the scientist is pleased that the tests worked. The visitors would usually be a typical door-to-door salesperson or donation solicitor of the time: vacuums, Fuller Brush, Jerry's Kids, etc.

At this point, the Mad Scientist is ready to start conquering the world. He turns back to the audience and announces that he can take over the world with three simple comments:

"Rise, Egor" (behind the scientist, Egor rises)
"Walk, Egor" (Egor extends his/her arms and advances towards the scientist)
"Kill, Egor" (Egor dutifully dispatches the scientist -- the best laid plans...)

I honestly only have 2 clear memories of the performers of that skit. We had a number of people participate with repeated performances of the skit over time. My general recollection is that everyone did well and that we had a lot of fun with it. However, the two performers that stick out are Lee and Shoo.

With Shoo, his preference was to be the visiting Avon Lady (do they still do that?). Anyway, he would come to the door and in a falsetto voice attempt to sell various cosmetics. Shoo would also make a futile effort at defense with the Avon Lady purse when Egor attacked. That was one of the few cases when the victim would notice their fate before it descended upon them.

With Lee, it was a great, stereotypical mad scientist performance. He had the voice down, the mannerisms down, and interacted well with the audience and each of the visitors.

The Girl Scout that played the mad scientist last weekend did a very good job. She definitely did not look the part. She is the most petite girl in the group and has long, California-blonde hair. However, she put her hair up in a crazy do and did a good job with the voice and mannerisms. She had a bit of a false start, but then fell easily into the role. In fact, it was a bit scary at just how much she got into it!

All in all, an excellent memory from the past Boy Scouting days and the current Girl Scouting days. It was fun to bridge the two programs in this way.

Labels: Scouts