Friday, November 3, 1989

We'd been planning it for months... ok, weeks... ok, days. Finally, the hour arrived for the Penn State Monty Python Society to bring the entire population of State College to their knees. We decided to attack them in the sneakiest way possible... by making them laugh! First, we rallied in my room, to build the troupe morale. Not nearly as many people showed up as I expected. Kzin [Jon Kilgannon], L.J. ["Trotsky" Sparvero], Rick (not Pizar) and I took the coffin down to the registration spot. I was cold, so I headed back to my room after we got it there.

A few people, like Jake [Jennifer Spangler], Stosh and Steve Gradess came by. Most of the people went straight to the site, I guess. Linda Novak and I were the last to leave, with Meg Jeffery. We left a note on the door telling Jenny [Hoffman] where to go. We ran into her on the way up to the room, anyway. She let me borrow her black half-gloves for the parade (to complement my pallbearer's outfit of a black turtleneck over two layers, black pants, black shoes, black socks and the black side of my scarf, as well as my black and white sunglasses).

We had to search a little to find the others, but we made it all right. Kzin was down there, as was Holli [Weisman], L.J. ["Trotsky" Sparvero], Jake and Don [Klees]. Others showed up gradually, until we had quite a few participants, costumed as follows: Mister Neutron/Banner Carrier, Paul Farkas; Mr. Gumby/Banner Carrier, Tom Collins; Inspector Dim (of the Yard), Don Klees; D.B. Gumby, Damon Buckwalter; Yellowbeard, Stosh; A Cardinal, Cathy Nelson; Cardinal Gumby, Holli Weisman; Dennis V. Morbid (Head Undertaker), Jon "Kzin" Kilgannon; Pallbearers, Alyce Wilson, Megan Jeffery, Linda Novak, [Jennifer] Jake Spangler; Nudge-Nudge Wink-Wink Man (Norman), Eric Schr9ager; Leon Trotsky, L.J. Sparvero; Trotsky's Grandmum, Jenny Hoffman; Unknown, Abner Mintz, Rick; Brian (Not the Messiah), Steve Gradess.

I had a pretty severe cold, so I carried with me a bottle of Vicks Formula 44-D (for coughs plus congestion). I'd taken the label off it, so all you could see was the transparent bottle and the alarmingly, near-fluorescent red liquid. When pressed as to what the bottle contained, I told them it was undiluted blood with a little bit of sugar.

We had to wait for quite awhile before we got on the road. So we posed for pictures and practiced the song, which is our theme, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!" And we did the usual silly stuff, such as stuffing Paul's sweatshirt with toilet paper so that he looked like Mister Neutron. We put the roll on Trotsky's sword and pulled it off in huge streamers, balled it up and padded him but good.

Someone, I believe it was Steve Gradess, brought a single flip-flop to be used as the Sacred Shoe, to be bowed to reverently throughout the parade.

When Damon arrived, he brought with him two bricks he'd picked up at a construction site. Then he did the famous Gumby trick of smashing two bricks alongside his head.

Stosh and Holli were hamming it up, reciting lines from every skit imaginable and even quoting Yellowbeard. Eric really showed up late, as did Cathy. I had to read the attendance sheet several times, because people, as I said, kept arriving late.

Stosh as Yellowbeard faces off against L.J. "Trotsky" Sparvero

We were lined up right in front of a float of frat boys dressed as poseurs... I mean, hippies. They were jamming out in their spastic way to the Grateful Dead. And since they recognized us as Pythonoids, they kept yelling "Spam" at us (fortunately, they'd never heard of the word "Ni").