Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for August 26, 2015

“Moony For Nothing, And Your Soundchecks Are Free” (♪)“It’s A Set-Up!”“Throwback…And Forth”“Conditional Surrender”“Upstaged By A Downgrade”“Bigger Fish To Fry”“Gaffe For The Gaffer”“Get A Grip…And Tell Him To Hold On Tight”“A Show Of Second Hands”“A Trap In The Trapdoor”

or“Don’t Look A Gift Horse In The Dentures”

This is starting to sound like the plot of a Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland movie.And I mean that in the best way possible!:>))

Sounds like a win-win situation for both TJ and Quill.

If your thing stays huge for more than four hours, see your doctor right away.

I also left one- about the sad way that people take advantage of some situations…

I really hope TJ doesn’t have actual decision making power just because he’s a financial contributor.

Getting complicated, could run on for a while.

I’ll bet TJ’s two huge things carry huge price tags or stretch a sane person’s credibility.

TJ TJ TJ smh

Instead of problems like in the past this comic strip is now all about everything going perfectly, which is a good thing.

Please more Gunther. It should be Gunther every day.

So…….if Moony University uses the space, they will donate their old equipment?……But not pay money? How exactly is this going to be a business? Besides the restaurant?

The Drama department’s “old” lights and sound gear. How old? Something Rudy Valle would have used?

Winchester Cathedral your bringing me down.

“I really hope TJ doesn’t have actual decision making power just because he’s a financial contributor.”

Well he has cash………..

Used goods are better than on goods! Good show, Quill.TJ, buzz off!

If you caught the old movie plot thing, you should probably keep quiet. Remember the big stink when the kids found out that the Titanic sinks!

Old lights and sound gear? May be a bargain if someone knows how to fix them. Chances are that they’re being replaced for a reason.

Yeah, “Huge.” Right, Slimeball.

But What About the “Catch?”

You Know, the “Catch?”

The “Catch.” That little Overlooked Detail that will REAR Its Ugly Head and Derail This ENTIRE Project Causing Frank and Nancy to go Bankrupt While Old Smiley Rides Off Into the Sunset saying “Gotta RUN!”

5I unfortunately must revert back to calling our Aussie fellow, “Bland Quill” even though I know others disagree. So, it looks like the warehouse will now be set with a cafe, and a decently set up stage with lighting and at least basic electronics. That will be helpful. I wonder if perhaps Luann will begin some sort of singing career (at least part time) here? I remember Greg had that song a while back. Perhaps this is where he is leading with this story arc? I guess because this is mid-week, it is “ok” to feel a bit adrift here. We are still building through at least three more comics. I will mull it over some more while I have my morning pipe and drink the 24 oz dark roast St*rb*cks coffee I just bought, and see if I can find anything else to comment about.

This whole warehouse thing is getting really boring…

I’m underwhelmed.

There’s this small sized amusement park near Orlando that competes with the big parks like Disney. The park is called ‘Fun Spot’ and it’s ad is that it is HUGE. Of course it isn’t, but the guy who says so is really annoying. And half the time he has a bunch of crazy people dancing around saying how HUGE the park is.

As a result, I have no positive associations with anyone who says their idea or product is HUGE. TJ using that word to describe his menu kind of confirms my lack of enthusiasm for the word…

The university in my hometown has its fair share of notable theater majors, and I know that for about 20 years, they used an old Quonset hut for some of their productions.

http://theatre.owu.edu/alumni/whosWho.html

This is not a good deal at all. A couple of hundred dollars for old lighting instruments (which can’t really be used without a board and dimmer system…. that’s the real money…. and old systems cost too much to move) and an out-of-date sound system. And do they know how much lamps cost for older lighting instruments? And how often they need to be replaced? If you are putting in a lighting system, the cost of putting in a new system (which is labor intensive) is not that much more than installing an old system. Union Electricians are not cheap and are pretty much required.

If Mooney needs the space, let them rent it. (And a rehearsal space does NOT need stage lights or sound systems… just an area which can be tapped down for the size of the stage that you are on and where, perhaps, you can set up stand-ins for scenery…)

Quil has helped in his own way.Money would help, too.The equipment should be part of what they need anyway.Most likely snacks and meal purchases will happen, too.Life is good.

If Luann couldn’t handle Prudence what’s going to happen to all the girls he works with at the warehouse?

Actually most rentals from “real theaters” include the lights and sound system (for a cost). These are not something that a theater company without a theater would ever own. Yes, it is possible to “rent” portable lighting systems, but they are not nearly as useful. And if you are theater group renting a real theater, you need someone who is actually trained in lights and lighting systems to light your show….

It will work if Greg wants it to work.

News Flash !!! That’s a huge NOTHING unless Frank’s opening a charity or planning on running a flea market, .what he need’s, beside a dose of reality, is a cash flow IN, not just bleeding money OUT. Question for Frank: have you ever considered charging (even highly discounted) rent ? Or do you think you can make your mortgage payment with an old broken down light fixture instead of cash? “Sorry Bank, I don’t have any money this month, but I can give you this useless light fixture”…se how far that gets you.

Yes TJ, a HUGE waste of time.

“Would you invest if you had no input?”.I would if I trusted the other and knew she knew what she was doing better than I do.

old lights and sound gear?? seems like Moony should cough up a little in the area of an operating budget not just old equipment they don’t want anymore..

If Mooney would help build a stage, now that would be reasonable. If they are the first user of the space then they may have to at least give a hand at that.

Build a stage? Its got to be a “black box” type of theater. A proscenium house pretty much needs to be custom built. The cost of running counterweight rails, spot lines and the like (even if possible) is even more than the lights. Black box theaters are quite useful and quite common. They don’t really have a “stage” in the common sense of the word.

They probably Should get an electrician to inspect those Lights to be sure that years of Students messing with them hasn’t left them just a little bit Out of Code..I remember My student days and a Lot of the theater’s lighting & Sound gear had been messed around with by people who knew Just Enough that was Wrong about Electricity to make Touching some of that stuff a truly Tingly experience..A Little “Knowledge” is even More dangerous when it’s Wrong..

Shut up, TJ!

I hate it when someone reminds me how they missed me at [title of thing I didn’t really want to do].

Somebody mentioned they needed a stage. I think there’s already one there since the university staged a production there back in December, right? Isn’t that how they even know about the warehouse?

Found your reply – thanks -

Stuff from Rudy Vallée’s era wouldn’t meet most modern fire codes; dimmers from that age, instead of controlling the power, took it all and dumped the unwanted part into the coils, in the form of heat. (I knew people who were stuck with them in the 70s who would strip down to their underwear to operate the nasty things.) They would very probably have asbestos-infused insulation, too.

But there have been entire generations of equipment since then. When I was in high school, we had autotransformers; when I was in college, thyristors. By the 80s, you could get boards that hooked up to Apple IIs, and there has been plenty of progress since then, such as spots (spotlights) that can re-gel (replace colored filters, which were traditionally made of gelatin, with others) and refocus (re-aim) themselves by preprogrammed remote control. And, of course, LED lights are coming into use (fluorescents make funky colors, so they were never applied). Stuff becomes obsolete long before it wears out, so this kind of deal really isn’t that unusual.

I like that everyone is pitching in with what they have or can do. It may be more 50s collaboration than 2015 throw money at it and see if it sticks, but it makes for a cute comic.

Someone in the drama department knows someone at the lumber yard who donates scrap, 2nds, clearance wood. Someone else knows a carpenter who brings a crew to build what the Mooney kids need. The fabric store donates a bunch of old canvas and fabrics, the Luann and the art class paint and make into curtains, Gunther makes costumes and uniforms. The city gives them a small business grant.

The parental DeGroots are able to guide TJ to a more reasonable menu with a Chef Special of the Night because he looks to them as parents. They open a Dinner Theatre, Comedy Cafe, Karaoke/Open Mike Nite bar. Whatever… it’ll be fun.

Remember, it’s a comic. You have to suspend comprehensive logical thought. And we have to have that wedding venue.

Quill to the rescue, and worming his way into his future in-laws hearts, I hope!

Don’t have time to read all the comments, so I hope I am not repeating someone else. :-)

I have no money to spare and no home repair skills to speak of. But I’d be happy to pitch in when someone else starts the project…

“Moony Tunes”^Good one!!

Got it" ^Acknowledged!

Thank you!!! – I guess it’s the “madness” here at “Luann” that inspires me, daily, heh, heh!!!

“Wonder what he’d be able to do in an hour or two.”^Heh heh, depends on the day, too. Some days are “whiz bang”, and some days are “well, okay, let’s see….zzzz…. oh, where was I?” kind of days. -Sometimes, though, I imagine a few of us here in an hour or two’s time, could come up with a “pretty decent script” for a show!!!!

We’re likely NOT talking about decrepit old dangerous equipment,^Well, that is true!!!

(Ronco:) LOLOLOLOL!!!

“I double-dog DARE you to click on the Luann musical, “Scenes In A Teen’s Life” link to the upper right of this page! You’ll see why we all CRINGE at the thought of that!”^Actually, just a click on Luann’s “Hey Boy!” on YouTube will do the same trick, in even less time….

I have a hammer. I can help.^And when you’re done, a line of people said they’re waiting to use it, next. Marry took one from Peter to repay Paul, but then Paul lost it, and, well…..that’s why they need to borrow it….

Yes, she did seem to improve some in her restraint. But in a couple of the strips (especially when Quill gets a call from NY, as they’re unloading the bags from Lu’s car), you could see her face wanting to show a bit of concern, at least a little…

I almost mentioned FunSpot in NH too. Good to know you’re a neighbor.

Down here, we always get laughed at, for closing schools in a foot of snow. People from Buffalo, Chicago, Minnesota always like to famously say: “Back home, we’d never close schools…. unless the teachers ran out of cold medicine!”…or maybe something similar to that… – They also probably laugh at us (and maybe rightly so) since the mere mention of cold weather prompts everyone to take all the tissue, milk and bread, as if it were a “Black Friday Sale” at the grocery store….

No, that one was me, all the way….

Cold is always much worse on the water!

I tolerate it here mainly because the sun and I don’t get along and the heat kills me. Although this past winter really s*cked!My theory: When cold you can always add another layer of clothes. When hot you can only remove so much, skin doesn’t peel off too easily…

@argythree I’ll come help you, too. Just let us know when and where.

Gary 13, I like all your nice, encouraging comments.