Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for July 31, 2017

nice talk, Mr. and Mrs. DeGroot

I guess if Kafe Kablooey is doing okay, there must be a lot more customers than we ever get a chance to see. But who builds a stage with the idea of getting rich?

They’re not doing their due diligence. If they don’t want to spend their retirement years saying “Paper or plastic?” they might want to bring in a professional event booker.

If they get filthy rich, some will demonize them for their “obscene wealth.”

As best I can make out “obscene wealth” is wealth in other people’s hands.

“Meanwhile …”

Hopefully Luann will arrive with an update tomorrow.

This arc is at a real crossroads. I’m anxious to see where the Evanses intend to take it.

The worst scenario is that it’s a prelude to Pru’s exit. I’d hate to see that, because I think she’s one of the most interesting characters.

On the other hand, they might get Mr. Gray or others involved, and come up with a winning plan to make the theater a big success. With Pru’s job secure.

Only time will tell, but we may know before the week’s over.

It is so rare for theaters to make money. Many if not most have patron sponsors.

It doesn’t look like Kate Kablooey is a late night joint. Since this is a warehouse – maybe no houses next door – they could rent out the stage for late night band rehearsals.

@David Huie Green: As best I can make out “obscene wealth” is wealth in other people’s hands.

I don’t think anyone should ever be criticized for being or becoming wealthy, unless they made the world into a significantly worse place to get there.

I recall that Pru bar tends and maybe waits tables. The theater is a labor of love – not likely to earn a living for anybody involved.

“It looked like her theater camp was going to do great”? Based on what? The fact that they had set up a lot of chairs?

Sorry to burst your bubbles, N & F DeGroots. Having a stage does not translate to great revenue. It doesn’t translate into profits from plays, musicals, or whatever. It is how you use it. Pru and Luann’s epic failure says to forget about plays or camps. Want revenue? Host karaoke nights, hire stand-up comedy, hire local bands, and rent out the stages for special events. Expand the Kafe Kalbooie to the stage area for the karaoke, stand-up comedy and bands and you can become near-rich, at least. Expand your liquor menu for the stage events and you WILL make money – a lot of it.

I’d like to see Nancy filthy rich. In fact I’d like to see Nancy filthy anything…

I’d like to see the whole world poor.

We used to have a television producer who also did an interview show with school administrators that we would have to remind to ditch his ubiquitous pencil-behind-the-ear before we would start taping the program.

I find it amusing that there are those who desperately want to get rid of TJ, whose contribution to the Fuse is “solid.”

Well, on the plus side, they’re trying to live out their dream while they can still do it, instead of, as the Unrelated Segments astutely observed a half century ago, “Working for a man you hate, eight to five each day”.

You’re going to be pretty disappointed, Nancy.

I wonder if Greg has refrigerator magnets for every day of the year?

Is “Queen Powerstick” digging her in-door pool in the next room?

Wow. So, far 37 posts and NOBODY has suggested yet, that if the DeGroots REALLY wanted to make money, They’d feature Pole Dancers on that “Stage” Starting with the Stunning Newcomer, “Tiffany LaFerrell!”

Join Us Now as Soon-To-Be-Former Employee, the Drooling, “Tiffany-Groping,” Les Knox is Inadvertently PUNCHED Right into the Middle of 9 Chickweed Lane, by Head Bouncer Oxford, “WHO,” has Apparently FORGOTTEN (Like Certain other Characters in the VAST Luanniverse) a Key Aspect of His established Persona: That He is “Supposed” to be “Non-Violent.”

Stunned Onlookers stare in Horror, but Amusement, as Gunther enters the establishment and says" “Good!”

so far it looks like they are only going to get filthy.

Nancy didn’t stay for the belly drop when 2 kids showed up. But if those booklets you receive when attending a performance are any indicator, you need to sell advertising.

“Checks And Balance Sheets”

“A Remote Controller”

“Shock And Audit”

“Twisted Register” (♩)

“Profits, To A Tee Shirt”

“Easy As Falling Off The Logs”

“The Ink Is Black, The Page Is White…” (♪)

“Caught Red, Too Tight”

“Taint No One’s Business”

“Treasury Island”

“The Account Of Monty Crisco”

“If It’s Missing, Check The Loss And Funds”

“No Monopoly On Payday”

“You Banked My Saddled Ship!”

or

“Three Spreadsheets To The Wind”

Did Jonah come back to pick up Shannon?

As I recall, one of the primary financial considerations in the construction of the Fuse was that Moony Uni’s world-famous drama department was temporarily without a rehearsal stage, because it was undergoing renovations (which sounds about as improbable as a major football powerhouse’s temporarily being without a practice field, but never mind). Presumably Moony arranged to pay Frank rent for the use of his facility. Did that all go away, and is Moony no longer using the Fuse for rehearsing? If so, did they take back all the lighting and other equipment from the old Moony stage that Quill had moved to the Fuse, which was to be used for those rehearsals?

Interesting that while Frank’s dressed in the red …-ish…, Nancy’s in the black!

Local flower festival has a food tent with a stage. They have bands playing at 390 decibels. Why? I have no clue but I go elsewhere in the park to eat!

I would think they’d give Pru a little leeway as she has been so helpful to them. And where is Shannon?

I could not think of anything to write last night so I get to review what people have written early wake up here in the Midwest. And they are more all over the map than usual, I think because Greg has thrown a ringer in suddenly going to Nancy and Frank talking about the Fuse and Kafe Kablooey, while the theater camp arc, particularly with the fate of Fay being left up in the air. Beyond that some people are still wondering what happened to the Shannon arc, where Pru and Luann, and Luann’s parents were taken c/o Shannon in the absence (again) of her dad Jonah. And people complain they are bored, and whatever particular story is BORING. I suggest just go with the flow, it will all tie together. I mean the Bernice story, or Gunther will as well, and who can forget poor Tiffany coming to a crises of self really. That is what makes the strip so addicting. It’s like the weather here in Chicago; if you don’t like it now, just wait a few hours, a day at the most (lol).

Maybe they would have made more money from a 100-seat auditorium if they hadn’t staged their “holiday show” for just a single performance and then shut down throughout the actual holidays.

Fearless Predictions. Quill is about to reappear and assume theatre management. Jonah will return and want the lead in the first big production. In order to save KK, Quill will truthfully tell him he just doesn’t have it. Jonah departs in a huff, and Shannon is left with the remaining family. At least a couple of years worth of material for Evans to use.

Yes, I know the theatre is not KK. Whatever. Maybe the Starbuck Jones cast from Funky and Crankshaft will meander into this strip.

I think this is one of the more unattractive traits of Frank. If one remembers, he wanted to charge Pru rent when she came out on her own dime to help with the grand opening. Also, how does he expect to get rich with what appears to be an overglorified dinner theater getup?

I guess Prudence has been promoted to some kind of management responsibility? Apparently she’s more than just tending bar now.

Could this come back to focus the picture on (good ol’???) Les about the money issue? … Ehhhhh, COULD be!

If you want to get rich, invest your money in a real business, not some ridiculous event space. And maybe start charging that freeloader Prudence some rent.

So now it’s Pru’s job to book shows for the theater? (She certainly wasn’t hired to do that – she came to the Fuse to stage her own show, at no cost to the DeGroots, naturally. Then she paid them rent to stay on and work with Quill, again for free. Finally, she did get hired – as a bartender.) Just what, then, is Frank‘s job in the whole operation? It’s certainly not running the Fuse – the place never would have opened at all, without Mr. Gray’s volunteering to do all the managing.

Here is my morning’s “pipe and coffee” break analysis for today:

1. I am a bit concerned that this is a setting designed to start an arc where Pru will be gotten rid of as a character. Perhaps Greg has found it too difficult to write more “theater” type arcs, or perhaps he simply finds them tiresome?

I think initially the theatrical aspect to her character and the theatrical aspect for The Fuse was all needed to allow Greg to keep the story arc cohesive as he (hopefully) got rid of Quill. Perhaps Greg has grown tired of all the “theatrical” aspects of the Luann comic?

2. I like that TJ’s cafe (Kafe Kablooee) is “solid”. If I were to take a semi-“White Album” approach to the analysis…. maybe this is a secret message Greg is sending us to let us know, that regardless of all the TJ-dislikers who keep suggesting TJ should get sent into the volcano…… that TJ is safe as a character…. and is going to be here for the long haul.

3. Every time I read or hear someone use the word “solid”, I immediately think of Linc Hayes, the character portrayed by Clarence Williams III in “The Mod Squad”. He would frequently refer to things as being “solid” or would ask others to “give him a solid”. Very 1960’s-1970’s cultural reference, but IMO it was a really good show… and the show had an AMAZING theme song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZiPijyoDGs

That theme song was written by Earle Hagen, one of the greatest television theme composers around!

Pipe and coffee are finished…. back to work for me.

Too bad someone forgot to put a non-compete clause in their daughter’s employment contract.

Hmm. Did Frank & Nancy invest in the stage, or was it Mr. Gray & T.J.? :)

To me, however, the overall feel of today gives me the vibe that Frank and Nancy feel financially “underwater”. They both seem rather grim, and while the eatery is “solid” the theater is apparently losing money (understandable, I guess, with the shockingly poor attendance at the camp, but Nancy and Frank do not know about that yet).

Frank seems kind of grumpy in the first two panels today. Even in the third panel, when he is making the “talking dirty [to me]” comment…. he still has a sort of grumpy demeanor.

And, I am presuming Nancy is supposed to be looking “wistful” at the absurdity of her “Filthy Rich” comment…. but she actually looks kind of grumpy to me.

When Frank talked about the need for Pru to “book more events”….. it made me ponder…. I wonder HOW MANY events have they had at the theater? We only know of (I believe) two…. the big Christmas Play…. and the Theater camp. Surely there have been other events behind the scenes…. but apparently not a whole helluva lot of events.

[Tongue in cheek comment:] Perhaps this will lead Frank and Nancy to suggest to Pru that she take some classes at Pitt CC or Moony U about business management? Then Pru will have a way to have a bigger role in the comic…. by being around when all the campus things happen this year.

Pru needs to book more events? Maybe you need to book more events, Frank. Just what did you think your job would be, when you took on this venture?

Talking dirty about getting filthy rich!

The drafting of today’s financial review seems a bit different from the norm. Is Greg taking some time off and letting someone else ghost for him? Or was he in a hurry to finish this one? Or is just me?

As for Prudence and the Theater Space, it takes money to make money, especially in such a risky business as live theater. Either DeGroots put more into it (and risk retrospectively “throwing good money after bad”) or they bite the bullet and either accept its losses or shut it down….

tomorrow: Luann catches her parents “In flagrante delicto”

Seriously, have Frank and Nancy done anything since the Fuse opened? Besides making fun of Mr. Gray and brining Shannon there? It’s embarrassing!

If the Fuse is developing financial problems, it may be time to make staff cuts and get rid of the dead wood. That would be Frank and Nancy.

How can this comic have 300 comments?!?!