Show goes on goofily for good-humor men, women

Not every mayor of a city would be willing to portray the mayor of Munchkinland in a silly skit, but Scott City's Tim Porch did. Not every county coroner would undertake the role of the Munchkinland coroner who pronounces the Wicked Witch of the East "sincerely dead." Scott County's Scott Amick did so, sincerely.

At least they don't have to dress up in a Scooby-Doo costume like school board member Wayne Petitt.

The reason these upstanding gentlemen and some even more upstanding ladies are willing to dress up and commit goofy acts is the annual Scott City PTO Follies, a show of homegrown skits annually attended by hundreds, including many students.

"They like to see their teachers acting silly," says Follies co-director Vicki Howell.

Who could pass up a chance to see the coaches in curlers for the skit "Beauty School Dropout" or various community members all dressed up as the "Retirement Village People?"

The follies will be presented again tonight and Saturday night at the Scott City High School gym.

"At the Movies" is the theme of this year's show. Howell and co-director Sally Porch have devised a recurring gag in which Dorothy (second-grade teacher Kathy Watkins) goes looking for the Wizard of Oz but encounters a number of near-misses: Rock and TV star Ozzy Osbourne (kindergarten teacher Jill Pinkston), Ozzie Smith (Luis Ortiz), an Aussie (would-be crocodile hunter Justin Braun) and even a wizard (Chris Stevens as Harry Potter).

SpongeBob SquarePants (Karla Hillemann) and Spider-Man (Matt Johnson) also drop in.

Nobody is serious about any of this, with the exception of a group of black-light dancers in a bit called "Chimney Sweeps" and Ryan Corn, who plays the winning contestant in "American Idol." Corn can sing.

Overcoming inhibition

Porch says people usually are reluctant to be in one of the skits "until they have done it once and realize how much fun it is." Then they beg to be in more than one.

A nurse who works for Blue Cross-Blue Shield, Porch writes most of the script. Howell, an administrative assistant at Southeast Missouri State University, is the primary organizer. The sets and most of the costumes are homemade. The PTO usually makes about $3,000 from the show to use toward its projects.

Watkins played Ginger in a "Gilligan's Island" skit a couple of years ago and dances merrily down the Yellow Brick Road as Dorothy. How did she get such plum parts? "Maybe I just don't say no," she offers.

Pinkston's role as Ozzy Osbourne does not require much elocution.

"I just mumble through the whole thing," she says.

She wore her Ozzy wig to class Thursday to prime her kindergartners for the show.

"They'll be there on the front row," she predicts.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182