By Alan Nicoll
For shoes, wear hiking boots, probably decorated with purple bows or ? Sew wig to hood.
Oliver: let him look through makeup book and magazines. He can wear his yellow boots, engineer cap sideways, red nose. Clothing? Engineer cap: attach (glue?) short yarn "hair" to edge.
PLEASE make bouncing handkerchief! Suspenders: Remove pair of clips from "snapping" end; sew fixed end to pants. Cut-off broom. Cap gun?
When I bend over to wipe spectator's shoes with bouncing handkerchief, Oliver sneaks up (exaggerate sneaking), finger to lips to spectators, "shhh!" to build suspense--then hits me in the butt with broom (or slapstick?). I jump up, look around, then chase Oliver until he pulls his gun & shoots, then I run away with him chasing me (until we catch up with our place in parade).
Variant: Oliver hits, then hands broom to spectator! Think ahead about this: respond mock-hurt and conversational "was it you?" and "why did you do that?" and "have I ever hit you in the butt?" instead of mock-angry "it was you!"
Loose suspenders, Oliver pulls--hey, why can't I walk?--and lets snap. Practice this.
Broom prop (see other document): have Oliver "drag" me uphill. A cut off broom, perhaps ridiculously short (but not too short, or will be mistaken for whisk broom), could be funny in itself and possibly useful as a soundless slapstick.
Handkerchief can be very useful with spectators, dusting their shoes, chairs, etc., and, of course, bouncing it.
Cap gun to Oliver, let him shoot me at various points; warn him not to shoot at crowd.
Oliver should have something to interact with crowd by himself, so we can work both sides independently. Either perform, or give away stickers to kids.
See "lessons from parade" document!
Be ready to take pictures!
How does the weather look?