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HIGH BEAK

Scaggnolia the Great

FEBRUARY 1976

By Matt Phillips

Very seldom does a person walk into a bar, just happen to meet an internationally known actor, and then sit down and talk about his work and ideas for the next two hours. It is a rare occurrence at any time, but it is a rare joy when the actor happens to be Joe Melly.

When I met Joe he had just started preparation for his opening at The Vaults (February 26). He was dressed in his old work clothes and had just finished cleaning and constructing a rehearsal hall for "Fly By Night Productions Presents Scaggnolia the Great featuring the World Famous Scaggettes who have been working tirelessly and secretly to make your life more miserable."

For those, like me, who saw Scaggnolia at the Bayou Landing, Joe explains that this will be something completely different. It will be a variation of the shows which he has presented in Florida, California, London and Paris. "Its Cosmic Comedy, Kabuki-Mime Theater" like Marcel Marceau. Besides Scaggnolia there will be a troup of five. The World Famous Scaggettes."

It's not a drag show. "I'm doing theater." All costuming and choreography are thorough-

ly thought out. Even the hand motions have certain meanings. Often Scag's hand motions form an alphabet and the hands are also used as frames reminiscent of a comic strip or a movie, because in reality Scaggnolia is a cartoon. Joe first created him as a cartoon for the L.A. Free Press. Later, Scaggnolia was transformed from paper into a three dimensional cartoon. Like a cartoon, Scaggnolia represents the total innocence of any situation. In basic comedy sex doesn't exist, therefore Scaggnolia is a unisex character neither male nor female or both female and male.

Before you start thinking of Joe Melly AS Scaggnolia, there is a definite difference. "I am an actor. I portray Scaggnolia the Great... I'm sort of the director and Scag, in turn, impersonates others... Scaggnolia is an illusion which only exists on stage. After the last number, Scag's need is fulfilled and Joe takes over."

Like all creative performers, there is a slight streak of insanity in Joe Melly. Well structured insanity, but insanity none the less. He is stil considering renting a space in the Metropolitan Museum of Art sitting in costume, and labeling it a "Livage," because of his costuming and make-up. All the costumes are authentic: it's only

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the character that is plastic and not the clothing. Much of it dates back to the 1890's, 1910's and 1920's.

Scaggnolia

off. Melly took 7 years to develope his techniques which uses acrylics and latex instead of grease paint. When it came to

Photo by Herbert Ascherman

The make-up used to create Scaggnolia takes three hours to apply and ten minutes to take

the actual design "my face told me what to do." Every part is placed to work with the facial muscles and not against them.

To actually put the show together, Joe draws on a wealth of experiences. A native of New York City who grew up in Miami, he worked in New York as an illustrator. Later after moving to California, he became an executive of a display company, doing work for such stores as Sak's Fifth Avenue. Joe was also responsible for the seasonal trim at Disneyland and the opening of Disney World.

In 1961, he was working for $30-$40 a week along with Jim Bailey and Michael Greer. Since then he has toured as Scaggnolia with Art Linkletter

and The Young Americans and Barry White and The Love Unlimited Orchestra besides working a year and a half in London.

As a dramatic actor, he was Michael Greer's understudy for ortune In Men's Eyes.

When asked about drag slows, Joe said that it takes ore than a Taffeta gown to nake a show. Shows should be upgraded. "As a minority he can do more to show the public that there is more to us. Most gay shows are effortless. I put in the effort! I'm fighting for a good show; to give people more than their money's worth."

The effort is evident when Joe sin town three weeks before pening night to start ehearsing his troupe and building his stage and set.

The show itself is about "the struggle of being a star... a somebody looking for identity; a Boulevard of Broken Dreams. They don't have to be broken dreams. People should learn to be happy with themselves and then work to be better. As long as you don't screw up someone else, anybody can be an original. All you have to do is to do it." I'm an informer....

The same happening in the show can be interpreted at many different levels. Recently a large group of deaf people, who had none of the auditory signals that the rest of the audience had, all laughed and signed at exactly the right places. This says a lot about the universality of the presentation.

It has now been five days since I met Joe Melly and my excitement about him and his show has not decreased one iota! I do not know on what level Scaggnolia will strike me but I can hardly wait to find out. Whether you call it Cosmic Comedy, Kabuki Theater, Mime, The Theater of the Absurd, or anything else, it is definitely something new and exciting that is coming to Cleveland soon.

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