The PENCIL Show

Our first show at Spartanburg's The Showroom began with Chris quitting. Or...going no further. He simply couldn't go on. And he promised to explain.

Jeff came to return a bagful of bad mechanical pencil lead. Apparently, the lead refills had turned to dust in their containers. Chris (Terry) suggested that he might have shaken them too hard. Jeff insisted that he had not, and needed them to be replaced. And then...Terry recognized him. From camp. Years before...

11 year-old Terry began his camp talent show performance. Rather than sing, he would tell jokes. And dance. But the audience wasn't having it. And eventually, the camp director (Skippy) dismissed the assembly and came to comfort the would-be comedian. Skippy seemed to soothe Terry's nerves, but also revealed that he was worried about one of his best counselors (Kevin) who had taken ill and was receiving test results at the doctor.

Dr. Bennett would have to see Kevin in Dr. Carson's absence...and the test results did not look good. According to his x-rays, Kevin had a Putt-Putt pencil lodged in his ribcage. Suddenly, he began to really feel the acute discomfort in his side...which Dr, Bennett wisely attributed to the power of suggestion. Still, Dr. Bennett was adamant that Kevin take time off from camp...relax...unwind...at the Coastal Maritime Museum.

As the pirate ship tour wound down, the group was brought into the ship's hold for a startling reveal: their pirate guide (Chris) was actually a local actor from the community college. And...the swashbuckling adventures on deck were all staged! Mrs. Evelyn Rosewater (Jeff) was winded from all the climbing (up and down the mast to see the crow's nest, no less), but curious about swordplay. After accidentally cutting a small child, Chris showed Mrs. Rosewater some stage combat tricks of the trade.

Brick Coogan (Chris) was once the greatest voice-over artist of them all. And Paul (Jeff) was his biggest fan. Brick had inspired Paul to get into the business after all. But Brick was now a bitter and boozing lost soul. As Paul tried to cheer him up, Brick explained that one bad decision had made him a slave to the bosses. He once signed a contract in pencil lead rather than ink. And it had been his downfall.

And ultimately, that's why he couldn't go on. No more. He quit. His life had been one long collection of broken dreams: a child prodigy, he'd tried his hand and comedy and dance at music camp one summer and died on stage. Undeterred, he'd moved on to acting in college, but wound up working as a pirate in the summer. And now...here he was. Tired. Lost. And yet...ready to start over.