Review of The Whiskey Rebellion's The 236th Annual Summit of the Moose Scouts of America at Rhinofest

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called The 236th Annual Summit of the Moose Scouts of America. It was by Jessica Wright Buha and Aileen McGroddy. It was directed by Aileen McGroddy. It was about these two Moose Scout rangers named Ranger Jeff (Isaac Samuelson) and Ranger Jane (Annie Cleveland) and they are giving a presentation about Moose Scouting and what they are going to change because they want it to be more about hunting and wilderness stuff so they will be prepared if there is a giant man-eating rat infestation. What happened is that they wanted to show that everything would be okay if they did this. But it meant that they had to give up a bunch of awesome badges to make room. They were all like Girl Scout badges, like knitting, sewing, baking, stuff like that. They didn't use to be like surviving-a-wolf-attack badge. I think this show was very fun. It was funny but scary to think about what the Girls Scouts would be like in the dark future where there are such things as man-eating rats and the world is just freaking messed up.

I really liked Ranger Jane. I thought that her character was basically like what the man usually is in an old-fashioned western. Jeff is the one who got his badge for solving a problem, but she got hers for defending herself from wolves. I liked how she was so obsessed with her knife, and for the entire time when all the audience was getting in and Ranger Jeff was talking in a a sweet kind way to everyone, she just continued sharpening her knife. And then whenever there was something about a knife in a story or something she would hold it up to the sky and then point it at the audience, and then Ranger Jeff would be like, "Don't point it at the audience" and he would hide it in plants. And that was very funny. Ranger Jane also got very angry at the projector and ripped it up and said, "It had to be destroyed" in a very grim voice. And then Ranger Jeff would say, "Well, that's what you had to do, Ranger Jane" because he was talking earlier about how you have to help fellow Moose Scouts if they are in a state of distress.

The five fingers of Moose Scouting were basically the rules of the Moose Scouts. They were called this because their founder had chopped off her hand to feed to these animals so she wouldn't get eaten. I found that so weird, but gross, but hilarious because no sane Girl Scout people have rules about a severed hand! And basically the main ideas behind Moose Scouting were knives and be nice to each other, and those things don't necessarily go together all the time. I also really liked the dramocumentary which was basically a drama but also a documentary that they were going to watch with their projector, but Jane basically destroyed the projector so then they had to act it all out. And that was really funny. It was funny because they were doing these overacting moves and had a very batman-sounding narrator. The dramocumentary was was about their founder and her glove-making skills. I thought that was pretty funny because she went from sewing gloves for everybody in the town to being a wilderness explorer!

Ranger Jeff was the sweet one of the Moose Scouts. He was just like, "I want to have fun all the time!" and Ranger Jane was always like, "Let's go kill some things!" At the beginning he would come around and talk to people in the audience and tell them all his badges. I really liked the donut eating badge because who just has a stomachache to get a badge!? At the beginning you feel like, "He's very enthusiastic. Ranger Jeff seems like a nice guy." But then closer to the end you are feeling like, it is just not working to be enthusiastic with Ranger Jane, so he should just try to be like her for a little bit and that might make her feel better. Jane understands better than Jeff that they are not in a nice world. Jeff just wants everyone to have fun, but the circumstances are not the best for just goofing off and having fun. That makes you feel like Jeff is trying to do the right thing but he is not in the circumstances to be doing the right thing. I think that Jeff was very very funny singing the Moose Scout song because he just had a giant smile on his face, and Jane was off to the side being very very serious and marching and doing the moves to the song. Me and my mom have been singing it (music by John Szymanski) all week! The song showed that the Moose Scouts used to be the dippy people but now they have to be all about wilderness and surviving man-eating rats. There was one part where they said, "Never let despair, worry your pretty hair." Wilderness survival is not usually about cutesy pretty hair or giving each other high fives, which is also in the song.

People who would like this show are people who like high fives, moose, and knives! I think people should definitely go see this show. I had a blast at this show. It is just so weird and so enjoyable that I was basically laughing the entire time!


Photos: Evan Hanover