Haus of Ruckus' “Zooted Suits,” April 25 through May 4

Friday, April 25, through Sunday, May 4

Black Box Theatre, 1623 Fifth Avenue, Moline IL

In the stage-comedy troupe Haus of Ruckus' latest production Zooted Suits, running April 25 through May 4 at Moline's Black Box Theatre, audiences will again spend an hour-plus in the company of best-bud protagonists Johnny and Fungus. These charming slackers have appeared in the majority of Ruckus' theatrical slapsticks since its “Jacques”alope debut in November of 2021, the characters always memorably and hilariously played by company founders Calvin Vo and T Green.

Yet in our recent phone chat about their new play, it takes Vo more than a half-hour to drop a bomb that probably should've been dropped in the first five minutes: “We're thinking, with the format we have now, this might be the last time we write Johnny and Fungus.”

Ummm … what?!

“It isn't necessarily the end of the characters,” says Green. “I think it's more that this era of Johnny and Fungus is coming to a close. We'll continue to work on our stand-alone plays that we're doing, and Calvin and I will still work together, and Haus of Ruckus will still exist. We've got a play planned for the fall at St. Ambrose [University], so Haus of Ruckus is still good. But I think this will be our eighth Johnny-and-Fungus, and eight of anything is quite a lot.

“And as we wrote this,” Green continues, “with the play about cartoons and the very nature of Johnny and Fungus so inspired by cartoons, we realized it's kind of the perfect 'series finale,' in a way.”

“We wrote the story,” says Vo, “and then when we got to the last couple of scenes, we were like, 'Oh, this a nice way to end! Let's pause here.' I don't think we're never going to see them again. I just think the format of the little-bit-more-than-an-hour-long, fully produced play … . I don't know if we'll do that with them anymore.”

“Or,” Green adds, “we might just do the opposite of Leslie Nielsen and start making dramas.”

Before that day comes, however, Haus of Ruckus is still devoted to making us laugh – and, in Zooted Suits, with a situation that longtime fans of Johnny and Fungus might find improbable even given the characters' past exploits: These professionally unemployed pals are actually becoming professionals.

“In Zooted Suits,” says Green, “Johnny and Fungus discover that they have not paid their light bill or rent, so they suddenly need to find jobs. That's all anyone's been saying to us: 'When's Haus of Ruckus gonna tackle the inherent humor of the workplace?'

“So Johnny and Fungus get jobs at Bart Zippy Animations company, home of the mascot Cubey Cheese, and after that, the play kind of branches off a bit. Fungus starts exploring the more corporate side of the animation company, and Johnny gets whisked away to this world of forgotten cartoon characters. It is a story about Johnny and Fungus finally growing up, but it's also – I don't know if I've used this phrase in these interviews before – kind of a love letter to cartoons.” (For the record, as Green well knows, she has used that phrase in these interviews before.)

“We've always said that our plays have been like live-action cartoons,” continues Green, “and there have been many times in writing where one of us is like 'What if we drop a piano on their head?' Or 'What if their head turns into a smokestack?' Then the other person has to say 'No, because this is live-action.'”

“And for this show,” says Vo, “exploring the whole world of Bart Zippy, we wanted to create the feel of a full studio that's had a life. So there are multiple characters we had to develop. We didn't just pull out Popeye or Droopy Dog. We came up with characters specific to the show, and we get a whole host of different eras of animation all in this one company.”

That seems fitting, as Green and Vo are admirers of those different eras themselves.

“Growing up,” says Green, “I really responded to SpongeBob. That's what I watched all the time, and in many ways, it sort of socially stunted my growth. People my age will have memories of other movies and shows they watched, and any time they're like 'You haven't seen that movie?', I have to be like, 'No, that was the era of my life when I was only watching SpongeBob.'

“And once you look into who created SpongeBob,” Green continues, “that brings you to Rocko's Modern Life, and that leads to other shows, and they become a gateway into the whole world of animation – how in these cartoons, even though they're maybe written 'for kids,' there are teams of passionate artists behind them that have a genuine vision.”

Vo, meanwhile, says, “There are lots of kids from my generation that will remember the random, old-timey cartoon VHS tapes that were in barrels at, like, Menards. I had a handful of those, and they were cartoons I saw all the time growing up that I didn't know were from iconic studio houses creating some of their best work – old Popeye cartoons, classic Superman cartoons, and, obviously, Looney Tunes cartoons. So I grew up with some amazing types of animation that everyone is so nostalgic for nowadays, and that led to the heyday of Nickelodeon with Rugrats and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and Rocko's Modern Life … . Stuff that was unique.

“But then there were things I wasn't allowed to watch,” Vo continues. “Beavis & Butthead, South Park, Daria, The Simpsons – the beginning of animation for adults. All these things were iconic from the start. And this was also the heyday for the Cartoon Network. Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack … . Things that really shaped cartooning in a way that was kind of alternative. So I started looking for things that were a little more niche, and turning up my nose at the younger kids' stuff. Like SpongeBob. At first, I really hated SpongeBob. But then T and I became friends, and through exposure, I'm now a huge SpongeBob fan. I've seen every episode of SpongeBob to date.”

“Even I have not seen every single episode of SpongeBob,” says Green.

“This is making Zooted Suits sound more about SpongeBob than it is,” admits Vo. “But what happened with that, and with all these others shows, is it sort of opened up this whole world. You realize everything now [in animation] comes from Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Max Fleischer, early Disney and Warner Bros. … . Like when Rocko's eyes pop out of his head and his tongue gets all squiggly and large, you understand, 'Yeah, Tex Avery invented that.'”

Consequently, as demonstrated by Haus of Ruckus' animated Zooted Suits teaser on Facebook, a Looney Tunes spirit will assuredly permeate their latest production – though any similarities to the new show's plot and the recent Daffy Duck/Porky Pig adventure The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie are, Green and Vo insist, entirely coincidental.

“We've had Zooted Suits on the back burner for quite a while,” says Green. “I think we were workshopping it around the same time we were writing [2022's] 'Pants' Labyrinth. We have a whiteboard of all our ideas, and Zooted Suits has been on there for at least a couple years.”

“Our minds are more active than I think people assume,” says Vo.

“But ironically,” continues Green, “our Zooted Suits read-through was on Tuesday Movie Night, so as a bonding exercise, we all went to see The Day the Earth Blew Up. And what was hilarious about it was that it was about these two cartoon slackers – one of them kind of aggressive, the other one goodhearted but kind of dim – and there's a part in it where they were actually getting jobs. Calvin and I immediately stood up and pointed at each other when it happened, because that was exactly what our play was about.”

With Iowa City's Davy Behm providing animations, Amy Rotramel working the tech booth, Miguel Cabral helping build the set, and Robert Chaney writing music for an original song (with Vo composing lyrics), Zooted Suits is also, like most Haus of Ruckus offerings, about bringing the band back together.

In addition to Vo and Green reprising Johnny and Fungus, their new comedy boasts familiar company talents Andres Garcia, Sarah Goodall, Bella Kuta, Max Robnett, David Weaver, and Keenen Wilson. Area-theatre and ComedySportz fans, however, will notice one new face among the show's ensemble members: Jeremy Mahr.

“We actually contacted him about 'Jacques'alope way in the beginning,” says Vo. “Jeremy was unavailable because he was really busy at the time, and since then, of course, he's been doing many, many projects. But it's so wonderful to finally work with him. He understands the environment, he understands the way the process works, and he understands the humor really well. He's one of those people you really enjoy working with because they really think about the process of doing theatre and think about their choices.”

“We love him,” agrees Green. “And we finally got a text message from Jeremy a while ago, that said, 'If Haus of Ruckus needs another old man to hang around, I don't have much going on.'”

“But I don't think of Jeremy as old,” says Vo.

“No, not at all,” says Green. “Especially because the other 'old man' in question is my dad Terry Green, who is well into his 70s.” A beat. “Sorry, Dad.”

Haus of Ruckus' Zooted Suits will be performed at Moline's Black Box Theatre April 25 through May 4, with the Friday-through-Sunday performances beginning at the company's traditional start time of 7:34 p.m. For reservations, e-mail HausOfRuckusQC@gmail.com, and for more information on the comedy and the company, visit Haus of Ruckus on Facebook and Instagram.