Forgive me. The name of the show may be Orville Doodles and his Terrible Imagination but I couldn’t help thinking (as I ponder questions that I will pose to Orville’s creator), that Orville comes from the brain of Scott McClelland.

So of course here are my questions for Scott to probe that terrible imagination of his.

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Barczablog: Are you more like your father or your mother?

Scott McClelland: An interesting question.

Strangely, I am an anomaly. I am more like my Mother’s Father (my Grandfather) than anyone else.

When it comes to temperament, I am more like my Father. Wound up a bit too tightly at times. But, my Dad also enjoys a good story… and THAT is something that is very important to me. In many ways I look more like my Mother, skin wise, thick dark hair and even build. My Father is 5’6 and thin, my Mother is built a bit more sturdy (in a good way) I have my Mother’s olive skin from the Slavic side of my family. I wish I had my Mother’s calm temperament, but alas, I am a bit more anxious and suffer from depression, like my Father.

Needless to say, the Anxiety and Depression do play an important part in how I create and strangely, that is a good thing. Having an understanding of the darker side of the human psyche is important to much of my work… and I do not think I would be as successful if I did not live with the Black Dog in my life.

But my talent and inspiration comes from my Grandfather, Prof. N.P. Lewchuk, Inventor, Artist, Carnival owner, Performer and Mage. I am like him on so many levels, but I do not feel that I could ever accomplish as much as he had in a lifetime.

Old Nick, my Grandfather, was a man driven by passion and a need to create dreams.

Scott McClelland: He invented some of the most important things on the carnival… as a young man he saw a Merry Go Round in 1917 and noted that horses would just travel in a circle with no motion, but being that he was an equestrian rider, he wondered if children would not prefer that could feel the horse gallop beneath them… and so he invented the step mechanism that makes the horses go up and down, which is the advent of the Bobbing Horse Merry-Go-Round. He also created the prototype for the Teacup Ride at Disneyland. And created the very first collapsible Ferris Wheel that was moved on a trailer base, bringing on the advent of trailer based carnival rides.

Over and above all of this, he wrote books, was a botanist, chemist, had his own record company and publishing company. They called him “The Brain from the Ukraine”. And for good reason.

My Grandfather performed Magic on stage, but performed it in a mystical and sometimes sinister fashion.

My Mom has said, when she was little, she hated watching Grampa’s Show because every performance, he would kill my Grandmother on stage, sometimes with a Guillotine or a Sword Cabinet, and it was done in the style of Grande Guignol. (Grande Guignol is a world-famous style of theatre that blends Horror and Comedy, often in shocking ways) My Grandfather would also perform Seances on stage with apparitions appearing and things going bump in the night. THIS is why I am who I am today. So much of what my Grandfather did, whether it was Vaudeville, Magic, and Sideshow… I have been doing the same. Keeping the candle burning and producing shows that are based in the strange and macabre.

BB: I’m inserting this self-portrait I found on your Facebook profile. It seems to be the perfect follow-up to what you just said.

Scott McClelland: I started my career performing as a Vaudeville and Medicine Show practitioner. My first production was called Prof. Crookshank’s Travelling Medicine Show, which ran from 1977 to 1991.

Then I created Carnival Diablo, Canada’s largest Circus Sideshow in 1992 to 2019. And now I run a mysterious Dinner Theatre called The Diablo Manor, a venue that encapsulates all of my talents from Attraction Building, Sideshow and Magic, with a healthy side of Horror.

BB: What is the best or worst thing about what you do?

Scott McClelland: I cannot say that there is anything that I hate about my work. Ultimately, I have become famous for my large production and attractions and so for many I guess setting up these large extravaganzas would be hard… but I love the process. So building a world, where one did not exist, and then tearing it down when I am through is actually exciting. I live my life much like Walt Disney did, he said “Every detail is important”. And I am meticulous about creating opulent sets and props that are otherworldly and phantasmagorical.

I enjoy creating worlds that audiences can fall into and forget the mundane for a few moments.

BB: Who do you like to listen to or watch?

Scott McClelland: When it comes to musical inspiration, I am tickled by people like Tom Waits and the Tiger Lillies. But I am also a hopeless romantic and enjoy Kate Bush, David Bowie, Classical music and then the whimsical like, David Byrne, The Crash Test Dummies and yes, The Monster Mash.

When it comes to what I watch for inspiration, anything by Terry Gilliam, Wes Anderson, John Carpenter… and then it veers off into things like The Brothers Quay and Godzilla movies, with a dash of The Munsters, The Addams Family and The Hilarious House of Frightenstein. Oh! And anything by Sid and Marty Krofft.

And it was Sid and Marty Krofft and early Jim Henson productions that really got me interested in puppeteering at an early age.

I also loved, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, A Christmas Carol and How the Grinch stole Christmas (the original)

I began making puppets at 10 years of age, and by the time I was 13, I was building large full-bodied puppets much like Sweetums in Jim Henson’s Frog Prince. I loved the ugliness of Sid and Marty Krofft’s puppets because they were never cute, but more grotesque, like something out of a Grimms Faerytale.

BB: What makes you cry? What makes you laugh?

Scott McClelland: I am a softy. I cry at dramatic films and sometimes cry from utter joy of knowing that this life is a gift.

On the other hand, I have a rather macabre sense of humour, so I laugh at some of the most sinister things. Which I think helps me write and create absurd and sometimes horrifying tales.

BB Do you have a guilty pleasure?

Scott McClelland: Yes, FOOD.

I love exotic foods from different countries, East Indian, Thai, Sushi, Mexican, African, Vietnamese barbecue and anything else that is spicy and not North American.

I seriously see gourmet cooking as an art form for my tummy. And when my tummy is happy… so am I.

BB: What ability or skill do you wish you had, that you don’t have?

Scott McClelland: I cannot play a musical instrument, and there are so many reasons for me to want to have that talent! I wish I could play the accordion and the violin… because I would actually play those instruments during my Show.

I have never had the ability to play an instrument at all. My parents put me through 7 years of guitar and I could only play ONE rudimentary song. And even then I sucked. But what I cannot do musically, I make up in all the other Arts. (Thank the Gods)

BB: When you’re just relaxing and not working, what is your favourite thing to do

Scott McClelland: Smoking my pipe and sketching ideas for new things to make and do. (I actually don’t see that as work, because I have a burning desire daily to put my thoughts on paper)

And then I eat.  YUM

BB: What was your first experience of puppets ?

Scott McClelland: I think at around 4 years of age, I started making imaginary friends out of cloth and played with them in a puppet style… but, I think I was really turned on to puppetry by Sid and Marty Krofft in the late 1960’s and early 70’s. I was fascinated with H.R. Puffin’Stuff.

But I also liked watching Laugh In and seeing Rod Hull and his Fabulous Emu or Wayland and Madame on Carol Burnett.

I consider myself very lucky, because in the late 1960’s and early 70’s there seemed to be a surge of campy Horror based entertainment on TV. I gobbled it up and created as much as I could with my little hands at the time.

I remember back in 1977 creating a Castle Puppet Theatre that was 6 feet high out of cardboard, that I would do shows out of for my friends. Creating little Monster hand puppets and even playing with paper mache to make masks that would turn me into Merlin the Wizard.

BB: What is your favourite popular puppet character?

Scott McClelland: I have a few.

Oscar the Grouch, because he lived in a trashcan, and I could imagine a whole subterranean world inside the depths of his tin home.

Sweetums, because he was over 7 feet tall and AMAZING.

Grammar Slammer Bammer from Hilarious House of Frightenstein, because he was Huge also and I have a strong affinity to Trolls.

And Madame of Wayland and Madame… because she was so flamboyant and outrageous!

BB: Describe your pathway into being a puppetry practitioner. 

Scott McClelland: After the age of 18, when I moved away from home, I moved away from puppets, because I wanted to make a career as an entertainer, performing Vaudeville and Magic. And it was not until 10 years ago that I started to reform a strong interest in puppetry. In 2015 I started working on a TV Pilot idea I had been toying with for 30 odd years called The Doctor Rigormorto Show, a throwback to the Munsters and Addam’s Family and of course The Hilarious House of Frightenstein. This was a dream show, an amalgamation of live actors, puppetry and animation. I built a couple of puppet creatures for the show and got the bug to create more puppets over time. My fascination with every form of puppetry plays out in the new production I am now doing. Shadow Puppetry. Marionettes, Hand and Rod Puppets, Kinetic Sculpture Puppets and Mechanical Puppets… my need to create otherworldly characters is huge and this show, Orville Doodles and his Terrible Imagination is my Magnus Opus.

BB: Toronto is insanely expensive. Do actors, singers and performing artists need a day-job nowadays?

Scott McClelland: Funny you should ask.

I lived in Toronto for 28 years because I thought that the Big T-Dot was the place to be for professional Arts and Entertainment… BUT, after white knuckling it on the Gardiner and putting up with the smug attitude of the city, I remembered something. I TOUR for a living. Why the HELL do I have to live in this HUGE Arkham styled city, when I could live out in the country in a 156-year-old Victorian Manor?

Welllll….. Look at me go!

I left Toronto and never looked back. I now tour without the high anxiety and blood pressure issues that came with high rents, traffic jams, and that need to feel like you have to always be busy, busy, busy.

I was once a part of the Toronto Arts and Entertainment Scene and flourished doing it… but I was not happy. I think I was more of an old curmudgeon and cranky pants in Toronto than anywhere else I had ever lived. But now… I am living the good life in the country, in a home that Edward Gorey would LOVE.

BB : Is there a work you’d like to adapt, that you someday might dream of adapting and staging?

Scott McClelland: Yes, there are two works…

 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Alice in Wonderland.

BB: Are your puppets meant for children? Or perhaps for adults with older kids? 

Scott McClelland: They are meant for people 9 to 99, I created them to be grotesque and intriguing… not cute and cuddly.

They are Dangerous and creepy.

Orville Doodles and his Terrible Imagination has been created for young adults still trying to find their way in the world and older adults that may have lost that Spark that was so prevalent when they were young. More than anything I want to inspire people to become creative with their lives again. Not follow ALL of the rules and enjoy playing, like a child. Because we truly are remarkably imaginative animals.

BB: What do you have coming up?

Scott McClelland: Orville Doodles and his Terrible Imagination is on Tour this Summer and Fall.

My past year has been spent building and creating the puppets for this Extravaganza.

And now, I proudly present it at The Red Sandcastle Theatre and many other venues across Ontario.

You can book tickets at~ https://www.ticketscene.ca/list.php?q=orville+doodles

BB: that link is for performances on
Sat Aug 17 — two shows in Merrickville
Sun Aug 18 — three shows in Toronto– Red Sandcastle Theatre
Sat Aug 24 — two shows in Smiths Falls
Sun Aug 25 — two shows in Spencerville

I also run a Victorian Dinner Theatre called The Diablo Manor in Spencerville Ontario, which houses my family’s estate of FREAKS and ANOMOLIES and is the perfect date nite with great food and a 75 minute performance of 19th Century Magick ending in a Seance.

You can learn more about the Diablo Manor by going to www.diablomanor.com

BB: Do you have any influences or mentors you’d like to acknowledge?

Scott McClelland: As always, my shows are dedicated to the memory of my Grandfather Prof. N.P. Lewchuk and also my mentor the late Micky Hades.

BB: I am realizing there is a huge backstory: the amazing life and works of NP Lewchuk.

Wow.

To book tickets: https://www.ticketscene.ca/list.php?q=orville+doodles

Diablo Manor: www.diablomanor.com