A Day of Comedy at The Golden Horseshoe
I look forward to Tuesdays and Wednesdays, when I work at Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe Theatre. We rotate multiple comedy sketches throughout 7 daily performances. Each opens and closes with a musical number and features at least one audience volunteer onstage.
Our main characters are common to each sketch: Mayor Sam McGillicuddy (Kenneth Parks), his unfortunate-looking daughter Sally Mae (John Eaden) and her lifelong, uncooperative love interest, Sheriff Clem Clodhopper (Robert Thurmond). I portray “Michael T. Pettibone” at the piano, who accompanies the show like a cartoon and finds each performance hilarious – which I actually do!
The sketches depict a planned series of events (beats), around which we all improvise freely as we go. Even though the roadmap of each show is well rehearsed and anticipated, “the unexpected” is inevitable, and the actors are expert comedians in-the-moment. Enhancing their work with music is an easy and joyous task for me.
