American Whoopee

***American Whoopee*** is a 1920s silent film trailer produced by Shipwrecked Comedy. The trailer is a spoof of multiple teen coming of age/ 80s teen comedy movies and tropes. It follows Teddy as he tries to win over Millie Juniperscoop, Brock and Clara Fairbuckle as they deal with the divide between sports and dancing, Fiona and friends on a road trip after she sends scandalous pictures to her Grandma, and many other friends. It has all your favorite big names of the time, and the full movie is sure to be a delight!

## Plot

Since it is only a trailer, we will never know the full plot of American Whoopee. But, we do know details about this wonderful movie created by Mel Hammermeister.

In the trailer, we are introduced to many story lines about students who all go to the same school. The first story line we are introduced to is the start of an attempted romance between Teddy and Millie Juniperscoop. Teddy is playing a game with one of his friends when he sees the gorgeous Millie walk by after her recent shopping spree. Millie, however, is not thrilled by his comments and gives him a stern slap across the cheek. Teddy once again tries to flirt with Millie, and he receives another slap across the cheek.

We are also introduced to two lovebirds named Brock and Clara Fairbuckle, who struggle with society's divide between sports and dance. Brock lies and says that in addition to sports he also enjoys dancing, which leaves Clara overjoyed. Millie gives Clara a "makeover" so that she will be prettier for Brock, while Brock (poorly) practices football with Gil. Brock worries about how he will manage to catch the croquet match and Clara's dance, which happen at the same time. When he doesn't show up to her dance, she is upset. However, he apologizes and explains he loves her. Both parties are happy and lean in for a kiss.

Next, we are introduced to Fiona and the fiasco she has gotten herself into. After taking some scandalous pictures of her ankle and knees, she accidentally sends a copy of the photos to her Grandma. She enlists her friends (two of whom appear to be Millie and Clara and the third is a girl later introduced as Hildy) to go on a road trip with her in order to get the photos back before her reputation is ruined. We revisit the girls later and find that they somehow became intoxicated and are now locked up in jail.

After these storylines and some other minor plot points, we are introduced to the rest of the supporting cast through a montage sequence!

## Credits

#### Starring Cast

* Sean Persaud as Teddy/ Slim Sockwillow
* Sinéad Persaud as Clara Fairbuckle/ Bimbo Finnegan
* Mary Kate Wiles as Millie Juniperscoop/ Minta Monroe
* Sarah Grace Hart as Fiona/ Veronica Boxton
* Ryan Garcia as Gil/ Johnny Busterfield
* Blake Silver as Brock/ Farnswoth Farnsworth
* Julia Cho as Hildy/ Saffron St. James
* Christopher Higgins as Tim/ Whitley Birdhaus

#### Featuring Cast

* Jessica Jade Andres
* Whitney Avalon as Hattie LaTuda
* Brendan Bradley
* Ashley Clements as Gyro Fizzlewhip
* Jon Cozart as "Little" Fats Jackson
* Clayton Farris as Buster Keaton
* Gabe Greenspan as Corky DuBois
* Alex Jennings as Snoopy Valentine
* Keely Kathleen
* Alex Klein as John Barrymore
* Lauren Lopez as Edna Diane Carole
* Joey Richter as Brooks Sousaphone
* Brian Rosenthal as Rex Punchwhistle
* Laura Spencer as Victoria Dellacroix
* Dante Swain as Scooter Swimbles
* Kim Whalen

### Crew

* Production Designer: Katie Moest
* Art PAs: Tia Workman & Kayla Caracci
* Composer: Dylan Glatthorn
* Editor: Raymond Fraser
* Director of Photography: Alex Gallitano
* Assistant Director: Serena Hohenstein
* Executive Producers: Paul Komoroski, Gregg Gibbons, & April Morris
* Shipwrecked Comedy Producers: Sean Persaud, Sinéad Persaud, Mary Kate Wiles, & Sarah Grace Hart
* American Black Market Producers: Brent Madison & Ryan M. Murphy
* First Assistant Camera: Tevin Teixeira
* Gaffer: Makena Buchanan
* Key Grip: Nick Luecking
* Wardrobe: Sarah Grace Hart, Sinéad Persaud, Mary Kate Wiles, & Sean Persaud
* Hair: Krista Jee
* Makeup: Megan Melendi
* Logo: Sean Persaud & William J. Stribling
* Production Assistants: Estelle Rose & Delaney Peterson

## Production

The short was originally a part of a series of short trailers that the Persauds had thought up. At one point, American Whoopee was discussed as being a stretch goal for The Case of the Gilded Lily (this likely explains the overlap between characters), but it was decided against. However, when they were asked to go to Buffer in 2018, they decided this short would be the best fit between how interesting it was and different from previous projects.

The project was announced on July 31, 2018 when Shipwrecked posted this video. Due to time constraints and the relatively small scale of the project, it was crowdfunded through PayPal rather than Kickstarter. Through this, they raised over 10k. The initial intention was to shoot on film if enough money was raised, but it quickly became clear that this would eat up way too much of the budget, and the idea was abandoned during pre-production.

American Whoopee was shot at the YouTube space on August 23 and 24, 2018. It premiered at Buffer Festival in Toronto on September 29. Backers who contributed at least $5 on PayPal were sent a link to the unlisted video on September 30, and it was posted publicly on October 12.

## Extras

Mary Kate posted two BTS vlogs on her Youtube channel in October of 2018: one for pre-production and one for production/post-production.

An additional BTS video was posted to Shipwrecked's channel in November 2018.

## Trivia

* Buster Keaton (who first appeared in The Case of the Gilded Lily) appears in the montage at the end.
* Lauren Lopez's character is named after three dogs she has fostered or adopted.
* Ford Phillips and Claudette Knickerbocker were originally going to be in it as children, but child labour laws got in the way.
* There were many teen movie references made throughout American Whoopee.

## References

1. ↑ American Whoopee, Youtube Description