The History of SCFC. . .

According to Founding Father Tim Mollen
In addition to this history, Tim Mollen published a story about the SCFC in August 2006, and it can be read here.

1958 - Shaun Cassidy is born on September 27th in Los Angeles, CA. David Cassidy is pissed.

1977 - The Shaun Cassidy album is released, featuring the hit single "Da Do Ron Ron." This was followed later the same year by the Born Late LP, featuring the hit "Hey Deanie." David is severely pissed; refuses to share hair care products with his suddenly successful sibling.

1977 - The Hardy Boys Mysteries debuts on network TV. Everyone over the age of ten changes the channel to Chico and the Man.

1978 - Publication of Connie Berman's riveting biography The Shaun Cassidy Scrapbook. Allow me to quote from that sacred text: "Little more than a year ago, few people had ever heard of Shaun Cassidy. Today, the name Shaun is as much a household word as Fonzie or Barbarino."

1979 - The Hardy Boys Mysteries is cancelled. A nation mourns.

1990 - The Shaun Cassidy Fan Club debuts in the Lab Theatre in S.U.N.Y. Oswego's Tyler Hall. Shaun is unconcerned. David is probably still pissed.

Growing up in Binghamton, NY, I idolized the stars of Saturday Night Live and SCTV (Second City Television). It was my dream to follow in their improv footsteps, but there was no convenient training ground available to let me give it a shot. My high school theatre classes dabbled in improv, but mostly as a rehearsal tool. At Oswego, I got closer to the Grail. Professor and friend Mark Cole used improv for character development in rehearsal, and to create scripts for projects like The Orientation Express. The Orientation Express was (and, I hope, still is) an issues-based show presented at the beginning of the Fall semester to incoming students. I was in the original production Mark staged in August 1990. Despite these valuable experiences, I had never had an opportunity to do improv in its most raw, exciting form - as a vehicle for performance. Another Oswego professor, Kitty Macey, suggested that I form a troupe of my own. But I had only improvised in rehearsals and in writing workshops - never in front of an audience. Even more importantly, I had done dramatic improv, but not comedy. In fact, I had never even SEEN an improv comedy show. Whose Line Is It Anyway? was on the air in Britain as of 1988, but it had yet to be shown on American TV. (Can you imagine life before Comedy Central? We had to do shadow puppet versions of The Man Show. I hurt my left wrist trying to recreate the "Girls On Trampolines" segment.)

Speaking of Britain, I finally got my first taste of improv during the Spring semester of 1990, which I spent in London. All of us in the SUNY Oswego London program were living in the Notting Hill Gate neighborhood, and a club there called "the Gate" had a weekly, late-night improv show called Late at the Gate. I went one night with some friends, and we had a blast. We came back a week later and audio-taped a performance for a broadcasting class project. I was hooked, and I began scheming to put together my own improv show back at good old Oswego. (As a side note, I saw one of the Late at the Gate performers years later, on a rerun of the British version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? Unfortunately, he wasn't a regular, and this was the only episode I ever saw him in.)

In the Fall of 1990, I returned to Oswego, hell-bent on forming an improv troupe. Rather than holding auditions, I just asked the six funniest people I knew if they were interested in giving it a try. I had cast most of them in a project for Professor Ron Medici's directing class a year earlier. (We staged N. F. Simpson's absurdist one-act play, We're Due in Eastbourne in 10 Minutes.) Starting the first SCFC was more like forming a band than casting a play. It was a great group. Mark Terry was a tall, serious-looking writer, actor, and close friend, and he had the driest wit of anyone I'd ever known. Jennifer Arnold was a pretty, bubbly Theatre major with a lot of acting talent and the mandatory goofy streak. Rick Gordon was loud, acerbic, sarcastic, and very funny. Russ Finley was a close friend with lots of acting experience and an ability to make me laugh out loud about once a minute. Kate Magnus had been in the London program with me, and she consistently cracked me and everyone else up with a dry wit similar to Mark's. Jim Davies was just plain insane. His tall, wiry body and his rubber face contorted to match whatever hilarious and twisted idea his monstrously huge brain had just come up with. I believe only three of the original seven (myself, Jennifer, and Rick) were Theatre majors. General funniness was more important than formal acting training. Another very talented performer, Kristin Feret, was added to the cast in the Spring of 1991, after she returned from her own semester in London. Jim Davies' then-girlfriend Robin Walls pinch hit for us a number of times. But the most important "Fifth Beatle" for the troupe was our lighting director, Dan Walker. He had a great sense of comic timing. This allowed him to end the best scenes at the perfect time, and the worst scenes at a merciful one. His blackouts also prevented us from having to yell "Scene!" to end a sketch.

The name of the troupe was a result of a party in the Onondaga Hall suite I shared with Mark Terry, Dan Walker and others. We had weekly bashes there, and each roommate was required to come up with a ridiculous "theme" for one of the parties. There was "Mark Terry's Night of a Hundred Stars," where everyone was required to come dressed as a B-list, Love-Boat-level celebrity. There was "Dan Walker's Festival o' Blues," where everyone wore black clothes and shades, and played imaginary harmonicas. And there was "Tim Mollen's 70s Flashback." In 1990, the 70s had not yet come back into vogue, so this was a fairly novel idea. Everyone went to the thrift store (or the back of their closet) so they could wear a hideous leisure suit or sundress to the shindig. Jennifer Arnold was particularly into this theme. She arrived with a stunningly horrible frock, pigtails, and an armful of record albums by Shaun Cassidy. She had worshipped Shaun when she was a kid, and had hung onto the albums like some people hang onto vestigial organs they've had removed. As we looked at those albums and laughed about the stuff that was in vogue when we were growing up, something clicked in my head. I wanted a name for our troupe that would get people's attention right away. I wanted people to see our fliers and advertisements and say "What the hell is THAT?!" The Shaun Cassidy Fan Club fit the bill. (For a time, we actually had people show up to the shows because they had seen the fliers and wanted to see if there really was a club this preposterous on campus.)

After exactly one rehearsal, the original cast of The Shaun Cassidy Fan Club debuted in the Lab Theatre to a small but appreciative audience on September 22, 1990. From then on, we performed at 7 or 8 p.m. on Saturday nights, usually in the Lab Theatre. Other shows occurred in Room 102 of Tyler Hall, and once we did a less-than-successful show in the campus courtyard. A few shows were taped and broadcast by the campus TV station, WTOP. If they still have copies - burn them! The audio quality was on a par with an Amos and Andy bootleg from 1938, and the jokes were about topics now so outdated (uh...The Arsenio Hall Show...) that they are probably best forgotten.

At some point, John Heretz, a guest designer working for the Theatre Department, gave me a tattered paperback copy of The Shaun Cassidy Scrapbook. As a result, we began opening each show with a "Reading from the Book of Shaun." After that, we typically did 45 minutes of "straight improv" - just simple scenes based on a suggestion or two from the audience. The final 15 minutes were generally reserved for the only improv game in our repertoire - the old standby "Freeze-Go." (You may know it as "Freeze" or "Freeze Tag." My people call it "maize.") I would later learn dozens of improv games, many of which are in the current troupe's repertoire. But looking back I must say that doing straight improv every week for a year was the best acting training I ever had. In our naiveté, we pulled off what I've since learned is extremely rare, even for professional improv troupes like Second City. Our show centered on freeform improv, with no gimmicky games. Don't get me wrong - games are great, and they make for more consistent shows. But I still look back with fondness on what we were able to do with so little structure.

We had a successful year, and the show gained enough momentum to allow us to plan to continue on the following year, after the graduation of most of the troupe. Luckily, Rick Gordon was a junior, and Jim Davies was only a sophomore, so I knew that the concept had the potential to live on for at least the next two years. Auditions were held, and with some advice from us has-beens, Rick and Jim put together a new cast. I remember that two strong female performers came on board - Sara DiCastro and Alison Way. When I visited the campus the semester after I graduated, Jim Davies and Alison Way had become the standout performers. They had even developed running characters that faithful audience members recognized and cheered for. (Does "Mary the Cleaning Lady" ring a bell for any alum out there?) But my era was over. Before passing through the Gray Havens, I wrote the names of the original cast inside the Book of Shaun, and bequeathed it to the troupe. Alas, I think the book got lost a few years after that. For my ten-year reunion in 2001, I bought another copy of the treasured tome on E-Bay and gave it to the current troupe.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

VH-1 has contacted me about several of these people, and I always tell them to check over at Meat Loaf's place.

Original members Mark Terry and Jennifer (Arnold) Terry fell in love during a particularly intense Freeze-Go. They were married in the Fall of 1992, and live in the suburbs of Philadelphia. They have two sons, Jacob & Matthew. The kids are understandably blonde, and probably funny, in a "Bananas in Pajamas" kind of way. Mark is currently studying to become a Methodist minister. He has written several full-length plays, and at least one of his plays has been performed by a community theatre in the Philly area. Jennifer is a sales rep for Creative Memories, the company that sells archival-safe photo albums and scrapbook supplies. She also has remained active in theatre, directing and acting in numerous productions. Mark & Jen also started an improv troupe, through their church group. God is reportedly amused.
Mark's email: markt5@comcast.net
Jennifer's email: Jeanvier@comcast.net

Russ Finley is also married to someone named Jennifer and living in the Philadelphia area. If his baby son Cameron were blonde, I'd be really worried that some kind of Moonie wedding had occurred following one of the SCFC shows. Russ has steered clear of theatrical pursuits ever since he was forced to wear tights and play the tambourine in Oswego's production of Pippin.
Russ' email: Russell.Finley@morganstanley.com

Jim Davies graduated from Oswego with a degree in Philosophy, and spent a year-and-a-half studying in China. He has a Master's degree and is working towards a Doctorate in Artificial Intelligence at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has performed with several professional improv troupes, and is still a funny mother....SHUT YOUR MOUTH...just talkin' bout Jim Davies! He is also a founding member of the VisionQuest Theatre Company in Atlanta.
The VisionQuest Theatre Web site is at www.visionquesttheater.com
Jim has a personal Web site at www.jimdavies.org
Jim's email: jim@jimdavies.org

Rick Gordon is living in London, England, and working as a theatre producer. One of his biggest successes was a West End musical production of Eating Raoul. He is also working on a musical he co-wrote, entitled Golden Boy. He owes me five bucks.
Rick's email: rick@rjpa.com

Kate Magnus lives in Colorado, where she owns and runs a deli with her sister. Reportedly, she has taken up the bass and guitar.

Kristin (Feret) Ford had a technical theatre internship at Julliard, and worked for years as a scenic painter and muralist. She is currently a resource manager for an architecture and interior design firm. She lives in Seattle, WA with her husband Paul.

Alison Way is the editor of a women's confession magazine, and is living in New York City. We occasionally exchange terse, obnoxious emails. She is the only member of the troupe who has slept with the real Shaun Cassidy. Well, not really - but she thinks about it a lot.
Alison's email: away@sterlingmacfadden.com

SCFC lighting guru and my college roomie Dan Walker is a technical theatre professional living in NYC. He has worked as an electrician and assistant lighting designer on numerous Broadway and off-Broadway productions, including Les Miserables, Beauty & the Beast, The Lion King, and Aida. I was the best man in his wedding to the lovely Amy Davis. They live in Manhattan with their two cats and a lot of angry people who are in a hurry.
Dan's email: dwalker835@aol.com

As for Tim Mollen, I'm pregnant and living in Surinam. Actually, after graduation from Oswego, I moved to Chicago for a short time, and took some classes with Second City. I moved to the Washington, DC area in 1993, and performed with several professional improv troupes there, including Mprov, ComedySportz, and the political sketch comedy group Gross National Product. I met my wife Amanda while performing in the same improv troupe back in 1996, and we were married on January 1, 1999. She's the funniest woman on the planet. In 2002, we moved back to my hometown of Binghamton. I'm currently a freelance writer and an adjunct professor at Broome Community College. I also teach a series of workshops in improv comedy.
Please check out my comedy Web site at www.timmollen.com
Tim's email: tim.mollen@bigfoot.com

STUFF THAT DOESN'T REALLY DESERVE ITS OWN BOLDED SECTION TITLE, BUT HERE IT IS ANYWAY

I apologize for the length of this missive. I haven't talked about myself this much since my audition for American Idol Juniors. I'd love to hear more about what the current cast and shows are like, and what recent alum are up to. So The Shaun Cassidy Fan Club lives on! I can't tell you how good it makes me feel to see that all of you have kept the troupe going for over 12 years. It's truly yours now, and hopefully you can continue passing on the tradition of idiocy and weirdness. I can tell by the SCFC Web site, and the ambitious list of games you perform (including the very difficult "Herald"), that you're improving and building on the concept. Keep it up. 12 years ago, I included one of the original fliers from the first season of SCFC in a time capsule that was sealed by the Class of 1991. I'm not sure when that will be opened, but it's amazing to think there may be a student around that day who will say "Hey - I'm IN that club!"
Tim Mollen
February 2001
Updated June 2003

According to Mark Terry

First of all: That time Tim "caught" me singing "Put some crawdaddies in my undershorts and swing me like a hammer", I was joking. The crawdaddies in my
pants were only a bizarre coincidence. Tim (Mollen) spent the spring semester of our junior year (Spring 1990) in London. While there he saw some improv shows, and was inspired to get something started when he returned. With one rehearsal in the weird garden-type area outside of Tyler 102, we premiered in September of 1990. The name was picked by Tim, trying to pick the lamest celebrity of our collective youth. My wife, Jennifer (not my wife at the time, but still named Jennifer) was slightly offended, because she had had a huge crush on Shaun, and his alter ego Joe Hardy, as a young girl. The original lineup of the SCFC was: Tim Mollen, Mark Terry, Jennifer Arnold, Rick Gordon, Jim Davies, Kate Magnus, and Russ Finley. Danny Walker ran the lights, and Kristin Feret joined us in the spring semester, after spending the fall in London. Some interesting facts: Our shows would open with a reading from "The Book of Shaun"---"The Shaun Cassidy Scrapbook". I don't know who got a hold of it. The only game we played was Freeze Tag, which I think is actually required by the Geneva Convention on Improv of 1973. The majority of our show was open scenes based on suggestions from the audience. Most of our shows were in the black box theater in Tyler. We performed in Tyler 102 on a few occasions, and did an outdoor show for one the spring festival events at school. Our biggest crowd came out for a show where we promised "The man who put The Shaun Cassidy in the Shaun Cassiday Fan Club" would be there. The show opened with our only pre-staged skit of the year. It made reference to Shaun Cassidy, David Cassidy, Hopalong Cassidy, Milli Vanilli, and the Lloyd Bentsen/Dan Quayle Vice Presidential debate. We were featured in articles in the Oswegonian, the Syracuse paper (Herald-Journal, Times Herald, or whatever it's called), and there's a 2 page spread on us in the 1991 Ontarian.

-Mark Terry

A Couple of Alumni Letters. . .

Mr. President:

Hello and congratulations. I am amazed that the Shaun
Cassidy Fan Club is alive and kicking. Unbelievable.

Tell me...how much do you know about it? Though I
wasn't an initial member, I was at school the year it
began with Tim Mullens (a name you should probably
have on your website). I performed with SCFC for 2
years with many wonderful people, many of them
founding members. The only person I know on your
alumni list is Russ LaChance...I performed with him my
last year at school in 1994.

I was teaching Television Production in Fort
Lauderdale for 7 years, but I've recently relocated to
Richmond, VA. I performed with Laughing Gas, and Just
The Funny. (Just The Funny was much better, and if
you get on the website the first pic you'll see is me)

I'm just really blown away. SCFC was truly struggling
in my final year...many fans left...we were booted out
of the black box...and our talent were very
untrained...and I really didn't think it would last 2
years, but look at this...wow!

Congratulations.

I would love to assist you with anything you need, so
save my address and get in touch. It would be great
to see more alums get in touch with the web. I'll dig
into my scrap book and get some names (Sara DeCastro
and Jim Davies for example)...we had some amazing
people in the group...we were performing in front of
100 people some nights. I hope you get that energy at
your shows.

Well...best of luck.

Yours in comedy
George Herring

(5/3/2007)

I am so proud to see all the posh work and wonderful posters. It is fabulous that you guys are doing long form (herald,sp.). I took some classes when I first got to NYC at the Upright Citizens Brigade under Armando Diaz and they are all about long form. I learned a cool trick, you throw age/time progression into the skit, like "5 minutes earlier" or "10 years later" . I also learned to escape the boundaries of the space. and it took me a long time to learn that if I start the skit in an apt I can move to the car, movie theatre and restaurant. Its like I felt trapped by the stage space and unable to leave it but you can and it's so much more interesting. I was so proud to be in SCFC and see it grow and get better all the time. Glad to see so much work is still being done. It made me smile to see the web page, keep up the good work. Hope all is well after the tiny bit of snow you folks got.

 -Sincerely,
Sara DeCastro

(12/28/2007)

Hey,

 I just discovered your website & am thrilled to see The Power of Shaun still exists.  I was in Shaun Cassidy for 3 years, from 1993-1996.  I did not see a lot on names of the great people I worked with, but my first year with the group was the year after Jim Davies graduated.  I worked with George Herring & Sara DeCastro, who were the senior member when I joined.  Christine Sinacore & I both joined the group at the end of the Spring ’93 semester & were full time members for the next 3 years.  Other names that I can recall as regulars were “Stinky” Pete Wandell or Wendell or Wandelt???, Keith Capano, Russ LaChance & Brian Chalko. 

It seems like a million years ago I was doing Shaun Cassidy, but it was unquestionably the best experience I had at Oswego.  I even included it on my resume as I was applying for jobs.  It was always one of the questions the interviewer would ask me about and made for a good ice breaker in interviews.  I live in Cicero now and have a hysterical job in the claims department of an insurance company….OK, not really, but everytime I watch a “Whose Line is it Anyway?”, I always think back to Shaun Cassidy & think how we would have done it funnier.  I’m glad to see you have kept the group alive & well and wish you nothing but the best.  Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help or provide for your current cast.

 Brian Rosen