Title: Grease Bats

Citations

“Grease Bats - Archie Bongiovanni.” Accessed November 3, 2020. https://www.archiebongiovanni.com/Grease-Bats.

Summary

This story is truly a queer slice of life, following the exploits of the super rambunctious Andy (they/them) and the socially awkward Scout (she/her). Both are punks living in Minneapolis, Minnesota who are constantly in a state of being broke, looking for jobs, and trying to navigate a changing queer scene. Scout is trying to get over a recent break up by looking for new places to hang out in that doesn’t include seeing any of her exes, which is hard when there are so few queer friendly spaces. Andy suggests to just have a party at their place, since that way they can have control over who comes over. Scout is happy with this and is starting to enjoy the party until she notices her most recent ex arrive. Andy invited her with the possibility of hooking up without any concern to how this might make Scout feel. A close friend of Scout’s, Gwen, takes Andy aside and asks what they were thinking and gets angry about how their hurting Scout. Scout is outside drinking, all by herself when a girl comes up to her and asks about the party. They start to talk and get into a very long conversation. Andy starts to realize what they have done, looking around the party so that they can apologize to Scout. The new girl gives Scout her number and says that she’ll see her inside. Scout is happy and forgives Andy when they have a conversation about the “ex incident”. It appears that the ex left pretty soon after arriving, feeling awkward about the situation. Once the party ends, Scout gets all of the stuff she has been keeping from her last relationship and they burn it in a ceremonial bonfire in the backyard. Andy tries to give Scout advice on how to text this new girl.

Cultural Origins

“Grease Bats” is a comic series by Archie Bongiovanni (they/them) that began in 2017 for the website Autostraddle. The comic is somewhat reminiscent of the hugely influential lesbian comic “Dykes To Watch Out For” by Alison Bechdel (1986). They both show a cast of queer characters trying to navigate their twenties/thirties. (It’s described on Bongiovanni’s website as “Dykes To Watch Out For in the current age with Tinder or Sex And The City but gay and actually good”.) Similar to “Cannonball”, the characters are realistic depictions of queer people dealing with unemployment, bad jobs, evolving friendships, and their own identities. I think it’s important that the storyteller has been a part of a similar type of queer friend group to know how to best frame these stories.

Audience

Similar to “Cannonball”, this could be performed for adults at anywhere from a bar to a book talk in a public library. People in their twenties/thirties would be the target age because the story is a reflection of the lives they lead. The story might also work for older audiences who want to know more about true lived experiences of Millenials, especially if they do not have regular close contact to them.

Adaptation Ideas

One of the main reasons I want to tell this story is because it is a great example of my queer friend group and how we communicate with each other. I once had a roommate that was the Andy to my Scout, and I think sharing this with an audience in a straight-forward manner shows how these characters may not be real but are representations of real queer experiences. Avoid voices or accents. A way to make the story mine might be to tell it from Scout’s point of view and include real in-jokes I have with my friends. While this could feel alienating it also gives the idea that there is a past being referenced, something that exists outside of the narrative. When Archie Bongiovanni is presenting about their work they tend to have audience members choose a character and they will read those character’s parts in a number of comic strips. Inspired by this I could see a version of the story being told by me and one other storyteller, choosing either Andy or Scout and telling it as if we were meeting up with friends we hadn’t seen in a while and want to catch them up on our exploits.