Moochie the Dumpster Kat, An Xperience Interview

Moochie the Dumpster Kat, An Xperience Interview – by Rob Smittix.

RRX: I (Rob Smittix) appreciate Peggy of Troy and yourself (Niki Kaos) asking me to be involved with Moochie The Dumpster Kat  Musical.

NK: We’re excited to have you on board.

RRX: So my particular character is the shopping kart man and your character is the shopping bag lady.

NK: That’s correct.

RRX: You wanna explain a little bit about your character and who you’ll be portraying in this.

NK: Sure. All the characters are based on people that Peggy has encountered while living near Hoosick Street and Peggy has a very compassionate heart for people who are maybe down on their luck or outside of the norms of society. Shopping bag lady is a woman who had some mental health issues and she had a very intense desire to keep cats even though she was homeless. So she would have a large cart with cat carriers on her cart and would bring her cats around with her on the streets. She kind of collected and took care of stray cats while being homeless herself. It’s kind of a unique story. Definitely from what I’ve learned from Peggy’s stories is she had a lot of struggles and she was just getting by.

RRX: Yeah, and shopping kart man, my character is also based on a real person as well. And… right after I accepted the role, unfortunately, I heard that the real shopping kart man, who is a real friend of Peggy’s actually just recently passed away.

NK: That’s true. Actually it makes the telling of the story all the more poignant and I think in some ways more important because people who don’t have a lot in life are still worthy of being loved and seen in this world. In some ways, what inspires me about the stories that Peggy tells with her comics that we’re turning into this musical is to see those people and acknowledge that they exist amongst us. They’re surviving right alongside us. He definitely had a hard life but he was loved and cared for by Peggy and I’ve met him before too, a nice guy. He actually was in an apartment when I knew him. So he managed to get off the streets. That was a good thing. He definitely had some struggles in his life and he was a good friend of Peggy’s. We’re sorry, he’s gone.

RRX: Absolutely, and then the star of the show, the character Moochie the Kat also is a real. I’ve seen an actual picture of the cat.

NK: Well, Peggy definitely has an affinity for felines. If you’ve seen her out and about, you might recognize the pink cat ears that she sometimes will wear. I have a pair myself.

RRX: I’m working on getting a pair too.

(Both Laugh)

NK: We’ll have to get you one. We’re gonna hook it up!

RRX: Thank you.

NK: But Peggy was taking care of Moochie and I think that’s part of what drew her into this world with these other people in her neighborhood. Because Peggy likes to look out for the homeless people and the homeless cats around her neighborhood. Moochie and Peggy formed a bond. Moochie then became the star of the comics and now the star of the musical.

RRX: That’s awesome. I would say… 95% of the songs were written lyrically by Peggy. You’ve been working for a while on the music behind it but for the actual musical, who’s gonna be playing the music?

NK: I’ve tapped my crew from Curious Comet. Fred and Bob are gonna be in the pit crew on piano and bass. We’re grateful to have them because they’re just exceptional musicians. A lot of the songs are told from the perspective of the narrator in this case, performed by Mr. X, which will be Peggy. So when you see the musical, many of the songs will be in a narration format and the actors will be acting out the scenes while the songs are happening. It’s mostly music and not a lot of dialogue and a lot of action. So I’m excited about that. But we started writing these songs… gosh, almost three years ago. And after we got up to like eight songs, I go, hey, I think we have a musical here. We gotta get this done. And so here we are, we’re doing it!

RRX: Yes, we are and the place that we’re doing it at is a pretty cool spot. Definitely a historic place.  I’ve looked it up and also saw that they have some ghostly things happening up there. I didn’t know if you knew that.

NK: Maybe the aliens will come visit our performance too. We can have an interdimensional experience!

RRX: You know, I’m all about that.

NK: I know that’s why I mentioned it. Mount Ida Preservation Hall is a church that has not been used as a church for a long time and there’s a very dedicated group of local citizens who have been working to restore it and turn it into a performance and community space. They currently operate a food kitchen as a community service but they also host a variety of events. In addition to our musical, they have a lot of other really cool events coming up. Like Miss Kitty’s jazz event not that long ago. I’m also helping them plan another rock and electric music event for November 2nd.  I’m just really excited for how much they want to. They’ve created a space that welcomes the community and supports the arts. So I’ve been grateful to be connected with them and having them help us put the show on.

RRX: One of the other factors is that a portion of the ticket sales are gonna be going towards a good cause.

NK: Definitely, we felt that it was important to give back to homeless people as they were the inspiration to the story. We are going to be donating  a portion of the proceeds from ticket sales to the Sidewalk Warriors of Troy, which does incredible work feeding people who are food insecure and helping homeless people with needed essential items so that people can survive. That’s something Peggy and I have always shared in common. As part of our friendship, we really like to help take care of other people. That organization does an incredible job taking care of other people and we’re honored to help out. They don’t even know it yet but they’ll be surprised when hopefully they get the big check from everybody showing up. Lots of ticket sales equals a bigger donation.

RRX: That’s right. I was just thinking about this, how do I compare Moochie the Dumpster Kat to anything else that’s out there? There’s not really a lot of musicals that are similar, but I was trying to make some kind of correlation. This is what I came up with… it’s like Ironweed meets Sid and Nancy, meets Garfield. You know what I mean?

NK: I do and I’m happy that we are a bit unique because I think it’s cool to try something different. We are blending a story that on its face sounds pretty depressing, homeless people and homeless cats. But… there’s good humor, there’s camaraderie and there’s the spirit of cooperation without giving any spoilers. I would like to think that it will be a very emotionally satisfying show because we’re gonna draw you in and really get you invested in the characters. You’ll get to see what the end is, if you’re there,

RRX: You may laugh, you may cry and you also may leave there feeling like you did a good thing. You saw something that was entertaining but you also gave back to the community while doing it.

NK: That would be the ultimate for me.  I can’t ask for more than that.

Moochie the Dumpster Kat Musical

Saturday, October 5th at 6pm

Mount Ida Preservation Hall

548 Congress Street Troy

For Tickets: tinyurl.com/MoochieCat

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