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Much to our dismay, this day has finally come. The day of the final Mustard Show episode! This fall, our very own Donovan Menard (’19) will be headed off to Tufts University to more broadly share the comedy and charisma we’ve been lucky enough to experience. So, for The Mountaineer, this is Donovan’s last hurrah!

This said, it’s only fitting that Donovan’s last show reports on the MLHS Ensembells, the hand bell choir which may also have its last hurrah if you don’t donate…

I know. That got real pretty fast. Genuinely, though, the hand bell choir has just completed its first year at MLHS and more money is needed to support the club. Founded by our beloved choir director Mr. Vallies, the bell choir has shown its thirteen members and the audiences during four performances a beautiful new way to experience music, and we’d like to keep this music alive!

An audio clip of the Ensembells ringing the tune of “At the End of the Day” from Les Misérables

For those of you who do not know, hand bell choir is comprised of the ringing of individual notes on actual bells that you hold in your hand, sort of like a piano that you can ring. Beyond this, there are many different ways in which the bells can be played, including ringing, plugging, mallets, and more. This method of making music forces performers to focus and listen to each other in a new way while bringing the team together, as the piece is literally incomplete without any one player.

To keep the club alive, please CLICK HERE TO DONATE.

In this new installment of Donovan’s talk show, Anita Shanker (’19) and Greta Donnelly (’20) met with the same old Mustard crew in the middle of a field to discuss their involvement with the bell choir. To use Donovan’s catchphrase, this episode is “pretty spicy,” so you better click on the video below–watch out for that twist ending!

And now…an interview with the one and only Donovan Menard

A delightful glimpse into Donovan Menard’s endearing and unconventional sense of humor.

What is the origin story behind the Mustard Show? Did you think of the idea after or during a certain event?

“I wouldn’t say there’s a certain event that inspired it, but I’ve gotten interested in making videos and movies and stuff, and I wanted to come up with a recurring thing I could make. Something kind of weird that could also be related to the school, and something that we could publish in the school newspaper. They wanted multimedia content, which means videos and not just text articles. So I was like, ‘Yeah, I could do a little talk show!’, you know, where we could talk about the school, we could talk about mustard, and it could be a little ~quirky~”

The Mustard Show’s odd charm can be best captured by the introduction of their first video, where Donovan is dragged on screen by Mitch Tomaszek.

What type of work goes into making the Mustard Show?

“Basically, I get my crew of fellas together. It’s usually me, Liam [McCartney], and Mitchell [Tomaszek], but sometimes we have Nick Donati, or Justin Covart and Aleks Aasma. So we load up the car with [a] table, [some] chairs, a lotta mustard, and various other stuff like musical instruments, helmets, sometimes weapons, and we drive it over to where ever our location is. It’s always outdoors, and we set up the cameras, get our guests, and just talk with them for 20 minutes, so we can get a lot of footage. Then, we gotta transfer the footage from the cameras onto someone’s computer, where we then edit the footage down to, hopefully, less than 10 minutes. And hopefully it ends up being a lot of fun”

How much time goes into making a video?

“I’m bad at estimating quantities, so I can’t really say. But I would say 6 to 8 maybe. It seems like a lot, but we do a lot during those hours.”

Donovan’s love for Talking Heads carries into the Mustard Show. Here, Donovan performs Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime” with his widely loved band, The Mountain Lakes Transit Authority.

Where does the Mustard Show draw inspiration from?

“Yes, I have taken inspiration from the idea of very poorly put together and kind of chaotic talk shows, which came from Eric Andre. But, since this is a show that is published in the school newspaper we gotta tone it down. We can’t be as crazy as Eric Andre, but I do like the humor to be a little more subtle… I like very awkward humor which New Zealand citizens are good at, which you’d know if you’ve ever seen the show Flight of the Conchords. I get a lot of my humor from that. And as for the weirdness, concerning musical groups, Talking Heads are pretty weird. They’ve got some pretty weird music videos and I’m very into them. For the interviewing style, I take some inspiration from Jiminy Glick, who’s a Martin Short character. For our intro music, we use Spain by Chick Corea, who is a jazz fusion legend. That recording in the beginning is actually a recording of the jazz band at our school playing that song from a few years ago. It’s sped up a lot though”

A short clip from the Eric Andre Show, a program that the Mustard Show draws a lot of inspiration from. You can see the similarity in their awkward questions, and bizarre background scenes.

During the Mustard Show, there are often very odd scenes occurring in the background of the interview. How do these elements contribute to the tone of the Mustard Show?

“I like wide shots where’s there’s people just kind of doing weird things in the distance. Some of my favorite film directors are Wes Anderson and the Coen Brothers, so the clip of me getting dragged in on set is a reference to Fargo, which is a Coen brother movie. I’m very into film, so I guess [those scenes] are my chance to kind of get some weird but aesthetically pleasing action shots in there. I just kind of like the show to be something you’ve gotta watch a couple times to see everything that’s happening”

The Mustard Show’s “weird, but aesthetically pleasing action shots” are largely inspired by the works of directors Wes Anderson (video) and the Coen Brothers.

Why mustard?

“Why not mustard? It’s definitely has more variety than other condiments. You don’t see a lot of different kinds of ketchup or mayo, really. I mean, I like ketchup, but there’s only one kind of ketchup. “

Do you have any favorite moments from on set?

“There was a part in Season 1, Episode 5 where Joe McNaughton and Jared Goldfischer were on the show, and we found a frog! It was night and it was raining and thundering, we had to have flashlights, and we were just hanging out with a frog. It was great!”

What fulfillment does the Mustard Show bring you?

“…there have been a couple of instances where I’ve heard people say that they’d gotten their whole family together just to watch a marathon of the Mustard Show, and that just made me so happy. It makes me happy that people watch this stuff on purpose and of their own will…. You know, sometimes when I’m sad I watch the Eric Andre Show or Flight of the Conchords and it cheers me up, and I forget that I’m sad and start laughing. I hope I have that same effect on other people. I want to make people happy by making them laugh.”

Donovan, on behalf of all of Mountain Lakes, we thank you. Thank you for brightening our days not just through the Mustard Show, but through every morning announcement, ML Transit Authority performance, and oddly hilarious joke. It goes without saying that, day in and day out, you make Mountain Lakes a better place.