Enoch Augustus Scott formed strong bonds with pop culture in a familiar fashion.
“I had a single mom who worked, so the TV raised me. I grew up on Carol Burnett and The Muppet Show and then Golden Girls, all sorts of cartoons and The Jeffersons,” says the versatile entertainer, who has been in Las Vegas for 18 years, most recently starring in the still-shuttered Zombie Burlesque on the Strip. “So much of my comedic sensibilities were shaped by The Facts of Life. And I was one of those kids that comic books just hit. I’ve always used this stuff as an escape.”
We’ve all made similar nostalgic connections, but few of us could deftly analyze a cultural phenomenon and translate it into finely textured art. Scott did just that with the first viral media obsession of the coronavirus era: Tiger King.
“I just think he’s so American,” Scott says of Joe Exotic, the now-
iconic star felon of the Netflix documentary. “For good or bad, there’s something uniquely American about his story—and people’s reaction to it—that I was fascinated by. He didn’t start out this way, but through drug use and whatever, he ended up a monster, the kind of person who would talk about his dead husband’s dick in front of his mother at his funeral. And people ended up loving him, the way we do in America.”
That fascination evolved into pandemic project Tiger Thing, an eight-song concept album written by Scott and College of Southern Nevada fine arts professor Mark Wherry. The two have previously collaborated on musical Baritones of Love, which received the Best of Vegas Fringe Festival award in 2019. The album also includes contributions from local singers Ashley Fuller, Katie Kenner and David Villella and musicians Aaron Fuller and Shaun DeGraff.
Tiger Thing can be experienced on YouTube (bit.ly/2NS0riS) and Facebook (bit.ly/3lV3UtM), with titles like “Tiger Boogie,” “You Ain’t That Straight” and “The Waltz for Melania.” Catchy and obviously comedic, they could definitely become the source material for a stage show, especially since there’s a lot more to them than simply parodying Joe Exotic.
“Donald [Trump] and Melania are in Tiger Thing, because to me they are cut from the same cloth, just separated by class. One was lucky to be born rich and one wasn’t,” Scott says, explaining that the comparison is summed up in “The Mayor Song.”
“It goes, ‘Everybody is the mayor of their own town until the FBI brings you down.’ All of the stuff that went on this year—vaccines and masks and everything surrounding COVID—it’s all wrapped up beautifully by Joe Exotic.
“I’ve thought a lot about why America reacted the way it did to COVID,” Scott continues. “What is this streak that makes us do this? My theory is that at some point in the life of every American or their ancestors, somebody said, ‘I’m not abiding by your rules anymore. I’m going someplace else.’ Part of that is beautiful, but part is this streak that is Joe Exotic or Donald Trump, where some of us are just going to stick a middle finger up at everything.”
While he waits for Zombie Burlesque to return to the V Theater stage at the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood—likely in late spring or early summer—Scott will keep tinkering with his Tiger Thing songs while also continuing to unspool an online project titled The Untitled Vegas Game Show, which features fellow local entertainers.
“I’m sure I’ll really enjoy making other crazy things soon,” he promises. “I just have to stay busy. I really was that kid that made other people be in plays in my backyard. It was interesting to see, when there was nothing else to do, what will you naturally do? I did what I’ve always been doing, trying to make something happen, putting on wigs and eyepatches and making characters. That’s just a part of me.”
