The first chance to order the full set of interp scripts written by Clyde Hendrickson, the master of 10-minute madness. Features 5 all-new and 13 tournament-proven, newly revised scripts.
Available for 50% off the cover price! Only from Mushroom Cloud Press.
Since the year 2000, Clyde Hendrickson’s 10-minute plays have been winning tournaments, delighting audiences, and enabling student competitors to unleash their full potential. One of the first playwrights to create a body of work specifically for interp events at speech competitions, Clyde is known for breakneck pacing, wild characters, celebrity cameos, and witty banter. As a former competitor, he knows exactly what kids are looking for that they can’t always find in traditional plays written for the stage.
For the first time ever, all of Clyde’s short plays are available in one collection. Includes 5 newly published plays, and 13 classic plays (many of which have been updated and revised for this edition).
Clyde’s first hit was the duo Everyone’s Gonna Die, followed quickly by the classic satire The Merchandise King. From then on, he’s helped students win hundreds of rounds, qualifiers, and tournaments.
Here’s why your speech team needs a copy of this new collection:
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Win new audiences with proven material: All of Clyde’s classic plays have been carefully updated, revised, and edited by the author so they will fit perfectly in competition rounds today. Early 2000’s language and references have been replaced, and some slang has been updated.
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The best new scripts available for 2025-26: Clyde has opened his archive of unpublished works and completed fantastic new comedies and duos that will make waves in tournaments everywhere. Be the first to use them in your league!
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Ready-to-perform, easy to use: Because Clyde writes specifically for the forensics/interp audience, you can be confident that students looking for duos, comedies, and thoughtful pieces will find something ready for their next tournament in this one set.
It’s a starter’s pistol for your team’s new season! Grab it at 50% off the cover price today.
Classic Clyde pieces included: The Merchandise King, Everyone’s Gonna Die, Everyone’s Still Dead, A Girl’s Guide to Science, Dr. Wilderness, The Mother-Daughter Dialogues, The Disappointing Son, Calvin Coolidge vs. the Dinosaurs, 13 Things You Didn’t Know About Swans, The Altos, Sister of Mercy, and Swipe Up! Plus, the original “two-character duo cut” of Everyone’s Gonna Die, never before published.
The descriptions of the classic plays are below. But first, the new stuff!
Dr. Wilderness 2: Sprawl of the Wild
Zoological mayhem for one or two humorous performers with impeccable timing
Youtube’s 34th favorite animal handling celebrity returns in all new series of vignettes featuring animal encounters small, medium, and very large. Dr. Wilderness turns his inexpert eye to mundane creatures like house flies and wolf spiders, as well as to majestic fauna like dolphins and capybaras. Along for the itchy, awkward, and rather dangerous ride is his droll cameraman Trav, still suffering the stings and sparrows of outrageously stupid fortune. The first Dr. Wilderness has been beloved by competitors and judges for almost 20 years, with its title character emitting a Michael Scott aura that audiences can’t help but root for. Dr. Wilderness’s animal encounters can be played in almost any order, giving performers ample opportunity to make the show their own. And at the end, Trav gets eaten by the Mothman!
Forky Goes to College
Zany family fun with a zesty twist of college humor. Comedy, duo, whatever.
Little Forky’s going off to college… but, Forky’s mom realizes, he’s not even remotely ready! How can she prepare her sweet baby for the wider world in just a few days? There’s only one solution: a man named Sly, YouTube’s #1 Ghost Psychic. Soon Forky is furniture shopping for his dorm, getting to know his roommate, and learning about the dangers of pirated music and movies. The story has everything you need for a good time in college and a great 10-minute performance. Also, why is J.J. Abrams here?
Special Places
Like an inappropriate PG-13 summer comedy movie squeezed into a 10-minute HI or multi-character duo.
Available for the first time in 15 years! Mack is a camp counselor trying to make it through his last week at Special Places summer camp. Unfortunately he’s got a new kid who’s a literal zombie to throw in with whiny Grady, sultry Gigette, wee Cadie, and several other odd little ones. On top of that, the head counselor Neil probably shouldn’t be allowed with 100 feet of any children, let alone a camp full of them. Throw in an evil chipmunk, an evil midget, and an incompetent narrator, and you have the script that was once called too crazy for competition. Have fun at camp! (Yes, we did used to sell this in the early 00’s, but it went out of print a loooong time ago so we consider it new.)
Elvor’s Discount Body Parts
A spooky, gothic HI monologue
Elvor is just another weird character in your life. You think you’ll remember Elvor, but no… you meet a surprising number of weird people. These ten minutes with Elvor will sluice down the drain, like every other minute in your life… until the end. And maybe at that moment, you may think, what will happen to my body? My brain? My heart? You think of me again then. Elvor will be there to collect all your most valuable bits and pieces… If you’ve got any. See you soon!
The Penguin Suit
A pitch-black comic zero-to-hero HI or Duo
Five years after graduating, Albert is at a party with all his high school classmates. He’s awkward, he’s reviled, he’s alone. Even the guy in the penguin suit is more well-adjusted. After a series of cringe encounters, Albert tries to fake his own death… and messes that up too. But! Suddenly we cut to 10 years later, and Albert is telling late night talk show host Greg Redman how that very party inspired his #1 hit album. It’s not quite a story of revenge, but it does come with a classic Clyde message: You might as well be who you want to be, because no one cares either way. This thought-provoking piece will stand out in a round of retreads and easy laughs.
Classic Clyde, revised and updated
Everyone's Gonna Die
In this frantic and hilarious show, a pair of best friends with multiple-personality disorder attempt to reenact the entire Trojan War. High energy laughs and ridiculous historical references are everywhere. An award-winning piece proven to succeed at nationals and in final rounds. Also included! The “OG Duo Version” of Everyone’s Gonna Die. This version of Everyone’s Gonna Die was used for the first performances in 2000, mostly at tournaments requiring the use of duo binders and restricting performers to one character each. Therefore, in order to stay within these rules, any extra characters in this version are played as manifestations of Ben and Tom’s turbulent, bored, and creative minds. Some performers may prefer this version to get the most out of their characterizations; it’s also great for novice duos.
The Merchandise King
A parody of The Lion King that mocks Disney's ability to make everything a marketing gimmick. The star-studded supporting cast includes the Crocodile Hunter, William Shakespeare, and a disenchanted sea slug. An all-time classic 10-minute cynical and hilarious trek through the animated savanna that’s won dozens of tournaments.
13 Things You Don't Know About Swans
A battle of wits between bureaucrats in a slightly surreal school office. Duo or HI.
Mike Shackleton is a copywriter for Nebraska Public Schools. His life is split between regurgitating strange animal facts and battling with his cantankerous secretary, Mildread. But things take a turn for the weird when he gets a new intern, Flap Jackson, a mysterious rube peddling an insightful brand of idiocy. When Flap's son falls into the swan pit on a field trip to the local zoo, Shackleton must shake off the rust to become the public schooling hero he's always been. Four characters, including a cheeky narrator who springs to life from the swan fact sheet Shackleton is writing.
Calvin Coolidge vs. The Dinosaurs
A Jurassic parody with a mad scientist time-travel twist. HI or Duo.
It’s 1925. Mad inventor Dr. Simon Tonguewart and his very gross assistant Elvor find themselves called upon by President Calvin Coolidge to travel back in time to stop dinosaurs from developing weapons of mass destruction. The problem, other than the fact that the plan makes no sense, is that Simon has actually been lured to the past by his evil science nemesis, Dr. Booby, who is determined to finally destroy him. And then the dinosaurs start talking. What follows is parody mashup made of equal parts Jurassic Park, American Idol, and your AP U.S. History class. The whole brouhaha climaxes in a time travel mishap where actors will play two versions of three main characters at the same time. There’s plenty of manic material to make a unique cut perfect for each performer, not to mention a ton of banter and some very memorable characters, like a prep school Velociraptor, a gold-digging T-Rex, a drunken general, and one very stupid President Coolidge. Cleverly revised by Clyde here and there for the 2025 edition.
Dr. Wilderness
Duo or HI starring a loveable, arrogant goof of a wilderness “expert.” Plus: Animal attacks!
Dr. Wilderness is an internationally renowned explorer and TV star - who has yet to go exploring or become a star. Instead, he films a YouTube series about animals with his hapless cameraman Trav, encountering beasts in ludicrous and sometimes illegal ways. Included in the menagerie: snake, pig, bat, wild fishing cat, weasel, and bear. Finally, when Dr. Wilderness makes his first bold journey into the actual wild, to find the ferocious beavers of Sweden, he must battle his own demons... which happen to also be Swedish beavers. It's funny, it's weird, it's wild, it's classic Clyde Hendrickson. Plus, each animal is its own vignette, so performers can change the order around to create their own unique version of the show.
Everything Falls Off
A duo that will leave audiences laughing and feeling a lingering nostalgia for good times with friends.
A grizzled old man meets his young and chipper new roommate at the leper colony. The two deal with lost appendages, leper etiquette, shock treatment, and their strange, blossoming friendship. Wit and wackiness lie around every corner of this touching sequel to Everyone's Gonna Die.
A Girl's Guide to Science
A sassy odd couple story with an over-the-top, trippy ending. F/F duo or HI.
Katie and Chelsea, two high-school senior girls, must give the annual science lab safety demonstration to the rising freshman. At first, the girls act out their tradition roles of popular chick and science geek, but things devolve quickly as they challenge each other’s assumptions and sanity. And that’s before they accidentally synthesize various hallucinogenic drugs during the demo. Soon they’re battling imaginary badgers, slapping each other with fish, and kind of falling in love. In the end, the heartwarming message is clear: Do not mess around in your school’s chemistry lab! This classic girl/girl duo has been lovingly revised by Clyde for 2025, replacing some dated language and references as well as rewriting a few early exchanges to make the script more versatile for current students. Have fun with this one… now an even more perfectly measured mix of the sarcastic banter and physical wackiness that Clyde is famous for.
Mother-Daughter Dialogues
An HI with a message, a DI with wit, or a truly entertaining Duo or Duet
A complex and affecting female-female duo script following a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship. Meghan and her mother’s lives are here condensed into the funniest and most poignant events, including prom, college, sex talk(s), marriage, pregnancy, divorce and disease. Filled with classic one-liners, all-to-real remarks, and touching, true-to-life moments, this play will be perfect for performers who want to explore every dimension of one of life’s most important relationships.
Swipe Up!
Two-character duo (and one character goes through a LOT) or high-energy HI
Val’s addicted to her phone—and a new gadget will take it to the next level. Val just needs her best friend Nik to play along. For 10 rollercoaster minutes, the pair dive inside of TikTok, where Nik is forced to act out viral dances, weird personal stories, insane glow ups, and stuff too strange to explain. Will their friendship survive the next swipe up? Energetic performers with big presences will make many memorable, laugh-out-loud moments with this manic script from Clyde Hendrickson, the king of 10-minute comedies.
The Altos
Multi-character Mob Madness
What if Tony Soprano were only 5' 2" and had the voice of a midget on helium? Meet Tony Alto, the much-larger-than-life boss of a New Jersey crime family. Watch as Tony avoids death at the hands of family and celebrities alike. Special guest appearances by Al Capone, Jeff Probst, the American People, and some ducks. Since the original version of this Sopranos parody was written long before the series ended, Clyde updated it for 2025 with plenty of additional references to the show, including the famous cut-to-black series ending.
The Disappointing Son
A cynical take on the family sitcom that can become an absurdist HI or Duo.
A ludicrous comedic tribute to the dry and dark humor of Steve Martin, Edward Gorey, Edward Albee, and early Adult Swim. The dysfunctional family to end all dysfunctional families: A dad devoted to his own weird fantasies, a narcissistic mom, and the naïve son stuck between them. As the play progresses, the kid must navigate his parents’ attempts to ditch him, sell him, confuse him, poison him, and supremely annoy him. It’s a kitchen table scene common in family homes across America: Everyone’s talking crazy, and no one knows what’s going on.