How to easily build a Lucy Van Pelt advice stand/desk?

August 15, 2013 8:44 AM

I'm going to be a regular for a friend's live show once a month. My "schtick" is to be a Lucy-esque sidekick to her as a host. The stage is small and I will be transporting it in a car. Any suggestions on how to build something low maintenance and portable? It doesn't have to be fancy or complex, I just have no idea where to start in terms of materials and potential construction ideas. TIA!
posted by patientpatient to Grab Bag (11 answers total)

I would just go to your local Home Depot/etc and buy the pieces of wood (some planks, some 2x4s, maybe a folding card table) and build it up at home... drill holes in the 2x4s and plank(s) to make the "frame" for the little stall that will go in front of the card table. But rather than nail or screw the pieces of wood together, drill holes into which you can put nice long bolts, held in with wingnuts or something easy to put on and take off by hand, so you can pull it all out of your car and bolt it all together quickly -- teardown should be similarly easy.
posted by olinerd at 8:49 AM on August 15, 2013

Coroplast is your friend for cheap, light-weight and durable. It's like cardboard made out of plastic and comes in a range of colours. It takes tape well and is widely used for signs and displays. Most art stores will have it.
posted by bonehead at 8:58 AM on August 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

Lucy's booth was a parody of children's lemonade stands, and as such could be recreated with a couple dowels, a piece of cardboard for the sign, and a card table or large overturned cardboard box. I don't know if that would be nice enough for your purposes though.
posted by Wretch729 at 9:03 AM on August 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

If you can find a decent-sized fruit box (check local farmers' markets if you know of any) for the "desk" part, then use dowels or PVC pipe to hold the sign up above.
posted by xingcat at 9:25 AM on August 15, 2013

I like the idea of making it look like cardboard boxes. Get an appliance box, and cut out the back and bottom, then trim the height so that it fits over a folding card table. That gives you a place to tuck a chair up under the desk, but the stability of a real table instead of just a box. You can break down the box for travel and tape or binder-clip the sides when you stand it up.

Then you take a piece of cardboard (3' x 18") and write "Advice 5c" on it. Buy 4 12" pieces of tubing and 4 caps to go over one end of each (PVC, for example), and two 6' dowels (or rigid PVC) of diameter just slightly smaller than the inner diameter of your short tubes. Slide the tubes over the end of the dowel, and tape the tubes into place on the back of the sign and on the inside of the "table" cardboard box (punching holes in the top of the table-box). Now the sign is reasonably well-supported, but just slides apart for travel.

Alternately, make the whole thing out of a refrigerator box that you stand inside, with a window cut out of the front, and you just write your signs directly onto the box. That might not be the best stage presentation, though, since it limits the side view.
posted by aimedwander at 9:25 AM on August 15, 2013

What about something like this? It's priced at $70, but you can probably find it much cheaper elsewhere.
posted by BrianJ at 9:26 AM on August 15, 2013

The stand:
3 pieces of wood connected by hinges so that they fold.
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| |

Put velcro strips on the front edges and on the back of a poster or cloth that spans the whole front.

When transporting, fold your stand
When you get to where you need to be, unfold the stand and affix the poster/cloth to the stand using th velcro.
posted by jander03 at 11:21 AM on August 15, 2013

Call me lazy, but I would just use a table and create a good cover or apron for the front of it.
That could be pieces that cover the sides and maybe are painted to look like wood.
The sign up front should be large enough to stand out and could simply say "Advice 5 cents."

If you do have a top piece that is over your head, I would try to check that the lights on the set would not be casting shadows on you.

For design check some google images under "lucy advice booth"
posted by calgirl at 11:58 AM on August 15, 2013

Although the cardboard box idea would be light and easy to cut. I'm not so sure it wouldn't get trashed after a couple of car trips.

I think olinerd is on the right track with a flat wood facade in front of a desk or table. I'd go a step further and see if the venue can provide you with the desk before buying one of your own.

The wood can be light plywood; depending on the store, you may find panels that are already the size you want. If not, they may be willing to cut a big piece down to pieces of your measurements (I've never personally been turned down on this request, but I don't want to make promises on behalf of store employees I've never met!)

I might also drill some holes near the bottom and then use string or zip ties to further secure the facade to the table if it felt shaky.

I've seen Lucy's booth in different colors, but brown is definitely one of them so no need to paint. A brown cloth for the table might make it blend in better.

If you didn't feel like dealing with wood or have access to a drill, but cardboard didn't feel solid enough, maybe those trifold foam-core science fair presentation boards would be a good compromise.

Low-budget theater is wonderful.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:48 PM on August 15, 2013

So, yeah, like a couple of minutes after I said CARDBOARD BOXES BAD I remembered these wardrobe boxes that we had when we were kids, and we used to play they were box seats at the opera. They were super-heavy cardboard and lasted a long time, because they're for moving, and they fold up really flat, for the same reason. I don't know what your budget is, but they seem like they may be cheap enough to replace if one wears out (smaller sizes are a bit cheaper, and for all I know other moving companies have cheaper ones). So, there's something else to think about.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:05 PM on August 15, 2013

Response by poster: Ya'll are the bees knees.

Thank you!
posted by patientpatient at 6:24 PM on August 15, 2013