Directed by Judi Krant

Starring: Jackson Kuehn, Dan Sumpter, Syna Zhang, Deng Jung

Novelties are the benchmark of a great society, proclaims starry-eyed inventor Johnson (Kuehn). But he’s no Da Vinci or Edison: His genius lies in the realm of sneezing powder, pet rocks, and Slinkies – the pieces of irrelevant crap that make someone a millionaire. Flying on a whim and a dream from Woodville, Texas (population 2,415), to Shanghai, China (population 20 million), to find someone to manufacture his closely guarded “humorous domestic hygiene product,” the sweet-natured Johnson falls under the sway of Magnus (Sumpter), an English snake-oil-dealing business consultant after his money.

This semi-improvised comedy dances charmingly between the ingenuity of human inventiveness and the deviousness of the duplicity people commit on each other. But instead of making Johnson a naive dupe, the audience is invited to share in his sense of wonder at the infinite creative possibilities. You may never look at fake dog poo the same way again.