At the Barber Shop is taken from one of the live action bookends in The Three Stooges Cartoons. It’s a short bit, but funny, for five clowns
Props: a chair (to pass as a barber’s chair), 4 pairs of scissors, cheap wig, something to pass as 3 barber outfits
Clowns: 5 (possibly 6, unless we’re using a doll as the victim/customer)
At the Barber Shop skit
The basic skit has one clown (probably a woman) bringing in her child (could be a doll) into the “barber shop” where three barber clowns are waiting, gathered around the chair. The child is clearly wearing a large, cheap wig. The mom wants a slight trim on the child, and she’ll be back soon. She leaves.
The child goes into the chair, and as the three barbers begin to work, another person walks in. “Are you guys part of the barbers union?” If you don’t want to reference the union, feel free to change this to a petty bureaucrat, or someone else who wants to prevent the barbers from doing their job.
“No, we don’t belong to the union — yet. But once we’re done with this haircut, we’ll have the money.”
Union man: “No! You can’t cut a single hair until you belong to the union!”
Barber 1: “You mean we can’t even do this?” (Barber 1 does a small snip of the child’s hair)
Union man: “No! You can’t do even that.”
Barber 2: “How about this?” (snip)
Union man: “No!”
Barber 3: What about that? (snip)
Union man: “No! You can’t even do this!” (snip)
It turns into a very quick cascade of snipping, with hair flying — and the mom comes in to see the result!
The original skit ends with the mom doing slapstick to the barbers — and the union man — chasing them all out, and comforting the child.
