Back to School

I am getting ready to do a show for local high school in Nelson and I find the whole experience to be very interesting. For one, I was not in the popular crowd at school. I was kind of a big nerd. In fact, I am still a big nerd. In high school, I loved Star Wars and couldn't wait for the new movies to come out. I played Dungeons and Dragons. I loved doing the drama productions. I loved it so much, I actually skipped my last basketball game to go to one of several drama practices. Apparently, the barrel-chested monster of basketball coach scoffed when he heard I wasn't coming. I was fine with that. I wasn't one of the girls who had an awkward crush on a man double their age.

The culture of high school from ten years is vastly different with even the advent of cell phones. There was a girl who had returned from the city with a cell phone and we ridiculed that girl for the absurdity of such a purchase for a teenager. Now, some high school would probably have a moral dilemma between saving their kid brother or their phone from a burning building. It would be a crisis, because having a kid brother doesn't let you send text messages during class.

The idea of recycling felt more like a fad than something that was really going to take off. But now, it's second nature to these kids and I'm still burning tires in my backyard.

Vampires were something cool back in my day. They were deadly. Vicious. The battles between werewolves and vampires was the thing to behold and now they have been co-opted into romance novels for teenage girls. How did that happen?

One thing I am glad that we have moved past since I was in high school was boy bands and the Spice Girls. Although they've been swapped out for *sigh* not much better. Never mind. It's only evolved. I don't think my wish for utopian paradise will happen as long as pop music is allowed to make decisions around here.

I also dodged the tragedy of reality TV. No American Idol. No Jersey Shore. No The Hills. We weren't rewarding vanity over talent. And I realize that it was still happening when I was in high school, but at the very least you had to have some semblance of talent. Somewhere along the line being rich or being a jackass was included in the list of acceptable talents to give you a show.

We didn't have Facebook. In fact, all we had was email. That was the thing we would slip over to when we were supposed to be doing work in computer class. We would send stupid emails to each other. Or work on Geocities pages. That was how fun the internet was. It was the electronic version of having fun at a post office.

So, I know I have a challenge in doing a comedy show there. It's not just for the high schoolers, but I am going to angle it to them. The good thing is that there are still somethings that don't change with the different generations.

Teenagers still think anyone older than them just don't "get it".

Girls are still ridiculous creatures.

Guys are still jackasses.

School is still an obstacle to what you really want to do.

Madonna is still awkwardly around.

Some guy getting hit in the nuts is still funny to most people.

Someone else's parents are always cooler than yours.

People still think money and popularity will solve their problems.

Short people still pick fights because they're insecure.

Simpsons is still on the air.

In the end, this show should be a great time. And if not, people bombing on stage is still uncomfortably funny.

"Do you have the time to listen to me whine

About nothing and everything all at once?

I am one of those melodramatic fools

Neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it

Sometimes I give myself the creeps

Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me

It all keeps adding up, I think I'm cracking up

Am I just paranoid? Am I just stoned?"

- "Basket Case" from the Green Day album "Dookie"