54
The close of my Junior year of High School didn't disappoint. Each
year, the school organized a student variety show one evening to cap
off the term. Some kids got their garage bands together and played
songs, others who had taken drama would put on a sketch or two, a few
students from band would organize and play a piece, dancers would
dance and elephants would march! Well, all right, there were
no elephants. As some surprises, Jonathan and Luke had come
up with the idea of programming two Trash-80's to do the dueling
banjos song as beeps, one computer being the school's, the other
being Jonathan's that he could bring from home for the night. And I
thought: Why not me? I presented the idea of doing my 'Public
Speaking' class final speech as a bit. The selection committee, I
think it was just the music teacher, had me do the speech to him
cold in his office and he thought I'd make a nice break between other
bits. He was thrilled, he explained, that at least I wasn't another
student garage band wanting to do a song as he had more of those than
he could use.
My speech ended on a pun about my name and it occurred to me that,
unlike giving the speech in front of my classmates who all knew my
name, the variety show audience would include mostly parents who
didn't know me at all and I needed to find a solution. Then it
dawned on me that, as I was portraying a self-important political
figure, I should have a seal of office made up which
prominently featured my name. I looked up the other Paul who
I had shared those Creature Double Feature movies with back in
Elementary School. He had become a budding graphics artist and he
agreed to draw up a seal for me which I could hang on the front of
the podium.
The closeness between my childhood best friend Peter and myself had
faded once he had found an upper classmate to befriend in band class.
As that upperclassman had little respect for me given my stuttering
and mix-raced background, Pete would discourage us from appearing as
friends during the school day over the years in order not to offend
his new buddy. But now things were different, his friend had seen me
over the years and had started to like me. He and Pete came to me
with an idea: They would dress up as my secret service agents and
join me on stage. He'd play my traitorous assassin at the end on
stage where the audience could see him in the lights rather than
trying to plant my assassin in the unlit audience chairs. Pete would
bring in his walkie-talkie and ear piece and have it make a static
noise burst at a point in my speech and he'd mime listening to the
ear piece to foreshadow the 'danger' I was in. I liked this too and
once Jonathan and Luke found out, they offered to bring in their
suits as well and be additional secret service personnel on stage as
they'd be there anyhow to do their dueling banjos piece. This was
only increasing my enthusiasm for the bit and I was raring to go.
Over the last few months of my school year, my father suddenly had to
work late at the ski area, which was odd as it was the off season,
but I was too wrapped up in my own stuff to worry about it. When the
night of the variety show came, I asked him if he was going to attend
and see me perform. He said he couldn't as he had to go back to the
park and work late again after dinner. No surprise. I
actually couldn't stay for dinner myself as I had to be at the school
early for the show walk-through.
Once there, 'concerns' had been expressed by the staff in charge of
the event that my 'speech' might be inappropriate given the recent
assassination attempt of the President, my satire hadn't been
based on that, had it? I lied and said it hadn't, even pointing
out (falsely) that I had originally written and given the speech in
class during the second quarter of school before Ronald Reagan
had taken office. Oh,
well then, that was okay they agreed and we were told of my
skit's placement. It'd be in front of the curtain between two other
items needing to vacate and set up on the stage. When Jonathan
arrived he had brought two ear pieces for himself and Luke to wear as
part of my 'detail', Pete's upperclassman friend felt a little put
out not having one for himself, but soon realized how small they
were, he could easily mime having one by touching the side of his ear
from time to time. Given the fears of 'new technology', the
organizing staff wanted to make sure the Trash 80 dueling banjos
bit would work beforehand so Jonathan and Luke had to set-up on stage
and perform it. They did and it sounded great and was loud enough so
the show was going forward!
Once the audience arrived and settled, the show began and I went in
back to change into my corduroy suit from the year before for my part
of the show. Pete and his friend, it turned out, were part of one of
the garage bands and I slipped into the back of the auditorium to
watch them perform and I was there as well for the official
performance of the dueling banjos bit. As my speech approached, we
gathered in the cafeteria space next to the auditorium, all in our
suits, to walk-through the action. I picked a pause in my speech
where Pete could do his walkie-talkie bit, I told his friend the key
line when he was to pull his gun and shoot me, it turned out he could
use a cap gun for this as it was part of 'a performance on stage' and
not during school hours. I affixed my large 'presidential seal' to
the podium and the curtains closed on the preceeding act and my
'security detail' took the podium on stage and made sure the mike was
hooked up and working. They then motioned to me that they were
ready. I came out and checked the positioning of the podium as it
had to be right in front of the split of the stage curtains so once
shot, I could fall between the split and my dead body would disappear
so we wouldn't have to worry about it being dragged off once the bit
was done. Satisfied, it was time to give the speech.
I turned and faced the audience well. It looked completely black as
the spot light was shining on me, the only evidence of people being
out there in the darkness was that the light pouring on the stage
glinted off and sparkled from people wearing glasses and jewelry. It
was as if I were looking out into the blackness of space and those
glints were the twinkling stars. And I began, with a more solemn and
somber pacing than I had used for my 'speech class' performance, I
made sure to turn my gaze to and fro, glancing at the various
audience members I actually couldn't see to make that 'special
connection' with them that the politicians liked to do. While I had
brought the text with me, double spaced with notations of how to say
each line, I didn't need to look at it once as I had practiced it so
often before this moment. At an earlier pause in the speech, another
group had decided to help my performance as a couple of girls
screamed during that pause as if I were one of the Beatles on stage.
I was proud of the fact that I didn't break character at
this surprise, and I greatly loved the moment as it happened.
Then the point came for the walkie-talkie squawk and then the punch
line of my speech and the cap gun fired. I thrust myself back
through the curtains and this time my head didn't hit the floor as it
had for speech class.
It turned out the next act was a gymnastics floor routine and they
had placed a mat right up behind the closed curtains in preparation.
It cushioned my fall and I realized I was lucky something else hadn't
been set up there instead, say a drum kit for a garage band. As
I got up off the mat I heard the applause from the other side of the
curtain. I hadn't stuttered once during
my performance. As I walked off back stage, my friends came in
from the side and handed me the 'seal' from the front of the podium.
I kept it for several years as a souvenir hanging on the wall of my
bedroom to remind me not only of this night, but of the great success
of my whole Junior year of High School.
When I got home late that night, my father's second wife, Roberta,
was washing dishes. She asked if I had seen my father at the show?
I said I hadn't and he had told me that he needed to work late at the
ski area. She told me he had told her and Pappy during dinner that
he was going to see me at the show after all as he was thrilled I was
going to be in it.
This left me wondering, was my father actually proud of me all
this time, but felt he had to keep it a secret?
impatient? Paper, eBook
help me break even: Shop
No comments:
Post a Comment