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In theatre they had to do a report on a Broadway production. His was on Jekyll and Hyde, so he rushed through it, and then said,
"But I feel we have grossly neglected an important part of the New York theatre scene-- the Off Broadway production. (where surprise!! Blue Man Group originated) Let me tell you about one particularly exciting show that I was lucky enough to see last weekend in Vegas...."
From there he managed to work in the marshmallows. He had the class throw them to him.
They were really impressed, he said.
What about your teacher?
He rolled his eyes.
Obviously, it's lots more important to impress your peers than your teachers.
Your story about Ammo made me laugh and revived a memory of something that happened while I was at university taking a course on British lit of the Romanticism movement.
I became friends with a young man who was working on a philosophy degree but taking the literature course for some connection to his own studies. It was a seminar course and when the time came for each of us to prepare presentations, he asked me for my opinion on a little "something" that he had devised to work in with the seminar that he was going to give on the topic of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
His idea was to open up with a section of Iron Maiden's version of the Ancient Mariner, played over his boom box which he was going to hold up and use to do his impression of a ship being tossed around in a wild gale at sea.
Now, as it turned out, I learned a couple of things from this "incident"...
1.) Never-ever-ever express an opinion on what will or will not work in a seminar presentation class. REMAIN NEUTRAL!
2.) Do NOT try to second-guess how a professor and a class of literature students will react to an unusual interpretation or multi-media presentation during a seminar session.
Yes... turns out that I made the rather fatal error of voicing the opinion that the "Iron Maiden/boom box opener" might make a rather interesting and...nay...lively... opening for a presentation in what was shaping up to be a generally ho-hum-mundane class.
So, on his appointed day, my friend got out his boom box and did his "opening act"...
Well, being entirely caught up in the "visuals" of the opening moments with the boom box standing in for a ship being tossed at sea, my friend missed the looks of outright amazement and the professor's little scowl of consternation... which was just as well, because I think it would have ruined the rest of the performance...
But I think he quickly got the idea of his audience reception after switching off the recording to proceed with the spoken part of his presentation. There was absolute silence in the room as all eyes expectantly turned from my friend to the professor.
Feeling somewhat responsible for what was shaping up into a rather nasty faux pas, I decided to seize the moment by bursting into laughter and applause... because, as we all know... most people are damned wusses and hate to feel stupid about not knowing the *precise* moment to applaud during a performance... so one person must lead the way...
It worked!! Almost everyone in the room applauded... An awkward situation was quickly defused... and the seminar proceeded without a hitch.
And my friend and I went for a coffee after to discuss the pros and cons and potential pitfalls that might occur as a result of being just a little too "out there" under some circumstances...
P.S: Has Ammo been to see STOMP yet? Maybe you should avoid that one... it involves lots of Doc Martin boots, trash cans, chrome hubcaps, rapelling harnesses, etc... Trust me on this... It might NOT be a good influence... ;-}>
croc
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