Grownups Read Things They Wrote As Kids 3
Mike: At the end of a laugh-filled two hours, Daniel Misener, the creator and host of Grownups Read Things They Wrote As Kids asked, “Could you guys hear me back there? I may have outgrown the venue.”
The third installment of this wildly entertaining series was packed to the rafters. By 8 p.m., people were searching for seats as the crowd wound around the back end of the bar.
The first thing that struck me upon entering the Victory Café upstairs bar was the friendly vibe. The audience was a congenial, good-natured crowd. The look was predominantly nerdy-cool.
What was your first impression?
Lisa: First impressions are lost on me. I was in a miserable mood. I kept looking at my watch wondering when this damn thing was going to start. Finally, when everyone settled down, Dan opened the evening with a thoughtful thanks to everyone who’d come out on this very drizzly Monday night. He outlined the rules for the readings:
- You have to be the one who wrote it, as a kid
- You have to be the one who reads it, as an adult
- It has to be short (5 minutes-ish)
Plus he added a few crucial details: Readers are supposed to give us a context before they begin. Secondly, once they’re done, people are supposed to applaud. And applaud they did. Hearty warm applause that surprised me, even as I clapped just as hard. I’d been wondering how this night was going to go down and I got my answer. When it comes to this reading series, the theme is funny. Readers were getting more laughs than a great comedian.
Your host Dan Misener
Care to share some of the more memorable moments?
Mike: Well, there were many, but I think my favourite reader was Jenna, who happens to be Dan’s fiancé. She read from her Grade 7 diary, when boys were her top priority. She was in love with Dane, who she describes as stealing her childhood during a kiss shared in a greenhouse. Her reading was note-perfect, evoking the melodramatic, soap opera-esque mind of a twelve year-old girl who, over the span of ten days, falls in and out of love, eventually getting “back on the horse” to date a new beau. Priceless. I also cracked up when another woman read her wish list as a young teen, which included other countries having a “normal civilization like us” and her “spending a week with Duran Duran.”
What was the funniest piece for you?
Lisa: Jenna’s was my favourite too. I loved the part about how Dane was moaning “I love you so much” while rubbing her back up and down. (Jenna was even creeped out and laughing about that.)
Did you notice that the worse the writing, the better the response? The laugh is in the weirdly phrased pieces and the sheer blunt honesty that can only come from kids/teens.
A perfect case in point: Rebecca (as she was introduced to us) read camp letters addressed to her mom, dad and sister. The highlight of the first letter included the fact that she wasn’t having a good time and that she’d be getting her period in a few days. The second letter emphasized that by the time they received this next letter her period would be over.
Tristan Homer, introduced as “my friend and yours,” read a killer story about a girl who cries wolf. You’ve heard this story a million times. The girl cries fire when there isn’t one, only not to be believed when there is one. The catch here? Everyone is burned and dies. (Perhaps you had to be there for that one.)
I left with a warm fuzzy feeling and a renewed sense that I should have this much fun more often.
Do you think this is all about sharing laughs and just having a good time? Is there no commercial catch? Are no careers to be furthered?
Mike: Well, I think the point is to have a good time, which was certainly accomplished. The idea itself is novel and I could see an anthology of the material as a possibility. Part of the charm for me is that it wasn’t about great “performances.” Everyone did a brilliant job reading their stuff because they were being themselves and poking fun at themselves at the same time.
For me as an actor, it was refreshing to see people get up on a stage with the sole purpose of sharing material they found amusing. It was all about the material. The real stars are the children who wrote these words, never knowing they would bring the house down, years down the road.