stand up

Did I mention that we had a seventeen year old girl living with us for the past two weeks? Her name was Allison and she was great.

I was a little worried at first. The last time I lived with a teenager, I was a teenager. But she was helpful and friendly and despite her tendency to respond to every single question with sarcasm, was actually quite fun to be around.

I was also worried because she is from a small town in southern Georgia and was going to be riding the el by herself. We gave her some pointers and went with her the first day and then sent her off into the wild unknown. She was a trooper and sailed through with flying colors and surprisingly no horror stories.

She was in town to take a two-week class at Second City, learning to do improv and sketch. At the end of the two weeks the kids put on a show for friends and family.

Her show was great. I mean, sure, some of it bombed, but most of it was actually pretty darn funny.

But then we stuck around to watch the other group of teenagers perform stand-up.

Oh my gosh!

They were so nervous. All alone on the stage. Squinting into the bright lights. Fumbling with the microphone as they tried to adjust it to their height. Inevitably getting their feet tangled in the cord. Pulling their notecards out of their pockets to have just in case they forgot what they were going to say. I'm not sure who was more nervous, them or me (being nervous for them!)

Teenagers are so little.

And they were so brave to get up there in front of all those people.

Most people have problems with public speaking but public speaking is nothing compared to having to get up and have all those eyes on you and have to be funny.

Some of the kids just bombed. Thank goodness we were a very friendly audience that was laughing at the jokes even when they weren't funny. Because of lot of them were not funny.

A few of the kids were hilarious. I have the feeling that some day I will be able to say, "I saw him perform at Second City when he was just a teenager!"

The best part, however, was that since there were a lot of younger kids around, the material had to be age appropriate.

So I know what you are thinking, what do teenage boys do stand-up routines about?

Video games. I don't even have words to tell you how adorable it was to see them do stand-up about video games.

Way to go you crazy, brave teenagers! You totally made my week!