Those KIDS again

Again, I taught the kids, this time we mixed the 10-12 year olds with the 6-9 year olds. This means that sometimes we would have a 6 year old and a 12 year old trying to do very simple improv exercises together, where you could see very clearly how hard it was for a 6 year old to remember things like “rotate out” considering every single one forgot and instead of rotating one position would just try to go sit down in the audience. The 12 year olds got it very clearly, but would say things like “you’re ugly” or “oh there’s an ugly hitchhiker” every time—and that was one kid who had brown sandals and socks and maybe was a German? But the best, of course, was the Q&A section, as always. This is because the first question, after saying very calmly “and do you have any questions for us? About what we do? Or improv?” the first burning question was “what is your favorite insect?” Mark said “uh I guess a praying mantis?” and I said “uh, well, I like those bugs that roll up into pills and you can flick them around, the pill bugs” and this caused a large commotion because “those are rolly-pollys!” and blah blah blah, then one very concerned child said “WHAT ABOUT BEETLES!” and a more concerned one said “OR BUTTERFLIES! WHAT ABOUT BUTTERFLIES!” Then we moved on from that subject to the next question: “what is your favorite animal?”

I am noticing fertility children on the ship, mainly because they are dressed exactly alike or have totally similar twin-like demeanors and haircuts and weights and ages, but are just a hair off and just a little bit not exactly identical. We had two blond 7 year old boys like this, one named Sawyer, the other named Tanner, sweet and quiet and cute with oddly VERY long fingernails, so they looked like they had mini versions of society wives hands. They had questions, but when you called on them they’d forget, which is probably one of my favorite things about 6-7 year olds. Each one raised his hand and forgot, which no one else really minded in the room, another hilarious thing about that age group, and when one of them finally remembered what he needed to know, he said “what is your favorite butterfly?” because he was apparently very bothered from earlier.

Another delightful overheard was “we just hit a whale” after the ship shifted and the response of “a whale with big teeth” and another kid losing his mind about “whales do not have teeth!”

Also, a porky wonderful shy little 8 year old boy with crew cut brown hair and a loud orange tshirt who was too terrified to join in on most of the improv games and would catch up a beat afterwards, came up to ask me a very important question that he didn’t get to ask in the Q&A section. He didn’t really make eye contact and just looked around at the floor and said “can I ask you a question” and I said yes and he very shyly whispered, “what do you do in your spare time?” I said I like reading and watching movies and walking around and he very solemnly nodded with his mouth open and then walked away.

OTHER ITEMS:
Two decrepit, shaking bent over old ladies in the elevator said “oh yeah we went on that tequila tour” “how was it?” “well the flavored kind was good, anything else is terrible.”