The Audience Booed!

My boys are comic geniuses. Or so they think. When they make silly faces, I laugh and make silly faces back. When they stumble through a joke, I laugh. They have a built in audience in me. I'm a reliable source of just the right amount of applause and reassurance to my budding performers. But I worry, sometimes, that I dole out the applause too often, abusing it like the overused term "Good job!" I mean, they're not that funny. So how would they fare, I wondered, in front of a real audience?

One of my boys, "Cheese Boy," had memorized enough material for a solid minute or two of stand up comedy. I asked him if he wanted to perform on a real stage. "Yes, I do!" he squealed back. "Good, " I replied, "I know just the stage!"

It took us a few minutes to find it. We had to push our way through a thick, black curtain. I escorted my young comedian up to the podium and helped him grab hold of the mic. Then I hid in the shadows. The stage lights were shining brightly into his face, blocking out the audience, but we could feel them there. It was a full house. "Knock 'em dead, " I wanted to shout, but I knew that would be distracting to him. "What? What did you say, Mommy? Who's dead?" he'd ask, stepping off the stage.

"Say hello, say your name!" I suggested instead.

"Hello, HELLO! My name is Cheese Boy and I'm here on stage..." he announced, his voice echoing.

But the audience booed! Yes, they booed at a 3.5-year-old during his first moments on stage! What an unforgiving audience! Hmf!

But Cheese Boy kept smiling, though he looked up at me for reassurance.

"Say your joke, " I encouraged.

"Knock, knock...who's there?" he began, then changed his mind, "Why did the underwear cross the road?"

The audience burst into laughter, even before the punchline was said.

"They loved it!" I yelled from the sidelines.

Cheese Boy laughed nervously.

"Underwear!" he repeated, for emphasis.

"Boooooo! Booooooo!" the audience retorted.

"Oh, they didn't like that one this time, " I cautioned.

"Why not?" replied Cheese Boy, still smiling but looking a bit unsure.

"Why did the underwear cross the road?" asked Cheese Boy, boldly trying out the same joke.

The audience roared, again before the punchline was delivered.

"Because the carrot was waiting!" continued Cheese Boy as the audience clapped and whistled in approval.

Cheese Boy went on to try out a few more fragmented jokes that only a preschool boy might find amusing. His jokes were hit and miss. Sometimes the audience ate it up, sometimes they booed and hissed. What an emotional roller coaster for my little stand up comic, but that's exactly what the experience of the MIND exhibit ("Center of Attention") was supposed to be, a simulated experience in front of a "live" audience. I was proud of my little boy, he pulled through all those boos and hisses with nary a scar. Of course, he knew that he mama had been applauding from the sidelines, stage mom that I am.

"Come on, " I said, stepping out of the limelight within the photo sized booth, its tiny walls covered in black fabric, "Let's go find the shadow box!" And with that, we skipped off through the Exploratorium, in search of strobe lights.

Original Silicon Valley Moms Blog post. Adapted from a post to the  Chalk and Cheese Chronicles.