Blue Man Group

Growing up I was indeed blessed with the gift of music. My mother introduced me to musical theatre when I was 8 and I started playing the drums when I entered 5th grade. I learned the drums really quickly and won first place in a state competition in Chicago when I was in 8th grade for snare then later for Jazz Kit. I continued to play the drums through high school but not for the band but for a garage band where we were heavily influenced by all punk and skate music. Later in life I was into more rap hip-hop and r&b. There was always one music video that I loved it was a motley crew video where Nikki Six had some glow in the dark Drum Sticks. I was on a mission to find me a pair but I never succeeded.

Tonight at 8pm. After a full day of attractions with the kids at Universal Theme Park in Orlando I treated the kids and my self to great seats to the Blue Man group. And let me tell you it was amazing! To see the kids energy pumping and the way they were inspired by the performance was just magical.

In 2006 I did an Intel Photo shoot print campaign with the Blue Man Group. I got the inside scoop about the troop from some of the founding members. What was interesting is that there are so many members of the Blue Man Group. And all of the members are very talented in their own right. But signing on to become one of the bald blue men is kind of like doing a work for hire as a designer, or ghost writing. You're no longer john smith - performer trying to make a name for his-herself. You're now a part of an idea. You follow a formula, you have no lines, only pantomime, you don't change the script or add your creative flair you just do the show format.

On your resume you have a new title - Blue Man of the Blue Man Group. But my question is, will having that on your resume help you land more gigs? Like If you have no identity and nobody can say to you - Hey I'm Joe-blow casting director and I saw you in that blue man group show and you really were a stand out performer. I'd like to cast you, john smith in my next major motion picture. The other question I have is at what point does a gig like that become a job?

Okay so the parallel to this blog?

Becoming a blue man performer is like adoption! No matter what you were before you became a blue man doesn't matter anymore. You're a blue man, so you eat, sleep and breath - the blue man identity! I don't know if you have to deal with BLUISM - or BLUJUDICE. But I'm sure loosing your identity is a bit daunting for a while. I mean I'm sure that most of the performers get tired of the same old BLUIST REMARKS - are you having a bad day? Breathe much? Go back to your mushroom! And the ever popular what do you get when you have 3 blue men at the bottom of the ocean - a good start! Oh those witty comical remarks about being blue.

I think the main difference between Blue man adoption and foreign adoption is, as a blue man performer you engage in the act of volunteering to loose your identity as a professional choice for 1 hour and 45 minutes every night at 8pm. In regular adoption you're brought up thinking that you're white when you're actually a different color on the outside but none of those emotions or confusing qualities were ever voluntary. They just were and there was no start and stop time.

I could go to a deeper layer of honesty about this topic but I'm on vacation. So I'll leave it for another entry just wanted to expose the conversation.

What was inspiring about tonight is that not only did my children walk out of that place cheering. More importantly I walked into the lobby - to see what momentous I could get for the kids to remember this experience by and Low-and-Behold I found my Glow Drum Sticks! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? After 25 years of searching for them. My holy grail of percussion frivolous must-haves appeared out of nowhere! So, I splurged and I bought 3 pairs one for my two little ones and myself. We ended up walking out of Universal banging on every surface we could not only to hear the sound but to watch the sticks glow over and over!

So tonight in many ways identified with the idea that as a parent you always want to give your children things you didn't have. So I'm giving them a solid relationship with their birth father, exposure to Korean culture from an early age, and well tonight was topped off with glow in the dark drum sticks for all!

God Bless!

VSTC