Fame-ish, Part 2

Good morning, and how is everyone doing on this Monday again? Last week, I began part one of a story, and I intend to complete it today. That's because I always finish what I start, like the time I

So I was discussing the times that I've been most famous, and I stopped before revealing the final two. I feel like I'm the host of a reality show during the elimination part. The votes are in...and...we'll be back right after this. Seacrest, you wily fox!

With the second selection in the Peter Klein fame game, Peter chooses...his Power Ranger experience. While that might be enough information for many of you, I will 'splain myself to the rest of the class. My senior year of high school, I was involved in the school's drama programs. One of the best parts of this was attending the yearly festival in which schools from all over Southern California presented scenes in a variety of classifications. Scenes would be performed and judged, then potentially moved on to semi-finals, then the finals, and then a winner was selected. The winner would then perform in front of everyone at the festival and then get to do something else that I'll talk about later.

One of the categories was "Children's Theatre." It may have been "Children's Theater," but I prefer the "re" spelling unless I'm talking about a movie theater. I thought you'd like to know that. In any case, my friend Jon and I worked with our teacher to create a scene based on the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Mrs. Foss (who really knew her shit when it came to what worked and what didn't at these festivals) helped us craft a scene that would be entertaining to kids while also being very tongue-in-cheek and self-mocking. We had a lot of fun preparing everything and rehearsing, so all six of us were excited to bring it to the festival. Oh yes, it was broughten.

We got there and received our room assignment for the first round. We sat through some good scenes and some God-awful ones, then went up and did our thing. It was received very well, so we were happy to report that back to the group as we waited to see who moved on to the next round. During that break, word started to spread about our performance, and it was the coolest feeling. Some girls walked by, and I heard one say, "That's them! And oh my God, they really do have an Asian girl for the Yellow Ranger!"

Our legend seemed to grow with each round, to the point that people we sort of knew from other schools were coming up to us and saying that they hoped we won so they could see the scene. By the time the final round came, we had a full head of steam. (An interesting-to-me side note: one of the other groups in the final round was from my lovely wife's high school and her friend Stef - who I didn't yet know but would later be in our wedding - was in their scene.) We went out there, did our thing, and waited for the big gathering to hear if we won or not.

We did win, and it was very exciting. In front of the largest group I'd ever stood before, we performed our Power Ranger scene again. It was actually our worst performance ever, but the crowd still seemed to like it a lot (despite the "Oh shit" that one of our friends muttered when she couldn't remember her line). After it was over, a lot of strangers kept coming up to us to meet us and tell us how cool they thought the scene was. Since I was kinda nerdy in high school, this was unlike anything I'd ever experienced, and you better believe I was enjoying it.

The next order of business was a night for all of the winners to perform at Paramount Studios for our friends, family, and some frickin' agents! Not only that, we got to go on stage and shake hands with two celebrities. At the time, I knew those celebrities as "some old time actor named Jon Voight and the dude who played Skippy on Family Ties." I was way more excited to meet Skippy (Marc Price) at the time, but that would be different now. I'd have a very hard time deciding what I'd want to say to Jon Voight. Two things come to mind: "I loved when you were regurgitated in Anaconda," and "Dude, your daughter is hot! Crazy, but h-o-t HOT!" Instead, I was thinking of things I could say to Skippy about Justine Bateman that would get a laugh. When the moment of truth came though, I just shook their hands and politely thanked them.

The performance itself was decent. The stage was a little smaller than previous ones we'd been on, so there was less room for the monster we made out of chairs. It's hard to explain, so you'll have to take my word for it. All in all, the experience that night was crazy, fun, nerve-wracking, and absolutely nothing came from it. One of the agents came up and talked to Jon, and a couple spoke to a guy named Micah in our scene, but that was it. It doesn't matter though, because I was famous that day at the festival and for a while after. Famous: there's no other word for it.

And yet, that's not number one on my list. I know, it seems like it would be hard to surpass, but the Power Ranger fame was limited to just some of the drama crowds of just the high schoolers of just the Los Angeles area. No, my friends, that fame was fleeting compared to the number one "most famous I've ever been" moment. Intrigued? Good, because I'm counting on that intrigue to sustain you until tomorrow. Yes, that's right; we're having the first trilogy in UOPTA history. Can you feel the excitement? No, that's slight nausea, try again. There, that's the excitement right there. Bask in it, and I'll meet you back here tomorrow to wrap this shiznit up.