I went to Chicago last weekend to check out the improv scene. As I walked around the city, bundled up like an eskimo, I took a good long look at the younger people that lived there. They are all thin, incredibly thin, perfectly groomed, well dressed, and they all have this air of unreality about them. Its almost as if they were all cast from a plastic mold in some human factory. I can imagine the label above the mold..."perfect humans". I'll be honest, they frighten me. Like everything in this world, they seem to have been boiled down to perfection. They seem to have been categorized and boxed and polished. Here we are! Youth of the future! Slender, wealthy, perfect! Hitler youth anyone? I know that every generation has probably felt this way to some extent, but when I grew up there was serious diversity in the shapes and sizes of people. I'm not talking about fat vs skinny, I'm talking about VARIETY. As I walked through the streets of downtown chicago, I was seriously wondering if I was visiting a city where the vanguard of an alien invasion was happening. Like 'invasion of the body snatchers' style.
When I went to see the improv shows, my fears were confirmed. On each stage was a ridiculously skinny well groomed kid spouting polished and perfect humor that had been packaged and refined to the point of...well....perfection. I wondered what John Belushi, that unshaven chubby funny man who blew mashed potatoes out of his mouth, would say if he could see what his improv mecca had become. Don't get me wrong, the players were extremely talented. The shows were funny. But everything was so.......skinny. Was there a memo that went out over the internet that anyone under the age of 30 is not allowed to eat anymore???
Bah. I'm just pissed cuz I'm fat.
