“Do you have the courage to let go of who you thought you were going to be, so that you can become who you're becoming?” - Orlando Bishop, “Unstuck as F*ck”
What a man, what a man, what a man, what a mighty good man.
What a show, what a show, what a mighty good show.
Orlando Bishop is a good man who wrote a good show. He’s a husband, a father, a writer, comedian, and since he was quite young, an inspirational coach. His one man show entitled Unstuck as F*ck at Rogue Machine Theatre in Los Angeles was therefore hilarious and moving and made me think.
Orlando’s autobiographical piece is accented with a backdrop of projected images from his life, such as a photo of himself as a 17 year old (already an inspirational coach at that tender age!), a pivotal moment in his history. The 40-something man on stage gestures to his teen self, the holder of the vivid dreams of what he was supposed to be, do and have at various momentous junctures in his life.
That boy stares out at us, and seems to stare down his grown-up self. It’s hard to not imagine yourself on the stage, your own teen pic projected onto the screen.
“Would she be happy with where we’ve ended up?” I ask about my teen self. It’s been a fascinating, colorful road, albeit supremely different than what she expected. I just threw her into the basket on my handlebars and said “To hell with your pictures, let’s goooooo!” I think she’d say that even the big bumps that jettisoned her out of the basket were worth it.
Wouldn’t it be cool if every 17 year old could have a virtual conversation with three different middle aged versions of themselves? The one who underachieved according to their teen dreams, the one who met all their perceived goals, and the one who far exceeded all expectations?
On my way home from seeing the show, I heard a story on NPR about a study about the saving behavior of adults. Baby boomers, in particular, are apparently not saving enough for their futures. The study investigates whether showing participants computer generated photos of their future selves will affect their saving behavior. It does! You can read about it here. Turns out these little chats with our future selves can be a good thing. Whatever inspires you to have one of these soul check-ins is probably another mighty good thing.
Luckily Orlando Bishop has plans to go on tour with Unstuck because this is a show that’s good for all of us to see. It gives the audience the lovely opportunity to stare into the tiny – or gigantic – pieces of ourselves that are stuck, or bumping awkwardly into the teenage dream of how our lives should be flowing as adults. My prayer is that he tours colleges so that young men and women can bang up against that image sooner rather than later to see it is just a made up, static picture they have of themselves, and that letting go, as Orlando suggests, could bring them to a far groovier moving picture.
I’m off to chat with the 75 year old me. My guess is she’ll paraphrase Orlando’s wisdom: “Let it go so you can become who you are becoming.” I think she might also say “You have no idea how good this is gonna get.” And, as a parting comment she might shout out with a thrill of laughter “Oh yeah!... and you should also save more — for me!”