My son took one comedy class with me…well two; Now he’s Mr. Funny Man every chance he gets. I make one slip of the tongue, verbal blunder, mental hiccup, and he leaps on the opportunity. His eyes bulge and he blares out, “What!?”
He used that one word as a declarative statement, a full sentence. My son fired off joke after joke after joke like fireworks on Independence Day. Let me tell you my story.
I was scheduled to perform comedy in a city two hours from home. My friend and her significant other, I’ll call him Joe went with me for support. Joe drove for us, as he has done several times.
Before I left home I was telling my son about the show, “Carla and Joe are going to the show with me tonight. I need to grab $20 to give Joe for gas.”
My son stopped what he was doing, glared me, and said, “WHAT?!”
“Ma, you’re going to give a grown
man twenty dollars to drive you four hours to a sundown town, to listen to you
talk about menopause? Twenty dollars will get him four gallons of gas. You’re
hilarious.”
His rant continued, “You put Ms. Carla in a bad spot. Now she’s gonna have to rub his feet, scratch his back, cook dinner; All because he’s helping her friend. You think an Andrew Jackson goes a long way.”
I let him get all the words out of his head and into the atmosphere. “You offered me that same twenty dollars to cut the grass, paint the screen door, and repair a hole in the wall.”
When my son finally paused I said, “Well, that twenty dollars for you was just a love offering, you can complete the tasks for free. No need to worry, when I go to your house I will be sure to leave a trail of shoes, clothes, and dishes throughout each room.”
I chuckled. You would have thought we were in sone kind of roast battle. No winner was declared. I strolled off as I said, “And I WILL be giving Joe more than $20.”
Each day my son displays more evidence that he truly has my DNA. In addition to his sense of humor, he has my temperament, my allergies…and my Adam’s apple.
I must not leave out my other son; he’s the real DNA winner. He has my mustache…my chin hairs…and my chest hairs. Just kidding, he doesn’t have chest hairs.”
What is something funny that your child or someone else’s child has said to you?
