Kevin Marshall's America
A recent blog post by Amanda posed five questions to her readers that I decided to answer because…well, I was bored. And also because I love contributing to her blog.
I'm Gumby, damnit.
One of the questions asked “what was the very first thing you wanted to be when you grew up?”
For me, it was a cast member of “Saturday Night Live.” And in the process of answering that question, I hit upon a fairly big revelation that gave me a lot of insight into both how I became the person I am and what motivates me to do the sort of things I do
I started watching “Saturday Night Live” at a very young age, mostly due to the enjoyment my siblings took out of it. We were all spread pretty far out in age, and being the youngest I was eager to be a part of their group.
They’d watch “Saturday Night Live” and laugh pretty hard at some of the skits. I’d join in as well, even if I didn’t quite get the joke. I would quote back things like “I’m Gumby, damnit” even though I didn’t understand myself what was funny about it in the first place. But it brought us all joy and brought us together, so I was eager to replicate it.
I wanted to not just make them laugh, but to make other people laugh like that. I was in awe of people that had this gift to make people laugh and like them so immensely. That was the sort of power I was hungry for.
It continued well into my adolescence and adulthood.
Almost to a fault. At times I became, and still am, too eager to please everyone. In school my studies often suffered because of my desire to be a clown. It was a way for me to gain acceptance and be embraced by people despite my tubby frame, poor eyesight, and hopeless dorkiness. It perhaps made me less educated, and definitely made me do things in desperation for acceptance that I wouldn’t have done otherwise; things I look back on now and am ashamed or embarrassed about.
The earliest, and perhaps best, incarnation of the "Saturday Night Live" cast.
But it also brought about a lot of good. It made me a halfway decent conversationalist, a writer, a good self-promoter, and gave me the ability to take life with humor and at face value (once I was able to address other issues). For all the personal faults it created, it also made me that much more likable and happy.
So, believe it or not, that television show called “Saturday Night Live” is a big part of who I am. My foster parents were a rotating cast of a dozen or so actors and actresses, with my grandfather Lorne Michaels letting them go when he felt I was no longer a priority for them. It came with its drawbacks, to be sure, but it also made me a much better person than I would have been otherwise.
I’ve caught a few episodes lately, and it’s not as good as it once was. Or maybe it never was all that good, and even now I watch it with a pair of those cliché rose-tinted glasses that makes everything better than it actually was. But it doesn’t matter, because I’m an adult now, and the show’s not for me; it’s for all those other kids who want to laugh and make other people laugh.
So thanks, “Saturday Night Live.” You did good by your boy Kevin Marshall.
REACT: What did you first want to be when you grew up, and how did it impact the rest of your life?
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8 Responses to Live from New York, it’s Kevin Marshall’s Formative Years
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STALK ME
When I grew up, all I wanted to do was be a tornado chaser. Then I flunked physics. I really hated physics. Still, as a child, I read up on weather forecasting and how different clouds mean different sorts of weather. I’m sort of a weather geek now.
I really wanted to be a Doctor when I grew up, just like my dad. I got all into science and math. But I had a really bad experience with Biology in high school that inevitably turned me off to the whole profession (it also didn’t help that I have fear of syringes). If I hadn’t gotten into the math/sciences, I would’ve never gone to RPI and most likely would not have realized that I was actually good at designing. So in an interesting way science lead me to art, which is oddly appropriate for RPI. I should say that even though I’m on track to be a graphic/web designer now, which I love, I still have 2 dream jobs: to be the stage manager for a broadway show, and (like Ellie) to be a storm chaser (I’m totally addicted to all those shows on Nat Geo and Discovery). But I realized while I can’t do everything at once, I can pick up hobbies. So that’s why I do local theatre, and I’ve looked in to going on storm chasing vacations or will sit and watch thunderstorms. It may not be exactly what I wanted, but it’s enough that I’m happy.
When I was young, I wanted to be a baseball player. Specifically, I wanted to play for the Yankees. As I got older, most of the other boys developed into athletes of varying levels. I did not. Thanks to the ridicule about my size and lack of athletic skills, I wasn’t invited along to do much of what the cool kids were doing. So, I became introspective. I started drawing/sketching while listening to music in my room alone. After a while, I really started to get “into” the way that lyrics are like poetry and how they tell a story and illicit a feeling.
I guess that is why I am a songwriter today.
When I was little, what I wanted to be was likely to change every day (doctor, fire fighter, President), but one thing that stayed the same for a long time was that I wanted to be a ballerina. My Mom enrolled my sister and I in dance classes when I was just 4 years old – a definite plus since you need to start training early, plus I was very tiny for a very long time, perfect for dancing. Unfortunately, not only did we move to the middle of nowhere, where the one teacher I had access to moved just as she was about to starting training me ‘en pointe’, but I also learned that I had scoliosis, a curvature of the spine that meant I couldn’t bend or have the perfect posture needed for ballet. I continued to dance (not just ballet but also jazz/modern dance) until I was 14 and no longer had the time or motivation to fit it into my schedule. Of course, I still dance around my house and have been known ballet dance around the dance floor (or the bar that one time), usually being silly with my friend Josh. And I still admire and try to emulate the grace and poise that is inherent in ballet. Dance training really puts you in touch with how your body moves, and this is valuable in many aspects of life (for example, it actually helped me to be a better hurdler in high school track).
And I got lucky because this obsession with dance was what got me on stage for the first time. Because of this I had the confidence to audition for my first play, and discovered my love for acting at a young age. My participation in theatre throughout high school, college and now through community theatre, has boosted my confidence in myself, has allowed me to have a fantastic hobby that I truly enjoy and, more importantly, to meet some of the best people and most wonderful friends I will ever know.
I never really knew what I wanted to be….a vet for a little while – until I realized how much school I needed! Always been comfortable with animals so I suppose that’s how I ended up with a farm.
If you look at my yearbook prediction, you’ll se I was gonna make millions doing Blues Brothers impressions….and I wasn’t gonna be Elwood…..
A Garbage Man, because they’re trucks were so cool!
I lived in a town that had a “Space Center” and the first omnimax (before IMax) in the area, and one of five in the nation. We’d go there on field trips, so naturally I wanted to be an astronaut. Then Space Camp came out, then the Cosmosphere started “Space Camp.” That solidified everything! Throughout school I was into planes. I studied for my pilots license when I was 15, and thought I’d get it before my driver’s license. Then I kept growing… and growing… soon enough I was starting college applications, and looking at requirements for pilot school (military) and discovered that at 6’2 I was three inches taller than the maximum height allowed to fly fighter jets. So, I thought that I’d do something else… bombers, helo’s, whatnot. Then my eyes went out on me. :( So, I studied engineering in college, but the closest aeronautical engineering school was Embry Riddle, in fact one of the only ones at the time, so I studied civil engineering & architecture. Now I have a bachelor’s in English, three teaching certificates, and an MS in Educational Administration.
See what dreams can do to you when your body doesn’t cooperate?? :) I’m still a good person, and I do good things. I still wish I was working at Kennedy or Johnson Space Center, but I work for NY State! That’s got to be worth SOMETHING, right? *I’m trying not to laugh.*