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The one who yells ‘Yeeha!’ and jumps
“Man, you really brought me to life,” said an old, skinny man whose wide eyes and white wiry eyebrows contrasted his dark face.
He was talking to my friend Phil who had come to the man’s daycare facility with guitar in hand to put on a holiday show.
It was Phil’s performance of “Run Run Rudolph” that did the trick. Before that song the man mostly slept while his fellow seniors bopped and dipped to “Jingle Bell Rock” and “The Dradle Song.”
I sat behind the man during the show and assumed he was in some kind of catatonic state. But the Chuck Berry Christmas song had him pogoing like a kid at a System of a Down concert. He also did the jitterbug during Phil’s encore.
Phil wasn’t the only one getting applause. There was also a woman who is turning 100 this month who danced into the room when she heard the holiday tunes.
Every wallflower in the room got cheers and encouragement as they stepped forward to dance.
Phil thanked me for tagging along and insisted that I was good luck because he didn’t think his typical audiences respond as well.
But I know better. Phil and I have been friends for more than 25 years. This is the way things always are with him. Phil is especially good at taking people out of their comfort zones and then making them feel comfortable.
We became friends because a teacher wanted us to perform a magic show together at school. He was a budding magician in one of the school’s fifth grade classes and I was the magician in the other.
Since that fifth grade magic show, I have found myself singing on rooftops and in bars, driving until I didn’t recognize the scenery and generally relating to people on a much deeper level than I would have ever felt comfortable doing without Phil as a tour guide.
Before the Christmas show we had lunch at a greasy Salvadorian café where no one spoke English. I probably would have avoided having lunch in a place where I felt out of my element, but not Phil.
He has always danced to the beat of his own drum, and yes, there are awkward moments in his adventures. But they never stop him or take away from the experiences. He never comes away looking like a fool.
Instead, people usually catch on. Maybe they can tell he is sincere from his smile, or maybe they relate to him through times when they felt awkward in their own lives.
Phil’s real talent shows itself in that moment when he is standing at the edge of the cliff that is his own comfort zone. He just says “Yeeha!” and jumps.
So the rest of us are willing to meet him halfway and there will probably always be someone there to dance when he sings.
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