I went to Montreal over Thanksgiving to visit my sister (Caroline), my brother-in-law (Van) and their two kids (Sam and Charlotte). It was a nice little trip. Niki went with me and my parents even came up. While my sister was cooking the Turkey, I “baby sat” Sam and Charlotte. Charlotte is 2 months old and enjoys sleeping. Sam is 3 and a half years old and enjoys playing games (preferably the same one over and over again). As we were playing “train” I thought it’d be pretty funny to pretend to crash a train car into Sam’s hand. He thought it was pretty funny too. So he asked me to do it again. And again. And again and again until I realized I was repeating the same exact exercise literally 127 times in row. And each time Sam reacted as if it was the first time he had ever seen such an amazing event.
I was worried I would have to keep doing this same exercise for the next three hours, when Sam miraculously shifted his attention to the TV and said, “Let’s watch car video!” Sounded like a great idea to me. Sam quickly grabbed a video from the book shelf, put it into the VCR, and pressed play with a remote control as if he had been doing this activity for years. I figured we’d be watching some sort of talking car cartoon or something, until I realized the “car video” was actually the instuctional video that came with my sister’s Volkswagen Jetta. I learned about all the features and functions of a Jetta. It’s got power side mirrors and blinkers, 8-way programmable seats, and plenty of cargo space. Sam was enthralled thoughout. Enough so that he proceeded to rewind the tape and watch it again 13 more times.
It was then I realized this little fellar has the makings to be a successfull comedian one day. He may not have the “Rule of Three’s” down yet. But he definitely has the Billy Merritt “Rule of Twenty Seven’s”* down pat.
*Improv Guru Billy Merritt (paraphrased): “If you repeat something three times, it’s funny. Five times? Not funny. Nine times? Not funny. Twenty times? Still not funny. Twenty-Seven Times? FUNNY!”
