For most of us, those formative years are best kept hidden and forgotten in the deepest depths of our memories. So revisiting those moments — let alone making a play out of them — takes a lot of guts.
And yet David Crabb is willing to relive his youth in front of an audience that may or may not applaud and enjoy the joke that is his life.
In his latest one-man show, “Bad Kid,” Crabb plays himself, a Texan teenager whose coming-of-age journey is hazed by drugs, alcohol and cigarettes and titillated by sexual identities, confusion and experimentation. To make things worse, this 17-year-old walking disaster is packaged in goth clothing and shady makeup as he waddles through high school and a perpetual “high” life.
“Those years were so saturated and concentrated with events and happenings and mishaps. And through all these, there are lessons to be learned,” Crabb explains today.
As he recounts his life, the veteran storyteller employs a deft and often humorous use of voice mimicry to bring to life his colorful cast of characters. His narration reveals patchy snippets of memories that are as hilarious as they are astute, and as delightful as they are heart-wrenching.
“I have been doing storytelling for a long time,”?Crabb says, “and I just thought that it would be great to put a story of my life on stage and have fun with it. Even though some parts are pretty sad and tragic, it is still my story to tell and I want to tell it.”
