T.J. & James: Episode 1

I was new to Master's my Junior year. I knew one person, an annoying state to be in when you're a devout anti-socialist (that's a double-entendre because I am both meanings but only one makes sense in this sense). I had never been very good at making friends quickly because I'm cynical, sarcastic, quiet, and very opinionated. A summary of me is I went to an art school for homeschoolers and was considered weird. The students honestly had no idea what to do about me because they really couldn't figure me out. Enough about me. Onto James.

James has told me that the summer before his freshman year, God flipped a switch and he tore from his shell violently and began to tap dance (he didn't use that wording but I feel it illustrates the drastic level of change that occurred). Prior to high school, James recalls saying twelve words to anyone and this year he decided to become a people person.

It had been around three or four weeks and I only had one class with James: elements of production, aka free labor. On the fourth week we were going over what we'd be doing. Our assignment was to take bits of wood, screw them into squares, and staple canvass across them. I was given the assignment of opening the new staple gun whilst Mr Howe described our assignment in detail. I opened it, checked it for staples (none), on a whim pressed it on James foot, and pulled the trigger. He exclaimed, and I quote, "DUUUDE!" His friend Corbin laughed, I laughed, it was a grand old time.

A week after that, we were discussing A Christmas Carol, the first play of that year, and someone brought up The Night Before Christmas. James mentioned that his favorite version of that was a reading by a guy named Edgar Bergen and his puppet, Charlie McCarthy. Now, to everyone else there, those names meant nothing. I am not most people. I freakished out. "You know who they are?" James was equally intrigued. "You know who they are?" This caused Fun and Fancy Free to be brought up. James hadn't seen it yet but he quoted his known Charlie McCarthy lines and I quoted mine. The conversation ended with James gesturing toward me and saying, "I like how you do Charlie's voice. It's funny." "Well thank you." That was the beginning of our friendship, a joint love for a radio ventriloquist (I don't see the point either) that had been dead for 26 years.

James and I have never really worked together before this, but we're finding that we're perfectly suited together. We're both writers but we approach it very differently. I'm an acting writer and he's a writing director. I think about the character and the wording, while he thinks about the image and the visual, this means there are two points of focus and they both come out. We've also, through God's grace and our friendship, avoided a power struggle. After completing the outline of the script James handed it over to me. This is not said out pride (well, a little) but the truth, I am the better writer. James knew this and pretty much just set me free. James is the better director; so consequently I gave him the script when I was done and set him free. We agreed on the titles Primary and Secondary because it best explains it. James was one of the writers and was a help when I was stuck but about 95% of the script was all me. I am one of the directors but about 95% of the directing is done by him. We know our roles and we fill them.

Could the future hold more collaborations between the two of us? We'll see. For now we'll just wait to see if we live through this. Regardless we shall always remember, "A friend in need is a friend indeed." "So what?" "So they need some steak."

-T.J. Mercer