Vicky's got a problem that is like, I don't know, it's it's it's kind of it's not funny. But at the same time, you kind of dug your own hole on this one. But I'm here to help you out, Vicky. What's going on that you need advice for?
Hi? Well, okay, so my son is really into theater and he's been into it since he was like in the third grade, but he's not that good. I mean, of course I would always encourage him. I would say, you know, you're doing great, and you know, I was being a supportive parent, like most of the time. And it's what you do.
It's what you do.
Yeah, you don't say you know what, you really can't sing, you can't dance, you're not that talented, you're funny looking, you know, you really don't say things like that.
Yeah, and you know he's gotten because someone hey rolls. But it's been really because there's no other options for the productions.
Is well, guys in theater, I mean like musical theater, like local musical theater, they get a million women to come out, but they don't get that many guys.
True, That's I think that is very true, especially in high school when you have like three boys to choose from, so you will get the lead.
Yeah, and you know, he's not in a Dino or Minnetonta. He's like in a rural school, but there's like one hundred and twenty students. And now he's in high school and it's breaking my heart. He wants to audition for Northwestern's.
Like a big theater school.
It is.
Okay, oh yeah, it's huge, and it's his dream school, you know, and he's almost out of high school and I don't even want him to audition. And he mentioned, you know, he wanted to go to a bessel for BSA if he didn't get into.
Northwest Bachelor of Fine Arts? Is that what that is?
And I just really want him to have a degree that's going to serve him. And this can be a really expensive mistake. And I don't know how to discourage him with that.
So mean, no, I.
Get it, No, I totally, that totally makes sense. It's like, huh okay, I mean, if he was really good, you'd be like, you know, I don't know Carson was. He went to a music school, four year music school called Berkeley in Boston.
That's what he wanted to do.
He was good, but I never thought that he was, you know, like so good that he was going to set the world on fire. But that's what he wanted to do, and so I didn't want to discourage his dreams.
He went.
He realized within a few weeks that he's like not as good as the the other kids that were there, so he kind of switched his focus to management. So you've known a lot of theater people, Bailey, you know a lot of people theater people that are not as talented as they think they are.
Yeah, honestly, I think I'm going to be a different voice on this, So I think a lot of people would probably advise her like to you know, let him down easy kind of situation, that he should like go and do something else. But I know plenty of people who majored in theater, got a theater degree who were not good at like acting, if that's what they chose, and they found other career paths like within theater, because theater is not just like being on stage and acting.
There's backstage, there's management, There's tons of different things that you can do in theater, and honestly, more of it, in my opinion, is the hustle versus having talent. So like, I know plenty of people who work consistently who are not necessarily talented, but they have the hustle. They network, they like know people, They they go out and put themselves out there all the time.
And if he has the hustle, he could still do well.
I got a point, yeah, a lot of Like there was this a friend of mine who's telling a story that he made the All Star high school hockey team. M hm, not because he was better than this other kid. The other kid was a better hockey player, but he had hustle, right, So he got on the all Star team because he had hustle.
Yeah, And even if, like if he auditions for Northwestern and fails, that that's a learning moment.
That he can have.
And then if he's like, Okay, I'll go to Bethel and get my BFA there, who's to say that he can't learn actually, like how to be a better actor while he's getting a BFA. You don't really get to learn that stuff when you're in high school. They literally are like, you're a boy, go stand here, go stand here, say these lines, but you don't actually get to learn the craft, all.
Right, say, basically, somebody's on the phone.
They're talking about their son has been in theater, loves theater, and now he wants to go to Northwestern, which is, I guess a big theater school.
I had no idea.
I thought Devrye was a big theater school, but I wasn't really paying attention. So and she's like, oh man, I don't want him to go for four years and spend all that money and he's not ever going to be like, you know, huge, because he's not that talented. So Bailey's argument is like, well let him go anyway. A lot of people agree. They say, eddim audition. He needs to know there are other people out there that are more talented. It'll be a humbling experience. Another one said,
don't discourage him. College is didn't teach him so much more than high school. He should apply even if he doesn't get in. Somebody else said, let the world let him down, don't let mama let him down.
Yeah, because I think sometimes you.
Got to learn the world will not always, you know, open the doors for you, because that's that's real life. Yeah, mama should be there to be supportive.
And like if you fail, Like if real life lets you down and you fail, then you might learn how to pivot. So like if he finds out in college, okay, maybe I'm not the best actor, Okay, so what else can I learn in this field that I love so much? And that I wish I had majored in theater. I would have loved it. But I was also told not to why why by who? My parents they said like, SA, same with Vicky's. It wasn't like marketable, and so they were like, you should have something that look a little bit.
Better on your vestrat. Well here's somebody who said a text at KATWB one. We told our kids, you got to get a degree that sounds like a job and not a hobby.
I mean, my parents never did that to me.
I always knew that this is what I wanted to pursue, like the arts in essence, And I don't think I was ever particularly better than one kid or another, But I don't know.
I guess it's just every parent is different. I also hope that for Vicky. I'm sure I'm sure Vicky thought that hopefully as he.
Got older, he would maybe get a little bit better at it.
And I guess now she's just not saying that.
I think also, Vicky should be prepared to be the reason he goes to therapy if you do come up to him and be like, you're not talented, because then he's going to have such a like issue with himself. Yeah. I was gonna say complex with himself of something he's been doing his whole life a lot.
There's different sides on this one. Some people are like it is a waste of money, for sure. I'm sure there are people who went to school for theater or to major in dance, or you know, some other unmarketable degree like New Zealand Kuala Bear studies.
You know what I'm talking about. That degree, Well, but it's a.
Worthless one unless you're going to work ben at Zoo or I don't know. So I don't know, but I think that he'll It'll be an expensive lesson, but he'll learn it early in life and maybe that's a good thing. So should she tell him, should she say don't do it? Or should she let him fail on his own? And who knows he might do? Yeah, here's a Texas says I went to school for music at Bethel. I'm eighty
thousand dollars in debt. I just ended up going to a state school for a business degree after that music degree did nothing for me and just made me in debt. If I could do it all over again, I go straight to a state school.
But you just don't want to go through. That was the money and the debt, but also the embarrassment. My little sister, she's fifteen, and there was she went to a little phase where she thought she could sing, and so my mom or she went to my mom and said, hey, Mom, I want to sign up for America's Got Talent.
And I texted my mom.
I was like, please don't let bredo this, please, because I want to save her the embarrassment.
She just can't sing. She really can't sing.
No, get that like trying to save your kid from embarrassing. But sometimes, like the embarrassment is what is going to teach you how to pivot?
I guess I think there's also it's really it's such a picky matter. It's sometimes like Carson I said, you've got to follow your dream. If you don't follow your dream, you will spend the rest of your life wondering what happened. He went to school at Berkeley. Within a few weeks. Have told you the story, he realized that he was not as good as ninety percent of the kids that
were there. But he also said Berkeley was loaded with people who thought they could sing that really couldn't sing that well, but Berkeley was happy to accept them because chat ching, here comes your tuition money.
I have a question for Bailey then, because you said that you wish you would have gone to school for theater. But like, when it comes down to it, wouldn't you say just getting involved in the community might help you further.
They're actually having to be fa.
Oh yeah, no, I one hundred percent agree.
That's what.
So that's kind of what I mean with like it's a hustle over like having actual talent. Like I know a lot of people in musical theater who got a degree in musical theater who then kind of said that they didn't need it.
As long as you have the talent, then you.
Can get a role doing anything, honestly, because people want the talent.
So I don't think you need that.
But if this kid doesn't have talent, like he might actually be able to benefit from the degree in terms of networking, because like networking is going to be more difficult if you're not like you know, are automatically like woven into a group of people that you would if you went to school for it.
I just think that, like one huge thing you learn in college is it's not necessarily like I thought, you go to college, you get your degree, you get your a job. Yeah, that's not necessarily how it is. It is about getting out there and networking and getting internships
and stuff like that. So I think that there's still an opportunity, VICKI to talk to him about maybe getting a different degree and minor in theater or something like that, and then tell him to still stay involved in theater, but like have this other degree to help him out in the case that, right, he can't get what he wants.
Yeah, with theater or major in theater and minor in business, do whatever. But yeah, got it. It's the hustle. You gotta teach him the hustle.
It really is the hustle.
I mean seriously, It's like one of the reasons that I've been able to sustain in this business for so long is because I used to hustle. When everybody else was out playing golf and smoking weed, I was there at the radio station working on stuff and was like they always knew that if they asked me to do something, I wouldn't be like, yeah, I'll get around to it.
I'm like I'll do it right now.
So there's a lot of it's hustle, Hey, Vicky, good luck, and everything will be fine.
We all worry about our kids.
I know somebody right now whose kid is about your age, and it's like he has no ambition. It'll come around, you know, at least he's got the ambition to go do something. Either way, it'll turn out fine.
Hey, good luck. If you want to be on group therapy.
You got a question, then send an email to Ryan's show at kdwb at dot com.