Sunday Night With John: 7 Days to Bumblebee
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7 Days to Bumblebee
John Paul Derryberry
March 22nd, 7:03 p.m., 7 Days till Fringe: The email came in. A friend needed a storyteller for an event in 7 days. Another participant had to pull out, leaving them short of presenters for the eventing. I have participated in Iowa’s Watch storytelling events before (Glory Days). These events are an intimate, intelligent evening of transformative stories. Sharing the stage with other storytellers, when I’m normally a solo act, is always fun. I jump at the chance to help out a wonderful group in need. The title of the event, Fringe: True Stories from Outsiders, is such a unique topic, I cannot resist and quickly shoot off an email at 8:20 p.m., stating that I’m in.
March 23rd, 9:26 a.m., 6 Days till Fringe: I'm at work, focused on another project, when the light bulb goes off and I know the story I’m going to tell at Fringe. I send off an email to the event planner detailing the ins and outs of my story. An email comes back quickly, saying, perfect. After about 15 minutes of sitting in my happiness, I realize this story only works with “The Costume". It is well documented that I have a variety of costumes for different occasions: an elf for the holidays, a leprechaun for St. Patty's day , a July 4th America suit. I enjoy the fun of embodying fun. Without a doubt, the best costume ever is the Bumblebee Transformers costume I built, inspired my the central figure in my story. The story I’m telling is good, but will be great if I add the costume. The original Bumblebee and Bumblebee 2.0 have bit the dust. This meant Bumblebee 3.0 had to come to life. I tell my wife, we’ve got a weekend project, and the creative artist is on board and already planning. Considering the first two bumblebee costumes took weeks to make, we are in a time crunch already.
March 24th, 10:30 a.m. 5 Days till Fringe: We are supposed to be heading out to pick up supplies for Bumblebee but we are smack dab in the middle of the spring-winter storm. Eight inches of snow covers the ground in Iowa City. My wife’s car is stuck at the end of our street and we are shoveling, pushing, spinning and sliding all over the place just to get her car back in the drive. Just when we get the car back in the driveway and our driveway shoveled, another car gets stuck on our street. I cannot in good conscience don a hero’s costume in six days without jumping in to help this driver out. Another round of shoveling and pushing and our standard driver is on their way. I’m exhausted and have decided I’m basically done for the day.
2:00 p.m.-- Anne and my friend, Chris, to the rescue, as they drag me off the couch. Three stops later, we have procured our supplies. We did some minor design on the move in each store. It took three stops because I don’t have many rules in life but one of them is, Wal-Mart does not get my money. It’s an ethically poor company, which made finding the correct amount of duct-tape difficult. Six hours later, thanks to my wife’s genius idea of using industrial strength velcro, the shell, plus the bones of Bumblebee are made. Now it would be a race to finish the duct tape job by Thursday.
Marv helping with the build by trying on Bumblebee pre paint job!
March 25th, 8:00 p.m. 4 Days till Fringe: My hands ache from duct-taping for the last four hours of my life. I just chuckle to myself and think, why, oh why, do I care so much about this story that I put this much effort into a costume. But that is the thing about impacting lives, you cannot go half speed, it just doesn’t work. I run out of duct tape with only two parts of the costume covered. Will I have to break my rule tomorrow and run to Wal-Mart to procure the rest of the duct tape? I bought out all the yellow duct tape in Iowa City’s Ace Hardware. It would be a sad day for me if my three-year streak of not giving Wal-Mart my money was ruined.
March 26th, 4:30 p.m. 3 Days till Fringe: Leaving work, I remember there is an Ace Hardware store nearby. I correctly dart over there and grab all their yellow duct tape. It’s not enough to finish the project, but it keeps my no Wal-Mart rule intact for one more day. I tape away until 10 p.m. and finish up three other pieces of the project. Tuesday night will be the big piece and focal point of my costume. I drag myself to bed, end in sight. We might just pull this off.
March 27th, 10:30 p.m. 2 Days till Fringe: On the drive home from work, I remember Paul’s in Iowa City. They have enough duct tape to finish the job. Yes! The No Walmart Rule stays in effect. For three years running, they have not received a dime from me. I have just enough duct tape, but I’m just shy of finishing the finer details on the costume. If I don’t finish it, no one would notice, but I would know. This story deserves as close to perfection as possible. As I try it on and attempt to transform, some of the pieces fold in spots, or fall down incorrectly. Bumbledee does not look like a car when I transform. It’s more of a car wreck. The structural problems are baffling me, but my intelligent, designer wife comes to the rescue. She strengthens the foundation of the costume and I think we are in the clear, but we are too tired to keep working and call it a night.
March 28th, 8:00 p.m. Day Before Fringe: I had a late night meeting at work and therefore no time after work to finish all the little details on my costume. I’m running on fumes, and my wife says, no problem. I’ll finish it tomorrow.
March 29th, 3:00 p.m. Day of the Event: I arrive home from work to find my wife putting the finishing touches on Bumblebee. I try it on and transform a couple of times and it works. Now I just have to get it to the event without a scratch on the paint job. I take a quick, 30-minute run to clear my head, focus on the event and rehearse my story over and over again. The last obstacle for my costume and me will be the stairs to the stage. I arrive at the event and scope out the situation. We hear three amazing stories during the first half of the event: stories about how becoming outsiders is brave, exciting, a journey to finding one’s true form. I hope my story and my costume are up to the challenge. After intermission, my wife helps me don my costume and when it’s my time to take the stage, the MC of the event offers me a hand up. The crowd goes silent at the sight of the last storyteller taking the stage in a giant, yellow, duct-taped costume.
My wife and I did it! I’m on the stage, safely in Bumblebee 3.0, telling the story about how my fringe client inspired me. My story starts with no mention of why I’m wearing this glorious costume but the tale of the outsider who inspired me is hitting all the right notes. When I get to the part revealing why I’m in a costume, the crowd laughs at the reveal. This teen, who years ago came from the fringe of society to inspire me, now has inspired this room. 7 days to Bumblebee was never about the costume. It’s about this young man shaping me into the man that truly knows what it means to inspire others. It’s to show people they should embrace the beauty of being an outsider. Bumblebee 3.0 is beautiful because it came from such a rock-solid place in my heart. Wherever that young man is now, I want him to know that I’m forever grateful for his gift to me, which is now a gift to many more.