Rick Rosner, American Comedy Writer, www.rickrosner.org

Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Independent Journalist, www.in-sightpublishing.com

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Do you play any instruments?

Rick Rosner: Yes.

Jacobsen: What did you play?

Rosner: My mom was very musical. She wanted her kids to be musical, but neither my brother nor I were. She made us take piano lessons. We both hated them. Then she wanted me to play an instrument in the band. So, I played the trombone for five years. I started in 5th grade. There was a terrible little orchestra at my elementary school. Then, I was the third trombone chair in junior high for two or three years. But I couldn’t have been better. I didn’t enjoy it. Much spit is involved, which didn’t gross me out, but who cares?

Rosner: So, yes, I played an instrument, though not well. How about you? Did you play an instrument?

Jacobsen: I played some. I played the recorder. Then, I was in the university choir for two and a half years. I remember we hired part of the VSO because the choir saved up for years before I was in it. Plus, I was in it at one university, and we hired part of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. We played in a church of 500 people, performing Mozart’s Requiem and other pieces for probably an hour and a half, maybe two hours. You don’t realize how talented these musicians are because they are probably one of the best in class on the West Coast of Canada once you’re right up next to them and singing with them. You feel it. They reverberate so perfectly in harmony. That’s an awe-inspiring feat to me. I was in the bass section, but only average. I played piano for a while but lost all that. 

Rosner: My friends and I joined the choir because we noticed that the kids in the choir were having parties. They were doing Jesus Christ Superstar, a fantastic production for a high school to even dare to do it. They were having parties after practice every night, and many people were hooking up, and we wanted to hook up. So we joined the choir in the hopes that we would get to kiss a girl. I liked it. I fell asleep in every session because it was boring, but I liked singing.

With some training, I could carry a tune, which I never thought I could because, in 2nd grade, the music teacher said I was the least talented student she ever had. It could be 1st grade. That’s a shitty thing to say to a kid. She felt justified in saying that because I had other things going for me. Like, it was apparent I was smart. So people could say, this isn’t your thing. But maybe I was slow to learn that, and it was my thing. Because later in the choir, even now, I can sing along well. I am not trying to figure out what I sound like.

I auditioned for the high school musical Anything Goes in my senior year. That was an excuse to be in the school after hours to break into the office and steal blank transcript material to return to high school. 

Jacobsen: That was unethical.

Rosner: What’s that?

Jacobsen: That was unethical.

Rosner: Yes. But, like, toy unethical. It was such a dumb caper. It seems creepier now in the light of it being 45 years later. But my audition, I belted out my part, and there was silence after the audition. It was me, the choir teachers, and the other people auditioning. There was silence, which was a weird reaction. I asked them why that reaction, and they said, “You didn’t sing it; you shouted it.”

At that point, I got a part. It wasn’t a big part. I was one of the sailors. Everybody got a part. But with some training, I could have been better. But anyway, Let’s do one more and then wrap it up.

License & Copyright

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. ©Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use or duplication of material without express permission from Scott Douglas Jacobsen strictly prohibited, excerpts and links must use full credit to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with direction to the original content.

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