Meet Abe

This is the little man who was responsible for most of the munchkin quotes of the day:

Abe is 7 years old and Ericka had a theory that he knew he was 7 and capitalized on it at every chance he had. When he wasn't thinking about the fact that he was only 7, he was offering up ideas about how people should be blocked into the scenes and when he had his hand raised and you asked him if he had a question he would say things like, "No, but I have a statement." Alright then.

And then he would remember that he is only 7. When he remembered that he is 7 things like this would happen...

Me: Abe, put down your script buddy. I need you to say your lines without looking at them.

Abe: Well, I don't know if I can.

Me: You'll be fine. Just put down your script.

Abe: Well, I don't know...I'm not a very good rememberer.

Randomly running out onto the stage just because he had the whim to do so. Capitalizing on being 7. During rehearsal, yelling from off stage "Hey! Wanna hear me make a really big fart?" Capitalizing on being 7. Sobbing hysterically and telling us he couldn't go on with rehearsal because he was just too hungry. Capitalizing on being 7. Singing "Merry Old Land of Cheese" rather than "Merry Old Land of Oz." Capitalizing on being 7.

One of my favorite moments was after snack one day and one of our counselors comes to me with Abe. She was crying because she had been laughing so hard. I looked down at Abe and his cheeks are completely puffed out, there are crumbs all over his lips and he looks like he's going to throw up. I said, "Buddy, what've you got going on there?" He just stared at me. Cameron, again still cracking up, said, "Well, you told them to come back into the theatre but he wasn't done eating his cheese so he stuffed all the rest of it in his mouth." I looked at Abe and said, "You need to go ahead and chew that up and swallow it." He just stared at me. I said, "Abe, you can't chew that can you?" He shook his head no and then looked at the ground like he was going to cry. I said, "Abe honey, why don't you spit it out?" He looked up at me and his eyes sparkled. I said, "It's really okay, you can go spit it out." He ran over to the trash can, emptied the contents of his mouth and ran into the theatre. I just stood dumbfounded for a moment.

Abe was the mayor of Munchkin City and the "Winkie General" (Winkies are the Witch's guards). Pretty much the only thing the Winkies do is wander around saying "Yo Hee Oh Yo Ho" over and over again. But at one point Abe has to say it by himself since he's the General. I realized in rehearsal that he didn't quite have it right. He was saying "Yo Hee Oh YO YO." Much like Merry Old Land of Cheese, I have no idea if it was because he didn't know the difference or because he woke up every morning saying, "Hey...I'm 7. You get what you get. Take it or leave it."

And the best thing about Abe was that you could never take your eye off him. If you did, one of two things was guaranteed to happen.

1. He would run out on the stage or poke his head out from behind the curtain.

OR

2. He would bust a move at completely random moments, never once noticing that people were watching him.

Sweet little Abe. Oh, and this Pokemon shirt...he wore that probably 3 out of 5 days a week.