The Book of Mormon - A Review

I love Mormons. This is almost entirely due to soaking, but still, they're absolutely fascinating to me. Do they believe in some weird stuff? Sure, but that's true of all religions. Hell it's true of any belief system out there. So you may scoff at the idea of American Jesus, but I counter that you can't spell Jesus without US, which may make him the most American of all.

Although it seems as if everyone knows, The Book of Mormon is a musical. When it came out, it won like every award out there for musicals (They're called Tonys, possibly named after my father). Musicals sound very lame; I understand this, but this one was written by the guys from South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who are not only very funny but who grew up in Mormon country, so they know what they are talking about. This lead to me, for the very first time in my life, being excited about going to a musical.

Now, I must warn you that if you tell anyone that has already been to Book of Mormon that you will be going to it; they will freak out. Every dang person I talked to lit up like it was Christmas morning at the mere mention of this musical.

As for what I thought of the experience, the first thing that excited me were the Mormons standing outside to give us information on JesUS (I'm guessing they omitted the part about black skin being a curse for being evil). But I was shocked when some Mormon dude asked if I wanted to take a picture with a "real-life Mormon," like he was in Times Square dressed like Spiderman. Come on, Mormon, you ain't a dang unicorn; you're just a bland looking white person. Growing up in Iowa, every picture I have looks like it was taken with a group of Mormons.

Anyway, the show itself is great, and it made for a great date night. Although I know about the religion, I didn't know much about the musical itself. I kind of thought it would be more historical and focus on Joseph Smith, and although it touched on that, I was pleasantly surprised with the angle they took for the plot. I laughed my face off throughout the entire thing, and I was still a little jealous of the girl in front of me who was having laughing convulsions towards the end where I thought we may have to call an ambulance.

I had done plays, I had even gone to the ballet, but this was my first musical, and I would definitely go back for more. I used to be gritty, but my evolution (or devolution) into a fancy boy is nearly complete. I think I'm okay with that.

I Wish I Could Talk About Pop Culture At Work

Something that I have realized about corporate America is that they do not share my same personal interests. Yes, many people like sports, but they like them on such a casual level that it is mentally taxing for me to dumb down my opinions enough to carry on a conversation. When it comes to pop culture, I have very little in common with the people I work with, so the only thing I ever bring up is my Hot Takes on The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and Bachelor in Paradise.

There are many small examples of things I wish I could discuss, but one that stood out was when I mentioned watching Review on Comedy Central, and the mere mention of Comedy Central brought scoffs from my coworkers, as they don't watch that channel. This blew my damn mind. Comedy Central is the station that I watch the most shows on. I mean, Review, South Park, Big Time in Hollywood, FL, Nathan For You, and Workaholics are all must watch television shows. But not in my coworkers' minds. They laugh at the mere idea of turning Comedy Central on.

Music is even more difficult. With TV, I can at least bring up my favorite shows before getting blank stares. In music, I can't even do that. I realized this as I was doing some work while jamming out to Steel Panther. I decided I should probably sing quietly, as most people aren't comfortable when someone belts out the lyrics to, "Fuckin' My Heart in the Ass." I mean, there's no way I can sing that song. I can't even say that song's title without an immediate trip to HR. Honestly, I'm not sure if I can mention the name Steel Panther without it possibly leading to some sort of lawsuit.

So, yeah, I don't exactly fit in corporate America, or really any place with well-adjusted human beings.