Posted on 2.9.15: “Doggone, you wabbit…waaaahhhh!”

“Elmer Fudd was one of my first impressions. I wasn’t great at it but I wasn’t half bad. 

“I was just remembering that one of the first big laughs I got from classmates was when I recounted a chat with a 7th-grade substitute teacher, whose name was <strong>Mr. Hilse</strong>.  He was Swedish- or German-looking…slim, fair-haired, medium height. Kind of a dweeby type. Had a reedy, crackly voice and a very slight speech impediment — he had trouble with the letter “r.”

“Anyway the kids in Hilse’s class were all walking down the stairs one day and I, ever the exhibitionist, decided to hop down. Hilse: ‘Walk like a human being and not like a rabbit.’ Later that day I entertained my pallies by doing Hilse as Fudd: ‘…and not like a wabbit.’

“This was one of the most glorious moments that happened to me in seventh-grade, as I was pretty bad at paying attention or getting decent grades, and I was a complete failure with girls.  I had begun to find my voice. Diminish authority figures with derision, jokes…anything that made them seem small or petty.