Everyone gets into a little mischief every now and then. It doesn’t hurt to indulge in playfulness, pranks and general silliness! This episode was hosted by Kim Shine & Joel Dresang, edited by Sam Wood and includes four mischievous tales from Lauren Poppen, Debbie McKenzie, Stuart Rudolph, and Greg Marshall.
Episode transcript below from Ex Fabula's Real Storie MKE series.
Joel Dresang: Welcome to Real Stories MKE, brought to you as part of Ex Fabula’s mission to connect Milwaukee through real stories. I’m Joel Dresang.
Kim Shine: And I'm Kim Shine. Ex Fabula believes that everyone has personal stories worth sharing. Ex Fabula conducts storytelling workshops where community members can build their storytelling skills and confidence, and also StorySlams where people share their true, personal stories on stage. Today we're bringing you four of those amazing stories.
Joel Dresang: Kim, this season of Real Stories MKE is presented by presented by Christine Symchych and Jim McNulty. And this episode of Real Stories MKE is “Mischief.”
Kim Shine: Ooh, I like it. I like it a lot.
Joel Dresang: Yes, that's our theme. You know, from the moment we're born. Our lives are governed by rules. All our moves are controlled by do's and don'ts. Occasionally, though, most of us find ourselves breaking a rule or two. Short of criminal behavior, our missteps can often be characterized as mischief. And though there may be consequences in the end, we have stories to tell.
Kim Shine: We sure do. I think that I am a mischievous person. Haha, how would you say that?
Joel Dresang: No. I would say mischievous. This is how I'd pronounce that.
Kim Shine: Yes. Joel is telling me that I'm saying it wrong, and I'm going to cause a little mischief by still saying it. That's my own way. Do you have a story for us?
Joel Dresang: Well, you know, I. Yeah, I had some, you know, juvenile rowdiness that I can, you know, confess to. For instance, I, there was a streak of me streaking.
Kim Shine: When?
Joel Dresang: Back when that was fashionable.
Kim Shine: No way.
Joel Dresang: Yes, way. And, I mean, there was one time doing it outside of a party, and, people came out and there were cars. It was dark. And, some of us dashed into a cemetery and were hiding behind headstones, so that happened...
Kim Shine: That sounds like a good night haha.
Wow. My story. Your story is way more fun. Okay, I love that. My story is when I was a little kid. I love fire. For what? Some odd reason. But, in my house, we had one of those old, heaters that you had to actually light a match, turn on the gas and light it up. And so I had these these this notepad that was like dollar bills.
Kim Shine: On one side, it would be a dollar bill. On the other side, it would be the lines for the notepad. My little cousin came over and I was like, hey, let's play with the fire. And so.
Joel Dresang: Wait, how old were you?
Kim Shine: I had to be maybe eight or something like that. And I'm. And we're in the house, like, literally in the hallway just where everybody could see if they walked past. And I was like, hey, let's...let's play with the fire. And so that's that's me.
Joel Dresang: And you lived through it?
Kim Shine: I sure did.
Joel Dresang: Now you have a story to share about that.
Kim Shine: I'm thankful about that. I do I do wish I had a streaking story, though. Maybe I go— I think I have some more years to live, so it's maybe so.
Joel Dresang: It’s not too late, it’s not too late. Our first story of mischief comes from Lauren Poppen. Lauren shared her story at a 2018 StorySlam with the theme “Caught in the Act.” Here's Lauren.
Lauren Poppen: The year is 2000. I'm in high school. You know, if you remember, we would always decorate our friends lockers for their birthdays, and you put posters and streamers and balloons. There were always balloons. And they're always stupid boys that would steal the balloons off the lockers every single time. So I was commiserating this with my mother as a friend's birthday was approaching, and she was like, well.
Why don't you just put cornstarch in the balloon? I'm like, this is great. So I do and, go to school, decorate the locker. It's the last break before the end of the day, and I see this boy take a balloon, run down the hallway, and then I hear it pop. And I know that I've caught him. And then he just stops in the hallway, and he turns around and his whole face, shoulders are white and he's wearing glasses, so he, like, can't see it.
It was it was the most beautiful thing to see in the world. And I was hooked on pranks. So I'll note that I only did harmless pranks. No people or things were harmed. So I get to college, and my friend Allison and I kind of had this prank war with one of the RAs. His name was Patrick, and one night after we went to bed, we were duct taping him into his room.
And my friend, our friend Kate, was helping. I don't know if any of you've ever done this. It's takes a long time to duct tape someone in a door because it's just like a little bit at a time. And we were about three quarters of the way done and there was a fire drill. So Kate was like, oh my gosh, we have to stay here and make sure Patrick gets out okay.
And Alison and I are like, there's still like a knee high heat hole at the bottom. He can crawl out easily. He's fine. And we just left. Kate, Kate stayed to make sure he was okay. It was just a drill. Anyway, so so we got away, and then I thought of a better prank, and we... Patrick never locked his door, so we rigged it up.
So when he came into his room, Oreos would fall on his head, which is kind of like the water bucket trip, but it's harmless because it's cookies. I mean, who can complain? And so we're in his room. We get this device all hooked up, and by device I mean like cardboard and tape and it's all set and it looks like it's going to go.
And then I realize that we're in his room and we can't get out of his room without also triggering the Oreos. So then I'm like, okay, we can do this. So I held it up so she could, like, sneak through the door a little bit and get out. And I figured I could get out through the window.
And so she leaves. She's out. I'm there. I'm like, okay. And I open the window all the way, and the windows are like, this big, and they're the kind that the cranks in the middle, and they open out like that. So the windows like this, there's always a post in the middle, even when it's open all the way.
So, the window gets like you have this much space and I'm like, I think my hips can fit through that. And it opens out about this far. And I'm like, I think I can fit through that. And so I pull a chair up over the window and then I'm like, I don't have shoes on and there's snow on the ground.
So, then I steal some of Patrick's shoes and I go and and I sit with my legs out the window. And the thing is, like when you're sitting on the window ledge, once you get your butt off the ledge and like, out, there's no going back, like you have to go out the window at that point. And I may have also not mentioned, but Patrick was on the second floor and there was a hill like, I'm not completely insane.
It wasn't quite a two story drop, but you couldn't reach the ground. And so I'm, I'm scooting out and my hips made it through. I'm good. And I'm like, I made it up to here and I'm kind of hanging. I'm like, okay, my feet can't reach the ground. I get to my shoulders. It's not that my shoulders wouldn't fit through the window, it's that like my feet don't reach the ground and I have to like—my body is leaning up against this brick wall and my shoulders are back like this.
And I'm trying to not smash my face into this window. And I know that I have to just drop, but I don't know where the ground is, and I don't know how far away the ground is because I can't see anything and my arm is like all of the weight has been bearing down my arms here, and I trying to scooch out inch by inch.
And eventually I just gave it up and I was like, I have to drop. So I did, and then I ran inside and I ran up to my room, and I sat there and I waited. And then I hear yelling, and Patrick comes up the stairs, and I just just sitting there waiting for everything to happen. And he just storms, right by my room and goes to Alison's room and crumples up all these Oreos and throws that around on her bed, and leaves. Like, that's it.
I have no consequences from this at all. Which I thought was pretty great. Until the next day when all of this is like this black purple bruise under my arm and then later Patrick stole my cow. But that's a whole other story.
Joel Dresang: That was Lauren Poppen with some suggestions for pranks you can try. We have an update from Lauren about that cow she mentioned at the end. She says “the cow was found unharmed, though sadly, I do not have it any more because space constraints.” She says this was a cow big enough to sit on and have your feet not reach the ground.
Wow. “And sadly, I cannot remember who I gave the cow to.” And it took me like three times reading that to figure out it probably wasn't a real cow.
Kim Shine: No, I can see it. I can visualize everything she said. Oh man, that's a fun time. Well, sometimes Joel, mischief comes from temptation, overpowering our knowledge of what's right and wrong. And that's what's behind our second mischief story, which comes from Debbie McKenzie. Her story begins with a confession and ends with a deception. Ooh, here’s Debbie.
Debbie McKenzie: Hi. My name is Debbie, and I'm a chocoholic. And it began before I can even remember. I was four years old. My middle sister was physically handicapped, so my mom's attention was mostly on my sister, so I was left to my own devices. One day there was a knock at the door, and the ladies from the sweet shop around the corner were bringing me home.
My parents didn't even miss me, but I had in each hand a bag of candy. So that's where it began. Fast forward, I'm in fifth grade going to Immaculate Conception. Some of you might know that, and across the street was an AMP. My favorite candy was Heath bar. I didn't have any money, but I went to AMP, took a Heath bar and put it in my pocket.
I was caught in the act and taken across the street to talk to the priest. So I had to provide my phone number for the priest to call home. So he dialed and the phone rang and rang and rang and thank goodness, my mom didn't answer. Of course, I didn't give the correct phone number. So I was caught in the act, but I never got found out at home.
Thank you.
Kim Shine: That was Debbie McKenzie, who also appeared at the 2018 “Caught in the Act” StorySlam.
Joel Dresang: Hey, Kim, how about some UltraShorts?
Kim Shine: I think that'd be a great idea, Joel.
Joel Dresang: Tell us what they are.
Kim Shine: Well, UltraShorts are...if you come to a slam and you don't want to get on stage, you can still be part of the show. There are little slips of paper. You just write a few lines on there about the theme and the host will read them.
Joel Dresang: Great. Let's do some. I have one right here. It's from anonymous. “I got in trouble for reading The Shining in study hall in seventh grade. When they called my dad, all he said was, aren't you happy she's reading?” Right!
Kim Shine: Haha! Yes, that's a good one. This one here is also from anonymous, because you don't have to give your name on these if you don't want to. This one says “I got in trouble in fifth grade for kissing girls. I thought kissing was cool because the church ladies always kissed each other. Who knew girls couldn't kiss each other? ”
Joel Dresang: Kim, I have another ultra short. This one's from anonymous. “My brothers and I have a tradition of turning off the water. Well, the newest edition of the family is mid shower and they do it from the utility room, not the shower, by the way. We sit in the kitchen giggling ourselves silly until the person in the shower begs us to turn the water back on. It’s funny, really!”
Our next storyteller is Stuart Rudolph. Stewart shared his stories about being a mischievous kid, not mischievous, at a 2013 StorySlam with the theme “Forbidden Fruit.” Here's Stuart.
Stuart Rudolph: When I was ten years old, I looked nothing like I do today. I was this scrawny little redheaded runt of a kid, a scammer, always in the thick of things, but never the one who got in trouble. It really was all about me. You know, one summer, that's that same summer I came up with this idea about how I could convince my brother to grow his allowance risk free.
And it would be our little secret. Then one night, after supper, he decided to tell the whole family about this great plan I'd gotten him into to plant his allowance in the ground, and it would grow into a money tree, and I'd even picked out this great spot for him with lots of sunshine and great drainage. “Stuart, come here.”
My father was a man of few words. He picked me up by my ankles to the sound of clattering change hitting the wooden floor.
Well, my parents loved me in spite of all the shenanigans I put them through. And the next year, they even bought me a new Schwinn bicycle with bigger tires. Big enough tires, I thought, to escape the confines of my cookie cutter subdivision and see what was really on the outside. So one fine summer day with the sun shining, the birds chirping, the smell of fresh cut grass in the air, I got on my bike and I lit out for the territory ahead, up the cul de sac, down the artery, on to the main subdivision street, past the big pretentious sign that said Meadowbrook Estates.
On to the shoulder of the highway, past the god awful smell of the septic treatment plant. And it seemed like forever, but there it was. I saw my destination, a gas station down on the corner. I must have been three miles from my house, and as I was riding my bike into the gas station, I thought, Only problem with my plan is I'm not very well provisioned.
Now when I go out on a bike ride, I've got, you know, sunscreen, my water bottle, my energy bars, my helmet, a little money. And today I had no money. I shuffled into the gas station anyway, and while the station manager wasn't looking, I reached over and grabbed a pack of Double—Wrigley's Doublemint gum, put it right in my pocket and I'm getting ready to leave.
Getting back on my trusty bike. I feel this strong grip and smell the stench of cigarettes and motor oil and sweat. And this guy is going, “What's that in your pocket, son?” “Me? Nothing.” “Let me see. Well, I'm not going to call the police as long as you tell me your name and address.” So I'm riding back into the neighborhood, and I'm thinking, well, I didn't go so well.
Next time, I'll take a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or something. At least ,I didn't get in any trouble. So after supper, my mom hangs up the rotary dial phone and calls me in the kitchen. She says, “Stuart, I want to talk to you. I just got a call from your best friend, Ricky's, mother. And the curious thing is, he stole a pack of gum way outside of our neighborhood.
Ah, the problem, though, is the gas station owner said that this was a redheaded kid on a blue bicycle. Have you got anything you want to say?”
Joel Dresang: That was Stuart Rudolph from an Ex Fabula StorySlam in 2013. So far, storytellers have mentioned Oreos, Heath bars, Doublemint gum. Those are the sorts of details we encourage storytellers to include in their stories, because they help make the stories more vivid and relatable. And I just want to mention that we have received no compensation for those product placement.
Kim Shine: That's a good note, and I love that you said more vivid and more relatable in terms of storytelling, because when folks come to Ex Fabula events and they have a theme and maybe they're scared, just think about all the things you can say to help us visualize what's going on. And then we'll be right there with you, and you won't be by yourself on the stage.
Joel Dresang: That's from a coach.
Kim Shine: Hey Joel.
Joel Dresang: What?
Kim Shine: More UltraShorts?
Joel Dresang: Yeah! Do you have one?
Kim Shine: I do have one. Okay. This person also chose not to give their name. They said “I spent my summers in Wisconsin Dells for Arthritis Camp. Pranks at Arthritis Camp where the best and surprisingly dangerous, including where we tied fishing line across the bedpost. In theory, the boys would trip as they got out of bed. No one was hurt, though, and everyone returned the following year.
Joel Dresang: Oh my goodness.
Kim Shine: That's exactly what I said. I'm—I don'... I'm scared. Yeah.
Joel Dresang: I'm good. I don't want to go to that camp. I don't want to go to those brothers house. Yeah. I've got another, UltraShort from anonymous. Another anonymous. Maybe it's the same person.
Kim Shine: Right.
Joel Dresang: “Picture it. My fifth grade summer was around the corner. My classmates and I were planning a prank to end the year. That Monday at lunch, I spilled milk on the principal and got suspended.”
Kim Shine: Ooooh.
Joel Dresang: Fifth grade!
Kim Shine: I know.
Joel Dresang: That seems pretty harsh for a fifth grader.
Kim Shine: You never know.
Joel Dresang: They didn't make it look like in an accident well enough, I guess. You have to disguise those things.
Kim Shine: More mischief? It's more mischief. This one is from Calvin. “I tutored a fifth grader at math for a few years. He was extremely impatient and a huge troublemaker. After failing a quiz, he stole my phone, called the girl on my contacts list and asked her out for me. That's how I met my girlfriend. My first girlfriend.”
Joel Dresang: Wow. Nice.
Kim Shine: Our final mischief story comes from Greg Marshall, and Greg's mischief came from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but his story is how he tried to flee the scene and avoid getting caught. He shared his story at the Ex Fabula ALL STARS StorySlam in 2023. Here's Greg.
Greg Marshall: When the most interesting conversation in the room is a debate about what to name a bong, you got to wonder if that's where you should be.
But that's where I was as a 19 year old, and I was at this point in my life where my inside world wasn't super healthy. I kept a lot of secrets, developed kind of a secret space in me, and in that, made some poor decisions. But it was starting to eat at me and I wanted to break it, wanted to get out of it, but I had...I didn't really know how.
So, I'm at this party and I'm looking around. I'm like, I don't even know if I want to be here. And while I'm thinking about that, somebody reaches out a beer and I look at it and I'm debating if I should leave, but muscle memory works. So my hands reaching out and I grab it and open it, and I take a drink and I look around and I'm like, what?
What am I doing? I take another drink. And then somebody announced from the kitchen that the local law enforcement had decided to join us by yelling the word ‘police.’ Now, at that moment, I had to wonder, like, does it count? Because I haven't really drinking very much, but noticing the track coach dream of 100% effort of all these kids running as hard as they can, I thought that looked kind of fun.
So, I ran. And the weird thing is probably within like 20 to 30 yards. I had forgotten about the police and at this point was just kind of competing, wanting to run faster than everybody else. And you look and you notice that some of the other guys are too. So we're in it, you know, and I'm doing pretty good.
I'm pretty proud of like, and there was this one guy that we were neck and neck. And we can look at each other with this knowing camaraderie all of a sudden. So like a flock of birds, we would just kind of go together. And so we had to stop because we hit a river. And so behind us is this dimly lit neighborhood.
And in front of us, pitch black water, dark, can't see across this river, night sky. A few stars. And my friend let's call him Chad, because that's what his name was, had an idea. Hey, Greg, there's an island not far out there. We could hide on it. And I said, Chad, are you sure there's an island out there?
And he said, yeah! Sounds reasonable. So I took my shoes off and placed them neatly by the river, and we entered. And eventually you can't walk anymore. You have to swim. And so we're swimming. And this is the point. I know people who have drowned in this river, and this is a point where it became a large lake.
So, it's wide when you're in the water and your clothes are getting heavy, that's when you start thinking clearly. But but we have to keep going because there might be an island out here. So it's like Chad, how much farther? And he's like, not much farther! And a little bit further. I'm like, Chad, how much farther? Getting tired.
And he doesn't respond in a split second moment like, is Chad even here? I'm looking for him. Oh, there he is. He looks like he sees a ghost. What's wrong? Chad? “I don't think there's an island out here.” So I had this moment like, I'm really tired and I gotta decide, like, what am I going to do with my final remaining energy?
Am I going to use it to swim back or to yell at Chad? And I decided I should just yell at Chad, and so I muster up every bit of strength I have to throw my words at Chad, when all of a sudden a spotlight appears just out in front of us, and I look to see the source of the spotlight.
And it's a boat. And on that boat is people and a loudspeaker. And I know that because they used it and they said “This is the police. We know you're in the water. Show yourself.” So I dropped as fast as I could swim back underwater for as long as I could, popped up quick to see where the spotlight was.
Saw a dock. That's my hiding place. I went back under, jetted to this dock. I'm hiding under a dock. Chad followed me and I'm looking out, waiting for these people to give up searching for us. They leave. I say, Chad, I have an idea. You and your ideas go that way. And me and my ideas are going to go that way.
I didn't say ideas, but I meant it. He went that way. I get out of the water and I can't find my shoes. I'm looking for my shoes and I'm like, forget it, I'm just going to go. So here I am is soaking wet teenager with no shoes, running on the shoreline behind people's houses. And I come to this point where there's these thick evergreen trees.
You know, the tall, skinny ones that are really close together in those layers. So I'm like, all right, I'm trying to get through these things. They're all scratchy and I'm moving quick, trying to think, how am I going to get home? And I pop out the other side of the trees, and I'm in the middle of a family reunion.
There’s little kids, grandparents, teenagers, parents, and they're all laughing, talking, eating until the soaking wet teenager with no shoes pops out of the trees and they're all staring at me, quiet. And I'm staring at them. And I broke the silence by saying, hey, want to hear a story? They invited me to their fire and I sit down with this fire.
And I'm telling them the whole thing, every truth, everything I could. All the choices I made to get to that point and I had this strange out-of-body experience where I'm looking at myself, sharing the story, and I felt joy is like, what is—is this a thing? Is this what I’m made for? To make terrible decisions and talk about it?
So, I finish the story by saying, so you know, the choices that I made to get here. But now you have a choice. You can choose to ask me to leave, and I and I will, or you can choose to let me stay. And so this storm passes. How would you like the story to end? Within moments, I was in that guy's house, wrapped in a blanket with a glass of water in one hand and a TV remote in the other.
Eventually, I got home. The next morning I went out to the kitchen and my dad was making coffee and he said, good morning, Greg. What did you do last night? And in that moment, I was tempted to do what I had always done, which was lie and stay in that hidden secret place. But I thought about what it felt like to share my true story with that family, how good that felt.
And so my dad said, what did you do last night? I said, actually, dad, can you give me a ride? I'll tell you a story while we look for my shoes. Thank you.
Kim Shine: That was Greg Marshall, who has since turned that story into a one man show called ‘Greg Marshall Pops Out of the Trees.’ His first performance was met with a standing ovation by an audience at the Vivarium on Farwell Street in Milwaukee, and Pabst Theater Group has asked Greg to perform the show again. So who knows where your storytelling will take you?
Joel Dresang: Yeah, what I want to know was whether he ever found those shoes again. Whatever happened to those shoes?
Kim Shine: You're going to have to go meet him. Go find out, Joel.
Joel Dresang: I guess!
Kim Shine: Yes.
Joel Dresang: Well, Kim, that's all the time we have for this episode of Real Stories. Mike. But Ex Fabula has more stories to share. It has been hosting StorySlams since 2009 and has audio and video stories at exfabula.org.
Kim Shine: Yep. And more stories are on the way. The Ex Fabula website lists upcoming workshops and StorySlam so you can join in on all the fun. You can also connect with Ex Fabula on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Joel Dresang: And BlueSky.
Kim Shine: And BlueSky. Check that out! And you can subscribe to Real Stories MKE wherever you get your podcasts.
Joel Dresang: Thanks to everyone who makes this program possible, including the Ex Fabula staff, the storytellers, our producer, Jordan Terry and audio engineer, Sam Woods. And also thanks to Ex Fabula season sponsors including Red Oak Writing, Copywrite Magazine and Transfer Pizzeria and Cafe.
Kim Shine: For Real Stories MKE, I'm Kim Shine.
Joel Dresang: And I'm Joel Dresang saying remember, everybody has stories worth sharing. Think of telling yours.
