You know those times when you get together with friends over a weekend celebration and things get silly? Then they escalate from silly to downright ridiculous? Well, lucky (or unlucky) for my friends, they have a professional photojournalist to capture everything.
A few weeks ago I traveled out to the home of Scott and Rene Clark. The Clarks have been friends of my parents since before I was born. Their daughter, Veronica, is practically my sister and their house outside of Abilene has always been my second home.
There’s a small group of us who get together every now and then, and on this occasion we were celebrating the 60th birthdays of Scott and Rene.
Bocce is a tradition when we get together. I’ve played it casually my whole life on the rugged west Texas terrain. Some of us are more serious about it than others, but we generally just play for fun.
See the guy in the hat throwing the ball? That’s Mark Stout. He and his wife, Rebecca, are the keys to this blog post. Mark is working on a Masters degree, and a class he’s currently taking requires him to produce videos through out the semester.
The guy in the green? That’s Larry Fick. He and his wife, Cynthia, live in Wimberley, and Larry, well he’s a character. In fact, the main character in this case.
As they played Bocci Mark used a home made steady cam to film the game. Larry was his usual self, adding flourishes to his throws, all the while saying, “take my picture!”
And thus, a mockumentary was born.
Larry, who’s a huge high school football fan, wanted me to take a photo of him like a football player, but with a Bocce ball.
His wheels were turning. His character for the film would be an orphan, who group up in Hitler’s Germany, and was adopted in to an Italian family who taught him the game of Bocce.
He eventually went pro and women flocked to him, even in the middle of interviews.
As his fame grew, he auditioned for Dos XX’s “Most interesting man in the world,” and lost.
But he would always be known for his active game strategy and his invention of Action Bocce.
Mark interviewed Larry and his team mate, Scott, while we all laughed until our sides hurt. It was beyond silly. It was downright ridiculous.
After Mark turned in his video, which received a great review, he posted it on youtube. It’s posted below for you to watch. (I hope that’s okay, Mark.)
So what should you do when your friends get silly? Pull out the camera, of course. If nothing else, you’ll have plenty of blackmail material.
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