Addiction talk quietly hits a nerve

FALLS VILLAGE — What John Morello does is not exactly comedy, although he does crack jokes. It’s not motivational speaking, but he does try to motivate people. He assumes multiple characters, but it’s not theater.

Whatever it is, Morello brought it to Region One on Thursday, May 10, with three shows at Housatonic Valley Regional High School (HVRHS) — in the morning for middle school students, in the afternoon for the high schoolers, and again in the evening for parents and community members.

Morello’s appearances were sponsored by the Northwest Corner Prevention Network (NCPN).

Morello, dressed in T-shirt and jeans, started off by telling the students he was not going to “preach or teach.”

“I’m not a motivational speaker. I’m not going to tell you the seven steps to success because I don’t know what they are.”

He told a little bit of his own story, sprinkling jokes here and there about how he didn’t like school, started smoking pot at age 13, began feeling alienated.

“I didn’t like the things I used to like.”

Such as science fair.

At this point, Morello began assuming different character identities — a stoner, an anxious young man, a bullied girl, an old man. The changes were heralded by simple costume changes — a hat, a cane, a hooded sweatshirt — a different posture and a new voice.

Their stories wound around each other. There were jokes, but they weren’t told for laughs. 

The stories were about drugs and alcohol, bullying, loneliness, alienation.

There was scattered laughter from the audience throughout.

Back in his own persona at the end of the show, Morello mentioned how his brother struggled with heroin addiction and eventually overdosed after being clean for a period of time.

Morello still carries a 10-month coin his brother received.

Morello said he was able to stop using drugs and alcohol, but “my brother didn’t have that switch.”

A key moment in his life was his junior year of high school, when a teacher “reached out to me, made me feel like I had talent.”

Summing up, he said he hoped the students find “compassion for the addicted, the bullied, the underestimated and the hurt. I hope it connects with you.”

At one point during the show, several students got up and left.

When Morello wrapped up, he mentioned seeing the students leave and thanked those who stayed for doing so.

It turned out the students had to leave for athletic events.

Afterward, Ian Strever, the assistant principal at HVRHS, apologized for not having the athletes grouped together so they could leave without undue disruption. Morello, in turn, apologized for making a fuss about it.

There were no questions from the high school audience. (Lesley Ferris from the NCPN was surprised; she said the middle-school group that morning had plenty of questions.)

After the show the  students were asked by Strever to remain in the auditorium for about 10 minutes until the bell rang. Morello was still onstage, putting his props away.

A couple of students, then a few more, and finally a group, along with French teacher Christiane Olson, came up to speak with him. They were hesitant at first, and then more animated.

So it seems there were questions after all.