Behind the Music

From Wikimacs

This is the full script to the counselors' skit, which closed Skit Night 2002. Much props to Stan Liu and Alex Cheng for acting out the Dan Chen and Jonny Ai saga and Irene Liu for having a great breakdown on stage.

You’ve always wanted to know what the counselors do when you go to sleep. Now here’s your chance. VH1 is proud to present the premiere of a new show from the producers of Behind the Music: “Behind the door at the top of the stairs next to the front office on the left as you come into the dorm”.

1. Meteoric Rise to Fame

a. Meeting/interview

i. Evelyn Chou: It all began when this lady who only referred to herself as Liang Ah-Yi gave me a call, wanting to know if I wanted to be a counselor for WMACS camp. I was reluctant at first but she was so enthusiastic about it that I couldn’t resist.

ii. Narrator: The pieces of the group fell into place like a puzzle. The mysterious Liang Ah-Yi brought together talented people from up and down the east coast to form the group we now know as [“parentheses”]The Counselors[“parentheses”].

b. First few days

i. Su-Cha Kang: Looking back, the beginning of the week was just a flurry of activity – busy but exciting. It was quite a rush to be doing what we were doing. It… it was a different experience. My own room, my own walkie-talkie – I had never experienced such luxury before.

ii. Narrator: The first few days of camp were indeed filled with lots of fun and excitement. As everyone got to know each other, one could sense the feeling that this group of counselors could really become something special. The group spent much of July 2002 on top of the world.

c. Apex: water balloon fight

i. Mok-yi Chow: That water balloon fight was the high point of our time together. The kids were drenched, we were drenched, everyone had a great time. In hindsight, it’s hard to imagine things getting any better. I guess we should have seen it coming.

d. Narrator: When we come back, a friendly game turns tragic, as the Counselors lose control of their campers, themselves, and also their bladders.

2. Losing Control

a. Narrator: While the meteoric rise to power of The Counselors was a rare achievement, their subsequent collapse was not a unique result. In looking back at the failure of the group, all the members pointed to one incident in particular that triggered their breakup.

b. Jack Chen: It seemed like such an innocent prank at the time. None of us had any idea it would get blown so out of proportion. We didn’t imagine it would cause as much pain as it did.

c. Narrator: In July 2002, at the Lane Center at Frostburg State University in Western Maryland, the counselors were leading their charges in a game when an incident occurred that would change things for the group forever.

d. Witness (June Liang): It happened when Johnny Ai got the hot potato. The dare was to ask a staff member or a counselor to dance at the dance Friday night. Johnny turned to Dan Chen and said something about his mother or something, I couldn’t hear over all the noise. Then he walked straight over to Ding Ah-Yi, and asked for a dance. Dan didn’t seem all that bothered by it at the time… I mean, it was just a joke. That’s about all I remember. It all happened so fast.

e. Dan Chen/Johnny Ai Interview (Stan Liu and Alex Cheng)

f. Narrator: Even as the Chen family drama was unfolding, other issues were weighing heavily on the Counselors’ minds.

g. Betty Yu: See, the thing is, we didn’t even get paid. We had to pay 50 dollars just to come to camp, plus 5 dollars for each day we stayed. If we lost a kid, we were penalized 100 dollars. The stress of that was pretty tough – I couldn’t afford to pay those fees, so I had to actually spend time looking every time I wasn’t sure where someone was.

h. Chris Liang: There were so many distractions around, both in camp and out of camp. It was very hard to keep our mind on our work. Just walking outside the dorm, there were so many things around, that it was hard to keep our concentration.

i. Irene Liu: Breakdown

j. Bien Shu Shu: I always just stressed three things about camp to the counselors: 1, Safety; 2, Discipline; 3, Have fun. It was really very simple.

k. Narrator: By then, however, nothing was simple for the counselors. The culminating event was an argument and fight in the counselor lounge as the Night Market was being planned. In the end, Irene stormed out, and a rift was opened.

l. Something about coming back Before commercial

3. Reunion

a. Narrator: The next day, planning for the skit began. It was the first meeting since the big fight.

b. Evelyn: It was tough coming back and trying to work together. There was still some anger between us, but we realized why we were there in the first place: for the kids.

c. Narrator: As the skit meeting progressed, the Counselors began to overcome the feelings between them. By the end of the meeting, everything was back to normal, and the skit was a success… we hope.

d. Montage:

i. Jack: “I think we got so mad at each other because we had really grown so close so quickly.”

ii. Su-Cha: “In retrospect, that fight really got us closer. We owe a great deal to Dan Chen and Johnny Ai.”

iii. Irene: “I know that we will always be best friends because once we were enemies.”

iv. Betty: “The only place we could have gone after the fight was up.”

v. Stan: “The kids were the real reason we were there, and we had forgotten that.”

vi. Chris: “I feel blessed to have had this experience.”

vii. Evelyn: “Looking back, it all went by so fast. The whole thing felt like it only lasted a week.”