30 Minutes of Madness: Making Dreams Come True

We all have goals and dreams and plans. For instance, twenty years from now I expect to be a best-selling author who has her own colony on the moon as well as a pet Jaguar who speaks English. They may not be lofty goals, but they are all mine.

When was the last time you started a project or set a timeline for yourself and actually followed through? No, I’m not talking about “this year I will stop eating chocolate chips by the handful and crying myself to sleep every night” or “by this time two years from now I will finally have stopped wetting the bed”, but real, attainable timelines. That you actually followed through on.

Never? Me either. Except for that time in early 1990 when, as a sperm, I thought to myself, “Hell yeah, I’m going to wriggle my way into that circular thing and create the coolest human being ever.” I followed through on that. I may even have over-achieved a little bit. No, I don’t know why I was self-aware as a sperm and not an ovum, but it probably has something to do with the fact that I think like a guy.

Anyway, twenty years ago, when I was a year and a half into my existence as The Coolest Whitney That Ever Lived (no need to fact-check that), a friend of mine was living his dream in Michigan. I know, I know, that seems contradictory, but he was.

Jerry White Jr. and his band of misfit toys (and by “toys” I mean “friends”) had a thirty minute public access television show called 30 Minutes of Madness. It was quintessential 90s sketch TV: punk rock, rebellious, insane, and intensely creative. He and his friends planned on doing the show for ages to come, and then, like every teenage dream (including Katy Perry’s), they grew up and grew out of it.

Psych.

Twenty years later, like Jerry and the rest of the 30 MOM crew had planned, they are getting together and making a new episode of the show. Let me repeat that: TWENTY YEARS after they began their artistic journey, they are following through on a promise made to each other to make one more episode. Guys, twenty years ago I wasn’t out of diapers yet. Let’s just think about that for a split second while we simultaneously grow jealous of the dedication and heart this group is showing.

And they’re not stopping there. Another good friend of mine, Jeremy Royce, is making a documentary following this band of public access superstars. Entitled 20 Years of Madness, the documentary chronicles the directions the lives of these friends took and the journey to bring them back together this summer to film another episode. It will make you laugh, cry, and probably put you back in diapers, too (Because it’ll be so awesome you’ll pee yourself, is what I’m saying).

Here’s where all you dreamers come in. They have a Kickstarter campaign going to raise funds to make this documentary happen. AND WE WANT IT TO HAPPEN. Why? Because it shows the chutzpah it takes to actually make your long term dreams and goals come true.

Any donation is appreciated. All donations will get you some nifty prize. I donated $50 of my hard-earned stripper money (sorry, mom) to the cause, because I love these guys, I’m excited for this project, and having 50 ones made me feel dirty.

So go to their Kickstarter site, and for as little as a dollar, receive the new episode when it’s all ready. The more money you donate, the more awesome swag you get. So break out your pennies (we all know you’re saving them), break open your piggy bank, rob the old lady walking across the street–do whatever you have to in order to scrounge together a buck or five or ten or 5,000 ($5k and you basically become the king of the documentary).

Well, don’t do that last one. Especially if it’s that misleading little old lady who carries bricks in her purse to whack hooligans like you that think about robbing her.

And remember, any donation is a reminder that your dreams can come true. And that someday I will have a colony on the moon and an English-speaking Jaguar named Hokey Pokey.