Youth Ministry Stories #6 (Young Life Crocodile Hunter vs Matt Foley)

Somewhere around 16 years ago, I  volunteered with Younglife in North Myrtle Beach, SC.  The program I was a part of had  growing number of students,  averaging near 100 the year I moved away.  They came to Club on Monday nights for music, games, skits, and a lesson from the Bible. 

Once Matthew Palmer (the director of that program) and I were the two actors in a 4-week "run-on" skit.  Each week Matthew would come out as The Crocodile Hunter.    Each week’s video beginning would find The Crocodile Hunter standing in a local area that the teens would recognize.  Then he would talk about some local wildlife that clearly could not be in Myrtle Beach (like a Tasmanian devil).  The last part of the video would be a clip of animals from Steve Erwin’s show “The Croc Files."  When the video was complete, the lights would turn back on and Matthew would head to the stage.  Once on stage, Matthew would talk about how he was in control of the animals.  All of a sudden,  my music would hit and I would come to the stage as Matt Foley (from a motivational speaker skit on SNL).  I would be angry because I felt the Crocodile Hunter was mistreating the animals.  I would scream and yell for a bit and then fall off the stage and break through a coffee table.  He would eventually throw me off stage and that would be the skit for the week.

Week one and two of the skits was pretty typical. 

Week three our two characters were mid argument when he hopped off stage to throw me out, but when he hit the down he froze and then walked out stage left.  I was left on stage by myself trying to figure out how to throw myself off stage.  I can’t remember how I end that week’s skit, but when I got back stage I found out Matthew had broken his foot when he had jumped down.

Week four we started out with a video that we both taped earlier in the week.  He began by talking about an alligator, and I showed up to protest.  Before it was over, I was supposed to be attacked by an "alligator" (gator shaped raft) and fall into the water.  Unfortunately, we did not appropriately check  our surroundings, and when I jumped in the water I landed on oyster shells.  I was cut up pretty bad and my jacket was torn to shreds.  At Club, when the video ended we both came to the stage for our final altercation.   

During the argument, I decided instead of fake punching him like we practiced, I would instead Stone Cold stun him.  This skit was not our best for many reasons, but it was one of the most memorable.  The leaders and former students (now adults, married with children) all still talk about this whenever we reminiscence on the old days of Younglife NMB.

As soon as I convert this video to digital from ancient video tape, I will post it on this blog.