Watching talent blossom

But after her class’ hour-long show at LIPA in Liverpool, we saw for the first time that daughter #2 has a real talent for physical comedy.

The show, Not Another High School Teen Movie Musical Without Any Music II (We’re Not In This Together), was devised, written, choreographed and performed by the cast and was a massive mickey-take of every rom com/teen movie you’ve seen. It played out as a writer/narrator tried to script a movie in 24 hours and featured every cliché you’ve ever seen, but with a nod and a wink to send it up magnificently.

So we had overblown Mean Girls strutting about in slow motion, a split-screen duet from star-crossed lovers that went on so long the spark went out and the awkward geek, who falls in love with the knucklehead, muscle-bound basketball hero, has a makeover and is suddenly the most beautiful girl in school - that’s where daughter #2 came in.

A lot of research went into this role. Daughter #2 messaged a famous YouTuber (I’m 49 so I’ve never heard of her) who makes a few quid from uploading parody videos and asked her, on spec, a bunch of questions on how to nail it.

She gave a lot of very detailed answers but the main thing was to get the costume right. Once you’ve got the look, everything else follows.

Well, daughter #2 certainly looked the part, somewhere between Mackenzie Davis’ Yorkie in Black Mirror’s San Junipero and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad. Her slow-motion lunch scene with the high school hunk was disgustingly brilliant, especially the bit where she gave his face a good old lick. There was some real talent in that show and it was wonderful to watch. If humour’s even slightly off-key, it is excruciating but these kids nailed it.

Some of the most gifted kids around were on that stage but there was no one better than daughter #2. Parental bias aside, I thought she was the star of the show. And it’s her 17th birthday tomorrow. First driving lesson on Monday. Maybe this is what the good times feel like.