Kansas One - Text
White male, born Overland Park, Kansas (Kansas City Metropolitan Area), 1976. Family Jewish with origins in Poland (Holocaust Survivors) and Russia. Theatre major at the University of Kansas when recorded there by Paul Meier in 1999.
TRANSCRIPTION
I was born in Overland Park, Kansas. (Um) Around those parts we often refer to that whole area as being Kansas City. (Uh) Which includes Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. (Um) I’ve lived there most of my life. I-- I was a-- Until I came to college at the University of Kansas, I-- which is only about 30 miles down the road in Lawrence, Kansas. (Um) I was public school educated. (Uh…uh) When-- when I was five I went to, you know, just the normal Kindergarten, and-- and I stayed in public education all the way up through twelfth grade. (Um) And (uh) at the University of Kansas I am a Theatre major, (uh) where I hope to become a stand-up comic later in life.
My family’s origins are pretty interesting. (Um) I was raised in a Jewish family, (um) which (uh) it-- which has its roots (uh) from (uh) Poland and the Holocaust, and (uh) I do have some Russian (um) on one side of my family. And (um) it was very interesting growing up because I could always-- (um) I always had relatives around with funny accents. (Um… uh) My (uh) dad’s parents, for example, (um) are both from Poland, and (uh) both have (uh) very strong Yiddish accents. (Um) So I was exposed to that a lot, as a kid. (Um) They always spoke in Yiddish when they didn’t want me to know (uh) what they were saying. (Um) So by the ti-- by the time I was a little older, I could kind of figure out what they were saying (um) a little bit more.
(Um) Actually both of my parents (uh) grew up in the same area. My mom was raised on the Missouri side of Kansas City, and my dad (uh)-- My dad too was raised on the Missouri side of Kansas City, which is only about (uh) 15, 20 miles from where I was raised.
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY JACQUELINE BAKER, ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR TRANSCRIPTIONS, March 10, 2008