Impact 2003 Deep
2003: Deep- We really struggled to find a theme that year, kind of like the Oz year. We were desperate, when we just thought Deep...ocean...Atlantis. The Disney flick by the same name had just released. I thought it was a really cool concept. I pictured this underwater set with lots of Atlantis relics and Skid made it happen, with one of the greatest sets ever.
This theme proved to be one of the best. I think a whole lot of the teens think this is possibly one of the best years ever. Its funny but I think Uplift did the theme "Deep" in 07. The Impact Epic which is Flannel Board Theatre began this year. I remember filming this like it was yesterday. Originally we had planned Skids character in the skit to be the German speaking Baron, since he was so popular and funny. It was a nautical theme and we thought our Sea Captain could be the Baron, but while filming the first intro to Flannel Board we discovered that Skid could do a great Italian accent. I don't like bringing old characters back for anything other than a cameo but the Baron was hilarious. With the new found accent his Mustachio character was born. He was supposed to be the "ultra romantic" host of Flannel Board Theatre and not in the skit. We changed his character in the skit to Mustachio the Italian sea captain, and the Baron became the host of "FBT" along with Mr. Socko whom I actually wore the other day as I could not find another sock. All that being said we never filmed the introduction pieces to "FBT" again due to time constraints. That year also marked the debut of Mr. Bill at Impact (Skid had done that at Knoxville Work Camp for years). We had agreed with some people from that work camp that we would not use him at Impact, so he would be unique to their Knoxville work camp, but Skid moved to the "Boro" and all the original work camp people had also moved so we felt bringing Mr. Bill to Impact was okay. He was somewhat popular although he was eclipsed by the popularity of Flannel Board Theatre and our Gnome vs. Puppet war, so we only used him once the next year. People still ask me "where is Mr. Bill?" Maybe one day he will return to Impact. I still have found memories of my oldest child (Brock) who was just a year old crushing Mr. Bill and then crying in one of the videos. We had some great stuff that year. I think we realized that year we could really go even further with our theme. It was the first year the skit ended on a serious note at evening impact, something we have stuck with. One epic event that largely went unknown till now was an elaborate hoax set up by the ETS guys and the behind the scenes truth of the Puppet/Gnome saga. The ETS guys are paid by Lipscomb to do lights, staging and sound for events at Lipscomb. We had developed a real good chemistry with these guys over the years. That year I had brought a couple of Yard Gnomes that Rubio used as his sidekicks that week. During the week the ETS guys kidnapped the Gnome named Trevor. They sent us a really well done hostage video, it was way too professional for Impact. It was filmed in a secret location on campus that took us hours to find, it was like in some secret chamber underneath one of the other buildings that you could only find if you knew it was there. We would have shown the film at Morning Impact but, talk about poor timing, a kidnapping happened in Utah that week. It was the major news story. I mean it was everywhere all over the news and papers. This effected Morning Impact in more ways than one as we were going to do a "Utah day" based on the success we had with Ohio day the year before. We had the state flag ready and everything. Needless to say we scrapped the idea for the sake of good taste and decided not to show the hostage video and canned Utah day. I still have the Utah state flag. We did however make our own video for ETS as Skid, Rubes, Johnny Brown (a regular worship team member), a security guard named Fount, and I searched for Trevor all over campus, including our discovery of the secret lair where their video was filmed. After hours of searching, we found Trevor under a seat in the balcony in a bag at about 3:00 a.m. that morning. During the daily Morning Impact run through we showed our video of us finding Trevor. They were floored that we found him. As far as the Gnomes went, we had an election between them and the Puppet to see which one would be banned from Impact complete with campaign T-shirts that sold out in minutes (at least the Puppets did, the Gnome shirt sold slower but eventually they were gone to. I still have one). The Puppet won in a landslide like 400 to 27 and we had a live appearance/ autograph session in the square with the Puppet. The Impact Puppet was never more popular as he was this year. Its funny how over the next few years Gnomes and puppets would be used in various advertising campaigns. Another note on this, the Gnome Trevor was actually stolen again. The same thing happened to the original version of the Puppet a couple of years later. I really don't like how sometimes people steal things thinking it is a good natured prank and that it would be cool to have something used on stage. It really robes everybody. You know since that theft we have not been able to use the Gnomes (I am not sure where the other Gnome is) in a comeback angle and the Puppet has not been able to regain his popularity. Since were talking Puppet, on Facebook’s "Good Morning Impact" site there has been some curiosity as to why the Puppet stopped saying "bamhchickawowwow". Well, I can answer that. The meaning of that phrase goes back to the days of the Impact talent show/ stupid human tricks which made a re-appearance in 1998-2000. In 1998 some guys did a rap where one of them just kept saying "bamchickawowowow" over and over to the point that it was getting ridiculous. The Puppet in jest started saying that and the crowd would go nuts. Over the next few years it became one of his catch phrases like" What are these kids doing here?" and "What". I mean what made him so funny originally was his refusal to co-operate with anything on stage not answering questions, ignoring my questions, and abusing Skid and I. But since then the term "bamchickawowwow" has come to signify in our culture something shady. So needless to say the Puppet, as difficult as he can be has not used it since. On a lighter note, I really have enjoyed hanging with David, David, Jon, and Paul.
This theme proved to be one of the best. I think a whole lot of the teens think this is possibly one of the best years ever. Its funny but I think Uplift did the theme "Deep" in 07. The Impact Epic which is Flannel Board Theatre began this year. I remember filming this like it was yesterday. Originally we had planned Skids character in the skit to be the German speaking Baron, since he was so popular and funny. It was a nautical theme and we thought our Sea Captain could be the Baron, but while filming the first intro to Flannel Board we discovered that Skid could do a great Italian accent. I don't like bringing old characters back for anything other than a cameo but the Baron was hilarious. With the new found accent his Mustachio character was born. He was supposed to be the "ultra romantic" host of Flannel Board Theatre and not in the skit. We changed his character in the skit to Mustachio the Italian sea captain, and the Baron became the host of "FBT" along with Mr. Socko whom I actually wore the other day as I could not find another sock. All that being said we never filmed the introduction pieces to "FBT" again due to time constraints. That year also marked the debut of Mr. Bill at Impact (Skid had done that at Knoxville Work Camp for years). We had agreed with some people from that work camp that we would not use him at Impact, so he would be unique to their Knoxville work camp, but Skid moved to the "Boro" and all the original work camp people had also moved so we felt bringing Mr. Bill to Impact was okay. He was somewhat popular although he was eclipsed by the popularity of Flannel Board Theatre and our Gnome vs. Puppet war, so we only used him once the next year. People still ask me "where is Mr. Bill?" Maybe one day he will return to Impact. I still have found memories of my oldest child (Brock) who was just a year old crushing Mr. Bill and then crying in one of the videos. We had some great stuff that year. I think we realized that year we could really go even further with our theme. It was the first year the skit ended on a serious note at evening impact, something we have stuck with. One epic event that largely went unknown till now was an elaborate hoax set up by the ETS guys and the behind the scenes truth of the Puppet/Gnome saga. The ETS guys are paid by Lipscomb to do lights, staging and sound for events at Lipscomb. We had developed a real good chemistry with these guys over the years. That year I had brought a couple of Yard Gnomes that Rubio used as his sidekicks that week. During the week the ETS guys kidnapped the Gnome named Trevor. They sent us a really well done hostage video, it was way too professional for Impact. It was filmed in a secret location on campus that took us hours to find, it was like in some secret chamber underneath one of the other buildings that you could only find if you knew it was there. We would have shown the film at Morning Impact but, talk about poor timing, a kidnapping happened in Utah that week. It was the major news story. I mean it was everywhere all over the news and papers. This effected Morning Impact in more ways than one as we were going to do a "Utah day" based on the success we had with Ohio day the year before. We had the state flag ready and everything. Needless to say we scrapped the idea for the sake of good taste and decided not to show the hostage video and canned Utah day. I still have the Utah state flag. We did however make our own video for ETS as Skid, Rubes, Johnny Brown (a regular worship team member), a security guard named Fount, and I searched for Trevor all over campus, including our discovery of the secret lair where their video was filmed. After hours of searching, we found Trevor under a seat in the balcony in a bag at about 3:00 a.m. that morning. During the daily Morning Impact run through we showed our video of us finding Trevor. They were floored that we found him. As far as the Gnomes went, we had an election between them and the Puppet to see which one would be banned from Impact complete with campaign T-shirts that sold out in minutes (at least the Puppets did, the Gnome shirt sold slower but eventually they were gone to. I still have one). The Puppet won in a landslide like 400 to 27 and we had a live appearance/ autograph session in the square with the Puppet. The Impact Puppet was never more popular as he was this year. Its funny how over the next few years Gnomes and puppets would be used in various advertising campaigns. Another note on this, the Gnome Trevor was actually stolen again. The same thing happened to the original version of the Puppet a couple of years later. I really don't like how sometimes people steal things thinking it is a good natured prank and that it would be cool to have something used on stage. It really robes everybody. You know since that theft we have not been able to use the Gnomes (I am not sure where the other Gnome is) in a comeback angle and the Puppet has not been able to regain his popularity. Since were talking Puppet, on Facebook’s "Good Morning Impact" site there has been some curiosity as to why the Puppet stopped saying "bamhchickawowwow". Well, I can answer that. The meaning of that phrase goes back to the days of the Impact talent show/ stupid human tricks which made a re-appearance in 1998-2000. In 1998 some guys did a rap where one of them just kept saying "bamchickawowowow" over and over to the point that it was getting ridiculous. The Puppet in jest started saying that and the crowd would go nuts. Over the next few years it became one of his catch phrases like" What are these kids doing here?" and "What". I mean what made him so funny originally was his refusal to co-operate with anything on stage not answering questions, ignoring my questions, and abusing Skid and I. But since then the term "bamchickawowwow" has come to signify in our culture something shady. So needless to say the Puppet, as difficult as he can be has not used it since. On a lighter note, I really have enjoyed hanging with David, David, Jon, and Paul.
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