This week, a race against Shamu and insight into the world of a captive orca.
Art by Pete Whitehead
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Story performed by: Aaron Calafato
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Original Art: Pete Whitehead
Music Contributor: thomas j. duke
Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce
Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran
TRANSCRIPT
7Min S2E6 Shamu Final V2.mp3 - powered by Happy Scribe
You're listening to 7 Minute Stories with Aaron Calafato. Visit our website, 7minutestories.com. That's the number, 7minutestories.com to see the awesome new merch available this season. Choose from stickers, koozies, T-shirts, tote bags and more. I have to say, the tote bag is my favorite. This episode, SeaWorld.
In 1965, an aquatic animal was captured. It was one of the first of its kind to be captured and then trained to perform in an aquatic show at a theme park in San Diego in front of a crowd full of people. Now this animal was an orca, also known as a killer whale. And after it was initially caught, it died in 1971 after about six years of captivity. Now after this animal died, they used its name to name other orcas who performed in other similar shows at theme parks around the country.
The name of the theme park is SeaWorld and the namesake for this amazing orca is Shamu. Now this story takes place in 1993 when I was ten years old, and when I was asked to compete with Shamu at a SeaWorld in Aurora, Ohio, in front of a crowd full of people. I'm with my brother, my cousin, my dad, and my uncle. And I'm excited because this was an amazing theme park. It's got everything, cotton candy, popcorn, ice cream, all kinds of games. And when you would see the amazing aquatic animals from the ocean, as a kid, you're just looking at their beauty, at how powerful and interesting they are. And so you see it for that quality.
And so that's where my mindset was. And what I was really excited to do was go to the main event, which was this aquatic show with Shamu. And it had a huge stadium seating. And you would go in there and you had to get tickets. And there'd be hundreds of people in the stands. And there was this giant open aquarium. And the show was like a theater. It was like a theatrical experience. They would have different performers come out. They first started with dolphins, and then the trainers would ride the dolphins and throw fish and make them jump in the air and do flips and all this kind of stuff.
And all the while, we're clapping and we're cheering the animals and all this kind of stuff.
But the main event was watching this killer whale Shamu. And the show was incredible, the amount of splashing it did just to see its utter power jumping in the air and doing flips. It was really something that it's never left my mind.
But at the end of the entire show, there was one last event, and it required audience participation. Now at this very moment, just giving you an insight to my brain, I started thinking to myself as I'm sitting in this crowd, I'm looking around and I'm going, this is a great captive audience. And at the time, I was really getting into radio and storytelling, I was doing these little radio shows and this little karaoke set that I've talked about before on this podcast. And so I looked around me and I was like, "This would be a great group of people to tell a story. I wish I could just get in front of everybody and tell them one of my stories." This was what's going through my mind at the time.
And at that very moment, the person from SeaWorld running the show goes, "Hey, who wants to race against Shamu? Put your hands up in the air." So of course, with all the other kids, I put my hands up, and I've got both hands up. And I'm like, "Hey, pick me, pick me." And lo and behold, they selected me, and I was fired up because for me in this moment, this was just a chance to audition in front of people. I thought even if they don't let me tell my story, I can perform in front of them and give the whole crowd a show.
I mean, a show that they've been waiting for. And maybe me and Shamu, we can do this thing together.
So here's how it all went down. The coordinator of the event broke down the rules for me and the entire audience. And she said, "young man, you're going to start at the starting line all the way at the end of the aquarium." And just so you know, when you're looking at the aquarium, it's just transparent glass, so you can see inside Shamu swimming, and then you can see me on the outside from the audience perspective. So she said, "you start at the starting line, and Shamu's going to start in the same place.
Now I'm going to go down here to the finish line at the other end of the aquarium, and I'm going to count down three, two, one. And at the end of that countdown, you both are going to start, and you're going to race. And whoever gets to the finish line first, wins. But one more thing, just remember, when you get to the finish line, make sure you go down and duck, like you would for a tornado drill." Didn't think anything of it.
And so there I am, in position, like my track position, ready to run the 100 meters dash. And I'm set up, and you could hear a pin drop. My heart is pounding. And she goes, "Three, two." And the audience joins in, "One." And bang, I'm flying. I'm running as fast as I could possibly run. And out of the corner of my eye, I can see that I'm ahead of Shamu. I am beating a killer whale in a race. I could just imagine the audience reaction.
And so I get to the finish line, and then I duck down. And in my mind, I'm imagining what happens next, that I win, and I stand up with both arms in the air and the audience roars and cheers me on. But what ends up happening is I go down and then I'm hit with something with such force that I fall over on the ground. And when I eventually make sense of it, I realize that I'm soaking wet. And then I start putting it together that Shamu had splashed me.
And more than that, that this was a gag, that the joke was on me and that the whole thing of me ducking down was just a signal for Shamu to splash its fin and its whole body, and crushed me with all of this water.
And so now I'm in shock and I'm soaking wet, all my clothes, and I'm standing up like I was just hit by a train in front of the audience. And they're laughing and pointing and just jeering at me. And I remember feeling so humiliated, so embarrassed.
Now flash forward to present day. Even in my late 30s, I could see the humor in it a little bit, sort of, but I have a picture on my wall that happened moments after the story I just told you. And I'm sitting in the stands, and my brother and my cousin are cracking up laughing. And you could see by my profile that I was not laughing. I was completely soaked and I was pissed. And I look at that every single day, and I still, if I'm being honest with you, I'm still pissed off about it.
But recently I've been trying to think of it from a different perspective, and I thought, if I feel and if I felt that way about being exploited for a moment or laughed at for a moment, at my expense for the amusement of the people in the stands, orcas are pretty intelligent creatures. And if they have any sort of emotional, parallel experiences to that of a human being, I wonder what Shamu or many of the iterations of Shamu, must have felt like. How did they feel being at SeaWorld?
In 2016, SeaWorld announced the end to their orca breeding programs and that they would slowly phase out the theatrical orca shows. And instead, would be introducing, "new, inspiring, natural orca encounters". I guess the show really couldn't go on. Am I right?
This episode of 7 Minute Stories is made possible by Fishbowl. I didn't really know much about Fishbowl until Aaron started doing his live audio talks about storytelling and podcasting there. Since then, I've been pretty much obsessed.
If you didn't know, Fishbowl is a social app where professionals go to connect. Since joining Fishbowl, I've met a bunch of cool people and have learned a ton from live talks with industry experts. I know Aaron loves it because he works 100 percent remotely as a podcaster. I'll be announcing new upcoming dates for Aaron's live Fishbowl talks in the future. For now, download the Fishbowl app for free today.
7 Minute Stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato, Audio Production by Ken Wendt. You can connect with Ken or inquire about his audio production services at media216.com. Original Artwork by Pete Whitehead. Find out more about Pete's work at petewhitehead.com. Our creative consultant is Anthony Vorndran, and Lennon Janovyak is our production assistant. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcasts. And lastly, I'm Cori Birce. Make sure and tune in next week for another story.
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