My wife and I met more than twenty years ago in an improv class at Chicago’s famed Second City. So it’s fun when we head down there to take in the latest show, which we did a couple weeks ago. Three guys took the stage, bare as usual save for three small chairs.

And these guys did not disappoint.

There was a killer skit set in the impending doom of a urologist’s outer office. A brilliant dark comic sketch in which a dad informs his kids of terminal illness through a puppet. A few poignant relationship moments. A somehow delightful bit in which an older brother introduces his younger sib to pot.

And a show-stopping song about the lost love of a blow-up doll.

Overall, it was a very tight, very fun, funny, good-natured show, really impressive.

Especially when you consider the fact that all three of them were teenagers, the oldest only fifteen. They were, in fact, the youngest troupe to ever perform on a Second City stage.

Afterwards, I talked with one of the dads, a friend of mine. I asked him specifically about the often dicey adult subject matter. He admitted that it is a bit strange to have your fourteen-year-old singing about blow-up dolls. In public.

Still, he wanted to empower his son to freely follow his dreams, and to take them as far as he can. It also occurred to us that humor is a pretty good way to introduce these difficult, awkward subjects to kids.

But it’s more than that. These kids immerse themselves in these topics. They’re writing and performing this stuff. It takes a very open, available parent to allow their child to ‘go there’ in so big and open a forum.

But it’s more than THAT. Not only are these parents not shielding their kids from this subject matter, they’re sharing it with them openly, positively, humorously. And it occurs to me that it takes a very special parent-child relationship to be so open to dialogue, and humor, and song even, about some of the toughest topics: sex, drugs, relationships, and so on.

Sure beats a lecture.