Ryan ChartrandIn recent years, I have had the opportunity to meet and interact with several celebrities and people in the public eye whom I had previously admired and respected. Without fail, I walked away from those experiences holding a somewhat diminished view of those individuals – that is, until I met Dr. Drew Pinksy.
As a Loveline listener since the age of 11, I jumped at the opportunity to see Dr. Drew speak live at the Rec Center Thursday, as did approximately 1,700 of my peers, who lined up all the way to the Health Center building just to get inside. So many people showed up for the event that organizers were forced to open the curtains separating the top and bottom tiers of the bleachers to allow for more audience members.
I will be the first to admit that when Dr. Drew mounted the stage, I was a bit skeptical. As he began to speak, it seemed as though he simply intended to play to the crowd’s somewhat immature expectations that the event would be a humorous evening of embarrassing sex questions. This wasn’t the Dr. Drew that I had known and loved since I was young. Maybe the spectacle of “Celebrity Rehab” had finally eaten into his integrity as well as his brain. My heart dropped.
But, as time progressed, I was able to take in the whole picture.
Dr. Drew knew the audience. He knew what to expect. We were hot and fidgety, like a room filled with kindergarteners, and like kindergarteners, we needed something shiny and distracting waved in front of our faces to get our attention.
His strategy became apparent, when in the middle of answering a question about female orgasm, he “digressed” into a story about how the program “Loveline” came to be, which emphasized the importance of trusting one’s instincts.
“Learn to listen to your instincts,” he summarized later. “That’s the one thing I don’t think we tell young people enough. If you live with integrity, you will hear instincts with greater volume. That part of you that’s very primitive and there to protect you won’t steer you wrong most times.”
He had done it. He hooked us with the orgasm and then taught us something (if you can believe it) even more important. From that point on, he did something previously thought to be impossible: He talked openly and candidly with a room full of overexcited, overheated college students about sex, substance abuse and a whole array of “taboo” subjects (including the great Philosopher Warrior, Adam Carolla) without missing a stride.
What truly impressed me about the event was the good doctor’s ability to gracefully field questions that made me want to smack the person asking them in the head.
The guy making fun of his buddy’s penis size? That just gave him an opportunity to talk about the personal insecurities that plague our society and drive us to mutilate our bodies via plastic surgery. When an audience member asked why he and his roommates tend to pee in inappropriate places after binge drinking, Dr. Drew offered a few medical answers and then replied, “We’re worried about the drinking, not the peeing.”
When I asked him after the show about how he manages this feat, he said, “The idea is, I’m trying to create an environment in which they can ask anything . even if they want to goof.” This attitude encourages the person with the real, important question to be comfortable enough to ask it in front of an auditorium of people.
Dr. Drew’s dedication to helping our generation navigate the turbulent waters of adolescence and young adulthood is truly inspiring. In a society where Nancy Reagan’s “Just say no!” bullshit is still shoved down our throats, he is not afraid to accept the reality that people are not perfect and does everything in his power to help us survive our youth so we can appreciate it later.
“There’s nothing more gratifying than talking to young people,” he said. “I’m so grateful that young people welcome me into their lives. Young people are the launching pad of life, and it’s a great opportunity to change the directions people go just by shaping their culture, answering their questions, and I’m just grateful that they accept me into their world. It’s so renewing to talk to young people and so interesting to be a part of their culture and to be connected to it. . I’m just so grateful that you let me in.”