What does Deborah Vance have to teach us about singing and selfhood? Who the heck is Deborah Vance anyway?
For a period this past spring, I became obsessed with the Emmy-winning Amazon Prime series Hacks, which came onto my radar quite by accident. It’s a story of an unlikely intergenerational collaboration between two women who couldn’t be more diametricallly opposed: a 70-something stand up comedienne (the aforementioned Deborah Vance) being not-so-gently forced out of a multi-year Las Vegas residency, and a 30-something, text book “woke” LGBTQ+ comedy writer who loathes much of what her elder counterpart represents. What captivated me was the way in which these two very different women–generationally, artistically and socio-economically–were alchemically transformed through making art together and learning from and teaching one another.
This teacher-learner dynamic is so interesting to me, as I have been exploring, unpacking and challenging it over my almost-quarter-century (what??) of teaching. The master-apprentice binary that is represented, parodied and upended in the Deborah Vance-Ava relationship is one that has preoccupied much of my academic career, at least from the time I became aware of it being something I might want to challenge.
Deborah makes so many errors of judgment, tries and fails epically, gets frequently schooled by Ava (and vice-versa), and no one in their community of artists, managers, hucksters and profiteers remains untouched by this learning. The metaphor in my own teaching and learning life was never lost on me. Mentorship has been so key for me, and increasingly so as I have moved into the twilight of my teaching career. The ability to admit the error of one’s ways, the humility to entertain the idea that someone far younger than you might have something to teach you, and the beauty of reciprocity in teaching and learning, art and life–these are all part of the Deborah Vance effect. As elder statesfolk, we have the ability to inspire, support and uplift, and we also can make space for learning and growth in ourselves by allowing our young protegé(e)s to take centrestage and offer their unique perspective.