And what race is Vin Diesel?

{Quick update – one weekend done in the Tournament and Ohio State and Michigan State are out – so my only hope in my pool is a Memphis – George Mason Final.}

So this weekend I went to see Find Me Guilty starring Vin Diesel as Jackie DiNorscio, some New Jersey wiseguy who represented himself in a big RICO trial and won through telling jokes and stories. I liked the movie (B+/B), but found it sort of disturbing. As a man who went to law school, but with a sens of humor, did I waste a lot of time and money?

To illustrate the point, Diesel’s character did not have a high school diploma, while the Assistant US Attorney had a law degree and spent years prepping the case. What was the verdict (it is based on a true story so I don’t care about spoiling the end of the movie) – Not guilty. The trial took 2 years to conduct – the juy acquitted in 14 hours.

So I come back to my original question – why did I go to law school. Apparently a sense of humor is more effective and cheaper than a law degree. “I don’t know about RICO, but that guy is Guilty of Humor in the 1st degree!” Instead of struggling through classes that would never help me with anything, I could have been working on my routine so that both my comedy career and potential criminal career would both be more successful.

Making the movie more relevant to me is the fact that the judge in the movie is played by Ron Silver and I attended grade school (1st-3rd grades) with his son.

As if the movie was not enough of a sign that I had taken my life in a wrong direction (comedian trumps lawyer, my classmate’s father is in the picture – getting the hint yet J-L???!!!), the star of the movie, Vin Diesel is one of the few people more racially ambiguous than myself. If I had to guess at his genetic makeup I would say: 1/5 Jewish,

1/5 Italian,

1/10th Native American,

1/3rd Black,

1/10th Middle Eastern and

1/15th awful actor (like a Van Damme or Stallone type). If anyone actually knows what his racial background is I would love to know.

But lets do the math: Law School diploma + government job + racially mixed background = blogging on a Tuesday afternoon.

vs.

10th grade education + comedy + racially mixed background = $10 million per picture (yes I am aware that I am combining Vin Diesel and his character into one person).

So let this be a lesson to all the kids that read my blog – stay in school.