How one man found his calling as a Mavs ManiAAC

How one man found his calling as a Mavs ManiAAC

Transcript¹

The Mavs ManiAACs are a dance troupe² made up of plus-size men who perform during Dallas Mavericks³ basketball games. In this week's StoryCorps, two members talk about how the group was founded.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

Twenty years ago this week, a group of plus-sized guys walked onto the basketball court during a break in a Dallas Mavericks playoff game. They performed a dance routine, and they're still dancing today. The Mavs ManiAACs are a group of self-proclaimed beefy guys.

ROB MAIDEN⁴: You have JJ.

DANIEL JACOB: Chunky D.

MAIDEN: Pork Chops.

JACOB: Wonder Bread.

MAIDEN: Well, I just called him Bread.

JACOB: I just called him Wonder.

MAIDEN: We're so lazy. If your name has more than two syllables⁵, we're not going to use 'em.

MARTINEZ: That's "Big Rob" Maiden and Daniel "Boy Ain't Right" Jacob, two members of The ManiAACs. At StoryCorps, they talked about how it all got started.

MAIDEN: I'll never forget - going from the ninth grade to the 10th, I went from 5'6" to 6'3" over the summer. It was so bad that my mom thought something was wrong with me, but my dad loved football. So he would say to me, man, if I would've known you were going to be this big, I would have made you play. You should be a tight end right now. I should be at the games. I said, well, I wasn't really into a lot of people hitting me. Nah, I was good. I'll pass.

The ManiAACs - we're just big guys dancing.

JACOB: And it's all good-natured...

MAIDEN: Yeah.

JACOB: ...But it's pushing the envelope.

MAIDEN: We'll start out fully⁶ dressed, but we kind of end with some exposed bellies⁷ and...

JACOB: We have half shirts, which shows off a little more skin.

MAIDEN: A lot more skin if you're my size.

But my father is a man's man, so he didn't get any of that stuff. I would invite him to games all the time, and he'd give me a million excuses as to why - like, I have to get up early tomorrow. Well, I don't want to drive at night. But I will never forget - he came, and he met me after the game, and he's watching all these folks come up to us. We're signing autographs, and a fan had my face on his shirt. I looked at my dad, and I said, can you believe that? That guy said, did you say that's your father? And I said, yeah. And he said, sir, would you sign this? My father never signed an autograph in his life. I won't ever forget the look on my father's face. And he did not stop talking about it - you know, how much he just respected me as a man because he said, you look like you really were born to do this.

And it really stuck with me because now, when I'm raising my kids, I'm not as hard on them about what they're trying to do with their life because I just have this belief that it's going to work out. And, you know, so far (laughter), life has worked out pretty good.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 troupe   

n.剧团，戏班；杂技团；马戏团

参考例句：

• The art troupe is always on the move in frontier guards.文工团常年在边防部队流动。
• The troupe produced a new play last night.剧团昨晚上演了一部新剧。

3 mavericks   

未烙印的牲畜( maverick的名词复数 )； 标新立异的人，不合常规的人

参考例句：

• And what about the Dallas Mavericks and Dirk Nowitzki? 那达拉斯小牛队和诺维斯基呢？
• And we see it with bringing Jason Kidd to the Dallas Mavericks. 而且我们看到它同实现基德向达拉斯小牛队。

4 maiden   

n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的

参考例句：

• The prince fell in love with a fair young maiden.王子爱上了一位年轻美丽的少女。
• The aircraft makes its maiden flight tomorrow.这架飞机明天首航。

5 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

6 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

7 bellies   

n.肚子( belly的名词复数 )；腹部；（物体的）圆形或凸起部份；腹部…形的

参考例句：

• They crawled along on their bellies. 他们匍匐前进。
• starving children with huge distended bellies 鼓着浮肿肚子的挨饿儿童