Late Night Catechism Las Vegas-Sister Rolls The Dice

     If you've never been to one of these Late Night Catechism shows, you've truly missed something special.  This past Saturday, Late Night Catechism arrived at The McPherson Opera House.  While not sold out, there is usually always a big crowd in attendance for one of these shows.

     To describe this show, think interactive comedy.  Sister, and there are several women who tour the country portraying sister in a variety of different shows, provides instruction regarding the Catholic Church and it's customs, but you don't have to be Catholic to get the jist of what Sister is talking about.  At one point in the evening she brought a late audience member down front, produced a ruler and asked Gwen to hold out her hand.  Gwen did and then shrank back as Sister slapped her on her wrist with a ruler bracelet.  Sister laughed and said, "Gwen, it's just a slap bracelet, I don't want you to get your lawyer down here and sue me".  The audience roared with laughter.

     The first part of these shows are usually more of a stand up routine and then after the intermission Sister gets the audience involved.  On this night, it was Las Vegas casino games.  She brought a woman up out of the audience and had her play the part of Vanna, a Vegas showgirl, complete with a sparkly orange headdress and a pink feather boa.  She encouraged her to bring the beer she was holding with her, and Vanna spent quite a bit of the time she was on stage drinking her beer which only added to the hilarity of the situation.  When it was time to play BlackJack, Sister, in full habit, donned a red eye-shade hat and became a Black Jack dealer.  It was funny to see a nun in full habit wearing a Black Jack dealer's hat.

     A truly unforgettable evening.  But these shows are fun with a purpose.  When the social security system was put into place, the Catholic Church opted out for Sisters.  So now that many nuns have become old enough to draw on social security and have some sort of retirement funds, these are not available to them.  At the end of these shows, the woman playing Sister always explains these facts to the audience and  passes the hat to collect funds for those sisters who have nothing to fall back on. Since these shows have begun,and they've been running for many years, over three million dollars has been collected for Sisters nationwide.