Know a Monkey Volunteer: Ali Chardon
Posted by Amanda Farrar on August 4, 2011
Alexis (aka Ali) Chardon has been volunteering for Barrel of Monkeys for over a year working on various marketing projects, including interviewing staff and company members a blog series called “Know A Monkey”! (Keep an eye out for an interview soon with our new Educational Coordinator, Joseph Schupbach.) Thus, I have decided to begin a “Get to Know a Monkey Volunteer” series. It was only appropriate to begin with the amazing Ali! Please, enjoy getting to know her as much as I have.
AF: Ali, tell me a little bit about what you do in your day-to-day life.
AC: I am a lawyer. I work at a small law firm in Chicago where we do commercial litigation.
AF: What is that?
AC: Well, it actually means a lot of things. A lot of times it will mean contract disputes between companies. We also do a lot of antitrust work at my firm.
AF: Yeah. That’s great. So what brought you to the Monkeys to volunteer?
AC: I was looking for something outside my sphere, to do with some of my mind and some of my free time, something I thought would be helpful but was also interesting to me because as much as I enjoy being a lawyer, it can be a little bit insular in terms of that world. I had a friend named Dixie Uffelman—who I still have! She’s not a past tense friend! —who is a Monkey and so I’ve been to see “That’s Weird Grandma” over the years and just found myself sort of overjoyed every time I’m there.
AF: And how do you and Dixie know each other?
AC: Dixie and I know each other from the way-back machine when we were about juniors in high school. We went to a semester high school program in rural Maine where we lived in cabins and went to school with forty other students from around the country. We had a band together, which was fun, and which makes sense if you know Dixie because she can sing. Makes no sense if you know me, because I can’t. But while chopping wood one day we wrote a song together and a band was born.
AF: Awesome.
AC: I think we just had one song.
AF: Alright, what is the song that you wrote while you were chopping wood?
AC: It’s called “I Don’t Need a Man”, and the other thing you need to understand is we were chopping wood with a maul, which is a kind of axe. Unfortunately no one understands our song because the chorus was “I don’t need a man, I don’t need a man at all. Girl, who needs a man when you’ve got yourself a maul? I don’t need no man to chop my wood, I’ve got a maul that’s twice as good. I don’t need a man at all.” And no one seems to know what a maul is outside of our semester program, and they think we are talking about the place where you go shopping. Totally different meaning!
AF: Amazing. So have you written any songs since that time?
AC: That is the last song I’ve written. I used to love creative writing as a kid and I was a creative writing major in college. And that’s one reason why I’m drawn to Barrel of Monkeys. I don’t do it anymore. I write all day long but it’s … well, hopefully no one would call it creative.
AF: There is a sort of creativity that goes into it.
AC: You’re right actually. Creative legal arguments. But fiction should be staying out of it. So, yeah, it’s definitely something I miss in my adult life and something I really enjoy being around. You know, the Monkeys have their…there’s some kind of door that shuts at some point for a lot of us when we’re done in school with all the classes that kind of foster writing and creativity but the Monkeys kind of kept that door open. And for that reason they’re all a little bit closer to that side of themselves.
AF: That’s interesting. Do you remember anything that you wrote as a child that stands out?
AC: Yeah! I do remember this one…I wrote what I thought was a very long story about a cricket. And I have no idea what the cricket did, but it was epic! I mean it was like, he had adventures and it lasted several several pages of a legal notepad. I wonder what happened to that story. I was actually more into writing poetry as I got older – in high school and college. But for some reason I studied fiction writing.
AF: So, Ali, this is one of my favorite questions that you ask people: if you were a policeman in Chicago, how would you travel around and why?
AC: I would be a horsecop. Like, I would be a horsecop, a horsecop, a horsecop. There is no question, I want to cry when I see those animals they make me so happy. First of all, I love working animals. I love working animals. Like at the airport, German Shepherds, don’t even start! I think it is just so clever—to use any animals in the first place, and I love horses, and that these horses are so well-trained. They can have bikes whizzing by them, they can have little yapping dogs at their feet, and they just, I don’t know, it just gives me pride to see these guys. I guess horses calm crowds, people see horses and they just…
AF: Oh!
AC: Yeah, I didn’t know that. And I just think you’d be like, a cowboy/cop…
AF: That would be pretty cool. Yeah, you don’t mess around when there’s a cop and a horse. You don’t. Because they’re terrifying animals in some ways, just because of their size.
AC: So, yeah that’s what I’d do.
AF: Great, I love it. That’s fantastic. What has been your favorite thing about volunteering for Barrel of Monkeys?
AC: Just in general, I think one of my favorite things is feeling like I’m some small part of it, like helping when I go to the fundraisers or a show I can take a little bit, a little small piece of pride that I’m involved in something. I am so moved by “That’s Weird Grandma” when I go see it that you know, you just feel good when you’re a part of it too, some little cog in the wheel.
AF: Great. Do you feel that door in yourself opening a little bit?
AC: (Sighs.) I think need to go to some more shows.