FAILURE?!?!

I have always prided myself in knowing that I can talk a kid into overcoming pretty much anything they can dish at me.
Well, Joey was a 7 year old who had been a difficult monkey to control all week but I figured after he had done the show and felt the sense of accomplishment every kid does, he would straighten right out. 2 hours before our show today though, Joey decided he wasn't going to do the show.

"I just wanna be a watcher." he explained.

"What? C'mon buddy you're the loudest monkey we got up there, we need ya!" I retorted.

"I can't ok? I had a bad dream about Dementors last night and I can't go on-stage!"

How this kid managed to link the dark, creepy villains in the Harry Potter books with not wanting to put on a monkey suit, I'll never know.

After about 30 minutes of trying everything from phoning home, to setting up scenarios in which all the female wolves (11-16 year olds) pleaded with me in front of him to be monkeys, to telling him that monkey's can scare away Dementors, I gave up.
I can’t recall one single time in 22 years when I couldn’t talk a kid into doing something. It was especially painful because I knew that if he just got up there on stage and did the show he would feel amazing afterwards and probably remember it the rest of his life. Our good friend Joey though, did not perform today and left me confused, annoyed and dis-heartened….thanks for nothing Harry Potter.