The classroom at a Boca Raton middle school was in an uproar. The students were consumed by a rollicking skit about a teenage boy trying to talk his girlfriend into taking some prescription medication he stole from his mother. Some of the kids were up in arms. They were shouting at each other, “Why isn’t it OK to take someone else’s Percocet? A doctor prescribed it!”

Then, “Why is your boyfriend pressuring you to do something that’s wrong? Why is he trying to talk you into getting high? Dump him!”

Once the skit ended, an eighth grade girl approached the actor, Mark Cherny, a licensed clinical social worker at Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service, who for 10 years, talks to 7,500 students annually, via 300 performances, about addictions, substance abuse and other important issues.

“You were the best!” she said. “This was just like watching The Jerry Springer Show!”

Mark Cherny and Marcy Bezark

“Well, we’re a bit more civil than that, ” Cherny thought, but he appreciated the compliment. Cherny’s interactive skits have attracted dozens of hand made thank you cards from children and letters of gratitude from teachers and principals. Cherny’s success at reaching out to young people earned him “Employee of the Year” at RRJFS in 2007 and the father of three girls was featured in a Target ad, which ran throughout south Florida in 2006. He also runs a free, national website, www.teentalk4u.org, in which he counsels any teen via e-mail. (The free service is for troubled teens, not those who are suicidal or in imminent crisis.)

One teacher recently wrote, “Mark’s presentation was phenomenal—it came at a perfect time because these issues are occurring in my class we speak! Thank you! Thank you!”

“I am a grandmother volunteer and I was mesmerized by the presentation,” another woman wrote.

Cherny said he performs many skits on drug and alcohol abuse and is creates new ones.

“Kids don’t necessarily know that a doctor may prescribe something for one person, that could be harmful to another. They often tell me if it’s a prescribed medication that can’t get addicted.”

He added, “What I rely on with these skits is that a percentage of people who will know the answers and will inform the other kids, rather than me lecturing them. And then I will say, ‘Oh really? Oh yeah, that’s the way it is.’ It’s best when the answers come from the kids themselves. That’s the whole idea of the skits, to pull info out of the people in the audience and get them to discuss the issues amongst themselves.”

Mark and fellow thespian, Marcy Bezark, who directs volunteer services at Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service, have performed other substance abuse skits, such as the one about a wife who is leaving her husband because he drinks too much and a 16-year-old girl who tries to talk her father into buying beer for her party; an increasingly common occurrence, Cherny says.

Another popular skit is when a daughter comes home to find her Dad passed out drunk on the couch. In his hand is an FPL cut off notice. She tries to take his car keys and he gets belligerent.

The kids yell at the Dad for being irresponsible and wrecking his family and suggest rehab.

“Unfortunately,” Cherny said, “We do this skit because certain percentage of kids live in a situation like that.”

No matter the topic, at the end of every skit, Cherny reinforces all the facts. He says, “Hey, you guys were right!” and then summarizes the salient points.

“That’s when I step out of character, and then speak as a professional. If they miss something, I add it. But they usually don’t miss anything.”

“In terms of drinking, I try to get younger audiences to see what life can be like 20 years from now if they start doing this now. Usually the way I play the character, I started drinking when I was 14 and in middle school. The kids make the connections. This is their glimpse into the future.”

“Because this is not a lecture, kids will quickly become engrossed and talk about personal, emotional and social issues,” Cherny said. “They participate and because they are not asked to talk about themselves they reveal what is really bothering them. While we are not as inflamed as Jerry Spring, this gets a lot more visceral reactions and the lessons are internalized better.”