♪♪ ♪♪ [ VCR clicking ] -Oh.

Oh, I got it.

And...

I haven't used one of these in so long.

[ Slide projector clicks ] [ High-pitched whirring ] Yeah, I -- I had, um... [ Clears throat ] So, I had made up my mind to be done the year before.

So I knew 2008 was it.

[ VCR clicks ] ♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] I'm suffocating inside my mask, can't breathe.

[ Crowd cheering in distance ] I feel the weight of everyone.

♪♪ But I have to fence.

Gotta fence.

[ Crowd chanting indistinctly ] -En-garde, pret, allez.

[ Cheers and applause ] Pret, allez.

-Whew, make him fall short.

As I am attacking, I step out of bounds.

[ Crowd cheers ] And all the Russians start celebrating like they won, and there was like a 10- or 15-minute discussion for the video replay, and all this crap going on... -Video!

-...and I remember, like, just saying a little prayer.

I was like, "I've been through so much this year.

God, Mom, Dad, whatever..." ♪♪ "...you gotta help me through this."

[ Crowd chanting "Video" ] ♪♪ [ Slide projector clicking ] ♪♪ I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, Flatbush, where it's majority, like, West Indian.

My mother had come to America when she was in her 20s.

[ Woman speaking native language ] Her and my dad wanted us to go to college.

That was their focus.

So they began asking and doing research about, like, what are the best scholarship opportunities.

My dad worked at Sports Illustrated at the time, and he saw an article come across his desk about Peter Westbrook, Olympic bronze medalist from 1984.

Peter had decided to start The Peter Westbrook Foundation specifically to help kids from inner-city neighborhoods, black kids, and introduce them to the sport of fencing.

-The first medal of any kind by an American sabre competitor.

-And I says, "Alright, you guys.

Let me introduce you to this sport," and I just took them there.

-Erinn, my younger sister by 18 months, she was talented, and they were like, "Oh, my God."

Like, "This is a prodigy," and she was.

Basically, Erinn received a fencing scholarship on the spot.

-That's it.

-Yes, Erinn!

-Erinn just won her round.

-But my parents, which were very smart on their part, was, "Well, if you're gonna give one to Erinn, you have to give one to Keeth."

[ Chuckles ] And they were like, "What are you talking about?"

Like, "This kid sucks."

[ Laughs ] And they were like, "No."

You know, "I'm not gonna let my daughter come all the way to the Upper West Side by herself.

He's gonna be basically her chaperone, and if he's gonna be there, he might as well fence."

♪♪ -Oh, wow, when's Keeth gonna hit them?

-Yeah, you see that?

-Peter and the guys, they looked at me as this kid who had never made any results.

-Fence.

-Ready?

-So, the first rule they made was a seven-zero shutout.

So if you couldn't get one point until their seventh, you were off the strip for the whole night.

I would literally get one bout in, they'd beat me seven-zip, I'm upstairs doing footwork for the rest of the night.

Then I got good enough where I could get one point, so then they changed the rule to nine-one shutout.

And this happened for my first three years of high school.

[ Indistinct conversations ] ♪♪ -♪ There's a place ♪ -I didn't even think fencing was in my future, so I went to a very competitive high school, Brooklyn Tech.

-Ready?

-Go ahead, close up.

Kiss him.

-Like, I was focused on becoming an engineer.

So I was just kind of, like, holding my breath for Erinn to make the Olympic team, and then my fencing career would end, and I'd move on into the sunset.

[ Indistinct radio chatter ] -I don't want no stupid [speaking indistinctly] about -- -Erinn, get the hell out the -- -Yes, for real!

-Want a picture?

-Erinn -- -Look, look.

Picture.

Where's Erinn?

Look.

-You're not telling her -- -No, don't take -- -Look.

Hi, kids, this is Keeth.

-Done.

Finished.

-Come on, Keeth.

What are you doing?

-My senior year of high school, everyone makes the world championship team in the club, except for myself.

♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] -Aah!

-Peter comes to me, and he's like, "Where's your warm-up jacket for world championship?"

And I'm like, "I don't have one."

-Yes!

Yes!

-Aw!

-And...there it is, a better view now.

[ Slide projector clicks ] -So that's when I doubled down.

♪♪ I decided to train even harder, that I would be the underdog.

When people would stop practicing at 8:00, I would stay to 9:00.

We're gonna go up and down the strip, and I don't care if they're dripping in sweat and I'm dripping in sweat, but they're gonna have to fight for every touch.

They're gonna be in a war.

[ Man shouting indistinctly ] -Stay close, stay close.

-Whoa!

-What I want to do is just take a step back and pick up the parry, but he cuts under every time.

-Bravo!

[ Crowd cheering ] ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] [ Crowd cheers ] -Remember when you were 11 years old?

Remember when you couldn't hold the weapon?

♪♪ -[ Laughs ] -Wow!

-Whoo!

-Whoo!

-Whoo!

[ Crowd cheers ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Waves crashing ] -And welcome back to the show.

I'm Tom McDonald, and the first time I've ever held one of these in my hand.

It's sort of, like, cool, you know?

Like a movie.

And my guest -- I better put this down.

Keeth Smart, welcome to the show.

-Thank you.

-And this is a clue as to why he's here.

He grew up in Brooklyn?

-Correct.

-And is now one of the best fencers in America.

-Yeah, as well as in the world right now.

-In the world.

Wow, that's impressive.

-And Keeth, who was the first American fencer to rank number one -- the world number-one ranking, Keeth, what's your last name, again?

-Smart.

-Smart.

And what are they wearing this morning, Cheryl?

-They have on some fun flip-flops, beach flip-flops.

-Yes, exactly.

-And this is good for camcorder.

-Yes.

[Speaking indistinctly] -In film.

[ Laughter ] -From when my mom told Erinn and I, you know, the timing sucked, that she had been diagnosed with cancer essentially a year before the games, and the only option for her to go to the Olympic games was to take a double dosage of chemotherapy.

-Keeth!

-She wasn't fully recovered, but she was, like, recovered enough and strength enough where she was like a normal tourist at the Olympics.

-That's so good.

[ Slide projector clicks ] -So, it was the summer of 2005, one of those days where it's 98 degrees, high humidity.

When they say, "Don't work out outside," you're not supposed to work out outside.

There's a reason why they say that.

And my dad, you know, he was a Vietnam vet, so he was, like, kind of stubborn, and he went for a jog.

[ Birds chirping ] [ Chirping continues ] [ Chirping continues ] [ Chirping continues ] [ Airplane engines hum ] [ Humming continues ] "Mom, I'm on top of Eiffel Tower.

Just wanted you to know."

"Hey, Mom, I'm in Tunisia.

Just wanted you to know."

"I'm in Moscow.

You would love it here."

Every day, we spoke.

[ Buttons ding ] -I just want to say, from the bottom of my heart, that I really, really appreciate this.

I don't want to cry or anything, but...it was a tough year, and you all helped me make it through.

Each and every one of you contributed.

I remember, when I started chemotherapy, I said, whatever anybody gave me, whether it was a big help or a little help, I was gonna appreciate it, and I really thank you all.

[ Applause ] And I can't say anything more.

[ Laughter ] You broke me.

[ Chuckles ] I didn't think I'd get broken, but I broke.

Thanks again.

[ Slide projector clicking ] -So, finally, the last world cup was in Algeria.

So, when I came back from Algeria, I felt lightheaded.

The next morning, my eyeballs were covered in blood, and there was blood blisters all over my skin.

I was like, "Holy cow."

Like, "I'm, like, just bleeding to death."

♪♪ So, the diagnosis was ITP.

It's a form of leukemia.

So that's why I was bleeding through my eyes, bleeding out of my ears.

I just made the Olympic team.

You know, I was, like, ranked fourth in the world.

They were like, "I don't think you understand.

You should be dead, and you will never fence again, let alone any physical activity."

[ Wind howls ] Well, I go to the specialist.

[ Whirring ] And he said -- He was like, "Look.

I don't know if this will work, but at this point, we have nothing to lose, and based off of your physical conditioning, this will be a great case study for myself."

[ Chuckles ] I was like, "Oh, Mom, did you have porridge today?"

She was like, "Yeah, but I only ate a little bit."

I knew, like, she was dying.

I wasn't stupid.

And I would tell her, "They cleared me to walk," and she was like, "Thank you, Lord."

"Today, they cleared me to, like, run around the block," and she's like, "Thank you, Jesus, thank you."

And towards the end, I got cleared to start to, like, fence.

"Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, thank you.

I knew you would be back."

[ Fireworks crackling ] As I was given the all-clear sign, my mom died the same weekend.

[ Fireworks popping ] [ Coughs ] [ Panting ] Whew.

[ Popping continues ] So, now it's June.

Everyone else in the world has trained every day.

They're professional athletes.

I haven't done anything for two months.

And the Olympics were two months away.

Due to all the medication I had taken, I would get winded just by going up a flight of stairs.

[ Slide projector clicks ] So for the next two months, I trained like I'd never trained before in my life.

♪♪ -Let's go.

Come on, man.

Let's go.

Let's go.

♪♪ Fix your hat, man.

Your hat... ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Crowd chanting "USA" ] [ Crowd cheers ] -"Mom, Dad, God, you gotta help me through this."

♪♪ But in fact, it was a nullified touch.

Back en-garde... -En-garde... -...and then I said a little prayer.

"I've come too far.

Take me home, Mom and Dad."

♪♪ [ Crowd shouting indistinctly ] -Father!

[ Cheers and applause ] -Out!

-Dada.

Dada.

[ Babbles ] -You're saying, "Dada."

Yes, Taylor?

-Dadada.

[ Indistinct conversations ] -Taylor, what did you think?

[ Indistinct conversations continue ] [ Slide projector clicks ] [ Static ] [ Static continues ] [ Microphone feedback ] ♪♪ [ Wheep!

Whoop! ]

[ Eyes squeak ] -So, the first time I heard about it, I was checking out the 45s at my local record store.

They had a poster up in the window, and I was like, "Wow, cool."

[ Choir vocalizing ] Back then, I was in my own band, but we weren't good enough to have a record on the radio.

The Myddle Class were the real thing, and they were doing a concert at my high school.

-Whooooo!

Whoo!

-♪ You never miss the water ♪ -The Myddle Class were a local band, and they had a record that was being played on the radio... -♪ Till the well runs dry ♪ -..."Free as the Wind."

I bought my tickets.

[ Cha-ching! ]

The concert quickly sold out.

Meanwhile, "Free as the Wind" moved steadily up the charts.

-♪ My baby said, "Goodbye" ♪ -The night of the concert came.

I picked up my date... [ Smooch! ]

...and rolled on over to the high school auditorium.

We were really psyched to see The Myddle Class play live.

40 Fingers opened the show, and they were good, but now the anticipation for The Myddle Class was building to a fever pitch.

-♪ ...the storm ♪ -But first, we had to sit through another band that no one had ever heard of.

"And now from New York City, here's The Velvet Underground."

So the curtain opened, and there they were.

[ Microphone feedback ] They did not look like a band I had ever seen before.

A huge wave of noise overtook us, all scratchy and out-of-tune, lots of buzzing and crackling, and then the drone of an electric violin.

[ Electric violin plays ] Strange sounds of chaos.

The next thing I notice is this equally insistent electric guitar strumming.

[ Electric guitar playing ] And then I notice the drummer.

Kind of looked like a guy, but kind of looked like a girl, and he or she was playing standing up.

I'd never seen a drummer standing up, except on a football field.

[ Grunt, whistle blows ] The booing started less than halfway through the first song.

One person said, "It sounds like they're killing a cat."

[ Electricity crackles ] It was, in certain ways, very scary.

The music just enveloped me.

It surrounded me.

This was something else, and it sounded dangerously cool.

And then they played "Venus in Furs."

-♪ Shiny, shiny ♪ -"Wait," I thought, "Is he singing about a sex slave?

I don't know of any other songs about sex slaves or transvestites."

-♪ In the dark ♪ -"Who are these people, and how did they end up here?"

-♪ I am tired ♪ -"Is somebody playing a joke on us?"

-♪ I am weary ♪ -More and more people began to react to what they were seeing.

-♪ ...for a thousand years ♪ -A large percentage of the audience just got up and left.

They walked out.

-♪ ...would awake me ♪ -People around me were saying, "I'm gonna come back when The Myddle Class play."

-♪ ...made of tears ♪ -I was like, "Okay, well, you're gonna miss this."

I don't know if the entire audience left, and I was in there alone.

That would have been okay with me.

[ Microphone feedback ] Then they introduced the third song.

-This is a song called "Heroin."

[ Indistinct conversations ] ♪ I don't know ♪ ♪ Just where I'm going ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ -Now, in health class in 1965, they're gonna tell you, "Don't smoke marijuana because it leads to heroin."

-♪ Into my vein ♪ -It was completely shocking because it was a very taboo subject being told in a very public way and really foreign, especially inside that building.

-♪ ...care anymore ♪ ♪ About all the Jim-Jims in this town ♪ ♪ And everybody putting everybody else down ♪ ♪ And all the politicians making crazy sounds ♪ ♪ And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds ♪ -They disappeared just as quickly as they appeared.

After three songs, the curtain went down, and that was that.

There was almost no applause.

[ Clapping, coughing ] What just happened?

Somewhere behind me, like 10 rows back, there was a little nucleus of people who were very enthusiastic about what they had just seen.

Yeah, some people liked it.

When The Velvet Underground's set ended and I walked out of the auditorium to catch up with my friends... What happened to all my friends?

The hallways were filled with people.

There was some conversation about, "What the hell was that?

That last band really sucked."

But very quickly, it became, "Hey, we better get back to our seats because The Myddle Class are about to play.

We don't want to lose those good seats."

The evening went back to being this fun rock 'n' roll show that was briefly hijacked by something else.

-♪ In the well till the well runs dry ♪ [ Crowd cheers ] -This was the first time I'd seen any underground art.

It's a secret.

It's only available to those that seek it out, but the craziness about that concert is that nobody had to seek it out.

It came to us.

We didn't ask for it.

It just came to us.

[ Whistle blows ] Whenever I talk to people today who were there, they still refer to it as "The Myddle Class at Summit High School," but not me, no.

I definitely think of it as, "The Velvet Underground at Summit High School."

That's the reason to remember that night.

[ "Venus in Furs" by The Velvet Underground playing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Applause ] [ Electric guitar strumming ] [ Applause continues ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪