had this is "nightline." tonight, home field advantage. a remarkable rebirth for one high school football team, after their season's cut short by the worse wildfire in california history. >> it was devastate being. it was just as heart breaking as it gets. >> now the fight of their >>'t mand ret something ti gone. i miss that community with everything. plus, for the gram. the picture perfect backdrop. living the high life by living a lie, and experience courtesy of the most famous artist you've never heard of.

>> a provocateur creating buzz by challenging pop culture. but first, the "nightline" five. kerrygold has a taste so rich it can take you to ireland's lush, green pastures. where grass-fed cows produce rich, creamy milk for a truly delicious taste. kerrygold. the taste that takes you there.

good evening, thanks for joining us. paradise, california was nearly destroyed by the state's worst wildfire last year, displacing nearly 30,000 residents,

including its championship high school football team. here's espn's >> reporter: alone, atop a ridge in the sierra nevadas, paradise, california. >> a hidden, beautiful spot that people don't really know about. you're in the mountains. it's cooler. it's a great, small-town feel. >> reporter: in 1999, rick prinze took over the football program at paradise high. under prinze, the paradise bobcats would become one of the top teams in it was wherever boy in town wanted to play. >> my first football game i wint to was in third great. i showed up and got skittles

gat gat gat gator'd from the knack bar. >> reporter: they had a chance to add to the trophy case. >> we knew we going to be good, 100% going into the playoffs. ea everyone was feeling the same way. i don't think we could have been stopped. >> reporter: november 8, 2018, the day of the first playoff game for paradise. >> i woke up, i took my son to school, and i saw the smoke. and then the sky changed. and it's hard to describe. the sun went out. and everything around us turned red. >> fire rescue. >> hello? i'm calling about fire and smoke and orange glow in the sky. >> my place is completely on fire, complete surrendered by flames. >> there's a fire in my yard.

>> it's everywhere, it's a major fire. >> first thought, my first thought, i said it. get out, get in the car and go. >> reporter: just after 8:00 a.m., in near pitch-darkness, the entire town of paradise was ordered to evacuate. >> we have fire everywhere all over paradise right now. mandatory evacuations are in effect for all of paradise. >> reporter: thousands at the same time were now trying to escape down the hill from paradise to nearby chico, many by a single road. >> dark as midnight, 9:30 in the morning. you could hear the fire just bearing down. >> it looked like hell. i thought i was going to die. >> reporter: at what point did you feel like we're clear? >> once we got past the paradise sign. which was already on fire.

>> reporter: by the time it began to slow that night, the camp fire, as it would be called, would be the most destructive wildfire in california history. 153,000 acres burned. 18,000 structures ruined. 86 lives lost. >> everything burned. everything was gone. >> reporter: how many players and coaches were impacted and touched by the fire? >> well, all of them. all but three players lost their homes. and all but two coaches lost their homes. we had a game that night. playoff game. >> reporter: what ultimately did you decide? >> we decided to end theeaea sso ionve wan n w

going to paradise high school. and that's all i could think about is things will never be the same. >> reporter: though the fire was over, paradise's journey had just begun. all the residents of paradise were displaced from their homes. due health and safety concerns, it would be weeks before they were even allowed to come back do assess the damage. >> this was our these are all retaining walls. every retaining wall burnt. it just had to rage through here. >> just heartbreak, you know. it was devastating. it was just like as heartbreaking as it gets. >> reporter: in january, when school resumed, classes were held in a warehouse in chico, 19

miles away. enrollment, once nearly 1,000 students, fell by more than half. >> they're spread all over the placement we even had families going to texas. >> four months ago i was just a high school kid, went to school every single day. and now it's like i have to work a full-time job, take online classes and stuff, because things are just different now. >> reporter: what keeps you going? >> football. i guess. there's not too much, you know. >> reporter: yet, for all that was lost on november 8, 2018, , one piece of paradise remained virtually >> here we are at our stadium. it looks pretty normal. you can see some burning right

over here up that hill. you can see where the fire went around over there by the burn on the trees. >> reporter: somehow, paradise high and its home field were in tact. the prospects for a football season in 2019, how do you describe them? >> we're going to have one. can. >> reporter: why? why did did matter? >> i wanted to make sure that the kids that come to our school have a football program that they can be proud of. >> reporter: and so the boys from paradise would begin their odyssey. >> you have about ten minutes a station. >> reporter: hoping to reach a new season. training in the warehouse and on a field outside. >> jacob duncan, you here? >> reporter: they started with

just 22 varsity players. >> this journey that we're going to go on, we're not going out there for no participation awards. >> reporter: their goal? to be able to play their opening game at home in paradise. >> get that shoulder. >> we -- are -- number -- one! >> let's go, it's getting close. >> dear heavenly father, thank you for this day. thank you for allowing us to all come together and keep this tradition of paradise football alive. >> they thought were you down. think thought were you weak. they thought you couldn't fight back. you know what i got to say to that? hell, no! >> reporter: nine months, two weeks and one day after their season was ended by the camp fire, the boys from paradise retur to the call

home. >> harley, number 20. >> reporter: they played for more than a win. they played for a chance to show the 5,000 in attendance what had risen from the ashes. >> people always say you don't miss something till it's gone. and then you miss it like hell. i love that community with everything. >> here's what i pray for you tonight, that you start a healing that's going to continue through the rest of the season. dog gone it, you guys have been through so much. this feels >> paradise finished its regular season undefeated and will play for its division championship tomorrow night. if you want to watch a longer version of the story, go

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sometimes the perfect pictures on instagram are far from real. tonight we meet an artist cashing in on the experience and who knows a thing or two about raising the bar on taking that selfie. here's lana zak. >> reporter: from pink houses to private jets. manny is an instagramer's dream. if you search for the most famous artist on google, you'll find this guy.

>> that's a key take away is that the internet isn't real. surprise. >> reporter: the most famous artist you've never heard of many who's the most famous artist? >> the most famous artist is an idea. anyone that believes they're the most famous artist is the most famous artist. >> reporter: that's not true. >> it is. >> reporter: no. >> the whole idea is thaw can be whoever you think you can be. one day a few years ago i decided i wanted to be the most famous artist and i became it. >> reporter: how did you achieve it. >> selfie-worthy murals. >> reporter: he's also perfected optimization by giving himself the most famous artist moniker in 2004. what kind of ego does one have to have to call themselves the most famous artist? >> ironically, i'm trying to approach life with a lot less ego. >> reporter: he takes us behind the scenes in his studio to reveal that the most famous

artist isn't just one person. >> this is toby, an architecture master. >> reporter: but it's an art collective. one of his collaborators is best known for creating the hollyweed sign. >> i thought it was a joke or hoax or promotion for a movie. >> reporter: eventually charged for trespassing, he now has his own cannabis line. in an era when social media moments dominate headlines, he created ours. i'm going to try to pin you down on this, though. do you think you're good artist? a great artist? or an artist of deception? >> i don't know where this quote is from, but i say it all the time, which is a good artist is someone who uses the tools of their time to tell the stories of their time and

uralizes it. >> i'm using the internet to tell the story of selfie culture, and i'm studying past artists to understand how my art fits in. whether or not the art market is ready for that is a different question. >> reporter: part performance artist, part businessman, manny reacts to the changing cultural landscape around all of us. we followed him to the streets of melrose, the epicenter of instagramable moments. >> we flew 24 hours almost to capture the famous pink wall in l.a. >> i'd estimate 100,000 people a year take photos in front of this pink wall. >> reporter: there's nothing special about it? >> it's a pink wall. >> reporter: exactly. >> but it's a pink wall people use to construct an identity on instagram. >> reporter: he unabashedly capitalizes on a generation selfieob if someone's

pink wall creates this much buzz he'll turn an entire block taking pictures. and it helped me become the most famous artist. >> reporter: do you see our obsessions with selfies and creating this facade, this idealized life that we're living, instead of being in the moment, is that a problem? >> it's not a problem like world hunger. it's silly. >> reporter: and in a twist, he claims his work fights against the most damaging part of selfie culture, the fear of missing out. >> fomo is brought about by an individual representing themselves at a time and place that is unattainable by others and democratizing those types of experiences that individuals are using to create fomo is a fun mission. >> reporter: you seem like you're having a lot of fun. >> well, i'm glad you can tell, too. >> reporter: one of his more recent and participatory projects, making the private jet

experience available to those of us who can't jump on our own plane to a private island. >> i'm using it as a platform to express myself creatively. and if i happen to make a lot of money doing it, i'm not going to be mad. >> reporter: this is his world, the next collaboration, the world of fruit, which, like the museum of ice cream, and the color factory brings people in for the experience of photo ops. not everyone is a fan of his approach to art. art dealer, he calls him a person who makes garbage art. >> he reflects the tragic problem, the selfie culture, the fact that the art just functions as a prop. it's almost like drinking orange juice that is yellow and sweet but isn't made from oranges. it it's just sugar and colored water, made to taste with some

preservatives to taste like orange juice. >> reporter: it's devoid of any substance. >> devoid of any substance. this is the banality of culture as it exists today. the work is terrible. >> reporter: the most famous artist doesn't fully disagree. >> well, the definition of artist by the art world is definitely not one i fit into. the art world would not call knee an artist, because i didn't go to art school, and i don't show at art fairs. i'm using the internet and democratic effects of software to distribute my work. >> reporter: and he knows it takes place when we pick up our phones. seis is the most analytical i >> scientists. >> reporter: selfie scientists. did you just make that up right now? >> i think so. >> reporter: that's good. >> reporter: the illusionist, holding up a mirror to oo oo ooo sieves ourselves in a time of changing art.

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and finally tonight, scoring good grades and inspiring the next generation. here's abc's whit johnson. ♪ i'm so fly i can't be touched ♪ >> reporter: offering rhymes as rewards. this second grade teacher in atlanta is using music to motivate his students to new heights. on fridays, this is what you'll see in sammy rego's classroom. students score 80% or higher in schoolwork get to express themselves with freestyle rap. he calls it freestyle fridays, and it's taken with his students. ♪ i'm star that's super ♪ i'm number one >> reporter: their scores on reading, spelling, phonics almost improving 15% since the program began in september.

>> they memorize lyrics. they don't write them down. their memory skills are impeccable. >> reporter: 8-year-old talk sh shivers is one shining example. a dedicated teacher inspiring the next generation. ♪ watch me take it up ♪ take it up >> that's an a plus. and that's "nightline." you can always catch our full episodes on hulu. thanks for staying up with us. goodnight, america, have a good