I don’t want this blog to sound too much like the faux motivational speech George Clooney gives in the Movie “Up In the Air.” However I recently went through a massive lifeboat exercise of sorts. I packed for a 7 week trip and only brought a carry on suitcase and a book bag stuffed to the rim. Also in the suitcase, taking up precious clothes space, were 40 copies of my comedy CD “Dwayne Perkins To The Rescue.”
How many people reading this blog can boast such an achievement? Packing is basically creating an all-star team of your clothes.
ME: Black Sambas, you get to represent Me on my great Europe-Africa tour, congratulations. And to all you other sneakers, thanks so much for trying out. You should be proud.
Sometimes choice breeds confusion and inefficiency. I’ve been a well oiled machine on this tour. Picking an all star clothes team isn’t only about having the best pieces. It’s picking the pieces that best fit together. The shirt that can be worn in casual and dressy situations. The blazer that you can wear to a business meeting or the dance club, without looking like you came from a business meeting.
For my two month trip I chose some select items to carry me through. It reads like a complete wardrobe because of the combinations. What if we had to do this with friends, or jobs or entertainment? Dwindle it down to what or who you would engage if all of a sudden a cap was put on said thing. I’m not suggesting you ditch friends or throw out your Dukes of Hazzard season 3 DVD but do you know what you would part with if you had to?
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2 comments:
I dunno...is the protocol for stand-up the same as the protocol for actors? If it is, then I won't wish you good luck but instead will tell you to "break a leg." This tour sounds like the potential for some great experiences (not to mention some great material), so I wish you the very best.
One question (and obviously not applicable to right now since you're busy touring): Are you pursuing a long-term strategy for developing your skills in sketch? I've seen your commercials (which are good), but most of the sketch stuff I've seen you do is with other stand-ups doing sketch. Which is not to say that stand-ups can't do sketch (they can), but it's more an interesting aside to them and not their real passion.
Stand-up is your first love and will always be your first love, that is obvious. But it seems that it's important career-wise to develop on the sketch side as well, and I was wondering if that's something you've been giving serious work to.
In the meantime, break a leg and kill'em.
To take the thought a little further...if we think of comedy as a snow-globe, then the stand-up is the creator of the globe. He or she creates the globe, and then shakes it up and shares it with the audience. But both the comic and the audience are outside the globe looking in.
A sketch comic is living inside the globe. While the audience is laughing at the situation and the miniature scene, the sketch comic isn't in on the joke. To the sketch comic, the cute miniature snow-scene is really a life-or-death blizzard. When Christopher Guest makes a film, the ensemble (although they are playing funny characters in funny situations) do so with complete seriousness.
It's the difference between creating the joke and living inside the joke, and I think that it's a critical set of skills for moving to the next career level.
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