Last night at the Bone I really wanted to work the newness1 on my skiing joke and I wanted to get as much practice as possible in before my Bloomington trip this weekend. Thankfully Matt threw me up, and I did a less than three. Clayton later told me the new approach on the blind skier does have potential, but that since it was new, it lacked confidence and he did like some of the older things I used to do with it. Before I fell asleep last night, I though of some lines to use. I don’t remember them, but I recorded them on my DVR; hopefully when I listen to them later, they’ll make sense and be funny. Between Comedy and Karaoke last night, I got to talk to Brian Dowell about stage presence. I think that’s the one thing I’m most worried about that I can’t consciously work on. For starters, I hate the sound of my voice on stage. I can’t do anything about that, though. Second, I guess: I don’t talk onstage the way I talk offstage. Brian said he doesn’t either, and that there’s nothing wrong with that. It just takes a while to like the style/voice you use. I’ve known that for a while, it’s just hard to accept. The one thing I want more is “command”. You can tell when people like Greg Warren walk on stage, people pay attention. I don’t mean like they’re glued immediately or that they stare like a car crash, but they pay more attention off the bat. I want that. Brian suggested a not-talking-immediately strategy. We covered something like that in improv, that sometimes if you don’t have anything ready to say, just stick to silence and let your body and physical self dictate what’s going on. I really want to try that tomorrow and this weekend. If I can show my “excitement” or as Brian put it, they way I’m excited/proud of things most people would be proud/excited about (getting dumped, seeing a blind guy skiing ETCETERA) before I start talking about it, the audience will be closer to knowing where I’m at when I do begin talking.
1 I’m just making up words and grammar now…