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BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like?
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Subject: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GUEST, Threadie Date: 15 Apr 00 - 07:01 PM What's it like to perform on stage and 'die the death'in front of the audience? What goes through your head when you see how embarassed they are for you? How many times does it happen? Where do you get the self-confidence to get up, and let it all happen again? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Kara Date: 15 Apr 00 - 07:07 PM New years eve in a Breton celtic pub in the deepest depths of Brittany. We were to be the first band on in the new year, starting at midnight. I decided to do an unacompanied version of auld Lang sign to kick off, accompaniment being unnessesary as everyone would sing.Did they heck. Never heard of it. they just all looked at me as if I was a bit wierd. Well you get used to it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GUEST,flattop Date: 15 Apr 00 - 07:11 PM Perhaps you should write Suicide, the musical, Threadie. Could be tons of fun on Broadway. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: kendall Date: 15 Apr 00 - 07:11 PM I guess the only time that ever happened to me was at a very exclusive club on Park Ave, in NYC. They didnt want Maine humor..too subtle..they wanted dirty jokes!! Well, they still paid me the highest fee I have ever gotten, but, I have never heard from them since..thank God. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Sorcha Date: 15 Apr 00 - 07:16 PM As a classical soloist in High School, it was truly DEATH!! Now, thank goodness, I play with a laid back group in laid back gigs. When one of us goofs, the others usually cover it and we all laugh. And I always figure, 90% of the people don't know, and the other 10% don't care! *BG* |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: M. Ted (inactive) Date: 15 Apr 00 - 08:28 PM You have to have a tremendous need to perform in order take the chances that you must take in front of an audience--really what it amounts to is that you have to prefer to bomb than not to perform at all-- Personally, I get excited by an audience, even a hostile audience--for me, the worst performance situation is no audience or a non-audience, that is, a group of people who are not really there to be entertained--like just to eat dinner, or to view the body or something like that... But sometimes, your material just isn't right for the crowd--years ago, I was in a trio--we played at a private party in Palo Alto, we played for fifteen minutes, and were told to stop, because the host's girlfriend wanted to dance to her Rolling Stones records--we got payed though!!
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GUEST, Threadie Date: 15 Apr 00 - 08:31 PM Yes yes I want to hear of the silences. I want to hear of the nervous coughs in the audience I want to hear of the face filling up with blood. I want to hear of that sense of surrealness as everything turns purply. Tell me of the immediate thoughts as you try to regain your composure. Tell me of the humiliationIt's a Saturday evening and I want to hear some Horror stories. One cannot write a musical with only thin air. Only joking, of course you can. Still, all stories will be laughed at by a select panel of judges, and after a suitable conclave will re-emerge to give their verdict on the best on stage 'death'. We will take into account size of audience, dBs of silence, and all submissions will judged irrespective of cultural and sexual differences.
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Lonesome EJ Date: 15 Apr 00 - 09:11 PM Flop sweat. Playing at a tavern in Denver a couple years ago, the wheels came off in the second set, although it was trouble from the start. I had about 20 friends who had come to see us, and at the very beginning, before we hit a note they all start madly gesturing to me, finally several came up to the stage."Something's feeding back REALLY bad!!!" Well, the Lead Guitar amp was buzzing and humming with interference that we couldn't isolate, so we plunged on, feeling better as I felt my vocals were really good. After the first set, all my friends said "it sounds good BUT...the vocals are fuzzy and distorted, the feedback is still a problem, you guys are too loud, and...." So, during break, we try to re-adjust everything. By now I'm losing confidence. Second set. The guitar player steps onto the stage holding a pint of Guinness and, in the act of putting the strap around his neck, spills it all over his guitar, shirt and pants. At least he had plenty of time to clean up, because the drummer was nowhere to be found. After repeated summons from me over the PA, I finally have to go seek him out in the corner of the outdoor patio. OK, we can pull this off. We kick off Pretty Woman. I do a superb job on the vocal until the very end, when my voice cracks into a screech on "OH...OHHHHHHHH...Pretty WOMAN". As we start the next song, my usual tone has been replaced by a kind of quavering, trembly gasp. "Oh my God" I thought "We SUCK!" It was then that the flop sweat began to manifest, dripping off my nose, ears, chin... I had to use the Guinness-soaked towel to get it off. After we blundered through the song, I asked the guitar player to do a blues, so I could abandon the rest of the band to their fate and sit down in a dark corner for awhile. A miracle. He aced the vocal and the long guitar break. Standing ovation. I reluctantly returned to the stage, but we had recovered. But that fifteen minutes of Hell....whoah. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GUEST,Kaleb Date: 15 Apr 00 - 10:13 PM One time I was playing bagpipes for a retirement reception for 2 professors at a small state college. I played for about 45 minutes outside as guests were arriving. When all the guests had arrived, I was to play Amazing Grace to start the ceremony. However, not even halfway through, the cord tying the blowpipe into the bag came loose and I bagan to lose air quickly. There was nothing I could do. The bag just wouldn't hold air. All I could do was just stop. I was too horrified even to offer any explanation. I just walked from the front of the hall to the back where a band was set up to play through dinner. All I wanted to do was leave but I had also been asked to play Scotland the Brave at the end of the evening. So I rummaged through my case and found enough cord to secure my blowpipe to the bag. One of the guys in the band even came up with some duct tape with which I made sure there would be no further leakage. By the end of the ceremony and dinner the humiliation had worn off and determination had set in. I was going to redeam myself that night. After the last speaker had said his peace I stood up and began to inflate my bagpipe. I could see the look of pity in faces of the crowd as if they almost expected a repeat of my earlier performance. But my pipes held tight. I played Scotland the Brave but I didn't stop there. I went on to play a set of strathspeys and then a set of jigs. And I finished to a standing ovation. Everyone bombs from time to time and its especially hard when you're playing solo. But if you can come back next time and blow them away its almost worth it. -Kaleb |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Mooh Date: 15 Apr 00 - 10:40 PM The trick is to make it look like you planned to screw up as a parody or set-up for a joke. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't, either way ya gotta laugh at yerself. If there's already a level amount of humour on stage, the crowd shouldn't be critical of errors and if they are, that's their error. However, stage suicide happens anyway and the sooner you accept it and move on, the sooner the crowd will deal with it. Mass forgiveness is tough to get, I admit, but at some point in all our lives we've sat in our own shit and got over it. Oh yeah, I froze, completely, at a solo vocal music competition just before my voice changed. Essentially blacked out. Friends and family hurt for me that day. As an adult I've been fortunate enough not to have to be the front man too much so my screwups go largely unnoticed. Peace, Mooh. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GutBucketeer Date: 15 Apr 00 - 11:10 PM I learned to sing in my highschool choir by standing next to the best bass in the class and following along. To this day I have a real problem with starting to follow the person next to me and not being able to continue singing my part. Well. I finally got up enough courage to sing at the local shanty gathering. I started singing "Common Sailors" and had the honor of having a very enthusiastic, off key participant next to me. I had the lyrics out and he started reading and singing along beside me. The problem was he didn't know the song and so he was slow. He didn't know the tune, and so he was off key. I felt myself fall into this wierd out of body experience where I kept slowing down to match him, then he would slow down more, My habit took over and I kept trying to match his tune while he was trying to match mine. IT WAS THE SPIRAL OF SLOW DEATH. Finally, the song was over and I got to sit down. People smiled, said "said we almost got the tune" and then we went on to the next song. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Callie Date: 16 Apr 00 - 08:14 AM When I was a student, I knew a bunch of guys in a University band which had quite a big following (called "Contagious"!) They got through to the grand finals of the band comp, and because they knew I played sax, they asked me to play with them to add some zing to their gig. We practiced hard. We sounded great. There was no way we could fail. On the evening of the gig, we were standing about having a drink, when a girl from my old school sauntered up and, as was her want, was flirty flirty with all the guys. Then she looked me up and down and said "Are you their groupie or their roadie?" I just smiled sweetly and thought to myself "I'll show you, darling". The band started playing, the crowd went wild. It came my turn to jump on stage and play a wailing sax solo. I took a breath and put the instrument to my mouth. NOTHING came out. Not a goddam thing!! Something had happened - maybe a spring came unsprung or something - and the whole instrument refused to play a note. Mortified? Yes. Death? Yes. Escape to the toilets to cry? Yes! The guys were all very nice about it afterwards. They won the grand final and included me in all the post-gig celebrations. I thought it was the end of my 'career' as a musician!! Bad luck - I'm still here!! --callie |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GUEST,flattop Date: 16 Apr 00 - 08:38 AM You seem to be getting good stuff for your musical, Threadie. You got a lot going for ya here. Hit musicals tend to be light on plot and dialogue but strong on emotion and feeling. They are usually built around a music situation so that singing feels natural. If you take a few of the situations above, combine them, change them a little, and work them around the standard dramatic roles (the hero, nemesis, reflection, and the romance), you might win a Tony and make lots of money. For example, you could move Kaleb's professors' retirement party to Lonesome's bar in Denver. The problems would have to be caused by the nemesis's evil, rather than by chance. The nemesis would be fighting you (the hero) for the professors' daughters. If the professors are retiring, the most attractive daughter might be a woman in her forties with only a few gray hairs to pleasantly highlight her menopausal moustache. When the professors' party gets significantly chaotic and stressful, the Mooh like reflection or sidekick character could sing a sunny song telling the hero, 'Make it look like you planned to screw up as a parody or set-up for a joke.' That could lead to the turning point of the show where the hero get revenge and gets the daughters and finds true happiness (like the rest of us folk already have.) If you start off with bagpipes playing a rock riff similar to the one in Pretty Woman, you'd have a damn good theme to repeat throughout the evening. You'd need to throw in a few high quality love songs, similar to Harlen Howard's I Fall to Pieces. However, most of the music only has to work with choreography, so dull, endless, Scottish like, fiddle tunes would do. When that Guinness-soaked piper plays a Leadbelly like blues near then end of the show with that droning, drooling, A note - hey, I think you're on to something here, Threadie. Well I woke up this morning Guinness all in my bed, Well I woke up this morning Guinness all in my bed, I drank it last night, Can't imagine what was in my head. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Willie-O Date: 16 Apr 00 - 11:25 AM Ever play in a tough bar and start a song, and just can not get past the first line? But you're just sure enough of yourself that you try it three or four times--and the damn song just goes down the drain as soon as you open your mouth. Over and over. Such that your friends in the audience tell you "you should have practiced more." God knows what the ones who aren't your friends are thinking. But I don't want to. That ain't exactly suicide though. Suicide is intentional. Like if I had gone through with the gig in Smiths Falls last night, in a sports bar with four pool tables, and the NHL playoffs have started...now _that_ woulda been suicide. Willie-O |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: MK Date: 16 Apr 00 - 12:43 PM A number of years ago, to supplement my income, I decided to accept a gig (keyboards) with a Wedding and Bar Mitzvah Band. On one ocassion, we were playing for someone's Bar Mitzvah, at a very posh affair with about 300 guests (adults and kids) in attendance. The sax player in the band, while being a phenominally good sax player (when reasonably sober) had, on this particular gig decided to snort coke, and booze all night...suffice it to say, by around 11:00 in the evening, he was 10 sheets to the wind. After completing a Horah...the sax player leans into the mic, and yells (exact words) ''Let's a have a big fucking round of applause for the fucking Bar Mitvah boy....Jason!''. Could have heard a pin drop for 20 seconds right after this announcement. To say that the other bands members and band leader were horrified was an understatement. Up until this point in time I thought I'd seen and heard everything. My shock quotient was elevated to yet another level, after this incidient. (The sax player's services were no longer required after this gig.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GUEST, Threadie Date: 16 Apr 00 - 01:20 PM Indeed flattop, the material keeps coming in. We would of course LOVE to hear your particular experiences in relation to the above questions. Our laboratory laugh-o-meter is fluctuating between certain points, the level of which I'm not at liberty to disclose at the present, and we feel that your contribution would perhaps make some difference to what is now a wet Sunday. We thank all contributors so far for their frankness and openness. We do not have a complete dramatis personæ as yet, and we are looking to fill even more rôles as the storyboard develops. Yours always The Threadie (co-producer) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Lonesome EJ Date: 16 Apr 00 - 01:21 PM |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Little Neophyte Date: 16 Apr 00 - 01:52 PM Lonesome EJ, was this next story just too much for you to talk about? Little Neo |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Mooh Date: 16 Apr 00 - 05:35 PM Hi I just had a revolting recollection. A story above reminded of a former band I played bass with. The drummer, nursing his drinking problem with copious quantities of the amber nectar, remarked between songs when he saw some people leaving (they didn't look like our kinda folk anyway, I hope that doesn't offend) "Sure just leave! Just fucking leave! We don't like you either. Tell all your friends! Fuck you." I was so embarrassed and angry all at once that I could have died right there and been happier for it. Needless to say, he didn't respond at our break to reason from the rest of the band, and he didn't when he sobered up either. I finished out the bookings and took my leave. My only regret is I really liked the front man of the group and would have kept working with him, but he took the oportunity to go solo. I sincerely regret that this happened so close to home that occasionally I'm reminded of it. To boot, the front man can't get a job at that establishment again, after years of occasional gigs there, because of that one incident. The drummer btw doesn't speak to me because I broke up his band! No Yoko Ono jokes please. Peace, Mooh. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Callie Date: 16 Apr 00 - 07:01 PM So, ARE you Japanese? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GUEST,flattop Date: 16 Apr 00 - 08:32 PM Sorry Threadie, it was dry here, not even a Guinness. When I looked south towards Toronto, I could see ugly clouds that may have been the ones dumping on you, wherever you are. Anyway, since it was a pleasant day here, I pretended that I had a life and went out. I had a wonderful time but that's another story. You know, I can't remember a single funny situation with myself on stage. That may be because I get musical amnesia from stage fright. Or it might have something to due with humour. I posted Mel Brooks' theory of comedy before. It went something like this, 'Tragedy is when I fall and hurt my finger. Comedy is when you fall down a manhole and break your neck.' You may have to keep your musical simple and skip the musical within a musical. I believe you only have about twelve songs. Even sub-plots are skipped in musicals due to the time constraints, whereas sub-plots are considered necessary in novels and movie scripts. I know that I started stereotyping with the professors' daughters but do you think you really need a 'chorus line with scantily clad females.' Remember that every wonderfully shaped leg in the air is attached to an intricate, interesting and individual brain. I'm not into political correctness, but I do feel that individuals shouldn't be lumped together. I would prefer to see one woman kicking up her heels with enough time on stage to get to know her. And perhaps you should look at switching roles around. In the play Butley, one character describes his new novel as a story where the hero sticks his sword into an assortment of villians and sticks his cock into a assortment of females. Butley replies that it might be more interesting the other way around. By the way, I'm not impressed with how quickly you demoted yourself to co-producer. Cordially, flattop |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GUEST, Threadie Date: 16 Apr 00 - 08:45 PM Impressed or not impressed, it does not matter one whit. As I am only one of the judges (oh!, there I've said it), and in the interests of the common good, I am barely a co-producer. Keep the stories coming folks, else We'll have to make up our own. And who said truth is stranger than fiction? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Little Neophyte Date: 16 Apr 00 - 08:52 PM Oh, I like that flattop, You are so right about those wonderfully shaped legs being attached to an interesting individual with a brain and lets not forget spirit too. For when gravity and age starts taking its toll on those legs, that brain and spirit still maintain their shine. Little Neo |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GUEST, Threadie Date: 16 Apr 00 - 08:56 PM You any stories for us Neo? We're all ears. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: bill\sables Date: 16 Apr 00 - 09:00 PM I Remember an Evening Years ago when I was booked to play for Boy Scouts on a camp, The first part went very well with most of the kids singing along with the chorus's, Then there was a break and hot dogs and burgers and lemonade was served. After about half an hour they were all back in their seats and I started again, I was just into my first verse when one of the scout leaders called that there were seconds of hot dogs. Within ten seconds I had lost the whole of my audience. Cheers Bill |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GUEST,flattop Date: 16 Apr 00 - 09:14 PM You're all ears Threadie? That's why you're not in the chorus line with Little Knees and me, kicking up your heels. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GUEST,flattop Date: 16 Apr 00 - 09:25 PM Time and gravity take a toll on the brain too, Little Neo. I can tell you that from personal experience. But dancers' legs become collectors items, like antiques, I believe. I can tell you that from a time warped brain. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GUEST, Threadie Date: 16 Apr 00 - 09:27 PM I'm kicking them right up as we speak, flat old sport And I wouldn't assume anything about the chorus line yet. As pointed out we are still evaluating the storyboard You know the way it goes, flats.
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GUEST,flattop Date: 16 Apr 00 - 09:35 PM You won't get me on that casting couch Threadie. I'm out of here. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GUEST, Threadie Date: 16 Apr 00 - 09:44 PM Come back, come back flattop; I'll make an exception in your case!! S***, another great talent lost to the world. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Marion Date: 17 Apr 00 - 12:17 PM I think M.Ted has it right about the passion to perform. I have some desire to avoid making a fool out of myself in public, but it's not nearly as strong as my desire to make a fool out of myself in public. Threadie, for the sake of your anecdote collection I will cut and paste a story I recently told here (in "First Real Gig"): One day after I had been playing fiddle for about eight months, we got a call from a local church saying that the seniors' group was having a talent show that evening, and asking if my mother (piano) and I could play some duets. So we picked out and rehearsed four hymns for violin and piano. When we got there, the audience were already in their seats. We set up then sat in the congregation waiting for our turn to be called. Later in the show the MC said, "Now we're going to have a poem and violin piece." An old man I didn't know went up to the front then turned to me and said, "Don't you want to come up and play?" It turned out that he wanted to recite a poem while I played any old thing in the background. I agreed, but since I was flustered by the sudden request I forgot to tighten my bow, which was very loose indeed. Also, I decided to use my muting clamp, which I had never used before, since it would be background music. Once I started playing I realized that the mute blocked my view of the strings so that I couldn't find them very well, and I kept hitting the side of my violin when I tried to find my E string. The poem he read was "The Touch of the Master's Hand", which is about an old maestro producing beautiful music from a ratty old violin. So I was supposed to be evoking this image, and instead I'm slapping the side of my fiddle with a limp horse's tail. Sigh... But that's not the punchline. Due to some failure of communication, the MC didn't know my mother and I had something to play and never called on us. So the audience who got to see me set up my music stand, and tune to the piano, and attach my shoulder rest, and rosin my bow... as far as they knew, I went through all that routine just for my miserable "touch of the loser's hand" performance. Marion |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: MK Date: 17 Apr 00 - 02:28 PM As an old vaudevillian comedian once said about performing on stage: Comedy is easy. Dying, is hard. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Willie-O Date: 17 Apr 00 - 02:48 PM Actually Suicide the Musical is superfluous. "The Commitments" has already been made and is not yet due for remake. The main reason every musician I know loved that movie is that most of the scenes in it have happened to most of us! Okay, I never participated in stealing a chip van to get to a gig...at least not a musical one... By the way Michael, I think your sax player was my fucking cousin!!! Willie-O |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: MK Date: 17 Apr 00 - 03:52 PM Was his first name John?, Willie-O? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Irish Rover Date: 17 Apr 00 - 04:40 PM The truth is: show me a performer who has not bombed, for what ever reason, and I'll introduce you to a liar, maybe they could run for president or something |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Sorcha Date: 17 Apr 00 - 04:55 PM OK, here's one. I don't think this qualifies as suicide, quite, but it should be in a book somewhere. As most of you know, I regularly play at our local nursing home, and it usually goes over very well.One night, however, Miss Julia, who had Alzheimer's, apparently decided she did not want us in her living room. She glared daggers at us all evening, and wandered in circles from the front door of the Activity Room out the back door, always cutting very close in front of the band, between us and the audience.About 45 minutes into the program, she walked up to the band and glared deeply into each of us' eyes--real one on one in your face. We all kept smiling, and gently avoiding her while continuing to play. Suddenly, Miss Julia had HAD ENUF!! She swung her arm at the other fiddler. The bow went one way (I caught it), the fiddle the other,(guitar player caught it),Dana the fiddler gently led Miss Julia to her seat,(where she did stay, apparently her point made), retrieved her instrument, and resumed playing. None of the band missed a beat except the guitar player--takes 2 hands to catch a flying fiddle. I learned that I can catch a flying bow with my right hand while continuing to left hand pizzacato. It was VERY funny, but also so sad. What could have been going on in her memories? Since then, we have always had a Staff person in the room with us, but if you can play Nursing Homes, bars are a cinch! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Willie-O Date: 17 Apr 00 - 04:57 PM I was kidding there. Actually, Michael, my sax-playing cousin in To. is Chris Chahley, a consummate professional. Willie-O |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: RichM Date: 17 Apr 00 - 05:10 PM Sorcha wrote: OK, here's one. I don't think this qualifies as suicide, quite, but it should be in a book somewhere. As most of you know, I regularly play at our local nursing home, and it usually goes over very well.One night, however, Miss Julia, who had Alzheimer's, apparently decided she did not want us in her living room. .... None of the band missed a beat except the guitar player--takes 2 hands to catch a flying fiddle. I learned that I can catch a flying bow with my right hand while continuing to left hand pizzacato. It was VERY funny, but also so sad. What could have been going on in her memories? Since then, we have always had a Staff person in the room with us, but if you can play Nursing Homes, bars are a cinch! I can second Sorcha's experience. When the Irish emsemble that I am part of, started playing public, our very first gig was a nursing home that had a high percentage of Alzheimer's patients. In the middle of our performance, one wheelchair-bound audience member loudly called for staff to take her away, she had had ENOUGH of this noise! Another roving audience member kept coming up behind several of us, and seemed very interested in the music on the stands, and on the floor beside each of us...She finally managed to steal Lindsay's music when he wasn't looking... This caused him great discomfort, since he could not (or would not) play without it! Poor Lindsay, that was the last time he played with us... Since then, any public screw ups have seemed minor! Rich |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Kim C Date: 18 Apr 00 - 02:01 PM We were playing in the parlor of a historic home at a living history event. I had only had six lessons on the fiddle and didn't realize how sensitive those tuning pegs can be. We started "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" and when I went for that high A, I discovered my E-string was gone. Way gone. Not just off, but WAAAYY off. And we had just tuned not 15 minutes before. How embarrassing! Luckily I was among friends, and another musician offered to take Flora to the next room to tune her, and I sang the song without the fiddle part. Now I don't ever mess with the pegs unless I absolutely have to! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Skivee Date: 19 Apr 00 - 11:58 AM Not exactly a death on stage... but an episode of cardiac aryhthmia (sp?). I was performing "On Ilkley Moor Bt'hat" with my band. There was an excellent sign language interpreter working at the edge of the stage. As I sang, he illustrated the various activities and animals... digging, eating, ducks, worms, courting. He was really good. Very expressive. fascinating... too fascinating. About 2/3rds through the song I realized that I'd been so fascinated that I'd not song a word for about 5 seconds, and the interpreter had caught up with me... and was now waiting for the rest. D'oh! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Skivee Date: 19 Apr 00 - 11:58 AM Not exactly a death on stage... but an episode of cardiac aryhthmia (sp?). I was performing "On Ilkley Moor Bt'hat" with my band. There was an excellent sign language interpreter working at the edge of the stage. As I sang, he illustrated the various activities and animals... digging, eating, ducks, worms, courting. He was really good. Very expressive. fascinating... too fascinating. About 2/3rds through the song I realized that I'd been so fascinated that I'd not song a word for about 5 seconds, and the interpreter had caught up with me... and was now waiting for the rest. D'oh! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: Skivee Date: 19 Apr 00 - 02:35 PM Sorry, stuck finger |
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Subject: RE: BS: Musical Suicide - What's it Like? From: GUEST,Mimosa @ work Date: 19 Apr 00 - 03:05 PM Years ago, I was a missionary in Tasmania, and the only musician of any sort in the the church there. They asked me to play the organ for the church services. Utter failure and humiliation, because you can't even make a joke about it in church. This spring I've been playing my first Renfaire with my new harp, Dick, whose pillar is shaped like an engorged .... That's how he got his name. So when I try a new song and lose all track of the words, I can just say that all the blood has rushed away from my brain, fumble, fake it, laugh with the audience, try it again or go on to something else. Mimosa |