Are we in Show Business?

Subject: RE: Are we in Show Business?
From: Uke
Date: 27 Oct 05 - 02:37 AM

Thanks Peace - it's a cracker speech that one...

Now can anyone be challenged to come up with a folk club parody? Here's a start

All the world's a folk club,
And all the men and women merely a singing circle,
They have their banjos and their autoharps,
... ETC.

Subject: RE: Are we in Show Business?
From: alanabit
Date: 27 Oct 05 - 02:55 AM

There is an excellent book on drama, called "The Empty Space", by Peter Brook. The essential thrust of the book is that any space, which is animated by a performer, is a potential stage. That is what busking is about really. I think that is how all show business started. The word "showbiz" does have some unpleasant connotations though, doesn't it?

Subject: RE: Are we in Show Business?
From: Gurney
Date: 27 Oct 05 - 08:17 PM

Charmion said it for me. 'Business' is about money.
I've always maintained that 'professional folksinger' is an oxymoron.

Subject: RE: Are we in Show Business?
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 27 Oct 05 - 09:39 PM

Resist !

Subject: RE: Are we in Show Business?
From: shepherdlass
Date: 28 Oct 05 - 08:19 PM

Gurney - 'professional folksinger' an oxymoron? Does this mean that all the old musicians who played for beer and a few quid at country dances weren't "of the folk"?

Subject: RE: Are we in Show Business?
From: Jimmy C
Date: 29 Oct 05 - 12:39 AM

It al depends on two things.


1 - The type of gig

2 - The type of audience


If you are performing in a club, frequented by folkies then it can be termed a folk session, hootenany or whatever - BUT -
if you are in a pub/club where oly a portion of the audience are there for the music and the songs,and the remainder are there for drinks, conversation, laughs or whatever then it is show business.

Subject: RE: Are we in Show Business?
From: Gurney
Date: 29 Oct 05 - 04:34 AM

Shepherdlass, 'Professional' means that you make your living doing it. 'Semi-Professional' is the term for the artists you mention.

Oooooh, I get SO pedantic, sometimes.
Maybe the language is changing too fast for me.
I can remember when you could say exactly what you meant, because everyone spoke the same language. Spelled it differently, maybe.
I blame ShowBiz for the changes.


I've taken my pills (Pils?) and I feel better now.

Subject: RE: Are we in Show Business?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 29 Oct 05 - 04:36 AM

yeh ...who knows?

If only it were a bit more profitable as a business....

I always think Hyman Roth in The Godfather2 had it about right when lamenting the fact that someone shot Moe Green in the eye, "Dis is da business we're engaged in....!"

Subject: RE: Are we in Show Business?
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Oct 05 - 07:45 AM

Gurney, I've been a pro in the folk world all my working life. I'm not an oxymoron!

Subject: RE: Are we in Show Business?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 29 Oct 05 - 09:00 PM

some morons are oxier than others, I will admit.

Subject: RE: Are we in Show Business?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 29 Oct 05 - 10:35 PM

For a delightful view of "show biz" and outwitting the tax collector look to Chilliwack, British Columbia. Each September there is a blue-grass orchestra.

Under Canadian law, each band (entering from the USA) is required to pay $450CD....however, orchestra's are tax free....an orchestra is defined as 14 members or more. The orchestra plays one gig a year. A mandolin player, Hudson, organizes the event. The multiple blue-grass groups convine, perform 15 minutes of awful stuff, all together, as an orchestra...and move on to a grand convocation of individual groups. Large groups travelling under an IMM60 don't have to pay the work permit fee, and can enter singly or in sub-groups, provided that each clumpof group members is travelling with a copy of the completed form AND theperformance contract(s) that match it.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Personally, the movies, flicks, celuloide are "show biz."

Subject: RE: Are we in Show Business?
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Oct 05 - 10:51 PM

Hey, fir anyone who thinks that playin' music infront of an audience ain't show business, better keep yer day job...

Of course it's show business and I, fior one, take it danged serious... I don't care who I'm playin' before... I'm prepared... I have a set list... I have my guitars all in different tunings... I go over everything before I go on stage...

Before hand, I get myself into what I consider to be the garb of a North Mississippi bluesman from, ohhhhhh 'round maybe late 40's and I get on stage and talk 'bout the music Iz gettin' ready to play...''Hey, don't matter if everyone in the room is a musican, I'z gonna go thru the show part of it...

Then it's a whole bunch of foot-stomp bluues and stiries and, and...

Heck, more to playin' music than playin' music....

Fir sure...

Bobert

Subject: RE: Are we in Show Business?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 29 Oct 05 - 11:42 PM

Bobert - you appear more than little "insecure" in your clear-cut description of performance anxiety.

Check your blood-pressure, and try something else for awhile....like lawn mowing.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle