What Others Are Creating #005
Happy Friday friends. Hope you all had a tremendously creative week.
I would say my week was decently creative. Puppet Up! Uncensored classes started up again on Monday. Our first classes back since the big Australia trip. No big shows or tours planned anytime soon, but I’ll keep you posted.
But, enough about me! These Fridays posts are about what OTHERS are creating, so let’s get to it.
Jayne Entwistle’s To Whom It May Concern – www.ReadYourLetter.com – Jayne Entwislte is a super talented friend of mine. She’s been gracious enough to lend her voices to several of my podcast projects and there’s few things more fun than improvising with her on stage. Last year she came up with the idea for a live show and podcast called To Whom It May Concern. It’s a show where people read actual letters and responses that they have written and received. The show runs the full range of emotions in one evening and is something everyone should experience. The next live show is this Saturday night at 8PM in Los Angeles. Info for the show can be found by CLICKING HERE. If you don’t happen to live in the Los Angeles area, don’t be bummed! You can listen to the podcast! Find it in the iTunes Podcast Directory by CLICKING HERE. And, if you’re the kind of person who wants to brave reading a letter at the show, you can submit to be part of it by CLICKING HERE. However you choose to get invoked, attending, listening or submitting, I hope you’ll check Jayne’s show out!
Felix Pire’s Staged Reading – https://www.facebook.com/events/277662685738487 – Felix Pire is a a mad, creative dynamo. He does it all: Acting, Directing, Writing, Puppeteering and more. You may recognize him from the film 12 Monkeys where he had several scenes opposite that guy, what’s his name? Oh yeah, BRAD PITT! Anyway, Felix’s latest project is a staged reading of a screenplay he wrote called The Outrageously Homofunky Adventures of Sergio Menendez. It’s happening on June 26 in Los Angeles, so if you’re in the area, go check it out. I don’t know much about the script but I would assume it may be more for adults and it’ll be hilarious. Make your plans now! Info can be found at the Facebook Event page by CLICKING HERE.
Amanda Louise – www.AmandaLouise.com – I was browsing the discover tab on my Instagram app and came across this unique little creatures with stars on their face. I followed through to the profile and then to the website and discovered the art of Amanda Louise. She makes these little mixed media creatures called Dust Bunnies and Pipsqueaks and, for some reason, I’m just completely taken with them. They are, unfortunately a little too expensive for me to pick one up right now, but I certainly bookmark her site for the future. Go take a look at her website and check out her art by CLICKING HERE.
Seán Cullen – Comedy Genius – I first heard of Seán Cullen as the lead singer of the, hilarious Corky & The Juice Pigs. Their song REMember is one of the funniest comedy songs ever written. Well, Seán is still making music and I was lucky enough to catch him a few times on the Barenaked Ladies cruises and then it was really great to perform on the same stage with him at the Melbourne Comedy Festival back in March. This week I’ll leave you with a clip of Seån doing a set while in Australia. The way Seån mixes improv with his set material is just brilliant and absolutely mind boggling. I’ll never pass up a chance to see him live. Visit his website by CLICKING HERE.
Little Bits from Past Posts
- Christiana Ellis’ Space Casey is still running at her website. Fun audio drama, check it out – http://www.SpaceCasey.com
- Tabitha Grace Smith’s Sherlock Holmes inspired Kickstarter is still running – http://kck.st/Rer7GQ
And that brings us to the end of this week’s look at What Others Are Creating. Got a creative project I should check out? Either one you are working on or one that you find inspiring? Please post a link in the comments below and I shall check it out.
Have a creative weekend and I’ll see you on Monday for another Creative Monday!
Creative Mondays 022 – Fake it until you make it.
More and more, recently, I’ve been hearing the phrase, ‘Fake it till you make it.’ It’s popped up in discussions and on the radio in news stories and there’s a very famous TED Talk by Amy Cuddy that explores the concept of ‘faking it’ until you ‘make it’ in terms of body language and success. (It’s a good watch, and I’ve linked to it at the bottom.) I have heard it so much, I thought it might make a good topic for a Creative Mondays post.
I agree that faking it until you make it is a good practice, with a few exceptions. You never want to flat out lie to people, especially people who may give you a job. This can come back to bite you in the hinder so bad, it’ll make your head spin. But, I do feel it’s okay to, shall we say, stretch the truth a bit, if you are confident that you can handle the end result and back up your promises.
I have a prime example of what I’m talking about in something that happened my freshmen year of college. Now, while freshmen were told that they should audition for everything that came along, they were told they shouldn’t expect to get in plays their freshmen year. Well, in my first semester of my freshmen year, I landed the bit part of Jaques DuBois in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. If you have read the play you know that the character comes in at the very last minute of the play and, sort of, ties up all the loose ends. It was a tiny part, but I felt totally badass because I was a freshmen who had landed a role in a University Players production. When the second semester rolled around, I was feeling cocky and I decided that I was going to get a bigger part in a play.
Auditions for YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU came up and after reading the play I started to think of who I could play in the play. I decided I was going to go out for the role of Ed. If you are unfamiliar with the play, it is about an eccentric family full of ‘nutballs’ who all have their weird hobbies. One of Ed’s main hobbies is playing the xylophone. On the day of the audition, as I was filling out the audition sheet, there was the question: Can you play the xylophone?. Now, I did not know how to play the xylophone. No idea whatsoever. But I was a drummer all four years of high school and I had been around xylophones enough to know a little bit about them. So I just wrote down yes on the audition sheet.
Now, let me say, this could have backfired HUGE on me. I could have walked into the room and there could have been a xylophone sitting in there and they could have asked me to play.
Luckily, that did not happen. I went in, did my monologue and spoke to the director for a bit and just as I was leaving he asked, “You can play the xylophone?” I said, confidently, “Yes.” He nodded, said okay, and thanked me for coming in. A few days later when the cast list was posted, I had landed the role of Ed. Of course, this meant that I now had to learn how to play xylophone, which I was able to do, at least well enough for the play and no one was ever the wiser.
If you can confidently ‘fake it, until you make it’ I see no problem in doing it. I certainly wouldn’t tell someone I could fly a plane if I couldn’t, but I was confident I could pull of playing xylophone enough for this play, so I saw no problem in stretching the truth a bit. ‘Faking’ it, if you will. It got me the part.
So, it is quite possible to ‘fake it until you make it’ in our creative lives. Just make sure you can confidently learn to play the xylophone if you say you can.
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Has there ever been a moment in your creative career where you had to ‘fake it?” Let us know in the comments below! Have a great week!
What Others Are Creating #004
Happy Friday! Welcome to another edition of What Others Are Creating where I look at some of the creative projects that I’ve seen various artists working on this week. My hope is to share them now with you and perhaps you’ll find one or two to check out further and possibly support.
Decoder Ring Theatre – http://decoderringtheatre.com – As someone who has been podcasting in one form or another since 2004, I’m often ask which podcasts I listen to. Decoder Ring Theatre is one of the best and one of the longest running audio drama podcasts on the web. It’s got action, adventure and laughs for folks of just about any age. And not only is the content amazing, their production schedule is something to aspire too. I will always mention Decoder Ring Theatre and the Adventures of The Red Panda as one of my favorite podcasts to listen to. I’ve been subscribed since the day I found it! Check them out.
The Ukulady – http://www.theukulady.com – The ukelele has become a ubiquitous instrument. Everyone everywhere is now playing the damn thing. Once relegated to hawaain shows, the Hipster wave has grabbed hold of the mighty ukelele and now it’s a badge of coolness to play the ukelele. Well, long before this current wave of coolness, The Ukulady was making the ukelel cool by singing her offbeat tunes while strumming the instrument. I’ve known The Ukulady for some years as we’ve travelled in the same circles and have always been impressed she’s built a very successful children’s act around The Ukulady. CLICK HERE to watch a fun medley of ’80s Television Theme Songs performed live in front of a raucous audience. Just three minutes of nothing fun.
Jody Whitesides – http://jodywhitesides.com/blog/ – Jody is a guy I met around 1998 while doing open mics in Southern California. He has been a friend ever since. If you’ve followed any of the projects I’ve worked on over the years, you have, no doubt, heard his name or heard his music. He produced and played bass and guitar on the Throwing Toasters album CHROME, he did all the music for The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd and his song Christmas Brought Me You is the theme for my yearly Advent Calendar. Jody is in the process of working on a new album of songs and he’s blogging regularly over at his website. Go read through some of his recent posts and check out a few of his songs. I’m sure you’ll be rocking out to one or two of them. Plus his blogs are a good read about pop culture and art creation from a musician’s point of view.
Finally this week I want to leave you with a short video clip. It’s a segment from Penn’s Sunday School, a weekly podcast hosted by Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller. It starts with Drew Carey talking about some advice he was given a long time ago and I think it’s something interesting to think about in terms of creativity. I’ll let you watch it and see for yourself. This is Penn Jillette here, so some of the words are NSFW. Give it a listen and let me know what you think about Being Great or Being Anonymous when you’re just starting out something.
That’s if for another week. If you have a project you would like me to check out, please feel free to leave a link to it in the comments below. Always interested in seeing what people are coming up with. Have a great weekend and I will see you back here on Monday morning for another Creative Mondays!
Creative Mondays #021 – You don’t need permission.
Permission.
“May I please be excused form the table?”
“May I have some more dessert?”
“May I go outside to play?”
From the time we are little we are taught to ask for permission. As we get older it seems like we’re still asking for permission.
And if you create art it seems as if you are always asking for someone’s okay before doing anything. Heck, it often seems as if all we need is someone to say, “Yes, you may make your art.” and we will be a success.
“Will you make my script into a movie?”
“Will you release my album on your record label?”
“Will you display my paintings in your gallery?”
We are still asking for permission.
I will let you in on a little secret. You don’t need anyone’s permission to create your art. You don’t. You can go ahead and create it yourself and get it out there in the world and today’s technological advances make it even easier.
When I teach my How To Podcast classes, one of the things I like to try and instill in my students is that you don’t need anyone’s permission to start doing it. You can get your message out to the world for relatively low cost. The only real investment is time.
Sure you need a few tools to record a podcast but you can now produce and publish a podcast entirely on an iPhone. You don’t need to ask anyone’s permission to do it.
I think this can be applied to a lot of other areas as well. Got a TV series idea? You can shoot a low budget version of it and put it out on YouTube. Music artist? CDBaby.com will put your music on iTunes next to Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake. Visual artist? You can set up an online gallery or even sell your artwork directly to patrons via Etsy.com.
Yes, there are costs involved in setting these all up, but what we’re talking about is permission. You do not need anyone’s permission to do any of the above ideas. You can tell Hollywood/The Music Industry/The Art World to take a hike. You’re going to put your stuff out there on your own and with things like YouTube’s ad sharing, CDBaby’s payments and Etsy’s as well, you can earn money directly from the people watching, listening or looking at your stuff. No permission needed.
Realizing that you don’t have to fit your art into the demands or constraints of others is incredibly freeing. When I was producing The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd, there was no censorship committee we had to run anything past. We didn’t need to ask permission from anyone else. We just created the show. We became our own censorship committee. We decided what went on the show and what didn’t. I guess, in a way, we had to run ideas past each other, but we had similar goals so there were never any problems on content.
Chris Guilbeau calls the people who decided weather or not you can do something as The Gatekeepers. We live in a fantastic time where technology lets us circumvent the gatekeepers. Yes, it would be great to have a television network, movie studio, music label or famous art gallery publicizing our art, but you’d need their permission. I say, don’t ever wait for permission. Just do it. If it is good enough, the studios, networks, labels and galleries will come to you. And if you’ll be in a much better position to negotiate with them because you’ve done it all yourself.
I feel I just briefly need to mention that if you are under 18 and still living with your parents….you do need to ask permission from them. Sorry. Also, if you are using other people’s work you, most certainly, have to ask for permission. You can’t just steal their art and make it your own without asking. My lawyer made me ad this paragraph.
So, if you are waiting to create because you need permission from someone else….forget it. Just start creating! Or if you REALLY need permission, I’ve just given it to you. No go.
Create!
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