Creative Mondays #006 – Don’t do what you don’t want to do.
Saturday night I got to see one of my creative mentors, Joel Hodgson, speak at the Tower Theatre in Roseville, CA. He was presenting his one man show ‘Riffing Myself’ which is a look back at what lead to his creation of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and a talk on how he approaches creativity.
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Laughing until I cry.
I’m currently developing a live show with my good friend John B. deHaas. If it ever happens it’ll be an interactive show for families to enjoy that’s filled with music, improv, comedy and more.
In doing the research for this show I’ve been looking up a lot of clips on YouTube from Walt Disney World’s, now extinct, Adventurer’s Club. If you are unfamiliar, the Adventurer’s Club was a nightclub at Walt Disney World’s Pleasure Island. It was an intracately themed nightclub that was set in the year 1937. The moment you walked in the door, you were transported to the time of big game hunting and world exploration. The, mulit sotired, building was filled with the usual artifacts and, fake, animal heads, you’d expect and it was also filled with seven or eight actors playing different members of the club. These characters would interact with you and then lead you in to various rooms where there shows including a radio drama broadcast, a telethon and a tall tale telling competition.
I went there for the first time in the early 2000’s and was instantly captivated. Unfortunately, my first trip would be my last as I didn’t get back to Walt Disney World before they closed it down. The loose insanity of the the goings on in that club have stayed with me though and have inspired me greatly. Wen we used to do the old Dr. Floyd Live shows we tried to capture that spirit. Or at least that was my goal. Also, I sing Bessie The Heiffer, a song I first heard at the Adventurer’s Club, in my kids show.
At any rate, the fun thing about the Adventurer’s Club was that there were several songs that rotated through the night. In doing my research for this show I’m working on, I came across the song Don’t Go In The Lion’s Cage Tonight. Below is a video. Please watch.
Hilarious right. Really funny. And while some may not think that it’s 10% family friendly, I think it actually is. I think kids wouldn’t get exactly what was going on with the maracas. Maybe they would. But it is not raunchy by any means.
Anyway, after searching for clips and coming across that one and watching a few different versions, I came across the following one. Now, yes, I know you’ve just watched the song seconds ago. Watch it again. Do not skip to this one, watch the previous one first and then this one. You’ll thank me.
I have watched this at least 5 times today and I have cried with laughter each time.
This is the type of show I’d love to create. A show that parents can bring their kids to and still have a blast. Okay, back to work.
Creative Mondays #005 – Keep you plans secret.
Keep your creative plans secret until they are completed.
This is a tough one and, though I believe in it and will explain why, it is a hard one for me to do.
The main reason you should attempt to keep your creative plans secret until you have completed them is because if you tell them to other people they will, no matter how well meaning they are, offer their opinion on your plans. You will get no end to unsolicited feedback on your idea.
“That’s a great idea!” they’ll inevitably start, but then they’ll continue, “You know what you should do…”
Now if the sentence above is coming from someone you admire or respect or whom you are asking for advice, that’s fine. If you admire or respect them or asked for their advice, that’s great, listen to their suggestions. Remember, though, these are suggestions.
The focus of this entry is about telling friends, peers, family about your plans. These folks like (love) and respect you and they think they’ll be helping you out by offering their advice. What happens then is that once you begin creating your art, the ‘advice’ that these people starts creeping into your head and you begin second guessing yourself.
“Maybe so and so was right. Maybe I should do it their way instead of the way I had planned.”
This becomes dangerous because suddenly the your art is not your own. It has become a community project. Nothing against community projects, they are great, but this is YOUR art project.
This is the number one reason I try to keep my ideas to myself. Notice I say try. It’s extremely hard to do. The main reason for blabbing is I get really excited about an idea and I want to share it with the world. I need to realize that it’ll be much better (and save me much second guessing) if I tell people after it’s done. Or better yet, show them. Writers often say ‘show don’t tell.’ I think that’s a great bit of advice that all artists can take about their own work. Get it done and THEN show somebody.
Another reason to keep mum about a project is because sometimes I talk so much about a project I never really get around to actually working on it. I know it sounds weird, but there’s something in the brain that will trick you into thinking, “Well I’ve talked about it so much, I must have done it.” When, in actuality, you haven’t done anything. Almost as if a little bit of the creative desire in you escapes each time you say something about it until you have no creative desire left to work on the project.
Finally, there is the thought of sharing your ideas with others before you do them and then someone steals your idea. I don’t think this happens as much as people are afraid it does, but it does happen, so it’s another good reason to just keep quiet about your project.
As artists, our main drive in life is to create something and then share it with the world. We should just think twice about sharing them before we’ve even begun creating them.
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Do you fall into the same pitfalls as me and blab your project to everyone around you? Or do you thrive on getting other people’s opinions about your project? Let me know in the comments below.
Creative Mondays #004 – A Creative Journal or Record.
In 2010, I learned about Jim Henson’s Red Book. The Red Book was a journal that Jim Henson started in 1965 where he wrote down all the significant events that had happened in his life up to that point and then he continued to keep updating the journal from then on. He wrote entries all the way through 1988. There’s a fun website set up at www.JimsRedBook.com where you can see what Jim wrote down for that day in his journal. Jim wrote entries for major events in his life, both creative and personal and it’s an amazing record of some of the amazing things Jim accomplished in his life. A bulk of the entries were accumulated into a book called Imagination Illustrated which is well worth a read. Or two.
After discovering this fact about Jim Henson, I really liked the idea of starting a creative journal. I’m not talking about a journal where I wrote down ideas, though I have one of those as well. I’m talking about a journal where I write down, daily, what creative things I have worked on during the day. I guess the real term would be a Creative Record but I’m just comfortable using the word record.
So I bought a hardbound Moleskin, lined notebook and began keeping the journal. At the end of each day, before bed, I write down the creative things I did that day. I just write a simple line for each thing with the date. Here’s an example of an entry.
8/2/2011 − 2 Milk Minimum show at Flappers
– Continued work on Astral Factor for Cinematic Titanic.
– Met with Leslie Carrara- Rudolph about NorCal Shows
– PuppetUp Rehearsal at Henson.
That’s it. Just a line for each item and I do this every day. I started October 6, 2010 and have made entries for just about every day since then because of my goal of doing at least ONE creative thing everyday. With two minor exceptions, one being breaking my arm, the other recording the day I met someone who influenced me greatly, I only put creative things in this journal. It’s a fantastic record I can look back through to see what I was working on then and what I’m working on now.
It’s also a super great motivator to keep creating. I look forward to writing down the creative things I did each day and I always make sure there is at least one thing I can write down before going to bed. And I do it EVERY day. If I’m on the road or on vacation, I keep a list in my phone and the moment I’m back I write down all the creative things I did while away.
I finished my first creative journal on November 7, 2013 and I started a new one. I’m really proud of that first one as it is a three year, one month and one day record of everything I creatively worked on. It is SUPER fun to go back through and look at what I was doing on a particular day. It was so much fun to start a new one, what a great feeling of accomplishment. And even though I’m only a little ways into my second one, I’m already looking forward to the third!
So try out a creative journal. It doesn’t have to be a physical journal either. It could be a word processor file or a Google Doc you could update from anywhere. But give it a shot and see if it helps motivate you into being creative each day.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to enter writing this blog post into my creative journal!
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Have you been doing something similar to this already? If so, let us know what it is and what your process is in the comments below.