Tag: comedy

TO learn the art of good story telling !!

Are you comfortable in front of people, or does the idea of public speaking make you want to hide in the bathroom? Why?

My edited version…

Am I comfortable in front of people, or does the idea of speaking in front of people, on this stage called life, want to make me hide in the bathroom.. Why? 

My two-bits…

“In teaching your child, do not forget that suffering is good too. It makes a person rich in character.”

― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

There is a difference between public speaking and speaking socially. One gets to prepare for public speaking. One has an outline to work with or maybe a paper to read from.

All actors memorize their speaking parts. While performing in a band one knows what is up and there is always room for a little improvisation.  

Jazz has a beat and ongoing knowledge of its musical language amongst its totally pure improvisation.  This all can be scary fun stuff. Some people are so good at public speaking. It takes charisma and extroverted gifts to be a great publish speaker or performer.

Public speaking does not make me feel uncomfortable. If I am well prepared and know my stuff. Social speaking is where I am uncomfortable. As a receptive thinker I go deep in myself and digest the environment around me.

I am too afraid to even get up and go hide in the bathroom !!

Reading, writing, creating and thinking this is my domain.,

dancing with the muses,

rolling in the depth of my soul,

coming up for breath,

always leaves me tongue-tied.  

I think to myself,

“There are so many ways to respond to that question.  Let me scribble down some answers and get back to you on that.”

I like public speaking but hate the question and answer period that follows most PowerPoint presentation. This is the time I may want to run and go hide at the local pub.  I suggest a couple of pints is where you may find me a little more agreeable, social and friendly.

I would love to learn the art of good story telling though!! I love listening to stories. It always warms my heart.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/daily-prompt-public/

Beer and Burlesque

Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. The word derives from the Italian burlesco, which itself derives from the Italian burla – a joke, ridicule or mockery

Making lunch for my husband  and older son one summer day I announced,

“I want to take five weeks off and learn Burlesque !”

“All right , that would be great to get you out of here” said my son.

My husband was silent and seemed perplexed but calm.  I went on to tell them about a program in Seattle Washington that teaches Burlesque. It is for all ages. I began to tell the history of the Burlesque and about Vaudeville. We happened to be watching  Gypsy the 1962 musical. This film is  about the famous Burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee. They walked in on me and the film before lunch.

“I really don’t walk to hear this” said my son a couple of times.

So he went into the computer room to Skype out with his game-scary fiends.  I then continued to talk telling my husband that as an older woman of fifty-four I think it would be curious to get in touch with that fun and sexy side of myself again.

“Five weeks… is too long” he said.

I said with a convincing  voice and with great  concern,

“As a woman gets older she becomes invisible. She is not a maiden anymore and definitely not a grandmother-old-woman yet, and because I only have a wee bit of estrogen in my left toe, I think it would be fun to get those female juices going again?”

“But five weeks” he said again.

I then went on to tell him that after I learn the art of Burlesque  wouldn’t it be fun to open a small Burlesque house. We could have a bar that serves local micro brewery beers and maybe even food.

“Hell, we could have bands play and bring back Vaudeville. We could ask comedians and acts to perform as well!!” I yelled!

Then the twenty year old son yelled from the computer room,

“Why would you want to make a fool of yourself like that, you are insane, but getting you away from here for some time would be great.”

“Five weeks.. is a long time” said my husband for the third and last time.

Silence fell on the topic as my husband and I finished watching the film Gypsy. I then said with passion,

“Ya see it is fun and they just tease. These women are interesting  they are not slimy strippers that take all their clothes off  in a degrading way.  It is an art form… it is Burlesque. In a way it is making fun of all that in a creative way.”

The conversation stopped but I was still dreaming  and thinking how fun it could be. I then whispered with a giggle and sly grin,

“Beer and Burlesque sounds good  to me!!”

My Favorite Crone

They take place at the same time with neither one having an effect on the other, and yet they are related to one another in a meaningful way.

~Jung, Synchronicity And Human Destiny , By IRA Progoff

Late last night I could not fall asleep. So I turned on the TV to watch Turner Classic Movies  to see if there was a good film on. I found a screwball comedy that I never viewed before entitled Come Live With Me with James Steward and Hedy Lamarr. It was offbeat, funny and a very sweet film. I think Hedy Lamarr is one of the most beautiful starlets to hit the big screen. As the film progressed I was introduced also for the first time to the character Grandma, played by actress Adeline De Walt Reynolds.

Grandma is a crone. She is a woman in her eighties. She is wise, honest and says what is on her mind. The main characters Bill Smith and Johnny Jones are in love. They will not admit it to each other, but Grandma already knows this. She is a bit of a jester too!

Grandma hand embroiders quotes and frames them and hangs them throughout the farmhouse.  She is first introduced to us in the film while she is focused embroidering.  She holds what she is working on up to show the couple what she is embroidering and says this quote freely, “What fools Mortals be.”  She continues to talk directly and sweetly to the couple. She brings them closer together by cooking them a dinner and then sitting out on the porch where they talk.

In a endearing scene Johnny looks around the farm telling Grandma how beautiful the farm is and says,

“I bet you never had a hard time in your life”

Grandma tells her this is not the case because she lost her husband, and has been through floods, and one year there was no food to eat because the farm land did not produce a crop. She told Johnny that in times like these you just got to rise above, rise above the hard times.

This film is important because it held personal synchronicities for me. This is the type of Crone I want to be as I grow older. What a delightful woman.

Oracles can be found anywhere for the process of synchronicity to happen. I found my moments held within this film when I met the character Grandma. She spoke to my heart as though she knew me.