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I have something to say
Here's a little perspective of my relationship with this web site.
I’ve posted a lot and I’ve got my share of library pieces.
I’ve really enjoyed the social aspect of the site and have met more performers through it than I would have otherwise. I’m not sure but I may have got work through here. I wouldn’t be surprised but honestly feel pretty much my web site and my reputation among previous gigs and performers I know gets me most of my gigs . This is in spite of the fact that I’m a recovering alcoholic who's life off stage was shambolic and manic. I’m aware also that P.net is perceived differently by various visitors and members.
I am an ex old school street performer, that is to say I share with a certain group here, the training and experience to perform in public places and support myself in doing so.
I did this almost exclusively for many years in many countries and many cultures.
I also consider myself very lucky to have met kindred spirits over these years, individual, creative, resourceful individuals who took full responsibility for their lives and used the form of street theater as a sort of ‘hack’ (which in my opinion it’s always been) that enabled them to survive and prosper at the unconventional edge of their own generosity and the generosity of the public.
I also feel quite lucky to be of a generation of street performers who straddle the pre and post internet eras.
Before the internet and before mobile phones we would be lucky indeed to come across each other, copenhagen, perth, edinburgh, oslo, london, tokyo,where-ever. You’d see a familiar rogue and your heart would soar like a duck. This was before there were any street theater festivals at all outside Europe. There was a byproduct of this shared hack we had also. We had our own fairly refined values. We had pretty much conquered reality to the degree we needed to and all that was left was play. All you needed to be one of our number was the ability to recognize that you in fact, along with everyone else on the planet, consisted of around 49 to 51% bullshit. Once you were OK with that you were in. Some people found that harder to accept than others but collectively we were fairly merciless on snobs or pretentious performers. I mean to say what good is pretension when basically your exploiting human nature and your need for affirmation and cash to survive.
Then came the 90’s and cutting edge performers started sporting ‘personal organizers’, first was the filofax then little electronic gizmos from japan that we’d check out and buy for ourselves. Eventually the internet arrived and some of us, being early adopters and having disposable incomes and time on our hands, well we started experimenting.
Then Jim put performers net up and street performers, who by and large had no idea who he was, saw what he had made and thought. HOT SHIT. I can communicate with all my friends and meet others of our ranks whenever I want and exist on this plain as well.
Performers net was another hack. Another opportunity for individuals to define characters on another level. It was a social construct made up of people who shared our experience.
But it had other, more pragmatic and sensible patrons. It had performers who were not street performers but rather variety artists who performed at paid gigs and festivals and who mainly were based in North America where street theater is a small, quite undervalued social hack. So much so that a lot of the big European street performers were in fact north american ex pats.
Jim had a foot in each camp, having started on the street and moving onto corporate, festival and private gigs while retaining the street style presentation and working the streets of Boston.
So in the early days Jim must not have known who a fairly significant section of the people posting were. There was checkerboard (Dave Aitken) and him who had the same tech passions, plus a lot of the Nth american variety people and performers who had some connection with the Canadian touring circuit. and then there were the great unwashed, who adopted these forums as our own and for better or worse played a part in the tone here.
I’m by far the worst offender. I’m really reprehensible. I have invented a person (or perhaps like all performers refined part of my own) that is the wittiest attack dog with a heart of gold I can muster. The heart of gold bit is not even that apparent, its there in my recordings of festivals and my writings of parts of my life that had a performance aspect.Its also there in the company I keep.I don’t appeal to all but I have stamped my personality into this site and there is NOTHING that can modify that. Its there for all to see. As I’ve explained, I come from a background where you had permission to be who you wished to be provided you could pull it off.
I have no lack of personalities to ping. Anyone of interest, I ping. And some I just ping for the practice.
My writings on these boards in everything but the blah blah section are uniformly helpful.
Because really I’m quite a helpful guy. Surprisingly also for someone as insecure as I am I’m quite secure as well.
Blah blah blah is PLAYTIME. Other performers are my audience. Some producer blunders in here expecting to find someone cosy to employ. Someone who’s meek and helpful and prepared to make light conversation round the cooler about films and books before going out and entertaining the public. Good, there's heaps to choose from. This is MY LIFE I don’t need anyone's permission or approval to entertain. I LIVE to entertain because its all I can do that gives me sufficient feedback to keep my personal demons at bay. I challenge anyone to be more entertaining than me. Dan Holzman was the last person here who I respected as a funny person. (That's funny without being particularly injured eric and robert)He’s just a funny person. A lot of you have much funnier or more skillful shows than i do but here in the Bah section reputation counts for naught. Its be funny or be helpful or be fodder.
I read Steven's little post today and it made me really angry. As if I’d stoop to being nice just to appeal to some other manipulator.
I’ve posted a lot and I’ve got my share of library pieces.
I’ve really enjoyed the social aspect of the site and have met more performers through it than I would have otherwise. I’m not sure but I may have got work through here. I wouldn’t be surprised but honestly feel pretty much my web site and my reputation among previous gigs and performers I know gets me most of my gigs . This is in spite of the fact that I’m a recovering alcoholic who's life off stage was shambolic and manic. I’m aware also that P.net is perceived differently by various visitors and members.
I am an ex old school street performer, that is to say I share with a certain group here, the training and experience to perform in public places and support myself in doing so.
I did this almost exclusively for many years in many countries and many cultures.
I also consider myself very lucky to have met kindred spirits over these years, individual, creative, resourceful individuals who took full responsibility for their lives and used the form of street theater as a sort of ‘hack’ (which in my opinion it’s always been) that enabled them to survive and prosper at the unconventional edge of their own generosity and the generosity of the public.
I also feel quite lucky to be of a generation of street performers who straddle the pre and post internet eras.
Before the internet and before mobile phones we would be lucky indeed to come across each other, copenhagen, perth, edinburgh, oslo, london, tokyo,where-ever. You’d see a familiar rogue and your heart would soar like a duck. This was before there were any street theater festivals at all outside Europe. There was a byproduct of this shared hack we had also. We had our own fairly refined values. We had pretty much conquered reality to the degree we needed to and all that was left was play. All you needed to be one of our number was the ability to recognize that you in fact, along with everyone else on the planet, consisted of around 49 to 51% bullshit. Once you were OK with that you were in. Some people found that harder to accept than others but collectively we were fairly merciless on snobs or pretentious performers. I mean to say what good is pretension when basically your exploiting human nature and your need for affirmation and cash to survive.
Then came the 90’s and cutting edge performers started sporting ‘personal organizers’, first was the filofax then little electronic gizmos from japan that we’d check out and buy for ourselves. Eventually the internet arrived and some of us, being early adopters and having disposable incomes and time on our hands, well we started experimenting.
Then Jim put performers net up and street performers, who by and large had no idea who he was, saw what he had made and thought. HOT SHIT. I can communicate with all my friends and meet others of our ranks whenever I want and exist on this plain as well.
Performers net was another hack. Another opportunity for individuals to define characters on another level. It was a social construct made up of people who shared our experience.
But it had other, more pragmatic and sensible patrons. It had performers who were not street performers but rather variety artists who performed at paid gigs and festivals and who mainly were based in North America where street theater is a small, quite undervalued social hack. So much so that a lot of the big European street performers were in fact north american ex pats.
Jim had a foot in each camp, having started on the street and moving onto corporate, festival and private gigs while retaining the street style presentation and working the streets of Boston.
So in the early days Jim must not have known who a fairly significant section of the people posting were. There was checkerboard (Dave Aitken) and him who had the same tech passions, plus a lot of the Nth american variety people and performers who had some connection with the Canadian touring circuit. and then there were the great unwashed, who adopted these forums as our own and for better or worse played a part in the tone here.
I’m by far the worst offender. I’m really reprehensible. I have invented a person (or perhaps like all performers refined part of my own) that is the wittiest attack dog with a heart of gold I can muster. The heart of gold bit is not even that apparent, its there in my recordings of festivals and my writings of parts of my life that had a performance aspect.Its also there in the company I keep.I don’t appeal to all but I have stamped my personality into this site and there is NOTHING that can modify that. Its there for all to see. As I’ve explained, I come from a background where you had permission to be who you wished to be provided you could pull it off.
I have no lack of personalities to ping. Anyone of interest, I ping. And some I just ping for the practice.
My writings on these boards in everything but the blah blah section are uniformly helpful.
Because really I’m quite a helpful guy. Surprisingly also for someone as insecure as I am I’m quite secure as well.
Blah blah blah is PLAYTIME. Other performers are my audience. Some producer blunders in here expecting to find someone cosy to employ. Someone who’s meek and helpful and prepared to make light conversation round the cooler about films and books before going out and entertaining the public. Good, there's heaps to choose from. This is MY LIFE I don’t need anyone's permission or approval to entertain. I LIVE to entertain because its all I can do that gives me sufficient feedback to keep my personal demons at bay. I challenge anyone to be more entertaining than me. Dan Holzman was the last person here who I respected as a funny person. (That's funny without being particularly injured eric and robert)He’s just a funny person. A lot of you have much funnier or more skillful shows than i do but here in the Bah section reputation counts for naught. Its be funny or be helpful or be fodder.
I read Steven's little post today and it made me really angry. As if I’d stoop to being nice just to appeal to some other manipulator.
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