Drum Bums, by Peter Voice

[Mr. Wilson]

Greetings, Mr. Wilson here, or perhaps I should say "Mr. Wilson", as I created this alias today. Mr Wilson is one of two characters in the show Peter Voice posted for sale here about ten days ago. I'm a street performer,
I bought the script from Peter. I've been full-time for years, been on these boards awhile, and thought I would hide my identity while exploring this new show.

The email arrived yesterday, and yes, the show does have a very unique build. The characters in it, me and the Mrs. (I'll try to get her to post here too.) are performing a percussion show on garbage cans, with a twist.

Right now, we are assembling toys and gathering tools, and preparing to workshop this thing to get it into some of our performances straight away. Me, Peter, and the Mrs. want the building of this show documented here, but also, I think, somehow added to with our online community.

So let me ask you this... what do you look for in a street show? What elements or facets make you, (the toughest audience there is) glad that you stopped?

[Magic Mickey]

Personality

I feel that selling your personality during a show is more important then what you actualy do in the show. So I would be glad I stoped to watch if I saw a really funny, outgoing personality.

[Peter Voice]

Ahh, Mr. Wilson, I'm assuming by your post here that you see some potential in the show. Very pleasing indeed.

After 20+ yrs in the business, it takes something quite original to impress this jaded clacquer but I am particularly a fan of absurdist comedy and can easily be stopped by "curious" performances.

[gav]

Things that attract me to a show.


Interesting characters or personality.
Originality in some %
Comedy
Impressive skill
Interesting props.
Good looking wives.
Music that doesn't get on your nerves.

Some or all of the above.

[Scot Free]

I like to watch people that are just having FUN with what they are doing. I don't really care what they are doing or saying, I enjoy watching a performer getting off, and this is important, WITH the audience.
Are you having fun?

[newyorkstreetdean]

It seems to me what lacks in a lot of new performers is credibility. Many times when people are starting, they seem to be missing a sense of comfort, understandably.

If you are who I think you are, from the few times that I got to see you perform you displayed "credibility" unmatched from just about anybody else I can think of. It will be interesting to see how this new suit fits.

[Peter Voice]

It certainly is a different suit for the performer involved and is one of the reasons for the Mr Wilson alias (it puts another handle on the character). Mr W describes it as "a percussion show on garbage cans, with a twist" whereas I think of it as "A Twisted Show with a bit of percussion and lots of garbage". It is quite a different genre for the performer but I very much doubt that stage presence or credibility will be a problem at all.

This looks like the place to talk about it but I'd rather the thread was called Mr and Mrs Wilson (I knew I should have renamed it).

The reasons for getting the show up via p.net and documenting it here are several. For a start no-one has done it before and I want to prove it can be done to both parties advantage. I think the show has a couple of unique elements, one of which will easily enhance a variety of show skills besides percussion and is likely to be used by others one day. Documenting it here will go a long way to establishing ownership to both parties (I may claim authorship but it is the performer who will create Mr. & Mrs Wilson and thus own the show). I also hope it might help others to sell shows here too.

I think it will be fun and perhaps educational for young and old, to go through the development, workshops, first try-out, festival debut the whole thing, here. After all there are over 1800 members here and that an audience unto itself.

I had no idea on what sort of terms I was going to ask for the show but this was made simple by the reputation of the buyer. Simply put, I trust him completely and take his acceptance of the show as a great compliment.

There was an upfront "acorn" payment for "a right of refusal" (in other words, a read), one year to develop the show and 10% of the show's gross income for the following year. Most of us are fully aware of how valuable a good unique street show is and if this is anywhere near as good as I think it can be then I've probably sold it too cheap but definitely to the right artist.

I rewrote it specifically for Mr and Mrs Wilson and it came with 2-3 ambient/roving vignettes to compliment the characters. Mrs Wilson, may well prove to be the key. I mean, how important can a drummer be, really?

I've never sold a show before and I don't know of any-one doing it either (I had one stolen once but that's another story) so it's all an experiment really. I have no idea how long it will take to develop (or even if it will make it through that process) but will learn a lot as we go. At least Mr Wilson thinks my ad did not misrepresent the product and that's a good start.

I'm as much in the dark as to what happens next as anyone else reading this but am sure all will be revealed in due course.

Go for it Mr. Wilson!!!!


PS Further to Mr.W's question, what is it about a show you have already seen once, that will bring you back to see it again, even again?

[Mr. Wilson]

Onward.

Thank you to everyone who is posting on and reading this thread. Everything I've read here bears consideration, and many thoughts from here will be listed as facets to cultivate.


Good question, Peter. There are not many shows I want to see repeatedly, but the ones I have chosen to view more than twice have had either a certain level of playful antagonism with the croud, ala Martin or, verbally, Gazzo/Nick or Glenn Singer: pure poetic sweetness, as in the lovely Miss Take and Mr Easy, or applied intelligence, like Great Dave, or Stretch People.

Thanks for the kind word, Street Dean. We've worked a festival or two together, and I was quite impressed, along with the other greenroom members, with your work. In spite of my sound bite synopsis of the show, I do see it as a character-based work, which is a good thing, since my percussion skills are not going to knock anyone flat.

Mrs Wilson is indeed a hottie, so we've got that going for us, Gav, and I'll steer clear of "Celebrate good times COME ON!" and such hits. Originality is built in by Peter, and we'll add what we can.

Velocity is also a part of this creation: we are looking to perform this baby (in fifteen-minute versions) starting a week from Monday. So keep those clues coming!

[Peter Voice]

Holy cow (now I've offended the Hindus again) you're not wasting time. I'd better start booking your your 2007 seasons now.

[Mr. Wilson]

We still have some open dates in 07, in fact!

[gav]

Bragger !
Can't wait to see the wife by the way !
You have to respect a man that can call his wife a hottie on a public forum.

[Mrs. Wilson]

I'm in....

hello all....Mrs. Wilson here logging in to the exciting work of putting together this show and documenting it on these boards.....

I've been following pnet for a while and have great respect for the characters involved. With that being said, "Thank you" for the imput and keep it coming.

Mr. Wilson and I are doing some juicy workshoping on the character development as well as the percussion element. Here's a more specific question;
What really works in a male/female duo?
What exchanges and chemistry engages the crowd and pushes the edge without stepping over the boundry?

rumored mrs. hottie (now THERE'S something to live up to) looking forward to your feedback...

[Magic Mickey]

I think that it is always cool with a male and female duo when there is some element of competition between them. I think that this will be really cool to have the making of an entire show documented here. What kind of things do you tend to do while exparementing with the character to build a phisicality and voice?

[Mrs. Wilson]

in a phrase; free form play.
Building off elements that we have in our relationship already seems to really work.

playing is something we already do a lot of, thus, taking this to a focused level is fodder for good bits that work naturally.
hense, Mr. scatters stuff out of the garbage can, while I straighten and arrange. I like the competition element.
we'll take that and see where it goes.

[Mr. Wilson]

Feast yer eyes.

Hot as hot, Gav, a full-blown sizzler, this gal of mine.

The competition idea is a good, dependable relationship dynamic. We're also exploring one of us being oblivious to the crowd, one relating, with some eye-rolling at the partner's behavior. Audience volunteers and potential jealousy of them emerge as thoughts.

Conflict and resolution would be a workable template for mid-show, we're guessing. This might emerge from a small disaster with fire, where we each attempt to foist a fire "problem" onto the other, the resolve being of course to eat it.

I found a brilliant jester mask recently, and am looking for ways to throw it into the mix, simply because I love the look of it, and like the idea of bending my head down into a trash can, and popping out with it on. This week, we'll be running whatever we come up with today daily, and watching ideas grow.