Slap your own face
Storytelling stuff worth sharing
Earlier this week, my bowling team started up its Tuesday night league. Because of various life changes, what was once a quartet is now a duo, just me and Scottie.
But the name lives on. We are Split Happens. And we have the t-shirts to prove it.
Scottie and I keep talking about writing a tragicomic play entitled “The Ten Pin.” If you bowl even just occasionally, you understand the agony.
Wish us well! We swept our two games this week. I was the model of consistency with a 165 / 166. Scottie hiccupped in game one with a 147 (he’s typically a 190-200 kinda guy!), but game two he notched a 187.
And splits, indeed, did happen.
Storytelling Tip o’ the Week
Last week I talked about the best audition I ever saw.
The amazing Don Bruns sent me this email in response:
Many years ago, I was flying from New York to LA. The guy next to me told me he had directed several seasons of Shakespeare in the Park. He was working on one of the plays… I don’t know which one, but they were auditioning for the part of a general. (Winter auditions for a summer play.)
Winter in Central Park. Portable street signs and signs for landmarks were collected and lined up in a warehouse. This is where the auditions took place.
He told me the actors said their lines, looking at the judges. Then some guy walked in, saw the street signs, and spun around… addressing those lined-up signs as soldiers. He walked up and down that line, stopping to address one of the sign posts, then kept on moving, reciting the lines.
“I have never been so impressed with an audition in my life,” he said.
The actor? Tom Hanks.
So good, right?? The quick first tip: be on the lookout to turn disadvantages into advantages.
This story reminded me of a priceless piece of advice (today’s second tip!) from Michael Shurtleff in his book Audition (which I have contended and still contend is the best book on acting ever written). He talked about how in auditions (and even in early rehearsals) you’ll sometimes need to “tear your own dress.”
See, attempting big physical moments without rehearsing them is dangerous. You can’t engage in a sword fight, or pull someone in for a passionate kiss, or expect the reader or your scene partner to rip your dress for you before you’ve had the chance to break those movements down, ensure everyone is comfortable and safe, and rep them to polished perfection.
But the fighting, the kissing, the ripping… these are vital moments. They trigger huge emotional responses. And your body needs some kind of spark or catalyst to lift your feelings into the higher realms.
So… you rip your own dress. You use sign posts as soldiers.
My best implementation of this advice? I was auditioning for the role of “Moe Axelrod” in Clifford Odets’ gorgeous gut-punch of a play Awake and Sing! I was reading a scene where Moe and Hennie are raging at each other, the passion of their star-crossed love driving them to such desperation that Hennie slaps Moe right across the face.
The reader was sitting to the side, next to the director. His name was Gary. I was standing out on the studio floor. No way could Gary reach to slap me, nor should he have even tried without rehearsal.
So when the moment came, I slapped my own face.
Two things immediately happened.
The director, the stage manager, and Gary all jolted in their seats at the fleshy crack.
Second, my blood surged. My brain may have known that I had slapped myself, but the body? Well, the body just knows it got slapped. And my scene with Gary leapt into the higher realm.
I totally got the part.
When you’re the storyteller, you don’t have to wait around for things to happen. You can make them happen yourself.
The Podcast
A quick reminder that you won’t get a new podcast next Monday, but you will on September 2, and I’ll tell you all about that guest and her brand new book (for which I was Casper the Friendly Ghostwriter, hehehe) next week.
In the meantime, if you haven’t yet, check out my conversation with Dr. Valerie Lipscomb that dropped this past Monday. Listener Randall emailed me and said:
Good conversation, Jason. Aging and performance, in all the ways that can be considered, is a fascinating subject to me. I referred to it in class this morning and passed along the link. Thanks!
And if Randall says it, you know it’s true.
Quotable
A beautiful speech from Awake and Sing!, as Moe tries to convince Hennie to leave her husband and child and run away with him…
Come away. A certain place where it’s moonlight and roses. We’ll lay down, count stars. Hear the big ocean making noise. You lay under the trees. Champagne flows like—
She cuts him off. The scene keeps going. Man oh man oh MAN it’s such a good scene. And if storytelling, at its essence, is simply the transference of imagery from one to another, well no wonder Moe and Hennie…
Well. I won’t spoil the ending.
BALANCE
The newest collection of poetry from Ibis Books drops TODAY!!
BALANCE is the first published collection of poetry by Cedric Hameed, who is one of the most inspiring and brilliant spoken word poets you ever will meet.
There will be appearances and launch events over the next several months, but the book itself is available NOW.
Visiting Writers Forum
A quick reminder I’m going to be the featured guest at the Visiting Writers Forum at Ringling College on Tuesday, August 27.
This is a free event, open to the public, no registration required, 7-8pm in the Goldstein Library.
I’ll be talking a bit about the journey of taking CLOWNS LIKE ME Off-Broadway, digging into living the life of the storyteller, and taking questions from the audience about writing, performing, and living an artistic life.
Would love to see you there!
Thanks as always for reading, and have a great weekend!
Jason “Face Slapper” Cannon