Working Like a Fool!

Fading Fool!

An interesting, and, more rewarding Wednesday than has been the common run lately. Another long day fixing potholes; we had an equipment failure half way through the day, and, subsequently, to keep to my agenda, yours facetiously, personally raked two tons of asphalt in 45 minutes to finish the day at 5:00 pm. Then dash home, shower, and dash off to Toastmasters, having loaded all my P.A. equipment and prepared my paperwork the night before.

I was unloading at my destination when, who should come along and offer assistance than, Dwayne Surdu-Miller. “Thank you, Mr President,” was my reply, “Nothing I admire more than a Toastmaster who’s willing to take a stand!” With that I let Dwayne carry the microphone stand in for me. I was quite happy with my little sound system, it was easy to get it all into the meeting in one trip, and only took about three minutes to set up and get running! No muss, no fuss.

I decided to do a little seminar on, ‘microphone’, technique for the club, after having competed in the Division contest this winter. A mike and stand were provided for the contestants, and the organizers were a little disappointed that no one would use the equipment! Two reasons for that reluctance; we had not been informed that it would be available, and almost no one in the contest had any experience with a mike and stand. I was tempted to be the exception, but, I’d prepared an rehearsed my material knowing that I’d need volume, and was ready to fill the room without amplification. As well, I had all my body language and gestures rehearsed; to take mike in hand at the last minute would mean that I’d have to be re-thinking my entire routine as I presented it. So, to my mind, the last minute use of the mike would be more of a detriment than a compliment to what I’d intended to do.

My little seminar went well, and piqued everybody’s interest. Those who’d never used a mike readily saw how familiarity with the equipment would be essential; those who’d had limited experience in the past didn’t need to be shown! So, it was settled; in the fall we’ll do a few full ‘mike’ sessions, where everyone will be able to try their own material with ‘mike’ in hand. I was happy with my presentation, but, had been weary and not prepared to my satisfaction, the result being that I wandered a little in my material, adding things that I’d not intended to, subsequently not having time to put in some of the stuff I’d wanted in.

I believe that the good people at CBA Toastmasters are still more than perplexed at my ongoing involvement in stand-up comedy, and, while I do indeed have my reasons, I doubt that I could ever explain them to everyone’s satisfaction. But, an example, in my experience is worth way more than a 1000 words, so ...let me see if I can find an example! OK! I think I’ve got one; just over a year ago, a little Toastmasters club was formed in Calgary, dedicated to Stand-up; ‘Wit Pleasure Toastmasters’. There are four major contests each year in Toastmasters; in the last year members of the aforementioned fledgling club won three of them! Almost unheard of for an established, well developed club; absolutely without parallel for a brand new club! I think that that example alone says everything necessary about the contribution of Stand-up experience to both communication and presentation skills!

With that it was time to get my electronic, ‘shit’, together, and head on down to Vangelli’s Town, pausing along the way to pick up a cup of speed! But the ‘cup’ didn’t pick me up! I was quickly nearing the end of my, ‘best before’, timeline! Good weather, poor turn out; there might have been 50 people at Vangelli’s on Wednesday, but, after deducting for staff, comics, and the handful of people at the bar who were there for reasons unrelated to comedy, there may have been 25 in our audience.

The Jester let me go up first, and, what the audience might have lacked in quantity they more than made up for in quality. However, my concentration had hit the dumpster, and, while I got nice, polite laughter, I noticed that I was dropping a lot of lines, and having difficulties configuring my act. So, I pulled the plug after five minutes or so, and headed back to Kinley; on the bright side, I was home by 11:15, and made it to bed by midnight; thats 35 down/65 to go! Toastmasters will soon be done for the year, and that should streamline my agenda somewhat. At the same time, I’m told that the Parktown is commencing a Saturday night ‘open mike’ this weekend. That’s great, three nights a week available now, and, finally, one that I may be ‘fresh’ for.

I’m going to have to put some serious thought into my career path; The money is Ok, the work tolerable, the hours a little longer than I might prefer, and I love having six months off every winter! On the other hand, I am feeling the ‘work’ more than I like to admit, (although my body is unrestrained in its complaints!), the politics of the place are getting me down, and, perhaps most important, I don’t know if, financially, I can survive another winter. I’ll have to start looking into alternatives!