"Do Something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn't, do something else." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt
There is currently a lot of talk about New Year's Resolutions, using the new calendar year to start over and change something about your life.
However, as you look back it is important to also decide what you want to continue. It is all too easy to forget what has worked for you in the past.
During a recent period when I felt like I was under a lot of stress I realized that I hadn't worked on a jig saw puzzle in a while. Working on a jig saw puzzle is very relaxing to me. I got out a puzzle I had started but not completed. As I worked on it, the feeling of stress faded away. I had forgotten that solving a puzzle is a good way for me to counter stress.
For many years Carole and I performed at the Seattle Ronald McDonald House every other month. It was an event that we both enjoyed. For a variety of reasons we had gotten out of the habit of doing it in the last couple of years. So although fitting it into our schedule has been a challenge, we have resumed every other month visits to the house this winter. Returning to that venue has been a blessing to us. During our most recent visit many photos were taken during my act. However, they weren't taken of me. The parents were taking pictures of their children laughing and smiling. It was a great reminder to me that my performances are about the audience and not about me. It also reaffirmed the value of what I do as a clown.
Roosevelt's thought is also the key to my clown performances. I always have more routines prepared than I will need and choose which ones I perform based on audience response. My opening is always the same, but as I get to know the audience I change the next routines based on their reaction. I appeared in a vaudeville style variety show this past weekend. I did strolling entertainment during the preshow period. My close up magic seemed to be particularly well received. I also did my version of Otto Griebling's famous warm up routine of getting different parts of the audience competing in applauding my juggling. The start of the show was delayed due to the number of people still in line at the ticket booth. So, I returned to the stage to entertain those who had been waiting for the show to start. I performed an audience participation routine where I do things wrong and try to follow instructions from the audience to correct them. That was extremely well received. So before my act I reset the props for a couple of my routines to increase the amount of audience interaction.
When I started my act in the second half of the show, the audience interaction routines went very well. My juggling got a good response. In the middle of my act, I realized that response to the audience interaction was dropping off. It had already been a long night for the audience and I think they may have been getting tired. I cut back on the interaction in the rest of that routine because it was not working as well as before. I had a juggling routine planned next, but I sensed the audience had seen enough of my juggling. (When I planned my act I had not anticipated juggling during the preshow.) I needed to do something different. I remembered how well the magic had been received earlier. So I substituted two comedy magic routines with scarves for the juggling routine. It was the right decision. As I performed the magic the laughter began to build and swell. I then performed my planned finale, keeping that routine short because I wanted to leave the audience remembering laughing at the magic. When I took my final bow I got a tremendous ovation from the audience.
What have you done in the past that you should continue because it worked?
How can you use this concept in performance? How can you build flexibility into your performances? How can you have alternate routines ready? How can you use audience feedback to direct what you do? How can you tell what is working? How can you continue doing that? How can you tell when it is time to do something different?
