"When you fail, never give up. Remember that FAIL is First Attempt In Learning." - sign in high school lobby.
I kept a journal while touring with Circus Kirk in 1976. Charles "Doc" Boas was the founder of the show and our mentor. Here is part of one entry:
June 13 Sunday Wayne, N.J.Performances 2 & 5
"The crowds were small and very unresponsive. They were the worst crowds we have had all season so far. During the first show the elephant went to the bathroom during her act in center ring which brought a laugh. During the finale there is a dramatic moment when the ringmaster says, "Directing your attention to center ring (Pause) the flag of our nation," and a large flag drops from a box hung at the top of the tent. When at the first show he said, "Directing your attention to the center ring," and all the audience saw was a pile of elephant dung they started laughing again. That was the only real laughter we got all day. Non-performing members of our troupe sat in the audience to try to sparkplug applause, but failed. Doc says after playing to this audience we won't ever be afraid to try something and fail."
What Doc meant is that one reason entertainers don't try new material is they are afraid of the lack of audience response if it fails. We had experienced, and survived, an audience that didn't respond.
We had done everything that we could, and we just were not able to connect with this audience for some reason. The fact that it was a small crowd in a tent with a 1,500 capacity may have had something to do with it. Emotions are contagious. If people are seated close together, and one person laughs or applauds, other people will begin to do that. Often when I am in the audience, I will begin applauding trying to cue the rest of the audience. When people are spread out emotions don't spread from one to another as easily. With a crowd that is spread out, people may be reluctant to applaud because if they are the only one clapping it will draw the attention of the rest of the audience.
When we consider something a failure, we are often quick to discard it. However, the failure may actually be a solution. Herb Camburn taught several of the technical theater classes I took at California State University - Long Beach. He frequently referred to happy accidents. What he meant was being able to take advantage of something you didn't expect. For example, I was trying to paint a pillar for a set so it would look like marble. The pillar was lying on the floor of the scene shop. The paint kept running on the curved surface so I couldn't get the desired effect. I got frustrated and asked Herb for his help. He noticed that I had spread some old muslin fabric under the pillar to absorb spilled paint, and the spilled paint was close to the marble appearance I was trying to achieve. So we spread out the fabric, I finished the imitation marble process, and then we glued the fabric to the pillar. We used the same process for the rest of the pillars on the set and finished them in a lot less time than expected.
This past weekend I was drawing the instructional diagrams for my new Entertain with Origami lecture notes. I intended to fold a traditional origami model known as a water bomb. A water bomb forms a cube. I made a mistake and it formed a four sided pyramid. I was tempted to throw it away. However, it was a shape I had not seen in origami before. So the first thing I did was try to fold another pyramid so I could repeat it. Artist and clown Don Weed said, "While happy accidents happen to both amateurs and professionals, the professional figures out how to do it again."
In repeating the pyramid, I realized what I had done differently. That actually helped me understand the cube shape better so I will have an easier time remembering how to do that model as well. So that in itself was a learning experience.
Then I began experimenting with the pyramid shape. I have already discovered some interesting possible uses for it. I am looking forward to exploring its potential further.
How can you gain the courage to risk failure? How can you use failure as a learning experience?
