Ya want a war story?

I read at this open mike at the Baggot Inn one Saturday afternoon in
December '98 in New York. A poet named Peter Chelnik. tells me he liked what
I did and that they're having this reading on Tuesday nite in New Jersey and
asks me if I want to go.  I said sure.

I was just up there for a couple of weeks.  I didn't know Peter or another
single soul in New York but Cheryl Boyce Taylor.  I got to thinking.  New
Jersey.  Isn't that where they dump bodies and bump people off?

Tuesday night I'm waiting on a corner in the Village for them to pick me up.
They pick me up.

We ride to Elizabeth New Jersey.  A place called Joe's basement.  Again, I
no nobody there.  Only met Peter once before.  There is an open mike
segment.  I step in the men's room preparatory to reading.  Inside is this
300 pound brother wearing overalls and sunglasses.  It is night.  He shouts
"If I don't get on tonight I'm going to shoot somebody in the face!"

This does not help the butterflies.  When it's time for me to go on this guy
is sitting right down at the foot of the stage.  Looking up at me.  Okay.

I usually try to dramatize my poetry.  Put in some gestures.  This night I
just read the poem. Just looked at it and read the poem.

When I was finished, this guy was the first to run over to me and say how
much he liked what I did.

Stage fright?  Butterflies?  They last until you start reading.  Use the
energy, ride it. Surf it like a wave.  Churchill said that when he didn't
have butterflies his efforts were "pedestrian"

To quote Helen Hagemann, "Read and Be Damned!"

Break a leg, kid!

Chris Hayden
>From: Clayton Hansen <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: stage fright
>Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2000 16:02:50 +1000
>
>Frank,
>
>Thanks very much Frank.  I placed the ball in Hugh's court because he was
>game/secure enough to raise it in a tongue-n-cheek sort-o-way about his
>past
>experiences.
>
>I dare say, that as a thread, it could shed some rather fun anecdotes from
>those
>more experinenced at readings/performance or, rather, war stories, tough
>crowds,
>I-remember-whens, etc.
>
>The Queensland Poetry Festival is on next week and I'm reading there,
>haven't a
>clue what to expect, exciting!  So thanks Frank - great advice I'm sure to
>use
>before steppin' out.
>
>Clayton
>
>Frank wrote:
>
> > Dear Clayton,
> >
> > Pardon me, please, I know your question regarding public reading was
> > directed to Hugh and surely he can address stage jitters.
> > One bit of advice I got early on about once you're up there and begin
> > reading is to read aloud about half as slow as you think you sound.
>Nervous
> > tension has a tendency to make a reader speed through all of those
>carefully
> > chosen words (the poems). Allow for pauses, silences and rhythms. Own
>the
> > space, it's okay, you were invited.
> >
> > I've even gone for a walk in the woods or on the beach reciting the
>poems,
> > feeling them in mouth from my diaphragm, experiencing the rhythms,
>sounds,
> > pauses, breathing. It's in the poems, those notations not unlike music.
> >
> > you'll do great...
> > -fp
> > ***************
> > Frank Parker
> > [log in to unmask]
> > http://now.at/frankshome
>

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