Where in the world am I today?: Edmonton, AB, Canada
It’s been an interesting week at the Edmonton International Street Performer’s Festival for me. I have so many vivid memories of being at this event and cranking out shows and busting my hump to put money in the bank, but this year has been an entirely different experience for me. My invitation to come to the festival this year was to be a ‘Special Guest’ at the daily ‘Troupe du Jour” shows. These shows typically include between 6 – 8 acts who get together to put on the last show of the evening in the square. This special guest status also came with the caveat that I’d be doing fewer shows during the day than most of the other acts and after all was said and done it ended up averaging out to one show a day in addition to my participation in these evening group shows.
At first it was a very strange sensation to be at the event and working so little and I fumbled with this feeling for the first few days. I simply didn’t feel like I was ‘doing’ enough to justify being at the festival. I just seemed to be talking to the other performers at the festival and having really great conversations, but not really ‘working.’
I had a couple of particularly good chats with Michael Kennard – a.k.a. Mump from the horror clown duo ‘Mump and Smoot.’ Michael and I have know each other for years from what I consider the ‘Hey Days’ of the Edmonton Fringe Festival in the Early 90s and I’ve always had an enormous respect for the work that Michael does. The opportunity that this past week provided to have some really in depth conversations with him about his background, how the Mump and Smoot show developed and some of the journey that he’s been on was wonderful. Also the chance to share some of what’s going on in my head with out feeling that I needed to cut the conversation short to run off to do a show was SUCH a luxury! What a fantastic gift to be able to connect with an artist for whom I have such an enormous respect on a much deeper level and feel like I was able to do more than just skim the surface of a conversation before I needed to redirect my focus.
In the world of having conversations with all of our ‘friends’ on Twitter via 140 characters, it’s been a real pleasure to not have to count my keystrokes or watch the clock. I highly recommend wallowing in the wonder of really connecting with people one on one instead of just trying to reach the far corners of the social network universe.
