Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
Not knowing what was going to happen next… Especially in a performance situation used to scare the crap out of me! I got very very good at knowing exactly what was going to happen next and didn’t stray much from the pre-established script that was working so well for me. The funning thing with sticking with the script though was that my shows became too predictable. I reached a plateau where the difference between my highs and my lows was pretty minimal and the audience reaction to what I was doing was pretty consistent.
Boring!
Around the same time that I became cognsant that my shows weren’t providing the creative spark to really keep me excited about my performance was about the same time that I realized that some of my favorite shows and favorite performers seemed to take risks with out fully knowing that the outcome would be.
I watched these shows with great interest and envied the way that the performers inside these shows seemed to be willing to throw caution to the wind somehow knowing that it would all work out. I had a conversation with Rob Torres at one point many years ago in which I indicated that I thought he knew some sort of secret that he wasn’t sharing with me that made such risk taking less scary.
I’m not sure I fully know the secret (if in fact there is one) but it’s sort of like ‘The Dragon Scroll’ in Kung-fu Panada… The secret ingredient is that there isn’t any secret ingredient. What makes it possible to take these risks and succeed seems to be the simple faith and confidence in your ability to make it work no matter what happens. The greater this confidence, the further out on a limb you’re willing to venture not knowing or having a sense of what the outcome might be.
The bigger the risk, the bigger the pay off. This isn’t an easy path to walk, but your highs will be higher even though your lows might be lower. One thing’s for sure though… Your peaks and valley’s will make for a more interesting adventure.
