ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Sorry Bob, you'll have to translate that cryptic post for me!

Cheers
David

He'll have to down some more rums before he can translate.

The audience up so close that you can see the white in their eyes


Or set up on a big screen so that you can just perform for the masses and concentrate on the actions.



This idea of putting a stage about 20 meters from the audience is not the way to operate.

I had one the other day with a country music club and they said the area was for people to line dance if they wanted ? so I just grabbed the roving mike and went down to the crowd.

Bob

Getting up close and personal with your audience - I can see how that would work - establish a feeling of intimacy and almost instantly you create a rapport or connection.

Specially with the shielas Maureen

Ah, that explains it. I didn't realise you were responding to Neville's comments about audience seating. It raises an interesting issue. When presenting, I like to be close to the audience, but as an audience member I'd rather be well back...I don't want a performer just a few feet away, and wouldn't be surprised if quite a few people felt like that. There can be a risk in invading the "space" of audience members, and possibly causing discomfort with that level of intimacy. I can't fully appreciate and enjoy what a performer is doing unless I'm some distance away, so you'll usually find me sitting up the back.

That's one problem with a circular arrangement. If the people either side of you are doing something, you can't really take it in properly. If it's a small group it's handy to be able to move around so you're not immediately in front of the same people all the time. Of course, some venues (Tamworth, for example) are so large that a stage and microphone are needed to keep you both visible and heard.

Chers
David

Bonza discussion! Some thoughts on audiences: (There is a point to all of this....& I think it's funny. So plough on.....)

The toughest gig I ever did ...was last century sometime.... It was at the Queensland Art Gallery for the opening of The Arthur Streeton exhibition. I was fairly new to the scene and mildly terrified. Dingo Dryden was also engaged and he happily wandered around strumming and singing his beaut Aussie songs....easy az. However, these were arty farties clutching their wine to their bosoms, and huddled in little groups emitting ooh's and aah's, and chatting feverishly amongst themselves. I was required to 'mingle' and wax lyrical. Mingle? Ok. What were my options? To suddenly appear on the clustered fringe of these folks and hope someone noticed me?...doubtless wondering who this auschlander was. It occurred to me to sling a camera around my neck. That woulda worked! But I didn't have one to hand. There was only one option open to me and that was....horror of horrors...to barge in and forcefully interrupt their intellectual babblings. So I did. Time and again. (There were a lot of groups.) Thank the Lord in His heaven it worked.

Then I spotted Gough Whitlam with Dean Wells...and forcefully attacked! Mr Wells was clearly delighted, but Gough (towering over me by about 4 feet) tolerated me for a while, and then disposed of me. (That put a right damper on my then political aspirations.) But the most fun I had was when I spotted my then husband's psychiatrist. (It was so his MD!!) During visits to him I would occasionally be required to sit in as well. He looked like a penguin in his immaculate black suit and white shirt. (He had a big nose and a little cap on his close cropped curly hair... yeah?) All I ever saw him do was nod, and say 'yes?' (and raise an obscene invoice for this pleasure.) I was so moved by his Royal manner that I had written a poem about him, called 'Psychosemantics.' Well! Here was my chance for revenge. I bailed him up and launched into it. The poem begins with 'I went to see a shrink about a problem in my head...' Oooh ha haaa. He was utterly bewildered (he had no idea who I was, because as I already noted, he'd only seen me a few times.) And blow me down if he didn't nod and say 'Yes?'!!!

So this little missive has inspired me to suggest that one way we could possibly learn heaps from each other (re this current thread of David's) is to create a thread on 'My worst gig ever!' Wotchareckon?

Hopefully my worst gig experience demonstrates that there's more than one way to skin a cat. That even when you are presented with a seemingly impossible situation, if you dig in, and believe in yourself, and devise a confident response, you may be surprised at just how much ability you do have! In my view making a comedy routine (as per above) and sharing it with your audience, is something that would relax them, and encourage them to respond positively. Even though we are seen as somewhat 'odd', with our versifying skills, they dooo want to know what makes us tick. And they are always relieved to find that we are human beings with similar 'insecurities' to all of them. I think that this is why Shelley's positive outcome was so successful....and gained us at least a few extra poets.

Outta popcorn.....xx

Well,don't let this run out of steam now. The best read I've had in ages.

Love your story Glenny!

I'm game to carry on the subject - as you suggest - I have started a separate thread "My Worst Gig Ever ..."

Cheers
Shelley

Oh goodonya Shelley & thanks. I didn't know if others would find it as amusing as I did....albeit after the fact. I look forward to reading about our poet's worst nightmares.... (I think we all survived them ok & maybe toughened up because of them.)