Well, let's take a look at George Burns. He grew up in Vaudeville, honed his act in small towns in front of audiences of many or few, and grew into the part. He fell on his face, figuratively and literally, flubbed lines, forgot lyrics, got laughed off - or booed off - the stage and somehow survived. He developed a style that took him through the early days of Radio, performing with Gracie Allen.
Gracie herself was a Vaudeville veteran who developed her perfect air-head style. She was anything but in real life, a highly intelligent woman who was on top of every nuance of their act.
Sid Caesar, Art Carney, Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle, Jack Benny were all cast in that nightly fire.
Many comics, such as Lenny Bruce, Shelly Berman, polished their acts in the Catskills for vacation audiences for many years before they played Vegas.
The Beatles played many small, dingy pubs in England and Europe before they actually played someplace nice or got any recognition. I caught Peter Tork of the Monkeys at a small coffee house in The Village on an open mic night. There were three other people there besides me. I have also open miked with John Sebastian, Fred Niel, Richie Havens and Robby Basho. All of them honed their talents at open mics or pass-the-hat open stages.
But today, where can you go? Where, George, can one go to be lousy? George replies, “There's no place to be lousy.”
Many would-be performers today believe that they are a finished product, ready for stardom. After all, given the opportunity, the big stage, costumed dancers, hot band and lots of money and drugs, they could be a Brittany or Justin. If only the world would recognize their natural talent! It's so unfair!
No, actually, it's totally fair. Outside of the pre-packaged acts that the industry occasionally brings out, most entertainers are years in the making, doing free shows, open mics, songwriter-in-the-round sessions before half-a-dozen drunks week after week, attending workshops and showcasing everywhere they can get a piece of stage for the length of a song.
The thing I hear more than any other complaint boils down to: Nobody's making opportunities for me to show off my natural and completely stage-ready talent. That's right! It ain't happenin'.
Why? Because, “These days, there's no place to be lousy.”
But there are a few places to be lousy, if you have the guts to go and be lousy. There's Open Mics, Songwriter Workshops and Jams.
NC Songwriters Co-op holds a Song Jam on the second Sunday of each month where you can play your song and get adulation, or not, from your fellow performers and songwriters. You might get a critique. But you can take it or leave it. You can go home and cry about it if you like, if you think that will help. We won't be there to hear you, so - don't care. But if you want a place to be lousy, in order to one day be good, the Song Jam is a place to start.
NCSC holds three open mics each month, go to the website, www.ncsongwriters.org, or open the Independent, there are open mics listed there on practically every night of the week. No one's stopping you from going to every one, it's an “open mic.” Sooner or later someone will notice you and make you a star. Probably later, because all your sooner time will be spent being lousy.
The open mic gives you a chance to play your song, watch the audience and see what kind of response you are getting. Taking a simple tape recorder and going over it later is helpful to some. Are you talking too much, laughing at your own jokes, nervously kicking the mic stand (sending booming thumps through the audience) or mumbling your words so that no one can understand your skillfully written song? Is your audience chatting through your set? Did you lose them from the start or in the middle of the second song? Did you spend your first song tuning? Was your song 25 minutes long, and you did four of them, taking the time from all the rest of the performers? Was your song 25 minutes of inner angst and who cares?
All of these things and more can be discovered while being lousy at Open Mic. So what if they say, “He's lousy!” If you keep doing it, in six months time, the same people will be saying, “He's great! I've been a fan since the beginning!”
NCSC also holds a Song Doctor Workshop on the third Sunday of the month at the Royal Bean coffee shop on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. This is a chance to shake your song out in public and get real, positive and useful feedback. Each songwriter brings enough lyrics for the group (10 sheets will usually do) and performs the song unplugged. Just you and your instrument, unadorned, naked before the world. No amp, no effects, no back-up vocals, no chorus line. The others will listen and follow along with the lyric and you will get feedback on the good points of the song and those that would be better after a bit of thoughtful editing.
In a professional town, such as Los Angeles, where I have experience, some artists will bring the same song month after month, sharpening and honing until it is a smash hit and worth of spending the bucks to get a professional demo made. Such people will often bring a new song and knock everyone's socks off first go, because they have now learned how to craft a song.
So, I'm sorry, Mr. Burns, but you're wrong. Here in North Carolina, there are still a few places to be lousy. And like always, the one's you find there being lousy are the best performers around, because you have to go through being lousy to be good.
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