|
* Photos above from Fray Cafe in Austin, Texas. Were you there? What is fray day? Fray Day is an annual event brought to you by the storytelling website {fray} that takes place in cities all around the world on the same weekend. Each event features interactive art, featured performers, and a storytelling open mic. [Press release.] Other stuff: » Frequently Asked Questions Donate to Fray Day
|
|
Wrapping up Melbourne I got the shakes at 3:45pm. I'd just taken the box of t-shirts and other associated Fray Day gear up to the venue, and I was returning home to begin preparing my notes for the introduction, as well as notes for my story to open. I started shaking uncontrollably as the first batch of nerves set in. I'd never really spoken in public before, let alone hosted an event where I was going to be repeatedly getting up on stage to introduce wave after wave of stories. I thought back to the middle of the year when I first posted a message to groupmonkey to see if anyone else would be interested in helping staging a Fray Day in Melbourne, and I am now convinced I had at the time, ingested some sort of hallucinogenic compound. WHAT THE HELL WAS I DOING!!! I'm a writer for crying out loud. I'm supposed to shy away from social encounters and spend my days hunched over a keyboard squinting at a screen. How the hell was I gonna possibly handle being an MC for this thing? Fortunately, it seemed a few others had ingested this same hallucinogenic compound, as shortly after, daniel shot back a message saying he was keen. A few days later and Miss Pea joined the ravel, and then soon after that, Loobylu came to the party too. Organising one's first Fray Day is something of a saga, possibly worth a Fray story at some point. But let's get back to the day. It was 3:45pm and I was a pile of jelly. It really didn't matter what I thought of to calm my nerves, nothing worked. I sat down and listened to the broadcast streaming in from San Francisco for the better part of an hour. The distraction did the trick. At 5:00pm I loaded myself up with cameras and printed paraphernalia. Every pocket was filled to brimming and I had two camera bags, two tripods, a backpack and a large cardboard box slung over my shoulders and in my arms. I looked like a gypsie. After walking up a long, steep hill, I was waiting at traffic lights, three blocks from the venue, when I heard a sound. The sound of little bits of cardboard being teased by the wind and dancing across the pavement. Glancing over my shoulder I spotted my cue cards dancing down the street. Somehow they'd worked their way out of my back pants pocket and were off and away. After chasing them down, I had to unload everything I was carrying so I could pick the cards up, reassemble them, stash them, and then load myself up again. When I arrived at the venue, dan and daniel were there, setting up the sound gear. Miss Pea was lurking somewhere, shortly to return. Rob arrived. I'd brought every conceivable cable I could lay my hands on, from power cords to audio cables and power boards...except one, the one we needed to feed audio from the deck to the Mini-Disc. So I headed off again in search of a payphone to call my brother and tell him to bring the required cabling with him when he came down. On my way out the door I patted my pocket to make sure my cue cards were there. They weren't. Back to the venue. Not there. The search for the payphone to get the audio cable became the search for the cue cards enroute to the payphone to get the audio cable. I got the shakes again. There was no way I'd be able to remember what I was going to say without my cards (and, as it turned out, remembering people even WITH the cue cards was a challenge). After a time I decided I'd have to wing it, and headed for the payphone. As I rounded the corner I saw a small pile of paper sitting in the middle of the main street of North Melbourne. My cue cards. Saved. The band arrived and began setting up. Dan and daniel had done their final sound checks. Claire and Phil arrived. The door was set up. The opening programme was looking a touch thin, with only myself and perhaps two other storytellers there. Tatiana signed up for the Open Mic the minute she got there. The Open Mic was starting to take shape. The Brass Bed kicked in as one storyteller after another arrived. Now all we needed was an audience. Sitting at the front, watching the band play, I didn't dare turn around lest I see an empty room, but as the photos illustrate, it was actually quite full. I rely on the photos to tell me who was there and in what numbers, because the minute I stepped up to take the mic, I developed tunnel vision, and the shakes kicked into overdrive. My hands were sweating. How was I gonna be able to hang onto the microphone? I could just picture it. Every time I went to speak I'd grab onto the mic and it'd slip out of my hands and I'd look like a real goose. I've heard it said that something like 90% of people would rather die than talk publicly. I can vouch for that feeling. I'm still waiting to hear the audio and watch the video to tell whether or not I was actually making any sense. I started telling my double-pronged story, not bothering to look at my cue cards for some time. When I did, I wished I hadn't, I was shaking so much I couldn't read them anyway, and I lost my place in the story. I vaguely remember seeing a few facial expressions as I described my first efforts at interior decoration, followed by a detailed description of marsupial defecation. I got to the end of the story thinking, 'Yes! Saved! I can get off stage!'...except, no-one seemed to quite catch on that the story was done. It may have only been a millisecond, but it certainly felt like an eternity. 'Okay, what do I do now? Ah yes, introduce the next reader you moron, and get the fuck off stage.' As we churned through the first batch of stories, it was clearly evident who had read or spoken in public before. Some people are just natural born show ponies. Yes, Mr Miller, I am referring to you :) Suddenly the first program was over and I was starting to feel a little more relaxed. The tunnel vision still hadn't cleared, but at least the shakes had stopped. The Brass Bed wound up another half hour of smokey tunes, and aptly so, as the function from next door were outdoing Patti and Selma, and it was all blowing in to us. Still, we kept going, and the Open Mic began. Five readers. Out of fifty or so, not the best participation rate, but it turned out to be fortuitous as the venue closed at 11:00pm. Dan was evidently feeling the nerves as much as I had been, and thankfully he got back up there at the end. Well done Dan, it was a cool song! Tatiana and Tim improvised a poem/trombone combination, followed by Rob's surreal recollections of joining the foreign legion. Then Robyn got up, and took us through the first few steps of recovery from being an NSYNC junkie (admitting the problem), followed by Fiona, and Paul, who delivered some handy tips on what to do when you're on a game show. I'd barely sat down from introducing Michael to the stage when he'd finished and I had to get up there again. Dan came back to the stage, unplugged, and this time got through Solitaire without so much as a sneeze. The packup was quick, and I *think* everyone had a good time. Audio and video will be up shortly. Big thanks to daniel, Peta, and Claire for chiming in from the start, Dan and Lucas, and Rob, and of course, Derek. There were things I would do differently, of course, if I were to do another one. It's always a gamble when you invite people to read their work, unseen. It's a gamble for both. You don't know whether the stories they tell will be great, and they don't know how the audience will react. The important thing is getting up there and giving it a go! Reading to an audience, regardless of it's size or your experience, is bloody hard. So a big thumbs up to all those who got up in front of the mic on the night Feel free to add your comments here.
|
|
Fray Day 5 took place
Grand Rapids >>> Minneapolis >>>
Austin >>> Boston >>> Burlington >>> Cincinnati >>> Kyoto >>> San Francisco >>>
Los Angeles >>> Melbourne >>> 
Search entries: |
|
