OPEN MIC NIGHT!!!
Last night, Superman and I decided to slip away from the gremlins to a local movie theater/coffee shop in my hometown. Boy, I wish this place had been around when I lived there. It was hopping, cram-packed on a Monday night. And why?
Open Mic night.
I found this out as we were leaving because I ran into the daughter of a friend -- haven't seen her in ages. She's a senior now. Yeah, talk about feeling suddenly old. Anyway, she told me that it's an "anything goes" sort of night, where people read their poetry, play music, whatever they want.
I was tempted to stay, but it was getting late, I was tired, and the reality is...I wasn't sure I could handle it. A bunch of high school and college students reading their poems, doing interpretive dance, playing their songs? I wasn't sure I could sit through it.
But then I thought, as we were driving home, how brave of them. How wonderful to get up in front of an audience and be creative. It doesn't or shouldn't matter, really, if the work is "good" so much as they had the courage to not only CREATE it...but show it off.
So much of what we do as writers is solitary. Sitting at a computer, staring at a screen, making the people in our heads come to life on a page. But how many of us wrote for a long time before we had the courage to share that work with the world? And how many writers never do?
There's something very personal about putting your words out there for everyone to see. Even if the story isn't about yourself, it's still a part of you. It's still from inside. And criticism can be hard, or scary, or hurtful. Yet like those kids getting up in front of the mic, showing off their poems, we send out our stories and novels for judgment.
I still don't think I'd get up in front of a microphone and share with an audience. But next time, I just might stay to watch other people do it.
How about you? Ever done an open mic night? Would you?
M
Well, if I were drunk enough...
Honestly, who knows what could happen? LOL
I have serious stage fright, so it would take a lot of booze. *G* I couldn't even give a speech at my sister's anniversary party, and that was just family. I did manage to read a poem at my nephew's wedding, though it was nervewracking.
I can be a ham in the right circumstances, though, so who knows? Could happen. :)
Sam
I've done a bit of acting,
I've done a bit of acting, on stage and in improv situations, and while I hate to give speeches, acting is different. I don't think I'd like to get up and do an open mic night thing, unless I was doing a skit or something.
That's true
I could do skits, etc, too -- if I am with other people, that's easier. I did some of that stuff in school, too (one college Spanish class where we had to act out the Three Little Pigs in Spanish -- "oh no, no, senor lobo..." LOL).
But I could do a lot of stuff in school I couldn't do in the real world, weirdly -- teaching, of course, or even presentations or defending my MA thesis, etc all that stuff was fine -- academia was comfortable for me, I felt confident there, so I guess that probably helped...
But not in front of my own family, I guess, LOL.
Sam
Stage Fright
Sam, I'm with you...I don't do well in front of strangers. I'm often required to give briefings in front of senior leadership and military types, and it's sheer agony for me (probably for them, too!). But with enough liquor...anything is possible!
LOL! do you think it would
LOL! do you think it would be a good idea to liquor up before an Open Mic night?
I picture myself as the guy in So I Married an Ax Murderer...
"Harriet, Harry-ETT, hard-hearted harbinger of haggis..."
Anyone seen it?
M
HAHAHAHAHAHHAAHA!
That's exactly what I was thinking of!!!!
Hmmm, I would probably want to but wouldn't do it. I'm half-shy, half-ham.
Call me soft bacon.
Dee
Intimidating
I never let anyone read my work until it was published--or nearly so. I had a friend proofread my revisions on the first book. It was just too scary to let friends read my stuff. It's still a little intimidating.
Open mic...I've never done it. I have performed though, doing gymnastic exhibitions at school about 200 years ago when my body bent in ways it doesn't bend now. But to read a poem or an excerpt would be uber intimidating.
Jeannie, I have crit
Jeannie, I have crit partners I trust, but mostly I don't like to let people read my unpolished works, either. And I'm shite with poetry, so I really can't imagine getting up there to share some!
Interpretive dance, I might do.
Heh.
M
I'm all mixed up!
Actually, I do a lot of public speaking. I love giving workshops. I teach people how to use microphones. I play in a band of about 100 people and we perform before hundreds. I've played solos before thousands of people. These I have no problem with. But singing in front of people? Reading my own story or poem? Heck NO!! Or, to quote Sam: "Well, if I were drunk enough...". I write the workshops. I write the speeches. So why is that so different from a poem or story? Maybe because those come from the heart as opposed to the mind? I don't know. Some days it frightens me to look at my own psyche.
Never in a million years...
Uh, OK, maybe slightly before that, but speaking in front of people is one of my worst fears. Even people I know--pathetic, I know! Argh!
Actually..
Isn't public speaking ranked next to death in terms of phobias? LOL
Sam
I think it is!!! M
I think it is!!!
M
I hear ya, EWWWW URGGHH!!!
I hear ya, EWWWW URGGHH!!! AGGHHGHGHG!!!!
Public speaking!!!
blarg!
M
I have never done one, and I
I have never done one, and I don't think I could ever do one.
TOTALLY!
Okay, add to my list of craziness - gets up early and likes it - that I love public speaking. Love it. I would totally do an open mike night (although not some of my more, ahem, romantic scenes).
In high school I was terrified of public speaking, so in an act of total bravado I joined the speech and debate teams. I placed in the top 8 for debate and won several speech categories. I'm quite content making presentations...actually like to do it.
I know, I know...it's like eating bugs.
Margaret
I think, also, it would seem
I think, also, it would seem pretentious of me, maybe, to get up and read from a published work amongst a bunch of high school and college age kids reading their unpubbed stuff. Like I was showing off and not in a good way.
I guess I could read from WIP!
M
Whoa
That's a tough route for feedback, LOL.
Sam
I picture myself all in
I picture myself all in black, with a beret, reading...
"He slipped his tongue between her lips and she grabbed him by the back of the hair until, wincing, he yelped and scooted back on the bed so she could straddle him, then took his ears and rode him like a wild, unbroken pony -- you know, the kind they make swim to Chincoteague, but bigger and without a saddle."
Because that's how my first drafts look.
And everyone in the audience would snap their fingers instead of clap.
M
I would pay admission to be there...
And I would snap. *G* LOL
Sam
I would...
I've done some acting too and speeches. Plus I speak in public all the time, so an open mic thing wouldn't be a big deal. Now, karaoke, that's a whole other story. I can't sing to save my life, so I'd be booed off the stage for sure!
Shirley
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Available Now: SWEETHEART LOST AND FOUND, Book One in the all-new Wedding Planners series!
www.shirleyjump.com or read “Eating my Words”
I LOOOVE Karoake, Shirley!
I LOOOVE Karoake, Shirley! LOVE IT!!!!
M