I was listening to this U2 song this morning on the good old radio (seeing as our entire collection of CDs got left in Melbourne when we moved from there a couple of years ago – it’s a long story and one that makes me sad to recount. Ergo…I’ll move on shall I?) and it got me thinking.
One of the BEST things I learned in terms of watching stand-ups, improvisers and other performers in the States was how the best ones have an incredible ability to let go of the previous moment and move forward to the next. i.e. if a joke bombs or they don’t get as huge a laugh as they might have hoped for, they don’t waste time beating themselves up about it and thus let it ruin the rest of their performance purely by thinking ‘I’m crap and the audience hates me’…they just forget about it, ‘walk on’ and put 100% into the next bit.
Which seems not only a good lesson in performance terms (I’m actually trying to put it into practice right now, having just finished an audition which I have no idea as to whether it was a grand golden nugget or a squishy dog turd) but in terms of life.
Cos – and here’s where I get gorgonzola-like – I like to think of a moment of failure like a piece of chewing gum that you’ve dropped on the footpath.
Now, the fact is you’ve dropped it. You can’t change that. But…you do have a choice as to where to from here.
You can either : – pick it up, put it in the bin and then keep on walking; OR – step on it, and continue walking – but then your entire walking experience is lessened by the fact that you have disgusting gum on your shoe making you stick to the footpath. That, and now your breath stinks.
Okay, a sucky metaphor, but one that should be chewed over. (Hehe, sorry I’m having one of those ‘dad joke’ days).
Anyway, the point is, in the words of Bono: WALK ON!!!!
Jenny’s self-help book “The Chewing Gum Within: Finding the Taste that Really Lasts” will be available from all half-decent book stores in 2007. Each book comes with a free packet of Spearmint – so you can freshen your breath and your zest for life in the one sweet movement. Hurry: only while stocks last.