The memories of seeing these two lovely young creatures are among my favorites, to be sure. I have other memories of tiny little encounters with or glimpses of people I've admired - Tim Curry, Tom Arnold, Jodie Foster. Even a couple of actual flirtations, lol - maybe I'll post about those sometime.
As to the storytelling, the jobs that were getting me actual income were for children, doing shows around the Southland for the public school and library systems. Those paid incredibly well, about $200 a show, and made it possible for me to take time and really concentrate on improving my performance, since just a handful of shows a month would set me up. My target audience was between 7-10 years old, old enough to understand the stories but not old enough to be jaded and resistant. It was an amazing experience getting to influence minds that young and open. I still treasure the two "books" of notes from a pair of elementary school classes that I told to that summer - they came in the mail completely unexpectedly, page after page of thanks written in big childish hands on that hugely lined "learning to write" paper, some with little drawings. The day I told there, I was surrounded afterwards by all the kids who wanted to hug me and say thanks. It's just an indescribable feeling.
I also occasionally did shows for adult audiences, and much as I loved telling to kids, this is where my heart really was. In telling for adults, I could really let loose and use all the tools I'd learned in the acting I did. I would act in my children's shows too, of course - the kids LOVED that - but I couldn't hit any real depth there. In the adult shows I did, however. You know what my fics are like, now imagine seeing someone telling you stories like that with full-bore emotional interpretation. I did some very heavy stuff, including a re-interpretation of the story of the Levite's concubine from the biblical book Judges, and my own greatly expanded dramatic re-telling of Jabberwocky, from the point of the view of the little boy who kills the monster. Jesus, it was SO MUCH FUN to draw an audience in, spin them around and around and then sock them in the gut. It was glorious, holding them in the palm of my hand. Yes, I hope against hope I'll be able to do that again.
I'm lucky that I actually have a recording of one of my shows. Now that I have a little bit of money, I'm thinking I'll send the tape to a guy I know who does DVD conversions, so I can be sure it survives. If that ends up happening, I'll probably convert the show to .avi and post it so people can see what I was doing back then.
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As to the storytelling, the jobs that were getting me actual income were for children, doing shows around the Southland for the public school and library systems. Those paid incredibly well, about $200 a show, and made it possible for me to take time and really concentrate on improving my performance, since just a handful of shows a month would set me up. My target audience was between 7-10 years old, old enough to understand the stories but not old enough to be jaded and resistant. It was an amazing experience getting to influence minds that young and open. I still treasure the two "books" of notes from a pair of elementary school classes that I told to that summer - they came in the mail completely unexpectedly, page after page of thanks written in big childish hands on that hugely lined "learning to write" paper, some with little drawings. The day I told there, I was surrounded afterwards by all the kids who wanted to hug me and say thanks. It's just an indescribable feeling.
I also occasionally did shows for adult audiences, and much as I loved telling to kids, this is where my heart really was. In telling for adults, I could really let loose and use all the tools I'd learned in the acting I did. I would act in my children's shows too, of course - the kids LOVED that - but I couldn't hit any real depth there. In the adult shows I did, however. You know what my fics are like, now imagine seeing someone telling you stories like that with full-bore emotional interpretation. I did some very heavy stuff, including a re-interpretation of the story of the Levite's concubine from the biblical book Judges, and my own greatly expanded dramatic re-telling of Jabberwocky, from the point of the view of the little boy who kills the monster. Jesus, it was SO MUCH FUN to draw an audience in, spin them around and around and then sock them in the gut. It was glorious, holding them in the palm of my hand. Yes, I hope against hope I'll be able to do that again.
I'm lucky that I actually have a recording of one of my shows. Now that I have a little bit of money, I'm thinking I'll send the tape to a guy I know who does DVD conversions, so I can be sure it survives. If that ends up happening, I'll probably convert the show to .avi and post it so people can see what I was doing back then.