One of the upsides to not being able to perform live at present has been reconnecting with my audiences via Zoom. Since lockdown began I have given four half-hour presentations of chat, comedy & song (accompanied by my trusty ukulele, Betsy) to audiences I have previously met and reached out to at the start of our isolation period.
The half-hour presentation is followed-up by a Q&A session for anyone who wants to participate, and the entire experience has been a tremendously enlightening one for somebody who’s work is so intrinsically linked with there being ‘no fourth wall’ between the audience and performer.
I have had to find new ways to include audience participation, find ‘stooges’ for the purposes of comedy, and create the alchemy I so long to create with a group of disparate people who all choose to congregate in a room together with myself at the helm.
There have been some steep learning curves – don’t use your phone as the device you Zoom from if you can help it – find out why in my recent vlog: https://youtu.be/baAULFm1Wbs.
However, overall I must say I’m delighted to have the opportunity to connect with people via the Zoom platform and, hopefully, bring some fun & laughter into living rooms during this difficult time.
Not that it’s any kind of replacement for live entertainment, of course. And today, I am buoyed by the discussions about trialling live theatre indoors once more from August 1st.
But in the meantime, and for those that wont want to venture out to a theatre just quite yet, I would be delighted to hear from any other groups – big or small – that would like me to help bring them together online.
