Leaking from the ears...

Today was a strange day on Facebook. Various friends posted three different articles on "creativity". While I disagree with a few of the things they suggest, I found one that amused me and thought relevant to this journal in particular.

And I quote:
"Cohen once showed a card trick to TV magician David Blaine. Blaine loved the trick but hated the presentation, saying it seemed too rehearsed. "People should feel like you're talking to them for the first time," Blaine told Cohen.

Polish your pitches until they're perfect, then add sprezzatura--the Italian concept of studied carelessness. Find ways to come across as organic and accessible, not canned and mechanical.

The poet James Dickey said he prepared 150 drafts of each poem--the first 100 to get it perfect and the last 50 to make it sound spontaneous."

A lot of performers suffer from too practiced. They do something so much it becomes as annoying as whatever phrase restaurants make people who answer the phone say. "Hello my name is so and so, thank you for calling Bob's House of Pork home of the Big Red Monkey Beat Down. How may I begrudgingly help you?"

Don't you hate that? How do you think your audience feels? If you are just going through the motions, stop using those motions... or that script... or that trick. If you are bored with it, they are too.

60,221,211 Italians can't be wrong.