Magic Moments

• Season Bar, near Woodford Station gig 17 December 2013 my last 2013 gig (so so)
• Lewisham Speakers, Table Topics Master "Magic Moments" went wonderfully
• Place of gig changed, 6 January, first 2014 gig

My new year resolution so far: speak about those "perfect moments" in our life, or better call them Magic Moments?

 the film "Holliday in handcuffs" ended with that phrase told by the heroine of the film."There is no perfect job, perfect family or perfect life, but there are those perfect moments" - we have sometimes to do some crazy thing, go out of our comfort zone, dare, to arrive at some point to those moments, 

• My work was never 100% perfect, sometimes great and other times hellish.
• My family had "some" problems and I had more then one family too.
• My life was "interesting" full with ups and downs, a lot of them.

And yes, I did have some Perfect Moments, Magic Moments (some longer then others) that I do remember now with joy. 

One of my Perfect Moment this year, where the 2 minutes "elevator pitch" I gave to an audience of 80 a Sunday lunchtime in Los Angeles, at the Judy Carter's conference on the Message of You. 

Before me, a few other went, and did exactly as they were told, after the formula we got at the conference the day before. It seemed to me as if they where puppets. Deciding, it is more important to reach the whole audience, instead of the 5 judges I changed the 'rule' and followed my instinct.

I did succeed!  from the beginning (with a story on how officials from the passport control in the LA airport views me) to end (with other short more humorous stories) and I did hold the audience in my hand, charm them, make them react and feel with. It was a perfect moment with the audience!

Just discovered this on Manhattan comedy school - through google search

…But The Jokes Are New!

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Emily Rosenberg
Doing stand-up takes nerves of steel, a thick skin, and lightning-sharp mental reflexes. Maybe that’s why it’s always been a young person’s game, at least when you’re starting out.

Not anymore. Over in the UK, Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival, the longest running festival of its kind in the country, just hosted the first Silver Comedy Stand-Up of the Year competition. The only requirement for eligibility is that comics must be older than 55. Or, their laugh lines must be on their faces as well as in their material.

The event was born after LCF chief Geoff Rowe talked with his mother’s 70-year-old friend, who’d never been to a comedy club and told him, “I’m too old. It’s not for the likes of me.”
George Baddeley, managing director of Silver Comedy, which conducts comedy workshops for mature individuals, said, “You don’t see new people breaking in who aren’t young – this is a chance for them.”

The fact is, a vast number of vaunted comedians are still going strong at AARP-eligible ages, including 69-year-old Billy Connolly, who just last month was voted “most influential comic” in a poll of fans and top stand-ups in the UK.  In 2009, a 75-year-old comic named Grandma Lee was among the 10 finalists on America’s Got Talent. And look how Jackie Mason, Joan Rivers, and Don Rickles are enduring, with careers still thriving in their golden years.

The Silver Comedy contestants included 24 comedians, both veteran and untested, male and female, some as advanced in age as their 70′s and 80′s. After presenting a three-minute set in the first round of review, the final 10 selected had the opportunity to perform before a paying audience of about 100.
The coveted golden microphone went to 63-year-old transsexual–and seasoned stand-up vet–Shelley Bridgman. 

Seventy-seven-year-old Julie Kertesz, who was glad to challenge stereotypes about seniors, was awarded Best Old Newcomer. An immigrant who’d never used profanity before she climbed on a stage, she now acknowledges that four-letter words earn her laughs. Kertesz’s act also includes riffs on senior sex lives and her husband’s fooling around.

Most satisfying of  all had to be the audience reaction that night. As one mere child of 18 reported, “I know it was specifically older comedy, but I didn’t see it as that. I just saw it as good comedy.”

Thanks Emily! The award was : Best Silver Comedy Newcomer 2013.

Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival,Grandma Lee, Julie >

How we remember new things?

The "working memory" is storing new things and connecting it to some old. Alas, it has a limited capacity. Peter Doolittle said we can remember 4 to 7 things "unless we do something about it".

That is very important for us public speakers, storytellers, comedians.

How can we remember, how can we make the audience remember?

The strategies he proposes, all would have to be investigated and spoken separately, he does not have a lot of time for it in this TED talk. But he proposes some of them to us how to process them:

- Process what happens as it happens so we could use it later
- Practice, use them, play with them, repeat them
- Embrace the new as it arrives with old knowledge, connect them
- Use imagery : think in images (that is what come more easy to me)
- Organisation and support: I do not know what he means by that

And of course, he begins with a short story (anecdote) : do you see what happened to him after you listened to this speech? I do as if I was still there on the street with him.

A new tiny camera: from panorama to macro

A new tiny camera, almost lost in my hand, a new Sony Cybershot that I had to buy as my camera broke in Budapest for some reason I do not even understand. But what a joy with a new camera!

It can do a panorama or an image with high resolution from which one can crop this as above. Or it can go near and do a macro picture of a plant or rain drops. Very far, very near, very wide too.

Jane Fonda, life's third act

"We gain wisdom not by having experiences, by reflecting on these experiences."

Going back, understanding them, creating a story and telling them with a meaning, helps too.

Impro, improves also life. Great 10' by Dave Morris

I could not, yet, copy here direct this TEDx speech, but here is a link to it. On the word Way bellow. The positive from impro, improvisation 'way' so well explained.

Dave Morris a great improviser, coach and speaker: 

"impro also improves your life"!

1. Play (for the joy of it)

2. Let yourself fail (accept it, failing does not make you failure)

3. Listen (not just to ready made up answer, willing to change)

4. Say YES (it takes us somewhere, no stops)

5. Say AND (bring your brick, say yes and, not yes but...)

6. Play the game (following rules funnels the creative process)

7. Relax and have fun (yes! Do relax! Do experiment). 

Become comedian at 77, they wrote

Sunday, in the Budapest newspaper Bors. or Borsonline.hu (with another photo)

When a newpaper interview you, they have great photographers that take a photo for it, and this time, Istvàn Moricz has offered me 32 of the photos taken, a treasure! 

At the same time, I was offered, because of this page (a whole page in the journal page 5) another interview on a Hungarian radio station. Yes, not so bad, one leads to another. And so on.