Thursday, October 01, 2009

What's bogging you down from being your best?

Here's a loaded question. What's bogging you down from being the best entertainer that you can be? Think hard. It's interesting when I ask myself this question I come up with multiple answers. I'm going to list 3 things in my life that are a problem and also identify the top 10 that could stop you from being the best entertainer, ventriloquist, magician, singer, whatever......

My top 3 are TV, motivation and organization. Those are not in any specific order but they are all 3 major problems in my life. If I can get control of all 3 of these I could guarantee that my performance and my booking could drastically improve. Let's look at each one at a time.

TV

Here's a little assignment I want you to try. Grab a piece of paper and mark it at the top, "My TV Time Sheet" and then as you sit down to watch Heroes, House or any reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond mark the time you start and the time you finish. Not just with those 3 shows, anytime you watch TV whether it be watching sports, the news or just some form of entertainment. After a week add up your total time in front of the boob tube. If that's not an eye opener I don't know what is. We waste more time in front of the TV then anything else (with maybe the exception of Facebook!) Try to limit your TV input to 2 hours a day to start off with. Then drop it 1/2 hour as you see fit. You will be surprised at how much more time you will have on your hands.

Motivation

This may sound silly to many of you out there but I just don't have the motivation to practice and work on new routines. I work full time for AutoTrader.com and make pretty good money doing that. I love ventriloquism and magic but it is more of a hobby for me than a career. I doesn't pay the bills. That being said, I would love to, one day, be able to perform full time and have entertainment be my number one source of income. But, do I desire it enough to make the time to practice and market myself? Obviously not. And that is the shame of it. I just don't have the motivation to do it and this is one of my major downfalls. I pray that I find the motivation because I really do enjoy performing. Interesting that I know a few people who have entertained their whole life and that's was their motivation. To be in front of people constantly. One example of this is Johnny "Ace" Palmer. I remember the first time I saw John perform, I think he was 14 and I was 13. We were performing together at the same church. While I performed ventriloquism and a little magic, his total emphasis was on magic. Nothing spectacular at the time. I remember he was performing with some adult at the time and used a lot of self working tricks like the lotta bowl. A few years later I saw John at our church. They hired him to perform and I got together with him after the show and we talked and realized that we had performed together when we were younger. I think John was 16 at the time. Interesting thing was that John was then performing at the Ground Round, a restaurant in our area, as Bingo the Clown doing close-up magic. He performed every weekend and I think in the middle of the week sometimes. Talk about getting lots of practice. John eventually won many awards performing close-up and is even a headliner 2 times a year at The Magic Castle! I told this story to say this. John had the motivation to do this. It was his income and, I think, he even helped his family out when he was younger with the money he got for performing. John is a great example of someone who could set goals and reach them. He's also a great example of what motivation can do for a person. I hope to have better motivation in the future.


Organization

This is no surprise to my wife, Sue. She would tell you in a heart beat. I'm not an organized person. I have no rhyme or reason to how I do most of what I do. My office is usually a disaster and if I ever actually scheduled time to do anything I think Sue would have a heart attack. I do things as they come and, usually, when time is running out. I could schedule a show a year in advance and would not practice until a day before the show. Terrible I know, but I'm being truthful here. I'm not an organized person. You would think with the money I have invested in computers and technology that I would at least be organized but, no, I've got a long way to go to be organized. I guess that procrastination could be another word for it but we will stick with organized.

So those are my top 3. Let's make a list of 10 in no specific order as to why you may not be your best in the entertainment industry and be honest with yourself.

  1. TV
  2. Organization
  3. Motivation
  4. Fear
  5. Arrogance
  6. Time
  7. Money
  8. Procrastination
  9. Confusion
  10. Family / Friends
If you can come up with some other reason comment on this blog or email me at danieljay@thefamilyvent.com would love to hear your input! Until later happy venting and I hope you will be able to be the best you can be!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

Anonymous said...

You have really great taste on catch article titles, even when you are not interested in this topic you push to read it

Anonymous said...

It is useful to try everything in practice anyway and I like that here it's always possible to find something new. :)