I live with my business manager. That means that someone else is living inside of my head when it comes to business.
I read him the opening paragraphs of this blog, and he pointed out to me that I am...what is the word...antiquated.
He disagrees that's what he said, but that is an apt description of what I had written - oh, and I've erased it so you will never know how right he was. Trust me. He was very right.
I think of storytelling in a very specific way. I love the way I think about it, and I love the way I have always done it.
I would never have called myself the "old guard" in a million years. And yet, I think I have been living in the past million years.
Why do I say that? Well, I was thinking about storytelling - this business I love - as becoming a hybrid of some kind. Like the Tigon or the Liger, but that is not what has happened.
The David pointed out that we are evolving.
"Take Netflix," he said, "When it began, you rented DVDs and sent them back without a fee - they were competing with the big name in the industry - Blockbuster! Now, you stream their content, and Blockbuster, which had a very successful but static business model, died almost immediately."
"That's true," I said.
"Think of Disneyplus," he continued. "You used to buy their videos one at a time, now, you can watch them all in one place. Technology is evolving everything. It is also evolving storytelling."
hmmm
I can't say I like this idea, but I can see that it is/has happened. We, as storytellers, are evolving. Some of us are doing it kicking and screaming, and as my friend,
Caroline Welkin is like to say of me, "whinging".
Evolving???
I don't want to evolve! Can't this new nonsense wait until I am very old and very dead? Who has time for all of this evolving?
What does it even mean???
I think it means Rachel Hedman has been so far ahead of the game that we can't even see her dust. Luckily, she has been dropping breadcrumbs. Check her out.
The David is still complaining about my use of the antiquated. He came into the bedroom as I was typing this. I read him my new opening, and he once again objected.
Then he said, "Well if you are going to be that way about it, I'm going to get all Meta on you."
"Go for it."
"The modality of storytelling has always changed. The first humans probably used the rocks and sticks to sing or share the first stories. They used rock walls to "write" the first stories. They switched to word of mouth for generations before moving to the printed word. Now, you are virtual. You have always been evolving. This isn't new."
I informed him I was going to write that down and he abruptly left the bedroom muttering something about going back to his desk before he got into more trouble for trying to be helpful.
Now I really feel like a dinosaur.
That doesn't mean I'm not trying to face this strange new world.
I have learned a great deal about virtual performance which is why I am pretty dang sure I know next to nothing about it.
Here are some things I think I know.
1. Virtual performance is never going away -
The number of venues that could never afford to transport, house, and feed me that are suddenly able to afford a show is astounding. I have been able to work with venues all over the world that I could never have managed to visit! Post COVID, I imagine that will still be true. Not only that, I have tons of shows available online that will still be there after the pandemic ends, and we intend to keep marketing them.
2. The Pre-recorded shows are doing well -
One of my favorite business ideas is "making money in your sleep". For some kinds of artists, this is tricky. We do our best, but it is not so easy. Selling merch is the only way we do that in the storytelling world. As an author, passive income happens when people buy your books. For the first time, my business has a "storytelling" angle for passive income. Basically, we turn shows "off" and "on" with a password. It requires very little effort on The David, and the shows run for a week. Every single school can decide how they use that material over the course of the week.
3. Live Virtual is not as fundamentally odd to some schools
Since some school districts had already had distance learning as part of their set-up, virtual storytelling is not as odd to them as it was to most of us. I am hearing about teaching artists who are engaging with this format, as well as many other types of performers. Some of you have become masters of this work, playing with cameras and getting effects you could not do without the video. I have created several one-woman shows and hour-long stories that are specifically designed for a camera. It is the first deep character work I've done in years!
4. Despite the vaccine, there is a good chance we won't be able to be in person until the fall.
I think it is reasonable to expect that we won't be in schools until the fall of 2021. So, start planning your summer virtual programs right now.
5. Work and work-flow has changed, and it may not go back to the way it was - I blame Zoom
For all of my storytelling life, arranging shows was pretty standard. Venue calls, they talk to The David, they arrange a time and sometimes a theme, and then we are golden. Now? Now people are realizing that the virtual landscape offers all sorts of options that a single live human being cannot accomplish. The end result is that after an initial phone call, The David is finding himself in Zoom meetings arranging more and more elaborate types of performance schedules for school districts! We just booked nine "live" shows over the course of five months for all different times for multiple aged audiences that will take place at times ranging from 10 am to 7:30 at night! Everyone in the district will have the option of watching any of the shows they'd like, and all of them will be publicized like a tour. The more school districts, library systems, and venues start thinking about what can be done without me having to move from place to place, the more ambitious they are becoming! Brave new world indeed!
6. I am still torn about live virtual shows, but it doesn't matter because I'm doing them
7. Some platforms are terrible, but you just deal
8. We are going to have to really watch the schedule to make sure I don't burn myself out.
Without needing to factor in travel time, you can work every single day and be in different places from Maine to Nevada on the same day! I had a looney day a few weeks ago where I was in Connecticut in the morning, Scotland in the afternoon and California in the evening. That's cool, but that doesn't mean the work isn't still tiring.
Speaking of tiring...
9. It isn't less exhausting to perform for a camera. I'd actually go so far as to say it is more intense.
I find pre-recorded stories hard because I need to focus on nobody, but I can always stop and go back. Live virtual is even harder because there is a live audience! I have to watch myself to make sure I am actually in the little box and not performing outside of it, but I also need to focus on the audience...the real one, not the glorious imaginary one that absolutely loves me!
10. Staring at a green light when I am performing live is annoying.
We have all felt that. I am always tempted to look at the participants when I'm performing live, even knowing that if I do that, then I am looking at nobody!
11. With little kids, it is better to be able to see them...I think. I love watching them participate in their homes. I think they would do it whether I can see them or not, but it is cute to see them. I watched parents who had turned on the computer and left, come back into the room to play with the stories. Of course, the very fact I can tell you that means I wasn't looking at the green dot which means that at times the kids thought I was looking down at...who knows?
This virtual world is wild and strange...but I don't think it is going anywhere.
Then again, I could be wrong. Maybe once we can do in-person storytelling the outside world will eschew virtual telling, but I doubt it.
I, for one, hope I can still sneak away to Ireland for stories on a Saturday afternoon.
I, for one, hope that ASST keeps its platform rolling so that people who could never get to a storytelling event can keep coming to share with us. Maybe they will choose us over television...it could happen!
Virtual storytelling has brought stories to more places than we ever have in the flesh, and it has expanded our audience.
So, we evolve.
The nonavian dinosaurs walked the earth for 165 million years
The avian dinosaurs are still with us...and some of them are absolutely delicious.
I guess it is time to adapt even though it might get me roasted and served with delicious sauces...
Happy Virtual Telling!
