Inanimate
We’re gonna talk about inanimate objects and rehearsing.
Those are the two topics for today your Daily Lex Man if I had recorded right away this morning This whole episode would have been out would have been about inanimate objects because I was in a fight with inanimate objects this morning There’s a problem that recurs hasn’t happened for months, but it happened again today where I try to do too much at once And specifically I tried to take multiple beverages into my office in the morning So I’m going into work and I’ve got the smoothie.
I’ve made I’ve got a coffee or an iced coffee and I’ve got a bottle of water Usually when I do this everything works out fine Things go on coasters the new coasters and the water bottle doesn’t because of its insulation fine But sometimes I come in and I’m trying to close the office door And so I’m using my elbow to catch the door before it opens all the way and then start swinging it and sometimes that velocity of the Of the door hitting my elbow it’s just the right speed or tempo can make a very full glass, especially if iced coffee spill And that happened today and I was mad and I have to put everything down now my hands wet the cups wet I got a deal with all that.
I go through all that garbage You know get the stuff in the kitchen to clean it up And then when I’m cleaning it up is the oh, yeah, and the cup is still all covered in coffee on the sides, too So let me clean that up.
And as I was cleaning that up today, I bumped it again So in the act of cleaning, it’s you know, the iced coffee room the size and it’s still 90 something percent full I spilled more and man.
I was so mad at inanimate objects.
I can get so mad at inanimate objects I can’t deny it and I was mad I was frustrated and I was thinking about how annoying all the natural objects are so I think that everybody should know that inanimate objects suck, so There is that then but separately I’ve been thinking about rehearsing Obviously I’m in rehearsals for a minute.
It’s getting awfully close and We had a rough rehearsal earlier this week and we had a much better rehearsal last night which is exactly how you expect it to go and The thing that I’ve been struggling with and I’ve struggled with this in at least one other musical is You know, they’ve got so many people to teach.
It’s hard to teach the music And now they don’t want to devote too much time to each individual part.
So they might say okay sopranos Here’s what you’re doing an alto one.
You’re doing this not until you’re doing this Other special part you’re doing this and then tenors and basses Here’s your line and then like by the time they get there they kind of go through quickly because they they were tired of going with the same part over and over again and I can’t always learn music that fast and so I had the Musical director make me some recordings of just my part and I spent some of this morning early putting together some recordings just for myself of Tracks that are either karaoke tracks from musical or the actual tracks of musical with my part sung by me over it and in some cases the stuff is so hard and I don’t know yet that I have to like listen to The tracks that the musical director made for me in little chunks and then record that chunk and record the next time for the next I’m gonna put it all together and then it sounds seamless doing that and then listening to it.
I can learn it in seconds Maybe not master it, but I can learn it and finally get it into my head and then you know I’m willing to put in the work.
I was saying to some folks this morning, you know I just don’t want to suck.
Some people are like I want to be great.
I Think that the line between not sucking and great is much smaller than the line between sucking and not sucking so I just want to I want to not be bad and the easiest way for me to have the opportunity to be great in my role in Avenue Q is To have it all in my head to not have to worry about it as soon as I have to think about the choreography Or as soon as I have to think about the notes or any or the blocking or any of it It’s gone.
So the goal and I this is not unique to me, but the goal is to get it all into muscle memory So then you can just be the character and do the part and give your in this case funniest performance, but man I’m not there yet, which is okay.
I got plenty of time to get there, but I’m setting myself up for success By recording these tracks, which are now all I listen to which is sad because I like those in a podcast in the car But right now I’m not I’ve got 45 minutes 40 minutes between my house and the theater Yesterday I got a phone call While I was rehearsing those tracks so I couldn’t sing along with him as much but it was good because I got to hear a Story about blood and urine.
I’m not gonna identify who that calls from but they’re fine now but on the drive home I certainly listen to those tracks and today I listen to tracks and today I made more of those tracks that really get into the Weeds of some of these crazy parts and man Whenever you hear any harmonies and you break them down Sometimes they can get super crazy and I know I talked about this before but man Wow crazy Anyway, you know, I don’t objects can get bent and literally and figuratively and I’m doing the work I want everybody to know by the time you come see Avenue Q if you do I will have put in the work So I’ll be ready That’s all I got for Thursday in added objects.
You’re on notice.
Goodbye Lex