Brighton to Prague

May 27 2004
 
Friends and Fam,
 
Well, one city down, six more to go.  My last week in Brighton paid for all, with over twenty people at each show, CD's selling, as well as four separate paid visits to local primary and secondary schools.  I don't like to admit the correlation, but sell-out shows and fanfare really seem to bring the performer out of me, at least according to some of the Mad Hatter staff who saw my earlier empty shows and my later packed ones.  Apparently I'm starting to get my groove on with the show.  I've been running the performance as a battle, with each character dissing the others and hyping themselves, and then at the end I call on the audience to make noise for their favourite tale, and the Wife of Bath wins every night, possibly because her fans are less inhibited and therefore louder.

I finished the Fringe having sold over a hundred tickets, though a lot more people than that saw my show, since we were fairly liberal with complimentary passes.  I also managed to sling about fifty CDs, and performed at a dozen or so open-mic and other such gigs to promote myself.  One of the most impressive events I attended was part of the Spoken Word wing of the Fringe Festival.  It was a battle entitled "MCs vs. Poets" where the local rappers would go head to head against the local slam poets, basically lampooning each others' shortcomings.  Each side had a team of about seven representatives, and they took turns reciting written rhymes, freestyles, and humour poems taking the piss out of the other team.  It was all quite personal, since they all know each other, and ended in a kind of grudging draw, since the packed house was cheering for both sides.  Instead of recruiting me as a ringer for either side, the organizers had me play the diplomat, finishing each round with one of my own rap/poetry pieces, along with a little conciliatory talk about how I'm all about showing that "Rap is Poetry" and therefore nights like this make me feel a bit schizophrenic, unable to take sides.  I even got to deliver the final word in the form of a rap composition: "My rap pedigree makes me wax poetically / and inevitably depletes my syntax treasury / eventually I'll have to just relax and let it be / but that better be after I've mastered every beat".  And of course I used the opportunity to plug the Rap Canterbury Tales.
 
At one of my shows an elderly woman approached me to ask if I had by any chance performed at a small poetry cafe in London a few years back.  I said it was not likely, but then it all came flooding back to me, and I remembered the scene.  When I was in London back in the fall of 2000 I did a four-minute-long performance at a poetry night in a small underground club with an audience of about fifteen people.  Well, this woman was there, and came to my show quite randomly in Brighton, without knowing that she would see the same Canadian medievalist/rapper.  Quite a coincidence.
 
My last night in Brighton I did a performance at the East Slope Bar on campus at Sussex University.  This was a night with no cover, about sixty students drinking hard and making noise, and a weak sound system.  When I started up I was shouting my raps over the rabble with no beats, and could tell that I had the attention of about a quarter of the people there, if that.  But when I finished each tale and got some cheering, that reassured me that at least a few people were listening, so I ramped it up and by the end of the battle there were only a few people in the place who were not cheering for the ever-popular Wife of Bath's Tale.  Afterwards instead of camping out in the corner awaiting the few keeners who would approach me to buy a CD I actually did a few rounds of the bar peddling them, and managed to sell out of the ten I brought.  These little triumphs may seem trifling to those of you for whom salesmanship comes easily, but for me facing the tavern like that was a landmark.  It made me realize how spoiled I had been with my attentive little captive audiences at the Fringe.

Now I am writing from Prague, which REALLY makes me feel like I was spoiled in Brighton.  This city is so spectacular, and I am finding it an ideal place to wander about taking it all in, but a frustrating place to get anything done.  Did I complain about promotional challenges in Brighton?  Pah.  I didn't factor in the language barrier here either, which prevents me from being able to pitch myself to your average passerby, since most of them know less English than English Lit.  I am following the leads I have, however, and spent the day with the organizers of the Fringe at the press launch where I got speak to the UK Ambassador and some other performers.  Prague, like Brighton, has a thriving hiphop scene I have been told, and I will have a few opportunities to tap into it in the next few days.  I have my first performance on June 2nd, which gives me just less than a week to get people excited about it, but tonight I intend to just soak up the culture, goulash and pilsner (and maybe pass a few flyers out to the people I meet).
 
Another major challenge looming ahead of me is the Montreal Fringe, which has not yet accepted me as an official performer.  For about a month now I have been first on the waiting list for entry, and I may not know if I am actually participating until the day before my first show, which means I have to go there planning to perform but may not be allowed to.  In this case I suppose I will just try to arrange some independent shows as an anti-fringe performer or something, since I have to be at the Toronto Fringe starting at the end of June anyway.  Towards this, if anyone has any connections in Montreal, I may be soon seeking to arrange and promote a few shows without the help of Fringe organization.  I will be in Montreal as of June 9th and will have about two weeks there, though I don't yet know where I'm staying, whether I'm in the Fringe, or where else I might perform if I'm not.  Any suggestions or introductions would be welcome at this point.
 
For now, however, Prague is giving me plenty to do, and I must focus on the task at hand.  Lots of love to you all and wish me luck - and don't worry, I'm still having the time of my life, frantically euphoric.
 
yours,
 
baba