THE SCOTLAND EXPERIENCE

I have just spend a month performing in Scotland with amazing success. I taught a hands on art class in the mornings and at night I performed in a comedy show I produced and then went to another cabaret show produced by Kerry Norman from Oxford and did outragous singing and stripping to an enthusastic, loving audience. My art show sold out every day and although the comedy show was not a smash hit, it did consistently well. We always got laughs and it ended with cheers and accolades because I sang The Strip Polka in a ridiculous costume no one my age should ever risk.
I loved every minute.
However the immense negativity of those first two weeks taught me about dealing with egos that I did not understand. The two women with me then made no secret that they thought of me as an inexperienced and stupid yet sweet old lady and they were determined to manipulate me so that the show became theirs instead of ours. I fielded many barbed remarks and veiled hints that I should get off the stage and let them perform so I could learn from their superior talents. I felt intimidated by their greater experence in the comedy field and was repeatedly puzzled when they insisted our show was not well received because I heard laughter and I got applause. Among their solutions to a dilemma I did not see was to tell me I needed to shorten my time on stage and that I was not getting the show off to a good start when I MC'd. I acquiesced by letting the comedian who got the least amount of laughs do our MC'ing and I believe that was a good decision. Her comedy though it is excellent and she is well paid for it here in the Bay Area was too disturbing for the conserative Scotsmen in our audience. They could handle an old lady acting foolish but not a black lesbian with dredlocks and that was their loss. I did not give up my stage time although they asked me to do so but they believed I was unaware that our new MC was cutting me short in every show. My thinking was that in the end it really didn't matter that much if one of us did 10 minutes or 15 and so I let all this ride. Besides they had me convinced that I was a lousy producer who couldnt work with people and didn't know a good joke from a dead one.
And then a miracle happened. The two women left and we had four new comedians perform on our stage. These three angels (to me) were only interested in having fun and doing their best. The critical, angry and judgemental atmosphere was gone and we had one delightful performance after another. We all loved one another. We all enjoyed performing. and we all had a great time.
In that first week one of the comedians said to me, "You are having a lot of success but we only have this one show." and that was when I got the hint that their anger at me was not about my performance but about the accolades I was receiving . I assure anyone reading this that I was getting cheers for being an old lady with spunk, not for my comedic talents.
How very sad for them. They lost that magnificent delight the rest of us enjoyed during our run. The reviews were spotty, some good, some medium and some bad but who cares? Karyn, Phil, Carla, George and I had the best time of our lives and when you come down to it, the two who were so intent on creating a money making "good" show were the losers. I find that terribly sad.