Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Passionate Mistakes

I've been practicing my guitar by playing-- and by "playing" I mean butchering-- a lot-- and by "a lot" I mean three-- Lucinda Williams songs.

Last week, a friend asked me when I was going to take my guitar up on stage with me. I think the word "never" quickly spat out of my mouth along with some chamomile tea and masticated Christmas cookies.

I'm a standup comic, not a musician. Telling dick jokes is one thing, cursing between chord changes while I try to sing a song about dicks is just too scary to contemplate. What if I screwed up? What would I do?

Then I found this YouTube video of Lucinda Williams... screwing up... royally. Like a pro, she handled her mistake the same way I cope when a joke bombs or I forget a set-up or I repeat something I had already said earlier in my act. She acknowledged the mistake, kept her sense of humor and moved on.



Audiences are a forgiving people if they sense you're genuine and in control. But, let's be honest, there's no way they should have forgiven those pants.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you attempt it, I want a YouTube video of it. Now there's a test of courage!!

Traci Skene said...

I accept your challenge! Actually, I'm kind of interested in writing my own stuff so I can't be compared to anybody else. Of course, it'll never be as good as Lucinda's songs. That woman can write a mean tune.

DamnCat said...

It happens to the best. Check out Ella Fitzgerald's live version of "Mack the Knife" on her album "Ella in Berlin". She completely forgot the lyrics and just vamped her way through joking and making stuff up. Hilarious and brilliant.

Anonymous said...

Keep posting stuff like this i really like it