Tawdry
Travelogues
June 24 2008
Attention
Seekers,
Name-dropping is
so tawdry, but so are most things that instantly capture our complete
attention. Twenty minutes ago I
bid goodnight to my dinner companions, a group of five including the legendary
English actor and playwright Steven Berkoff, theatre dynamo and James Bond
villain extraordinaire. Steven
regaled us with tales of theatre productions in the 60's when he shared the
stage with a 24-year-old Ian McKellan, and I reciprocated with a command
performance of The Wife of Bath's Tale.
It turns out he's also directing a play at the Pleasance Dome in
Edinburgh this year, so we'll soon be sharing a venue. When I told him that we'd be performing
27 consecutive shows in Edinburgh, he retorted: "I have a tour of Australia
coming up in September with 36 consecutive performances, two hours per
night!" Nothing like a little
healthy competition among playwrights...
If you don't
know who Steven Berkoff is, then you've never seen Beverly Hills Cop. Check him out:
I'm writing from
the Lowdham Book festival in Nottinghamshire, where I have three days of
performances and workshops in schools to keep me busy. Today I performed The Rap Canterbury
Tales in five consecutive one-hour sessions starting at 9 a.m., for groups of
students ranging in age from 11 to 18.
Ouch, I can hear some of you wincing. Cool, I can hear others enthusing. Yeah, a bit of both, I
concede. On the one hand, it
leaves me completely wiped out, rapping for hours on end, repeating the same
stories. On the other hand, every
new audience brings new appreciation, and I get $1000 a day when I'm gigging.
The only thing
more tawdry than name-dropping is talking about how much money you're making,
ugh. Whatever. Independently mounting a full production
at the Edinburgh Fringe is an expensive endeavor, and this is how I'm financing
it. Speaking of which, Dizraeli
and I finished writing the script for the Rebel Cell the other day and have
done a few test runs, smoothing out the kinks. We're also pressing ahead with the album version of the
show, and we'll have advance copies ready in time for the Fringe, barring any
unforeseen disasters. We recently
completed the first track, "The Fallout", in which we break up like
the Fugees in true dramatic fashion.
Last week I was
in Stoke-on-Trent, (which the locals call Choke-on-Stench), an industrial town
not far from here that couldn't be more different (Lowdham's demographic is
more than 70% millionaires, according to the cab driver). I spent three days performing at
Staffordshire schools and teaching workshops to kids who definitely don't see
outsiders much, lovely as they were.
Some of them came up with very clever raps. Most bemusing was the fact that they mistook me for a celeb
and had me signing dozens of autographs, which they seemed to think might be
worth money someday. But I can't
imagine even Eminem's autograph is worth anything on a scrap of paper (autographed
large glossy photos go for about $5 on Ebay). If it were otherwise, he could just stay home scribbling his
name all day instead of making records.
Of course, no one is a celebrity except in so far as people mistake them
for one.
Hold me
back. In two days I depart for the
notorious Glastonbury Festival, headlined by Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse, and Leonard
Cohen. I'm performing on three
different stages over the course of the weekend, a mixed bag including both hip-hop
gigs with Mud Sun and solo spoken word gigs. I've heard the legends for years and I'm finally going to
see for myself, and under the exact circumstances I had most hoped to do
so. After just over three weeks in
England the cuts and scrapes on my limbs from a month of treeplanting have
finally healed and I've completed my seasonal metamorphosis from a beast of
burden into a purveyor of linguistic animal magic.
If you're
curious about what our new Edinburgh show is going to be like, take a moment to
read about "The Rebel Cell" at this link:
http://www.babasword.com/press/Rebel-Cell-PR.pdf
During the
current run up to the Fringe (barely a month to go) is when the publicity drive
kicks into gear, so any press contacts or suggestions for getting the word out
are always appreciated.
Wish me luck at
the mother of all music festivals!
baba