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Category: Life
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:
http://www.stevenberkoff.com
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. The preview is now on myspace if you want to give it a listen:
http://www.myspace.com/mudsun
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 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 Lenhard 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
1:53 AM
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