Lessons Part 1

This post is about the 2 ventriloquist experiences I had this past week. The first one was Wednesday at church and the second was Thursday at a local day care. Both events were very different from each other.

The performance at church was for the music portion of the AWANA ministry. I was performing a song to the tune of "I Wanna Be Like You"; a song from Disney's The Jungle Book. The new words, about the importance of the Bible, were written by Paula and I over the course of the last year for use specifically with AWANA. The song is titled: :The Bible is For You".

I had been practicing the song for about a week but only practiced the dialogue that went with it over a couple of days.

I was very excited about the performance because I had put a lot of time and effort into writing the bit to fit within a Karaoke type musical accompaniment I had found on I-Tunes. I was well prepared for the performance; or so I thought.

Wednesday after leaving work while driving home I decided to rewrite the introduction. I also had to be at the church 1/2 an hour early to rehearse with my friend, Gary, who was going to run the soundboard.

Not leaving work until 4:20, I was pressed for time. When I got home about 5:00 I quickly rewrote the script and gathered everything I would need. I left for the church about 5:25. About 10 minutes later when I arrived at the church I discovered that I'd left the CD with the music back at home. I had to drive back and get it.

This return trip left me almost no time for rehearsal and very stressed. I wasn't able to focus on or follow the script very well at all. My performance was shaky at best. I was very distracted and didn't present the song very well at all.
I was very disappointed in myself.

As soon as I finished I began an inter dialogue of criticism for not performing up to my expectations. I also blamed myself for lack of preparation and rehearsal time. This is not a new problem for me. It seems to happen with every ventriloquist performance.

Despite my enthusiasm for my ventriloquism ministry I have a sever lack of discipline when it comes to practicing and preparation. There are reasons for this but they are better discussed in my personal journal not on this blog. Just let me state that the combination of the stress of being late, having to go back home, and the disappointment of my poor performance and being tired put me in a post performance depression. The object of that depression was my ventriloquism ministry.

That night when I got home had I gotten a good offer I would have sold all my puppets. I know that's extreme but that's how I frustrated I was. After a few minutes on the phone with my wife (who was out of town on business) to express my feelings and with God's help that extreme emotion subsided a bit. I was still not looking forward to my show at the local day care the next morning. I had come face to face once again with the fact that I still have a lot of learning to do in the areas practice and performance.

The next day's show was at the day care was scheduled for 10AM. It was a birthday show for the grandson of Janet, the children's librarian here in town. It was a 2nd chance to have a good show. The problem was I hadn't rehearsed for it much at all. I hadn't written a script but rather came up with a series of ideas to improvise. That didn't leave me feeling very confident given the extent of my rehearsal for the AWANA event and then the results.

Upon retiring on Wednesday night my mind and heart were still burdened with concerns about the next day's show and my practical commitment to my ventriloquism ministry. I prayed for God's help as I drifted off to sleep.

TOMORROW: LESSONS PART 2