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The Audience That Ain’t There – Part Two
Luck of The Algorithm
& Top of the Shelf-Life
by Jamie Jobb
When we’re on stage, we can feel our audience despite dim house light. When we’re on screen, we can see nobody “out there” through the magic glass. And that disconnected link completely alters a performer’s narrative. To whom am I talking? The author needs to know.
Whether they’re on stage or on screen, public performances usually fall into two kinds of presentational camps: 1) the theatrically-inspired solo performers who also may “act” in scenes with “themselves” and 2) the TED Talkers who present smooth lectures and perfectly-timed pitches with power-point prompts.
When attending either of these types of performance, it helps if an audient understands she’s witnessing two opposing efforts of intention: SOLO: “I’m showing you (I’m really good at this)” vs. TED: “I’m telling you (I know what I’m selling).”
In other words, TED Talk monologues are meant more as promotional sales pitches than as twisted, planted dramatic plots. Singular performers who work out their fictions on stage are more inclined to show than to sell. A prime example of this type of supremely talented thespian is Anna Deavere Smith, who’s probably more renowned for her tv roles than for her fierce one-woman-plays-based-on-intimate-interviews.
Before Lockdown, this handy bifurcation of “narrative” styles worked well for anyone who needed to weed out the Willie Lomans among public speakers. But as the internet beget the death of the salesmen, YouTube began to suggest a new hybrid performer, a two-faced Janus figure – someone who can narrate out of both sides of a mouth – and sell an idea meant also to tell a story.
To see this development in action, take a look at YouTube’s Jay Foreman who admits he produces “very silly educational videos”. Jay is seriously understating his pioneering talent. He actually makes very smart educational videos presented with sly intent. His 99-second performance video “Singing one syllable out-of-sync” offers a quick glimpse of how his odd mind works.
Foreman subdivides his unique video posts into four categories: 1) “Unfinished London” which explores the city’s quirky unbuilt infrastructure – bridges over nothing, tunnels that go nowhere; 2)“Map Men” – tv comedian and former geography teacher Mark Cooper-Jones joins Jay to talk about weird geography in front of animated Python graphics restyled for the 21st Century; 3) “PoliticsUnboringed” – Jay’s silly series for those who know nothing about British politics; and 4) “Various Other Things”.
What distinguishes Jay Foreman’s presentations is his ability to stand alone without audience and still keep his story moving forward in unique ways tied to his expansive audio-visuals. One of Jay’s most precisely funny pieces is this one with Mark Cooper-Jones: “Where is America?” (8:17).
While some performers are retooling their narrative approaches, some are still trying to find their proper footwork. This was evident recently when ABC-TV’s talk-show titan Jimmy Kimmel joinedhis virally popular YouTube friend Uncle Mark Rober for an on-line telethon raising autism awareness.
During his nightly network program, Kimmel usually stands for his monologue or sits for interviews. Normally he appears live in front of an audience, so Jimmy is familiar with how to address folks present there in the seats. He certainly knows how to stand solid still on stage, which is the acquired habit of a live performer. Any director knows an actor who unwittingly fidgets, swaying in front of an audience, will lose its attention to his message.
YouTuber Rober on the other hand is accustomed to performing without an audience before up-close cameras which follow him around his mayhem, usually involving hyper science experiments outdoors where they can’t do much damage. What’s not to love about the home-spun designer of “The Squirrel Ninja Warrior Obstacle Course” and other acts of outrageous impractical backyardscience. Also if he’s your uncle, you probably know already to WATCH OUT!!! But if he’s your dad, well … you are a very very lucky person: https://youtu.be/ybPgmjTRvMo]
But, as such a dynamic and dedicated human being, Rober obviously is not accustomed to standing solid on stage in front of his audience. So, during their telethon, Mark and Jimmy were standing to deliver more background on why they were raising funds for autism awareness. But Mark couldn’t stand still on their set, so he started rocking in place. Something a stage director would correct, but probably not a DIYouTuber.
After a while Kimmel, the professional performer, also began to rock in place ever so slightly, in unison with his guest as they introduced their celebrity-studded show. Kinda like a mama rocking a baby! You can observe that here (about two minutes into the clip): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J3peD8LZ5o&t=20s
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Another Unfinished List
Lockdown coincided with our household switch from cable-tv to internet-streaming, which allowed us to watch all sorts of video on our big-screen tv. This led to my new morning computer ritual of amassing an evening “watch later” list. Of course, YouTube was more than willing to track our viewing history and offer further suggestions we might otherwise have missed. The luck of those algorithms led us not only to the talented acts noted in Part One of this post, but also to lots of other incredible video performers whom we’ve attempted to round up here in another always-unfinished list:
Spirited Science
Sadhguru
Sadhguru – The Ubiquitous Internet Mystic … and a Man with a Mission who is Everywhere-all-at-once. And as he often asks: “Is it not so? Hello?”
Nerdwriter – A one-man TED Talks. His weekly YouTube video essays, in his words, “put ideas to work”. True dat! Check out his wide-range of topics: How Bernie Sanders Answers A Question, How Andrew Wyeth Made A Painting, Where Zombies Come From or How To Design A Comic Book Page.
Tom Scott – Often parodied YouTube guru … he “becomes us” in his never-ending quest for knowledge. He “takes us there inside his skin” so to speak. Certainly his channel is very popular, closing in on four million subscribers.
Dianna Cowern, as “Physics Girl”, is an astonishing astrophysicist committed to making science more appealing to females. Awarded Best Web Personality at the 2018 Webby Awards, Dianna’s boundless enthusiasm for Deep Math is an inspiration for smart boys as well.
Destin Wilson Sandlin’s “Smarter Every Day” is a place to learn how baseballs can achieve a velocity of 1050 miles-per-hour. Or what happens when you crawl down a torpedo tube. Nothing is impossible when your goal is to be Smarter Every Day!
Nick Zentner , a charismatic cataclysmic geologist from Central Washington University, tells the slow but gneiss tale of glacial geology in his easy-to-comprehend in-situ roadside lectures. Those of us who know a little geological jargon consider guys like Nick as the true Rock Stars on this lonely igneous planet!
Veritesium – Derek Muller offers “an element of truth” with his videos focused on science, education and “anything else I find interesting.” Turns out, that’s a lot of anything! Derek asks hard questions, like “Can silence actually drive you crazy?” or “Why are 96 million black balls on this reservoir?”
Jomboy Media – Baseball – to the uninitiated – seems such a slog of a game. But lip-syncing Jomboy serves up the bacon sizzling underneath all the yawning between pitches. His long and short baseball clips are littered with expressive Bad Lip Readings involving players, managers and umpires. We wonder if Jomboy has any time left to sleep, given his obviously everlasting Deep State scrutiny of the game.
Upstanding Comics
Foil Arms & Hog
Foil Arms & Hog are Sean Finegan (Foil), Conor McKenna (Arms) and Sean Flanagan (Hog), an outrageously talented Irish sketch troupe who perform on TV, radio, internet and Fringe Festivals.The trio’s specialty is lightning-quick “reduced Shakespeare” comedy where we come to unexpect the expected. To 20th Century eyes, these guys seem a slimmed down Monty Python for another century, with lots of their humor milled through a peculiarly Irish grindstone. Be sure to catch both their “studio” videos where they quickly change character/costume/direction and their “live” performances – which involve a ubiquitous stage-left cymbal which the players use to terminatetheir improvised sketches.
"Philomena Cunk” is Diane Morgan, a quick-witted British actor who developed her BBC persona in the mold of Carol Burnett, Lily Tomlin, Tracey Ullman, Sacha Baron Cohen. With her thick northern accent, Morgan couldn’t find work as a serious actor, so she tried telemarketing. Her laconic one-liners lit up the call center, so her boss suggested she try stand-up comedy. Although she found a partner and success on the circuit, she could not tolerate a heckling audience, so they developed a sketch show, “Two Episodes of Mash” which was an Edinburgh Fringe Festival highlight. Clearly Morgan speaks her truth when she says “I’m always happier when playing a role.”
Julie Nolke - Toronto-based misfit comedian and frequent YouTube creator, is master of many-characters-all-at-once. Indeed, much of her comedy is based on a wink and a nod to Lockdown in her“Explaining the Pandemic to My Past Self” series. She also is fine in scenes with other actors (including herself as other characters). Quite clever is this talent – from writing through performance.
Brent Butt – Canada’s dry comedian and proprietor of “Corner Gas” – that country’s “Seinfeld” hit comedy – is another stand-up misfit who’s found his place on line, after his Corner ran out of gas, so to speak. Butt is best as the, well, butt of his own jokes as he works best ensemble. But Brent appears mostly solo on his “Buttpod” episodes so if you’ve not seen much of him, it might help to visit “Corner Gas” first. By that we mean the original sitcom, not the animated version or The Movie.
Sarah Cooper is a hyper-attentive author/actor whose real-time business-meeting observations helped her abandon the sugar-coated salt mines of Silicon Valley to find fame on line as a hotshot Hollywood Commodity and Twitter star. She’s most famous for her precision lip-sync enactments of Presidential Pronouncements, but Cooper also is quite funny in scenes with other actors which we hope she’ll find more time for collaborative work. Her YouTube channel has languished since the 2020 election.
Randy Rainbow - Brilliant Broadway diva and YouTube song-styling satarist is a viral master of the timely lyric line. Originally limited to his video channel, Rainbow had developed a tour schedule with lots of audience engagement prior to lockdown. As restrictions lift, we anticipate Randy will get back on his music stand-up.
Sarah Millican – Hilarious English stand-up comedian and author of “How To Be Champion”. She most often plays herself, but has incredible voice control to keep her very personal stories moving along with other characters. And her punchlines pack a wallop! Like this one from “Having a Massage” “the tables are narrow, and I am not.”
Tracey Ullman seems to have been reinventing herself forever, which is not that surprising as that’s what she does with her actor’s alchemy. Lucky for us, that huge resume has been collected into her own Archive: https://tracey-archives.tumblr.com. Then, when you retire and have the time, you may visit her YouTube channel.
Footloose Tours
Julian McDonnell, aka “Joolz”
Julian McDonnell, aka “Joolz” of Joolz Guides is most often seen on foot, in top-hat and umbrella to signify that this Lifelong London tour-guide has unique Knowledge of that massive city’s hidden odd spots. As he tootles ‘round town, Joolz is full of British broadcasting’s no-nonsense nonsense. The man knows so much about his subject that he could drive one of London’s hackney carriages. Clearly McDonnell is a unique talent whose odd documentary “Take Me To Pitcairn” is likewise an enlightening adventure off the beaten path.
Waldemar Januszczak – that quick-witted art historian extraordinaire – is always on the go! Waldemar takes us to the gallery where a famous painting sits, then he takes us on location where the landscape sits to see how that painting grew out of the painter’s observational imagination. Januszczak also is a prolific filmmaker in addition to his journalism prowess. He also narrates the Perspective series. Sister Wendy Beckett, Kenneth Clark and Mary Beard all have developed well-known art history cred on public tv, but Waldemar takes them all one step further with his uniquely personal in-situ show-and-tell.
Tim Marlow – An alternative to Waldemar is this old school classic art critic and director of the Design Museum. His Amazon series “Great Artists with Tim Marlow” is renowned for its solid academic underpinnings. Marlow also does intense field research and travel to support his observations and classifications. Previously he was artistic director of London’s Royal Academy of Arts, so he shares a museum insider’s view.
Scottish filmmaker Paul Murton is the trekker’s ultimate trekker and backroads tour-guide. Not unlike John Muir, Murton’s hiking boots know his country’s Highlands at their most intimate. His series concentrate on being-there-now as he visits historic sites of magnificence in his “Grand Tours of Scotland”, “Grand Tours of the Scottish Isles” and “Scottish Clans”. Filmmakers may stand in awe of Murton’s precision location shooting with his robustly small crew.
Although he enjoyed a long and renowned career as an actor, BBC’s ubiquitous Sir Tony Robinson is notorious for his informative and breath-taking series as British history presenter: “Walking Through History”, “Worst Jobs in History”, “Private Life of the Industrial Revolution”, “Romans”, "Time Travels". On foot, in a motorcar or some other form of transport, Tony attacks any landscape to find its true story.
Rick Steves serves up Europe in tantalizing bite-sized tapas in his tours, blogs and PBS programs. Whereas Paul Murton goes out of his way to find the out-of-the-way, Steves trods the well-trodden byways of Europe’s popular tourist-friendly ‘hoods, despite his efforts to develop a more rugged wanderlust. He also maintains local friendships which help keep him current. And he interviews these folks to further declare his authority in far-flung foreign locations.
Seasoned British actors Prunella Scales and Timothy West – after illustrious individual careers on stage and screen – turned to piloting narrowboats on their leisurely “Great Canal Journeys” which first aired in 2014. Such a retirement plan now has taken the couple throughout waterways in the United Kingdom, India, Egypt, Sweden, Italy, Netherlands, France, Portugal, Argentina, Canada, Vietnam, Cambodia. Many others have followed their example, chief among them the wry broadcast journalist and solo narrowboat vlogger David Johns on his wonderful “Cruising The Cut”.
Tune Masters
During Lockdown, music provided lots of Covid relief. While we previously mentioned Wynton Marsalis, Post Modern Jukebox, The Gregory Brothers, Walk Off The Earth, OK Go, Front Country in Part One, here are some streaming offerings that cast a wide net beyond those individual bands and programs previously noted:
Tuba Skinny – Well-heeled New Orleans buskers developed – on their own label and with widespread YouTube virility – into a world-renowned jug-band that treats Ragtime standards as modern masterpieces.
Joan Chamorro and his Sant Andreu Jazz Band from Barcelona. Chamorro is a unique international talent scout who seeks powerful young voices and players for his amorphous band of well-studied jazz students.
WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour – The next-best-thing to music on the back porch, Michael Jonathon invites three sets of talent for each week’s show … including budding young bluegrass players. The show also is simulcast overseas to American armed forces serving away from home.
Chris Thile’s Live From Here took Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion and upgraded it to more of a music showcase than a platform for storytellers. From the talent Thile brings to his show, it’s not hard to imagine musicians as storytellers in their in Own Write!
Austin City Limits – Live from the musician’s hill country heartland, the show that started on campus at University of Texas and grew into its own home studio across from City Hall. The longest running music series in television history, ACL is so influential worldwide that Sydney and Auckland have their own “City Limits” music festivals down under.
Song of the Mountains – Tim White hosts a true down-home monthly music treat from the Lincoln Theatre in Marion Virginia – right in the middle of bluegrass country. But the award-winning public broadcast program has a wide enough scope to include all sorts of American porch music.
Tiny Desk Concerts – Now in its fourteenth year, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts are still fulfilling their goal of offering intimate concerts live from the set of Bob Boilen’s “All Songs Considered” in Washington, D.C. For the evolution of that program, see:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Desk_Concerts#History
Gondola Sessions – Extensive catalog of fly-along music from the confines of a ski lift. If the band can fit into the gondola along with the camera person, then the concert can commence. Given the great acoustics, it’s a wonder more “portable studios” like these have not sprouted elsewhere.
Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour – If he were not a Nobel Laureate and consummate performer, Bob easily could have made a living as a deejay on the radio. Indeed, his playlists are so solidly conceived that college lectures could be constructed around them. Of course, each Theme is intriguing: mail, jail, hair, sleep, dogs, baseball, smoking … a total of a hundred and one topics, each a one-hour session with insightful patter between the platters.
Dogs & Digs
Zak George – Former BBC and Animal Planet celebrity dog-trainer has developed a celebrity YouTube presence which is ideal for anyone concerned with training dogs. Zak is an “incredible person” who shares his knowledge and his mistakes. He takes in problem dogs to train for owners who can’t handle them and he also concentrates on his own family’s house dogs.
The B1M – The “world’s most subscribed-to video channel for construction”. No building is too tall, no tunnel too deep for the eyes of B1M. Based in London, these guys boast that “We love construction.” That certainly shows in their work.
Praveen Mohan – An archaeological conspiracy theorist without tenure, but a YouTube channel with over a million subscribers. Praveen, not unlike art critic Waldemar Januszczak, hikes himself into the far-flung sites he studies with keen eyes and broad assumptions.
Brien Foerster – Another archaeological conspirator who leads international tours into odd megalithic locations in Peru, Egypt and elsewhere. As a travel agent/tour guide he has been able to build a following will to pay for the privilege of setting foot in some strange places. Brien’s videos improved once he got a quadcopter for overhead shots.
FURTHERMORE
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/may/10/diane-morgan-comedy-genius-on-playing-philomena-cunk
Rainer, Yvonne, The Performer as a Persona. Avalanche, Summer 1972. p. 50.
