Maggie's Path to Performance

Looking for Some Help

2009-11-30T09:33:00.000-08:00

Hi,
I hope everyone had a peaceful Thanksgiving. I did. I spent much of the holiday staying overnight at the hospital where my friend is really sick. I brought masks and a boa (the feather scarf) and we shot some video that was fun to do. The nurses and aides all got a kick out of the masks and tried them on and looked at themselves in the mirror.

I asked a friend who is really good at organization to consider co-producing the show with me. She declined the big offer, but said she would help spreading the word and using the internet to do invites. I started letting people know I am doing a show in Jan. and collected some names and email addresses so I can send them evites. I also spoke with a producer who asked me to call him on Tues. about introducing me to a manager/agent. It's new territory for me and my friend in the hospital told me that I need a manager. I'm going to show up and it's exciting.

Still haven't committed to a space. I'm going to look at one today that's close to my home. The theaters so far cost more than I'm willing to spend and I know the perfect place will be found soon.

More later,
Mag
p.s. I've been organizing material and this week is a full week of work. It will be interesting to see how I work with the structure.

Finding a Venue-this week

2009-11-23T05:21:00.000-08:00

Nov. 23, 2009

How the Heck Are You?
It occurred to me that this is a good week to find a venue and secure it. It will make doing a show real. I need todo this, because I need to get a firm date. Yes, I could probably get a coffee shopand I might, but my preference is a theater with a stage and rows of seats.

I went to a school play on Friday and it was great. I liked the stage and although I
probably won't be able to rent a school, there are theaters in lots of places. The challenge in
renting a church theater, and there's lots of them, is then the potential audience is either turned off by the idea, or thinks it's okay to bring the kids.

I typically don't do a 'blue' show, but I don't do a show for kids either. So I'm going to check out
a place on Sepulveda that I have seen and I'm going to look into some other spaces. A friend of mine reminded me of another woman who did a show she probably has done a lot of research. I'll give her a call too.

I'm going to look further into getting a voice teacher. I sing in the key of me, and I'd like to feel more confident and not hurt my voice when I sing.

All is well.
Cheers, Maggie

Finding the Funny-on the path to content

2009-11-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

Hi And Welcome to the Path to Performance,

My roommate asked me to stop making her laugh today because she was putting on her make-up and didn't want to poke herself in the eye. Well, that was an invitation for me to keep going. I was talking about the absurdity of the contractor not letter her know that the new refrigerator was going to stick out six inches from the counter top and she could either learn to live with it or spend a boat load of money to remodel the entire kitchen. It's the old idea of all or nothing or experts not really being experts or making assumptions that are just not right. So, call it sarcasm, but it did prompt me to begin the process of cataloging my ideas for the show. I'm going for a theme and it will come to me soon enough.

I'm sure there will be music in the show, mine and an opening act.
Until we meet again,
Cheers,
Maggie

A Trial Run and a Good Time

2009-11-16T10:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Day,

I've been in Chicago for nine days and spoke at a special event in front of

more than 200 people. It was just me and a microphone and in front of me was

a pretty big dance floor so the audience was not as up close as I prefer them to

be. It was good experience for me because it's an exercise in being intimate with

an audience even though the audience is far away. I heard the laughter and I had

to be conscious of staying centered when I didn't hear a thing. Trust that the audience

was staying with me. When I was ending my talk I ended with a song I sing at the end of most

of my shows. It's a song I wrote and I sing it without any musical accompaniment,

mostly because that's harder. I got a lot a positive feedback and people and I knew and

didn't know said so many nice things. The key to this 'performance' was to not be

intimidated by the amount of space between me and the audience.

I have been having a lot of fun telling jokes from a joke book. Jokes I heard years ago but had long forgotten. I'm a big fan of clean, funny and puns.

Until next time,

The beat goes on,

Cheers, Maggie

Take-Three-what others are saying and more

2009-11-09T06:52:00.000-08:00

Hi, And Don't You Look Particularily Great Today,
I've gotten a little feedback on my blog and was advised to have the content be more about the reader and how they might benefit by taking this journey with me. What I think will work is if people have questions, just feel free to ask me and I'll post my answers back. Does that work for you?:)

So, after getting what seems like a solid lead on a producer of shows and realizing that I just can't get everything done in time, I know I'll be doing the show after the first of the year. What I've done in the past is have a vague idea about what I wanted the show to focus on, then I would book the theater sell the tickets and handle all the administrative stuff and write the show. I would spend most of the last week in writing and rehearsal.

This time I'm going to do things differently. Since I don't have a venue, I'm going to do what I've been doing with my songs. I'm going to start writing down the categories I have opinions about and have actually made up jokes or Tell stories about and catalog my material. It's exciting to me because I have a lot and to get it centrally located out of my mind and memory and varioius notebooks and pieces of paper, is an exciting idea. For example I've written a couple of books "in my mind" and one of the is titled, "How to go Broke Saving Money" People love the line when I say it at the check-out counter or at a show so I'll write down all the things I want to say about shopping and 'getting the deal.' It leads to my Mom and family and that leads to boyfriends, to money, to food, to sex, to politics, to religion, to hair, to prayer and on and on.

So, I'll keep you posted. Until next time,
The beat goes on,
Have some fun today,
Cheers, Maggie

Take-Two-finding the venue

2009-11-05T00:27:00.000-08:00

Hi and Welcome to My Site,
I started a blog to track the process of me writing, producing and starring in a one-woman show. I've created several shows in Chicago and have a loyal following of folks who come out to see what I'm up to. The shows have been promoted via the Internet with emails and lots of word of mouth. I carry around tickets and when people ask me what I'm up to, I sell them tickets. It's been a lot of work, but a lot of rewards. Well I am looking for space in L.A. and was kind of discouraged at the cost of renting a theatre. I want to perform in a theatre because it's my experience that it's a much more suited for what I do. I'm a humorist more than a comedian, and a theatre is the way to go. I'm committed to do this show differently and get more help. I was excited when a woman was interested in working with me on the administrative and marketing aspects of the show, but she decided it wasn't quite in alignment with what she wants to do. So, okay, I'm committed to having a show and right now it will have to be after Christmas and New Years. BUT HERE'S the surprise. I went to a great documentary film about The Lieutenant Dan Band. My friend Marie Anne sings with Gary Sinise in his band that performs for the troops all over the world. The band is FANTASTIC by any standards and the following night I went to the CSI/NY party and met the director. I was with Marc Miller, another Chicagoan transplant who is a cinematographer and DP. Anyway, between the two of them they said they would introduce me to a guy who might want to promote me as a comedian/humorist because of the nature of what I do. So, I email Marc tonight for photos to post and for the name of his friend that I want to meet. This is out of my comfort zone because I'm sure I'll have to audition, and in the past, I simply hire myself. So, I'll keep you posted, and I will move forward with a show of my own because I have lots of new material and it's so much fun piecing it together. If anyone wants to participate with me and learn how it's done, please give me a call.
Thanks, it's going to be a great ride.
Cheers,
Maggie

Welcome-Take One

2009-10-30T13:27:00.000-07:00

Oct. 30, 2009

Hi Everybody,
Welcome to my blog. That's me and my dog, Kidd-nap.

My name is Maggie Gautier. For those of you who don't know me, and I suspect that's most of you, I've spent some time in the last twenty years writing, producing and starring in one woman shows. They haven't really been one woman, because I've had musical guests, but basically, I've been the featured talker and it's been fun.

So when someone asks me if I do comedy, I say no. Or sometimes I say yes just to make it easy. What I do, as an artistic expression, (other than cooking) is I consider myself a humorist. That means I don't have the pressure to be funny in some kind of format that I don't think actually exists. I tell funny stories, sing songs, talk with the audience and generally have a good time. When people ask me why I don't perform at comedy clubs, it's because I found them depressing. To a lesser degree, I've performed at open mics I truly admire folks who do that sort of thing. Me, I say I've spent a good part of my childhood trying to entertain a group of drunks and hecklers, why would I want to bring that into my adult life?

What I do is I rent theaters or spaces, set the date, sell the tickets, get some friends to help out the night of the show, have fabulous musical guests (on one occasion I messed up here-it's hard being funny when the opening act sings depressing suicidal songs-oh you live and learn).

Anyway, I'm in L.A. and I'm going to rent a space, pick a date, sell the tickets and this time I'm going to blog the process. It's my way of stepping out into the great unknown and it's exciting and scary at the same time. What I want to say, what the show is going to be about will unfold during the blog. My working title right now is, "I Don't Have Fame to Blame" in that I'm not famous and I really don't have anyone to blame.

I feel really inspired and eager to do a show and more nervous than I have been in a long time. The key for me is to do the work and to move entirely away from "having to prove anything." Yes, I want people to really like the show, yet I don't want to force anything the old, 'do you like me now?' stuff that is so not appealing.

So, I'm going to blog. I'm going to hope you come to the show on the night of the event and I hope that after seeing the show, you may want to do one of your own.

On a practical note, I've looked at two theaters. One charges $400 for the night and the other $600. It's crazy. Way too much work for no money unless the tickets are much higher than I think the market will bear. In that most people don't know who the heck I am. So the theaters I've looked at aren't really an option so I'll be looking at other venues. When I was in Chicago, I was able to rent a theater on an off night for $35 per hours plus I supplied insurance. It's what made it possible financially.

I'll keep looking. Oh, just had an idea. Got to go so I can make a call to see if the theater is available. It's kind of far from my house, but in L.A. that's kind of common.

More later,

And the beat goes on,

Maggie

http://www.creativelife.com/