For too many years I held onto a childish myth about show business that cost me dearly.
The myth goes something like this:
Artists create the work.
And the marketing and PR folks promote it to the world.
To occupy yourself with the dirty business of promoting the new works
you've had a hand in creating would be unseemly and make you appear desperate.
The truth is: there never has been, nor ever will be a show, book, movie, song, or other cultural commodity that soared to popular success without the tender loving care and devotion of its original author. The fact of the matter is there never will be another living soul as fiercely loyal and devoted and confident of your original work than you. And the sooner you get comfortable with this fact of life, the easier life as an artist will be.
You see, we can waste an awful lot of time and energy waiting and hoping and wishing and praying for someone (anyone!) to show up one day displaying the same absolute confidence in the importance, the beauty and the power of your work that you do.
Once you stop holding your breath with your ear to the wind waiting for a sign, the sooner you'll be able to see and hear the genuine and more objective enthusiasm for the work that many among your team come by honestly.
For this reason alone, you should resist the temptation to convince yourself to sit out the necessary and time consuming process of figuring out a path to bigger and more passionate audiences for each particular work.
When Your Work is Presented Your Producers Expect You to Promote the Production Widely
(whether they tell you this explicitly or not)
Sitting on your hands and leaving the promotion to the professionals is not only naive it's also bad manners, not to mention counter-productive to a career in an art form that requires a lifelong conversation with your audience. Ideally, as your audience expands and deepens so does your work.
Waiting for your friends to stumble upon a generic announcement of your premiere is one of the silliest exercises in false modesty you can ever undertake. If you're looking to enhance your image as a lofty artist who floats above such earthly concerns as how many butts are in the seats each night, consider finding some other less destructive act of civil disobedience.
Trust me. The theatre owner who sees the results of your direct efforts at inviting the world in to your show will be more inclined to seek out future opportunities for collaboration. Success breeds success. On the other hand, the producer who thought you had a following and was disappointed to find them strangely absent during their encounter with your work will have filed your name in the column marked "DISAPPOINTMENTS."
And now, without wishing to embarrass anyone, let me conclude by offering this observation.
There are now more than 100 top notch monologues on the Hear Me Out YouTube Channel pulled from our monthly Some1Speaking series as well as from the two Labor Day Festivals, 2020 and 2021.
Some monologues have been viewed hundreds of times while others have been viewed 3, 4 or 5 times only.
If your monologue has been viewed just a handful of times in the weeks and months since its live performance at Hear Me Out, that tells me one thing. Plain and simple. You never bothered to inform anyone of the availability of your work on the channel.
And here's the thing, the monologues we've posted are all wonderful. They truly are. It's not uncommon for me to receive feedback from a writer along the lines of: The performance of my monologue at Hear Me Out has been one of the most satisfying encounters my work has had with audiences.
And the monologues that have been viewed hundreds of times have been introduced to the author's inner circle either via social media, by email or both.
Here, for your viewing pleasure are the top 3 monologues at Hear Me Out YouTube in terms of total # of views.
3: It's Nice to Be Out in Society by Andrea Aptecker. Performed by Donna Sorbello.
351 views
IT'S NICE TO BE OUT IN SOCIETY written by Andrea Aptecker & performed by Donna Sorbello at the 2021 Hear Me Out Labor Day Festival & Awards Ceremony. (Winner 2021 Audience Favorite Award)
#2: The Maskaraider
389 views
THE MASKARAIDER From his basement, a righteous, opportunist delivers his inaugural, Webinar explaining how to survive his interpretation of a current, man-made disaster. He is promoting a special kind of mask that he claims will save his viewers from a clear and present danger. He is targeting a specific segment of the American population and appealing to their fears and insecurities in order to rally them into violent action. The Mask-A-Raider takes a satirical look at today’s troubling climate through the lens of a self-serving, ideological trespasser.
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