Masterclass, book recommendations and Fawlty Towers
Hello!
You might have heard me talk in person or on my podcast about Steven Pressfield’s War of Art and his other books on creativity. I highly recommend these books, and I’ve just heard that Steve has lost his home in the LA fires, so now would be a great time to support him by buying a book/audio book. Check Steve out, you’ll find some very inspiring stuff and some wonderful book titles (Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be, Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t…)
I’m down in that London this weekend attending a 2 day masterclass with Paul Hunter, artistic director of Told by an Idiot. The weekend is all about exploring the role of the performer “drawing on comic physicality, impulse, instinct, verbal improvisation and the notion of play.” Day one was a hell of a lot of fun, a lovely mix of being challenged but feeling at home. We’ve been investigating “the space between” between comedy and drama, between walking and running… More tomorrow!
A week today I’m playing a solo music show at Thimblemill Library in Smethwick, it’d be wonderful to see you there so please buy a ticket if you’d like to come.
18th January 2025
Solo Music Show at Thimblemill Library, Smethwick
Also this month…
22nd January 2025
Noteworthy: The Made Up Musical at 1000 Trades, Birmingham
25th January 2025
Improv Wolves at Stafford Gatehouse
Could I ask you to have a look at my website? I’ve had a bit of a new year play with it, trying to make things as clear as possible, particularly on the home page. Does it make sense, is there too much there? Please let me know your thoughts, I’d appreciate it. Also, is it confusing having the address as robertlanemusic when I do stuff other than music? I think it might be but that address is plastered all over CDs and stuff like that. Does any of this matter? What do you think?
https://www.robertlanemusic.co.uk
I travelled down to London last night so that I was ready and fresh for the workshop this morning. With a free evening in the capital I got a last minute ticket to see Fawlty Towers the play, which is very good. I enjoyed it a lot but it did have me thinking about this strange thing (Stranger Things also currently a West End adaptation of a tv show) where our culture seems obsessed with repackaging stuff that has already been successful. When you think about it, it’s a bit weird isn’t it? It’s about safe bets, I guess. It’s easier to sell tribute bands than original music, audiences like to know what they are getting at the theatre, especially given how bloody expensive everything is. Why risk not liking it and wasting all that money on tickets and transport and drinks and babysitters? The Fawlty Towers show knitted together 3 of the original episodes and if like me you know the scripts really well you’re able to talk along with all those wonderful lines. The cast are excellent, not quite doing impressions of the originals but kind of sort of almost. There’s the applause of nostalgia on the really famous bits. To be fair, I went to see A Christmas Carol at Birmingham Rep and enjoyed hearing all the clever, famous lines in that too.
See you soon!
Robert