Boo-boo the Clown

Boo-boo the Clown
Watching Blue Streak right now. Ordinarily, I would not watch Blue Streak, but last night I caught "Inside the Actor's Studio" featuring a two-hour interview with Dave Chappelle. Dave said a lot that is especially important to me as I actively pursue my creative vision and desires.

The first thing that made a fantastic impression on me was related to Dave's decision become a comedien. His father pulled him aside, he was after all going to be the first person NOT to go to college since slavery ended, and asked him why he wanted to do comedy and why he didn't go for something more stable - such as teaching.

Dave asked his dad how much he made as a teacher. We all know the answer is "not a lot." So Dave told his dad that if he could make at least as much as a teacher, while following his dream, he would be satisfied. Dad could not argue with that logic and offered this gem: "Set your price at the very beginning. If it ever becomes more expensive, leave." (dave's aside: "hence Africa.") It's not that you fear hard work, it's that you know the price of your soul and what it will take to look at yourself in the mirror each morning. When you hit the point where there isn't pleasure in the work, when you can't look at yourself without wondering how much harm you are doing - the price is too high.

There is a tremendous amount of personal integrity in that statement. It seems in conflict with the way my grandfather did business - he shook someone's hand and if the job ended up being more expensive, he ate the cost. But there is a difference here. What Dave's father is talking about is giving of oneself. More than just skill or trade - self. I've always maintained that attitude about corporate work - always had time limits on how long I would do any given job. But when you're creating, you want so much to SHARE. It's like removing pieces of your flesh and getting giggly because other people want to eat them!

Speaking of, I watched Eddie Izzard "Circle" last night and it was hilarious. He did this bit about Jesus and God, and how God sent Jesus down to stop the false idol worship and Jesus came back to heaven PISSED OFF. He was like "they nailed me to a damn tree for THREE DAYS!" Then he and God got into what Jesus did on Earth. They went over the "easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into heaven" comment and Jesus reported that the rich had started putting their camels in cuisinarts and pouring them through the eyes of needles. So, he said, guess we'll be seeing all the wealthy up here pretty soon.

Then he talked about the last supper. God had real issues with the last supper. The whole "take of this and drink, for it is my blood" reeked of vampirism and the body metaphor was cannibalism. The joke was killer and it killed.

But back to Dave's advice. On Richard Pryor, Dave said this: "The mark of greatness is that everything that comes before you is obsolete and everything that comes after you bears your mark."

That is quite some standard to aspire to, but what was more compelling was the fact that Dave understood what Richard had done: he took all of himself and put it out for display, to teach, to entertain, to plug into the great pulsating stew of life and people loved him for it. Richard smoked crack, set himself on fire, beat his women, neglected his kids (and my personal pet peeve) could not swim. He put all of that on the table. In a hyper-intelligent, highly-refined manner.

I don't think it would hurt artists of any ilk to work from that ethos. To carve them(our)selves open and figure that if we can just arrange it right, people might love what we have to show. Jean-Michel Basquiat, anyone?

It's a great morning. I'm writing, fits and starts mostly, but writing just the same. I think I"m up to my wrist back into my characters and they are responding. I keep writing and rewriting. I'm starting to enjoy the rewriting. Always I think, "I don't want to rewrite, why do something twice or in multiples of 4 when I can just do it once?" That's my inner lazy bastard. Once the lazy bastard ambles off for a nap, I'm free to keep playing with the words and see the different ways they come out.

Happy Monday!