27/03/2020

3 May, end level 1 Pathways: Research



---- originally published April 2017 ----
Both Svetlana and Graham also members of witty Storytellers (not yet existed then) ----

Pathways is Toastmasters latest, future Education program, actually in Pilot phase
It has 5 levels in each of its 10 path, but the first two are almost identical
This speech was given after I studied the last project of level 1 : "Research"
My research combined Pathways program and Transitions. We are in a transition period from the old eduction program, most of us use still, and the new one, used by some from the two Pilot districts.

I am now also in a club, from one of them.

10/02/2020

Mistaken Identity 'The possibilities are endless' video by Spark London

Here is the Mistaken identity tale filmed from a lateral point of view by Spark London when I performed.

in the iframe so - even an ipad could see it.

AND somehow it is different when one listen to it,
I think we could learn from each kind when we relisten or relook
- and not only the evident English mistakes I made during the telling -

My body language, facial expression and even voice variety got better
but I have still far to go! And I do not rush out (most of the time) after a performance.

I am most pleased that this serious message got well across and so much laugher too: it did decide me to learn about "how to make laugh with intention" not only by chance. At 2'7 the audience begun to laugh when I stripped, took out my tee-shirt, and they never stopped.

https://app.box.com/shared/m4vj8sftdd
Sound track of the story I told at Canal Café Theatre

09/02/2020

True Tales - Julie Kertesz, Manchester Town Hall


More audience, lots of energy, easier and not more difficult to perform,
to tell my true tale of when I was 10 years old and the war caught up with me.

There were almost 500 in the huge town hall in Manchester that day.
I had some difficulty to find a "good ending", a satisfying ending to a sad tale.
Of course, "I am here to tell the tale" was already great, but I found a more touching end.

One can tell the same tale so many ways! There are all "true" but how you tell the story counts.

31/10/2018

7' Gig at Comedy School as special guest


November 2013 after a "refreshment workshop" with the Comedy School they invited me to perform at the showcase of new Standup Comedy students.

I opened the show, alas I was allowed only seven minutes from ten prepared. But of course, one has to adapt each time.

This year I had my ten minutes at "Old folks jokes" but I do not have yet its video recording. And now, 10' also opening at Ivor Dembina's 'you should have listened to Ivor'. Went very well, made those present laugh a lot.

New tips to look for when you look at it the second time.

Listen to how I begin.
First recognising what everyone can see: I am old. (Later, that I am not English, that my mother language was Hungarian.)

It is good to recognise what they see and hear. Then of course comes the surprises. In my case proving that we old folks are "open minded", surprising those listening with 4 letter words.

Finally, "toping" by telling the tale about my daughter and she "not being there". That connects to all of us who ever did something because "he or she was not there".

"Toping" is adding to a punch line without necessity to introduce, it also gives it a more impromptu feeling. Like you just invented it, now for this audience. I top even more at the end.

Be aware that nor in Comedy or in Storytelling do you have to stick to the "exact truth" about time, names, durations, for example. It is very important to be "in the moment" - so my daughter really called me - but it was more then a year before (just before my first ever standup comedy performance), so what? I told it first the day it happened and then 77+ times as it was that morning.

It is not important when, and it make seem more "fresh".

And I still tell "I am 77" it seems a sexier year, easier to remember then 78 or 79 (or now, more).

Observe how I finish.
I segue with what come before, "I am a bit out of practice now, but" and 'top" again then give my most outrageous sentence of my performance. It work very well every time. Sometimes, I got even standing ovation for it. But then, I do not stop at that but top it and top it again, usually getting laughter after laughter for the end.

It is best to leave your best working part to the end, your second best at the beginning.

I found the sentence after six hours of workshop at Camden with Ivor Dembina, who probed deep into what is we do not tell usually because "that is what the audience is interested is enjoying best".  I hesitated for three month until I first dare to try it out. It does work each time.

Added to the routine (It grows with new frustrations)
There are some added parts that were used the first in this performance, from frustrations I got just then before I performed this, about my teeth.

I also added the routine about my eyes (is it in this yet?) Later, I found a better way to introduce my Kindle (not in this performance yet). It does get a huge laughter as I talk about "Size is import - well, sometimes" and let the audience think first of something else, "I did not say it" as just before it I added a part that is about a message I got on Facebook. (See my later gigs for that).

Observe how I go from one part to the other.
Just before I performed I was told that I have to do only 7 minutes not 10 as I was promised. I had to cut some parts. Because the routine has been made in Parts, I could leave out some. But is is more difficult then. Usually I put a word at the end of a routine to trigger in me and remind the next part.

All audience is not as receptive as this was. Sometimes a part works better or less depending whom listens. That is normal, most important is all love and enjoy most of it.