Alright Gallant. Here?s some advice. It?s a really great idea to video-tape for your comedy sets. You learn so much about your stage performance – facial expressions, body movement, that surprised look when you get a big laugh. Whether your jeans were too tight, how much your right ear stuck out, if your hair was doing an alfalfa. Studying these things will help you become an even better comic.
Here?s the catch though. Those tapes you?ve been collecting and carefully labeling … you have to sit down and watch them. If you don?t watch them then all you?ve learned is how to operate your camera. Which isn?t such a bad thing. It’s very helpful to know leaving the LCD screen open when filming burns the battery faster and that if you don?t have the camera set up near a power outlet then you?re screwed. But anyway.
It will be hard to watch yourself at first. You?ll probably use it as a form of self-punishment when you?re feeling bad. You?ll only watch it when Erik isn?t around — though remember to ask him one more time how to plug the camera into the TV. But you will benefit from it and maybe turn some of those funny, silly, impulsive gestures and expressions into your act.
So come on. As mum would say, ?these tapes won?t watch themselves Margaret?. At least she would, if she had any clue whatsoever about mini-DV. Which is unlikely as she?s currently struggling with a breadmaker. Alright, stop procrastinating, there?s nothing more to write here. Seriously. Go.
By the way, I know the title of this piece is misleading, given that only the videotape part is relevant. But I had no better ideas and it was a good movie.