Warm Up Your Mind
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Street Etiquette | Stage Presence
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Warm Up Your: Voice | Body | Mind
"
nd the man who did'st steal my pig be.... RIGHT THERE!" Ready
for a laugh, you look to your left but see no one. Hey wait a minute, that
finger is pointing at ME. And now everyone is looking at you too.
You open your mouth and... "Thine pig?! Not two fortnights prior
dids't I loan to thee my prize'd bristly boar Gerald to service thy pink
Petunia! You be a forgetfull old hen indeed." Whew, good thing your mind
was running and ready.
To make this soak in, its often necessary to clear your mind of those nagging 20th Century thoughts. I try to take a few minutes of a sort of meditation in the mornings after I've dealt with my bed roll and breakfast. Some Guilds do group morning exercises; some stretching is a great way to start the day. Ideally my morning minutes involve a little stretching to loosen up, pushing the arms up and extending the push through my whole body, rolling my neck, crossing my arms across my body and pulling on opposite shoulderblades, and those more standard back and leg stretches. Then with my blood sluggishly starting to flow, I stand loosely and (stay with me here) envision a connection from my head, down through my body, and out my feet into the earth. The idea is to picture a vortex, a sink, and allow the various distracting thoughts of bills, the DMV, and other worldly nonsense to one by one be acknowledged and set adrift into the abyss. Sometimes this involves a bit of soul searching to even recall what exactly is nagging you. Once the annoyances are addressed, one by one bring up the characteristics which make up the faire persona. Its almost a mantra, a recitation of those things which are important. My name is John, I was born in September of 1568, and so on. Thus clothed, I tell myself that I'm about to open my eyes on another beautiful day. And generally it works.
See also: the mindbending Impro from the Master of Improv, Keith Johnstone. RPFN/S Madmen 'Sound N Fury' swear by Gary Izzo's The Art of Play.
