Scranton, PA
We’re driving home from what we both THINK has been a really, really successful weekend. We won’t know for certain till we start getting the contracts squared away, but if everything we talked about at the festival pans out, we might well see about a dozen + bookings out of it, paying ten-fold on our investment, and hopefully creating some long-lasting relationships…. Or at least as long-lasting as any relationship CAN be in an industry where the average turnover of any particular individual is probably less than 3 years.
We worked it. Even when we weren’t sure what “it” was, “it” was worked hard. Unfortunately, I feel like I didn’t really hit my social stride till the third and final CAMP (College Activities Market Place) at which point I was doing a lot better at being a normal and comfortable me. Up until that point I think a lot of my brain was occupied by the horrible feeling that I just had NO idea what I was doing. A couple of people were very helpful with the paperwork, friendly associates explained some of the rules, some of the finer points of it all – but despite having read the entire 40 pages of the program, the entire welcome handbook and dozens of pages on the NACA website, I still felt woefully like I’d walked in on a pop-quiz in a class that I’d never attended.
Fortunately, everyone was friendly. The expected spirit of competition wasn’t there, despite the fact that the buyers (college activities departments) made occasional mentions of diminished budgets and difficult times, there was the general feeling that there was plenty to go around and no reason for kerfuffle. The first person to approach us was another Rob, the representative (owner?) of a company that provided all sorts of strange merchandise including the previously-inconceivable pairing of thongs and unicorns – and he proved an invaluable source of advice and encouragement. Another Rob, this one a member of the band in the neighbouring booth, the Headlocks, was another source of knowledge and encouragement. Hopefully at the next NACA event ALL us Robs can gang up on some newbie and provide them with that same encouragement and knowledgeable advice.
Yes n00b, sup from the fount of Rob Wisdom. The Knowledge Teat of the Rob Collective stands proud and ready for you like a pink… well… don’t talk to me about the little pink thing. You might give me flashbacks. Even at THIS level, NOT ALL COMEDIANS ARE FUNNY!
Stroudsburg University had some very interesting architecture. Filled with nooks and also crannies, the place was PERFECT for sneakin. Because we are both artist and full-out associates with our very own booth, we spend a LOT of our time at NACA running back and forth. It’s kind of cool because we have full access to everything, but it means constantly pacing the campus of Stroudsburg University which apparently has no straight paths through it anywhere. I think we took different routes every time and never DID figure out which was the shortest.
Heather and I are going to meet tomorrow to make sense of everything and go over our notes – but between now and then is four hours of driving and at least 10 hours of sleeping.
Wait – I’ve just counted it out… fuck you Daylight Savings Time… 8 hours or so.
Upright bass, slam poetry verging on rap, beatboxing, loop station and violin: he Mighty Third Rail Holy shit. This duo, Sharkbait, was a stunningly talented duo who performed an array of juggling, humour and physical trickery that actually was pretty different from anything I’d seen before – including the above tangling of four volunteers togerher with the assistance of four chairs and Motley Crue’s “Kickstart My Heart”. Performing under the name “Nelly’s Echo”, Nelson Emokpae is actually from our neck of the woods. He and Ash had been touring just the week before last, demonstrating what kind of Life college bookings can buy – flying from Baltimore to Austin to Boston, renting cars down the East coast and then flying home again. Great voice, great guy – different world. One of the most recognizable acts at NACA – except when subjected to me unwilling-to-get-out-of-my-seat-back-of-the-room photography – Meika Pauley did a great job of expressing the true depth of herself as an artist. She even did a version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” that I actually liked! Though I think comedians were in the majority out of the features at NACA, the poets couldn’t have been far behind. This is Jason Carney, a Southern-steeped ex-skinhead with POWERFUL words. He had me in tears with his last piece about the strength and slow sickness of his mother.
I wasn’t hip enough to join in the dancing. Well, I did the rob Dance, but that’s a lot of thrusting and I couldn’t join the majority of the party without coming across as really, really creepy. It sucks to think that I’m almost twice the age of the majority of these kids. Urgh. Karen Williams and her band ended the NACA Mid-Atlantic Festival with a dazzling, honed, and very LA performance. She wiggled and wriggled and wailed and after I saw what SHE could do, I was all the more flattered that one of the first people to approach me after I’d gotten off stage yesterday and give me a glowing compliment was that beautiful woman up on stage today.
