Just One of Many

While thinking of updating the script I got a brilliant idea, or one of those that seems brilliant in concept but can fail in execution. It's such an irreverent show. When I was in the audience, I always felt free to heckle, in a kind way of course, just things I thought added to the fun. It occurred to me that people in the room feel such a part of the show and of the Angels that maybe we ought to just give them permission to heckle, in fact, maybe we should engineer it.

An early version of my bouquet

We don't yet have a sound engineer who will set us up with a bunch of mics and amps and know how to set them and modulate and whatever it is we pay the big bucks for. It's a lot of work for a 20-minute show and I was wondering if we could do without amps and mics. When we sang in the room for the awarding of the Community Partners thing, we didn't use mics, and it seemed to be perfectly loud enough. Of course we had a lot of people on stage, but even when we introduced ourselves it was easy enough to hear. The room only had an audience of less than fifty though, while at the Jell-O Show it is generally packed in both rooms and spills out the doors. But it is a church, and was probably built with a choir in mind. There's even a choir loft still remaining. No one used a mic in the days either of Greek drama or church meetings in the nineteenth century. You got volume from the number of people singing.

So then I thought about Occupy, how people who do hear repeat things for those in the back who don't. I was thinking we could get these hecklers to subtly transmit our lines (or the gist of them at least) to those who might not have heard them. This would provide another level of comedy as we could choose people to do that and let them show their own personalities with what they chose to echo, and there could be some hilarious malapropisms and additional jokes. I'm still quite tickled with the idea.

This got turned into a headdress.

Of course I have to run it by the group and probably will  have to use some supportive arguments to sell the idea. There could be some timing problems if the hecklers stepped on the lines instead of enhancing them. We would probably have to let them read the script and it might ruin the element of surprise for them. But if you are reading this, keep it in mind in case it is an idea that doesn't make it to the show reality.

Heckling at the Jell-O Show is okay by the Queen. Just be kind. Maybe don't ask for Free Bird or more cowbell. Rule number one about the Jell-O Show is that it has to be fun. That might be the only rule, and even that one is occasionally broken. But it seems that a tradition of participation is something worth nurturing, and I do want everyone there to feel a part of it. Sing along, too, if you think you can do it. We change the words but sometimes the choruses are intact or only changed slightly, and the more harmonies the better.

I'll be making a Jell-O flower arrangement for my brother's wedding in Australia next month. Jell-O Art in Sydney! Who knows what kind of fame and fortune that could bring. Better get that one started today.