Australian Cabaret Summer School: Day 2 and All That Jazz
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 8:00AM 
Libby O’Donovan and Matthew Carey
By Jenny Wynter
When your class warm-up combines phrases like “fifty fried and frozen fishes” and “seven silver salad servers” with a tribute to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the day can only really go uphill (or is that downhill? Hmm, never really worked that one out) from there.
Our brains awakened - we meet the dynamo that is cabaret/jazz performer and our guest mentor Libby O’Donovan, who greets us with “If you’re not sure if you’ve hit the right note, welcome to jazz.”
I love her already.
Which is handy, as jazz is as familiar to me as the humble walrus. I have been exposed to it from afar and have even admired its unique aspects, however, I have spent so little time actually dealing with it personally that it feels more than a little daunting.
I am stunned and happy to discover that this is where my improv background may just come in handy. In jazz, Libby says, the ability to improvise, to navigate the notes and make the lyrics fit in a musical, seamless fashion, is the key. She also mentions the need to make any repetitive elements of a song (e.g. a lyric) different the second time around; after all, if you’re not going to make it different, then why would you bother saying it twice? She uses the analogy of saying to a child “Don’t touch that.” The following “Don’t touch that!” would change in tone, if not with urgency (and in my case, a bit of a yell, a cry and possibly a brandy shot). This analogy hits home big-time. Who would have thought? My first piece of mastery of one of the finer points of jazz, and it’s thanks to my own loin-fruit.
We break into smaller groups and Libby takes us through adapting a “standard” song (in this case, “Tomorrow” from Annie) to the jazz/swing style. After syncopating and re-phrasing “I love ya! Tomorrow! You’re only a day away!” a dozen or so times, my mind is abuzz with thoughts like, “Pearl Jam: the swing sessions!” “AC/DC: crooning!” and “Would doing a scat version of ‘Eidelweiss’ be sacrilegious?”
The groups swap over - it’s our turn for a session on show promotion with Sidonie Henbest, Artistic Director of the Cabaret Fringe. Sidonie says first off that when promoting a show, you are not just promoting the show itself, which is presumably one of many shows in your career, but yourself - the constant. She makes a point that talent is not enough. You don’t want to be amazing in a bubble!
After a quick discussion on branding, we have some brainstorming about our own unique characteristics that might be a springboard for our own personal brand. We then start to work on an “Elevator Pitch” about our upcoming showcase piece, a 30-second spiel (which is enough time to pitch it to somebody on an elevator ride) that creates an interest in paying money to see our show! Polishing these off is homework tonight. Sidney addresses the importance of a strong title, citing examples of shows that received mentions in festival national media releases based purely on the uniqueness and humour of their names, including A Dingo Stole My Latte and My Significant Other is a Mobile Phone.
After lunch, we work on patter writing. We take turns in improvising some patter then write one based on the work-in-progress drafts of our showcase pieces. Given that I have spent more than my fair share of time talking to audiences in the stand-up scene, I am not stressed about the patter itself. However, I am still unsure as to how the dots of my song ideas are going to join up in a coherent piece. The ideas are there…but it’s still in the messy phase, and on day two, I know I’m not alone in this - just trusting that it’s all going to fall in place before the curtain goes up!
To my surprise, it is in my afternoon private voice lesson with Libby that the dots begin to join. I bring in one of my songs to work on, explaining to her my idea of singing it in a very specific character I have in mind for my show. She gets it and we play around with the song vocally, while I find the character physically and by changing the pitch of her voice entirely. Libby suggests I do the first part of the song completely in a speaking voice and BAM! The song is transformed. Just like that, I get my first rush of excitement at what this show, this little tiny glimpse of a show, might become. Maybe not now, maybe not even by Saturday, but someday…another seed has been planted!
It is on the way home that the poetry of the day comes full circle. I kid you not, the security guard walks through my train and says “Smile everybody! It’s not that bad! Tomorrow is another day.”
It was all I could do to stop him and ask him to repeat it in swing.
Jenny Wynter is a comedian and cabaret performer, whose award winning one-woman show An Unexpected Variety Show is appearing as part of the 2012 Adelaide Fringe Festival and the 2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
She is one of the 15 participants in the 2012 Australian Cabaret Summer School, which is currently being held at Walford. Jenny is blogging her experience on Cabaret Confessional throughout the week.
Jenny Wynter’s Australian Cabaret Summer School blog series:
Australian Cabaret Summer School: Meet and Greet & Day 1
Australian Cabaret Summer School: Day 2 and All That Jazz
Australian Cabaret Summer School: Day 3 - A Breakthrough
Australian Cabaret Summer School: Day 4 - Insecurities
Australian Cabaret Summer School: Day 5 - An Epiphany
Australian Cabaret Summer School: The Final Frontier
For more information on Australian Cabaret Summer School click here. For Cabaret Summer School Showcase tickets, click here.
Jenny Wynter’s official website: www.comicmummy.com
Jenny is touring her award-winning An Unexpected Variety Show to the 2012 Adelaide Fringe and the 2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Click here to book tickets to the 2012 Adelaide Fringe.
Click here to book tickets to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
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