We're All Going To Die
Added 2016-07-23 11:03:13 +0000 UTCI have a motto (or do I mean mantra?), which I use sometimes (all mottos should only be for sometimes – that’s my motto). I use it when I’m anxious or panicky, because comedy is a fickle mister, and sometimes the ebb and flow of opportunity and chance feels like I’ve thrown down years of my effort on the table for a desperate gamble with my life.
The motto/mantra is ‘nobody’s going to die’. I follow it up with ‘we’re all going to die.’ “Nobody’s going to die, we’re all going to die.”
Because both of those phrases help me put things in perspective. ‘Nobody’s
going to die’ helps because in most work problems, the stakes are not as high
as they feel. The adrenaline of stage performance can feel like a life-or-death
scenario, but it isn’t.
More often in the creative industries, failure means that the worst-case scenario is your project sinks without a trace and nobody knows you failed.
‘Everybody’s going to die’ is helpful because it helps me put whatever the problem is, into the context of human mortality and my Buddhist upbringing. In the end, most of what we do isn’t very important in the grand scheme of things. And even if it is,
we die anyway.
All of which is to say – I have a trial show for The Resistance tomorrow. It’s a week and a half out from the Edinburgh fringe, and the show needs to be a lot better than it is.
Nobody’s going to die. We’re all going to die.
Comments
Chookas Alice
2016-07-23 11:42:17 +0000 UTCIt is totally a great motto Alice and I can say, with a reasonable amount of certainty, that you are not going to die - in the context of performing The Resistance over there. I can also say - with an unmistakable amount of certainty - that you are going to die...eventually. But you showed me a picture your Mum had drawn in that little cafe in Adelaide a few months back and I went home and told my daughter about it and she thought that it was really special. So... you're sort of immortal. ...And so is your Mum. x
Dean
2016-07-23 11:16:27 +0000 UTC
