Wanna do me tonight?
Summer is here, finally! Everybody is ready to go out and do things. And there are so many summer things to do. Golfing. Theatre. Beaches. Travel. Cookouts. So many choices for having fun and spending money.
When I do my shows in P-Town, I have to hand out flyers on the streets. And I often catch myself saying “Hey, would you like to do me tonight?” I do get some attention then. And with everything going on, it really is all about getting people’s attention. With high-speed technology, our attention spans are shorter and shorter these days, so it is getting harder and harder to get peoples attention and keep it. Sex sells, but it doesn’t always have to be about sex to get people’s attention. I think it has to do with throwing them off their tack, as in a ship is on a certain tack to get to its final destination, well people seem to be on a tack most of the time as well. So if you can get them off of it you have a chance for a sale.
So, what I sometimes do is sing. Yes, I sing whatever song comes into my head and I sing it out loud. Very Loud. I throw my voice up in the air like I just don’t care, and I don’t. And that is such a freeing feeling to really not care. Try it. Just walk down the street and start to sing. “And I will always love you!”
Proclaim your love for another human being whom you don’t even know. It is a very political, proactive thing to do. And it gets their attention.
There is nothing more satisfying than just singing and making people laugh and smile and sing along with me and dance in the streets and take a moment out of their mind to engage in pure frivolity. Frivolity? Who has time for frivolity? Is frivolity dangerous? Not good manners? No, it is life at life’s’ fullest. To not have a care in the world for just that one instant. And sometimes when I’m in it, people will come up behind me and say, “May I have one of your flyers?” What? I am not soliciting them they are now soliciting me!! Oh Joy. When you put Joy out there it comes back.
To give and give freely without expecting rewards is its own reward. And believe me it is not easy sometimes to get myself to the point of wanting to sing to the people. They can be so rude. Snobby. Mean. Sad. Stuffing their face. On their phones, or they just simply ignore me. But the ones that play along, the ones that get it and get into it, oh man, that is the good stuff. To have a little old lady stop and shake her booty and blow me a kiss, wow. To have an elderly man stop and sing out a verse of “My Way,” priceless.
I really ought to put a tip jar outside.
July 10-17th Queer Queens of Qomedy will be hitting Texas.
Poppy will be teaching a stand up comedy class at The Courthouse Theatre in Kingston RI for 6 weeks
Starting Aug 9th.