Friday, April 6, 2007

Discovering What I'm Trying to Do

Discovering what I'm trying to do while in the process of doing it. Seems like a hard way to work it out. But it's all I've got right now.

Today was another day. For some reason I decided that I wanted to be like Spalding Gray and write a performance monologue. I took a class at Playhouse in the Park a while ago to learn how to write monologues. It was an interesting class. Then yesterday I had lunch with a friend who said that I was blogging before blogging was blogging.

A few years ago, while in a dead end job, I started "characterizing" my adventures in the office. I wrote little "episodes" and emailed the missive to friends. Soon I had a cult-like following. I then parlayed that into a standup routine that got me to the semi-finals of the Funniest Person contest at a local comedy club.

So today while I was having another sadness episode ('cause I still haven't quite figured out the depression thing) I thought back to Spalding Gray. I really don't know much about him except that he is revered as a monlogist and that he committed suicide in 2004 because of depression. Can depression be that bad?

I decided to check out his last book "Life Interupted." The beginning quote is adapted from the forward of the book. It seemed a good title. In addition, I liked the title of "Life Interrupted." That's what I feel like when I battle this MS and sadness. My life is interrupted.

So how do I go on?

Like Gray, I'll create a monoloue. Like I did years ago, I'll create it in cyberspace. Only this time there's a real cyberspace to post it.

I read recently that a local woman is writing and producing a play based on her experiences with MS. I want to use this blog for the same purposes. I have another blog that's my comedy rantings. I think I'll leave that one there. This one helps me to deal with my life interruptions.

1 comment:

uptonatom said...

I'm the webmaster of www.spaldinggray.com on behalf of the Estate.
I would like to give you a link on the site under Fanwritings, for what you wrote, and then add it to Monologists as your story evolves.
So you might want to keep me up to date.
You would maintain all copyright and get full credit.
If you go to the site and click on contact, that goes to me.
Please, when you write me, include the blog address as that helps me to keep track.
Thank you
jb
www.spaldinggray.com
www.johnboland.com