Not how I planned to become famous but oh well, I guess?
I have somehow landed myself in the middle of a good news story that’s already been published in one online paper, with serious interest from CBC (Canada’s BBC/NPR) — for their web, radio AND TV — as well as the Toronto Star (the most leftie* of our Canadian national newspapers, and therefore the one I read).
This has all happened because of a whim I had a few weeks ago. It is kind of delightful and honestly the news we need in These Times — partly because DEAR GOD THE REST IS GRIM, and partly because it is showing the power of community, which is the only thing likely to save us**. Here’s the story:
A couple of weeks before Christmas, I go down the weird secret corridor in my local mall…
How to keep people engaged in your presentations
As we sit up in the gods (section 512 row 10) my kid is on my knee. I lean down so my mouth is close to her ear — I need her to hear me over the noise of the crowd.
“Ready, baby?”
She nods, and we lift our right arms into the air, making our hands into fists at the top.
There’s a trumpet sound before the voice on the PA, the two of us, and 38,000 other people in the stadium yell,
“CHAAAAAAAAAARRRRGE!!!!!”
Having now been to four (count them!) baseball games, I am a fan — but mostly because of a regular thing that happens…which is also something that makes the best presentations engaging.
In instructional design, these are called “Colorful Activities”. Before I explain what they are, I’m going to explain why we need them.
This is what people remember from most talks, keynotes, TEDx’s and workshops….
How to sneak in your agenda when you’re given a platform (as a speaker or anything else)
It’s last Monday at 8am. I step out of the elevator and, as my feet hit the carpet, my heart is suddenly pounding and my breathing is short.
As I notice what’s happening in my body, I think, INTERESTING.
This week, I got to do one of my FAVOURITE things:
GOING ON THE RADIO. In this case, CBC Radio 1 (for non-Canadians: this is our National Public Radio’s speech station, and the one I listen to every morning of my life). I was a guest on the breakfast show, Metro Morning with David Common. Going on the radio is one of my favourite things for two reasons:
1) my first career was in radio, so stepping into a studio kicks up warm, familiar feelings
and
2) i *LOVE* playing at being famous.
Like, I think being ACTUAL famous would be a kind of…
One of my greatest ever naps (and my most important Storytelling lesson)
“I can’t eat! If I eat, I vomit!”
Lucy, the old lady I’m sitting with, is upset.
I’m at the day centre for seniors with dementia, where I volunteer once a week. Lucy is my favourite. Six foot tall and rake thin, with short, scrappy hair and clothes that hang off her, she’s usually very sweet. A big smiler. And she loves to sing.
LOVES.
It’s clear that, in her younger days, she was some kind of professional. You can tell from the sharp, clear vibrato she randomly lets out at various points in the day.
Her memory is almost completely shot. She asks if her daughter is coming, and is placated when I tell her, “Later, Lucy”. Then she asks again in thirty seconds time.
Lunchtime is always stressful. And always the same…
The most useful book I’ve ever read (and some personal info)
For someone who’s loved social media since the birth of myspace, I am weirdly protective about what information I put online — so it’s VERY unusual that I just said all this stuff publicly, where literally anyone with an internet connection can listen. Just over a decade ago, I watched the documentary “Terms and Conditions…
Genuinely the funniest moment of my life (up until that point)
I’m 13 years old, I’m on the couch at home, and I am HORIZONTAL with laughter. Laughing so hard I’m crying. Laughing so hard I can barely breathe.
On the screen, a man with glasses is leaping about, saying things like, “can you imagine the sheer joy of an empty bin in your kitchen, a new fresh bin liner in the swing top bin? It’d be like a bin in heaven, wouldn’t it?”
What i don’t know at that tender age is that, for the first time in my life, I’m watching observational stand-up comedy.
I love it more than I’ve loved almost anything else I’ve ever seen.
The routine was by Ben Elton on his show The Man From Auntie. It’s still on Youtube (and still holds up) on re-watch, I was once again crying laughing. His delivery! The physical stuff! The fact that he seamlessly brings the point back to politics at the end! How you can hear people SCREAMING in the audience!] And while, yes, I was being introduced to Ben Elton and to stand up in general, what I was more specifically being introduced to was one of my favourite concepts in comedy AND presentations, which is…
How to tell a good ghost story (3 essential components)
As Rico is talking, I think, Oh I am SO glad I said yes to him running through this with me first!! I’ve been doing my live storytelling show — True Stories Told Live Toronto — for 10 years. It’s currently on 4-5 times a year, but there’s one show in particular that I look…
The most terrifying pee I’ve ever done (+ a review of Laura Belgray’s memoir)
A couple of months ago, I had one of those moments where you have to sit yourself down and give yourself a talking to.
“MARSHA.” I said to myself. “You are a FORTY-SIX YEAR OLD WOMAN. With a reasonably successful career. From the outside, it looks like you have a WILDLY successful career. People like you! They find you charming! Stop responding to this situation like you’re in your twenties with zero life experience!!”
When I was in my twenties, I was working as a radio DJ and A&R (new music) scout. This meant I spent a lot of time at radio, comedy and music industry events. There were conferences, where the heads of the stations would be schmoozing. There were late-night stand up gigs where That One Off The Telly would be stood at the bar. Then there were the music gig aftershows, where the indie band of the moment would be hanging out, being fawned over by anyone that managed to get into the party.
I hated all of those events.
I mean, sometimes I loved some of them. But mostly I just felt totally stressed out. Trying to talk to the exec, the comic or the band — even if I knew them! Even when we were old friends from before they got famous! — was a matter of hovering a few feet away, waiting until it was your turn to be spoken to, and always feeling like a fangirl. But equally, not trying to talk to them felt like wasting an opportunity. Arg!
My second career — as a Storytelling coach and trainer — has been mostly online. This has meant almost ZERO stressful events like this, other than industry conferences where, usually, I’m one of the speakers myself. But last month, I was faced with the same feeling as in my twenties:
I was going to…
What some of the most annoying people in my life have taught me
As he starts talking, my heart sinks. I’d chosen him specifically because I thought he was different from the others. And yet… here he is, doing the same thing they all do.
I’ve been going to a boxing gym on and off for a few years, but I only started taking it seriously this spring. To be clear: I have zero interest in ever boxing anyone’s face. But after a life coach I’d worked with suggested that I find a way to express some, shall we say, negative emotions I was experiencing — in a way that wouldn’t damage any of my relationships — I got back into classes.
I’m now going two to three times a week, and I fugging LOVE it. I have a running joke that boxing classes are my new girlfriend. When I’m in them, my internal monologue is usually THIS IS THE BESSSSSSSSST I WANT TO BE HERE FOREVVVVVVVVERRRRRR (I mean, those times when it’s not “wait! Was it jab-cross-left hook-right uppercut? Or jab-cross-right uppercut-left hook?” — I have horrible short-term memory for the sequences). When I’m not in a class, I am counting the hours until the next one, or feeling excitement when I see it on my calendar. When I’m rolling my wraps back up after a class, I think, “Soon, you’ll be back on my hands, under my gloves!!!!” This week, I was out of town in a different city. Driving around, I saw the sign for a (different) boxing gym and my heart LEAPT, in the way that only reminders of a crush can inspire.
I love everything about the boxing classes. Except for the Bro’s At The Boxing Gym…