Author: carolyncordon

Wife, mother, Poet, Writer, Art Installationist, Stand Up Comedian, Dog Enthusiast. Spending most of my time being creative in a variety of sometimes quirky ways! I have suffered in my life, I have had wonderful things occur in my life. Concentrating on the wonderful things makes it easier for me to live a great life.
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Having A Go Means You’ve Already Won!

carolyncordon

Trying new things, testing the waters, these things can seem frightening things, when you’d rather stick with the things you already know work for you.

I’m a writer, fiction, non fiction, poetry and prose. I perform my poetry regularly at the Gawler Poets at the Pub event that happens on the last Sunday of the month, every month. I know I can do that, and that it will be well accepted by those present at the event.

But is that what I want, to continue doing the same thing, doing well, sure, but is there more I can do? Can I try other things, step up and have a go at trying something I’ve haven’t done before?

And if I do that, how will I judge whther

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Nanna Carreau’s News

carolyncordon

OK, I realise you may not know who Nanna Carreau is, nor care a fig about what her news may be, but I hope by the end of this blog post, you’ll be far more interested. And if you’re not, perhaps it’s time you had a bit of a sit down and think about yourself, you ageist person, you!

I don’t want to be rude, but you should be excited for Nanna Carreau, at her advanced age, out there trying to break into Stand Up Comedy! And doing while living in a dinky little town nobody will have ever heard of, and at her advanced age!

Nanna Carreau and her exciting new act have been described as, ‘not hilarious, but definitely very funny’, and ‘cute’. Her act will appeal to all who have ever had that forgetful, word on the tip of your tongue thing, when you know what the word is, but just can’t say it, or when there’s something you just thought, a relevant thought, a brilliant one even, but you just quite catch it and get it back …

Nanna Carreau’s show has laughs in it for sure, but it also has the truth too, about how life can be for older people, when they’re getting ever closer to their final years.

Nanna Carreau keeps on keeping on, but she is all too aware those lumps, bumps, as well as aches and pains are steadily getting worse, and soon, you know, maybe kicking the bucket could finally be a welcome relief, but not just yet, Nanna Carreau has some acts booked this month and the next, and she’s loving it!

Nanna Carreau, working hard on getting her act ‘just right’ for her Stand Up Comedian show! Thanks for the photoVanessa!

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Writing Comedy Material

carolyncordon

Comedy material? What? Writing comedy material? What do I know about doing that? Not much actually, but I’m trying …

I’ve been idly thinking about this, off and on, for a while, and I’ve finally bit the bullet, and got working on making it happen!

So yeah, that was a week ago I wrote that, and now, I’ve performed the piece I wrote, and people laughed at the right bits, then I studied more about how to be a Stand Up Comic, ie Googled it and read a bit about it, and realised, given the fact people already laugh at what I say (and mostly when I’m being funny on purpose), well I don’t need to study it, do I?

I just need to get gigs, and do them, right? Sounds right to me. And from that studying I did, I discovered great news – it’s perfectly fine to just ad lib, go with the flow, and just be naturally funny, with no need to write a script, then spend hours,and hours memorising it! So wow, yay to that idea!

Because I’m disabled, you see, I have an incurable illness, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and I have mild cognitive issues, and my memory is affected. Boo hoo, poor me! Haha, I’m too lazy to actually be bothered trying to do it, that’s the real truth. I do have MS though, that’s true too, and that may well be the reason why I disappear off to something totally different to, or only slightly related to where I was at the start, and now what on earth was I meaning to say anyway?

XXXXXXXXXXXX

I wrote that text above around a month ago, but now I’ve done my Stand Up in a much bigger space, and I realise the truth of what I’ll have to do, to do well with Nanna Carreau – I will do best with a smaller audience, made up of people who are there expecting to see someone doing a Stand Up commedian act.

With the bigger possible audience, it wasn’t until I was able to isolate a small group and make sure they were interested in seeing me do a part of my act, before I was able to gain any kind of interest in who I was, and why I was dressed in such an odd style. The more I look into such things, the better my choices of when and where will become.

I don’t have another act booked until the end of July, and that’s fine. I know the July gig will go well, because it’s somewhere I’m known, and people there will know what to expect. I’ve also have valuable feedback from someone who has been with ‘Nanna Carreau’ almost from the beginning. She told me I’d be better off to cut back my presentation, make it short and sweet, and be more connected with my audience.

Having material is written down in useful, but being prepared to ‘go with the flow’ that’s important as well. The written down material though won’t be wasted, because I’m interested in taking Nanna Carreau to the written page as well, with a memoir style book ‘written’ by Nanna Carreau.

I’ve begun putting down some words for this project, and I think it will work. But the launch for that will be a thing for next year perhaps, we’ll see … At the moment, keeping moving, and holding off the signs of old age are more important! Winter may be on the way, but I’m still getting out there and walking to keep moving!

No comedy there, just good health!

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New Things Are So Invigorating, Aren’t They?!

carolyncordon

So my latest new thing may well up turning to my best one yet! I’m enjoying it, and it’s getting bigger and better!

Words are my thing, and while the writing of books in a variety of genres is likely to continue to happen, there are other ways for ‘Words’ to be shared, and the spoken word is interesting to me as well as the written word.

And I’ve always been at least a little but ‘funny’ in a variety of ways, and my latest way, doing a bit of free-form Stand Up Comedy, in the guise of a much older woman, Nanna Carreau, is so much fun to think about, and write as!

I’ve have had one go at a little bit of presenting as Nanna Carreau, and going by the laughter, and what I’ve been told, it went well. I’ve Bern wndwring how I might be able to do some more, and up came news of the perfect opportunity earlier today, right in time!

If Nanna Carreau looks a bit cranky, it may be her ‘arthritees’ are platying up! Getting old can be a good think, better than dying, but oh the aches and pains of it all. It’s no wonder Nanna Carreau looks cross at times!

But Nanna Carreau does like to have an audience of people listening to her when she’s telling the truth of what life is all about. And when you’ve lived as long as Nanna Carreau has, you’re bound to have ideas about some of the ‘big things’ in life!

Nanna Carreau may not have lived in big cities, but sometimes small towns are merely a scaled down version of what happens in those big cities. Life, love, power, caring, not caring, it’s all there, no matter where you live! And I’m thrilled I’m going to have the chance to bring Nanna Carreau, and my ublished books too, to a new audience.

If this all works as well as I hope it might, it will be great experience to bring to my act I’m hoping to do for the Gawler Fringe next year. And if it all flops often, that will tell me it isn;t worth it. I don’t feel that will be the truth though. I love doing Nanna Carreau, and I ‘mm funny when I’m doing it!

I have to make sure I stay in control of my own self though, and don’t let Nanna Carreau take over who I actually am. I’ve been warned about this, by a man who’s knowledge of the theatre is deep and worth listening to, always.

This is me, I am not Nanna Carreau!

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Another New Thing I’m Doing To Avoid Writing My Novel …

carolyncordon

So when a writer has begun writing a novel, it seems to me the best way to get the novel is to just write it.

An outline written at the beginning would be a good idea though, so the writer has a plan to follow. Some writers though prefer to just get on with their writing of the novel, the ‘sit down and just write!’ method. I’m in the middle, but rally, I can see the merit it having an outline to follow, with relevant details about character, and settings as well as having some idea of what happens when would be useful.

I’m thing this now, when I’m in the middle of writing a novel, or if not the middle, I’m nearly there. But that ‘middle’, that’s the tricky part of it, with the beginning written, and a version of hte ending written as well, but witht he great gaping hole that is the middle of this novel I keep saying I’m writing.

And I’ve been doing an exercise in journaling, which is opening up my mind to an enormous amount of new ideas about possible things I might be able to do with my words. A picture book, is one idea, where I’ve written a few ideas, and of course there’s the other great new idea, the one that is that I could do my own illustrations for my Picture book – me, when I have zero experience in illustrating!

I mean I can draw a little bit, but doing an entire Picture book? It’s an idea only really at this stage, but it’s still sitting there, waiting for hte correct time to come along, who knows whether that one will ever happen …

And now, possibly my biggest, and scariest idea ever – The loony one about me becoming a stand up comedian, and I’m actually going to do it (well a stripped back version anyway). So I’ve created my new character, and written a short piece for her to do, and I’ve made notes about her, some of the things she says, what she’s like. It’s sort of like writing a book titled ‘Nanna Carreau, This Is Your Life!’āø And then performing a part of her story, rather than writing it down for people to read…

Instead of writing my homework for my next writing group meeting, I’ve been scribbling down notes and ideas for comedy skits my new character may ‘do’ sometime. Fortunately, it doesn’t really matter if I don’t do the homework, but I’ve been using the writing prompts from the writing group, to write pieces of my novel.

I think I’d better get back to that soon, and if that’s done, it will be time for me to get back to my new ‘person’ I’m learning about! She’s a country woman, older than me, living alone, with a funny look at life (well I hope it’s funny, anyway!).

Humour can be different for different people, but there are some who capture a bigger audience, and many people may find one particular comedian gunny, but never everyone. That’s a fine thing, it would be boring if all of us laughed only at one thing – a variety of different ‘funny people’ brings something for everyone!

I just have to hope my own kind of funny is amusing to other people. I’ve certainly been told by others that I’m funny, even though I’ve never actually made any particular point of being funny, I just see the silliness in things, and if it makes me giggle inwardly, I’ll share it with others, but it can just emerge in the moment too, the funny words just come out of my mouth, with no prior thought!

If I was doing a show though, I’d have done prior work, and have plenty of material to do! I wouldn’t want to bore anyone, if they’ve paid money to see a comedian at work! I took an easy way, for my first piece I intend ‘doing’. It’s written as a poem, it will be printed out so I’ll have it right there, so I can follow along with what I’ve written. And I suppose I’d better start reading it more, so I’ve at least come close to learning how it all goes …

I’m a learner at these things, but I hope I’ll be off my ‘L’ plates by next year and at least be on my ‘P’ plates! Then I’ll be able to a show, a short one perhaps, and make it a talk about me, and my new character? I’m not sure how I might do that. I’ll keep thinking and watching how others do such things.

I know I’m interested in the idea of doing monologue, and perhaps doing that, and including a few funny poems could help to fill in a 50 minute show … I’d be doing this in a town I know well, and there would be plenty of friends who’d come along to see me perform. I hope so, anyway …

As I’ve said, I’m new to this, but I’m funny! Not hilarious, apparently, but I was told the act I’m currently working on is ‘very funny’.

And given I’ve had zero actual formal training in this ‘being funny’ business, I reckon ‘very funny’ is an excellent start! I’m keen to get in as much ‘mic time’ as I can, so if anyone needs someone to warm up a crowd, or fill in a bit of time before something gets started, give me a call! If I don’t at least raise a grin, then I’m not for you, but if you do grin a bit, and think I’m the one you need, flick me a message, we can work together!

My pay rate is low – a space to put my published books, and some time for a book sighing session and encouragement to check out my books to see if anyone is interested in making a purchase can be enough, at this stage. But get in quick, I can feel success is champing at the bit, ready to bring me and my act to the attention of the world. A little piece of it anyway!