Make it Funny! 7 Weeks to Creating a Transformative Comedic Solo Performance
If you know that performing your own work is what you were put on earth to do, or if you just know you need to express something and you’ve been waiting to do it, it’s time to stop waiting. The time to speak your piece is now. I don’t want you to die with your “music still in you.” I know how difficult it can be to finally put your stake in the ground and say, “Hey, I’m here, and what I have to say is important!” …hoping all the while that the audience laughs at it, because some part of you has a twisted sense of humor as well as a deep mission to speak the truth. Well, take the shortcut here, now, by learning what I’ve gleaned from 15 years of being a comedian.
Don’t just take my word for it. Let folks tell you in their own words…
Alicia’s 7 Step Process to Creating Impactful and Hilarious Solo Performance
- Tell your old story–and see what’s “broken”: The Crux of your Story. With the help of your trusted Source, you can begin to recognize and accept what hasn’t been working. You may have already done this in 12-step recovery or spiritual work. If so, great! We’ll go even deeper from where you are… If not, you’ll discover how in this first week.
- Surrender to vulnerability. If how you’ve been doing things so far isn’t working, surrender is a nice option. Kidding. It’s the only option – ha ha! Spirit has something wildly more miraculous for you than you could imagine.
- Start creating. From this place of perspective, we can begin to tell new stories to ourselves and others about our love lives. Spacious stories that allow us to have freedom, joy, aliveness, and choice. As we begin to channel all the energy and intensity–energy we used to spend on obsession–into creativity, we find our lives become filled with ease, light, and love.
- Start feeling. Ack! Feelings! What the heck do you do with those? Well, you may be familiar with the ol’ drama-queen Feelings with a capital F. But what we’re digging for here are the feelings underneath. The true emotions and sensations–powerful ones like desire, passion, anger, curiosity, bliss–because they point to the bigger truths.
- Start laughing. Your truth can sometimes be hard to look at. But bringing in compassion is key. Laughter is deep compassion. It’s a way of holding ourselves in love and lightness. Laughter is God’s gift to human kind. Laughter increases pain tolerance,strengthens the immune system, and releases endorphins and oxytocin. It’s so powerful we often take it for granted or overlook it, but aside from massive doses of psychedelics, I haven’t seen any tool that more radically changes one’s state of being in such a short time.
- Recognize your brilliance. You are a child of the Universe. And I don’t mean that you should join a commune and start wearing beads. You’re a brilliant star, waiting to shine. When you were born, you were magically, momentously perfect, and you knew it. You were sensitive, unique, bright, intense, aware, and powerful. You were gifted and talented. As you “grew up,” people who loved you, tried their best to teach you how to survive in the big, bad world. But dammit, they didn’t teach you how to channel your gifts and create amazing things on earth! You found a way to survive, to fit in, by numbing your feelings and your intensity with love, sex, fantasy, or even food or work. This step will help you re-member your Light.
- Tell your story again. Your new story! In the past, you told your old story of pain and suffering over and over again. So many times you believed it. And so did we. In week 7, you get to tell your new story–the one that’s infused with divine light and laughter–with such power that you believe it! The culmination of this workshop is an evening of humorous storytelling in which you speak your new truth to the others in the workshop as well as your family and friends. It’s you declaring, “Here I am, dammit! I survived myself. And what a crazy story I have to tell you!” (And everyone starts to laugh with you in anticipation.) Scary, right? It’s also breathtakingly transformative.
“I was amazed to see how much of a difference Alicia’s workshop made. The pace of my project accelerated, and I witnessed two blocked writers suddenly become prolific and a singer return to music for the first time in years.”
“I find Alicia to be amazingly present, compassionate, gracious, playful, and vivacious.Working with Alicia is inspiring, effective, and fun, and she maintains a safe and comfortable space for creative and personal exploration and unfolding. Her ideas have helped me tremendously along my journey.”
— Jason Fisher, The World Peace Game (Jason took a creativity course with Alicia)
Story Development:
- The 7 types of solo performance pieces
- Finding the theme and arc of the story, and the emotional place where the character starts at and ends up
- Finding the voice of the story through body and heart-centered practices
- Finding the universality inside the specificity
- Developing themes and crisis points, creative use of time lines & plot points
- What show not to write and why
Humor:
- How to set up a joke
- How to turn painful live events into humorous ones
- How to “get into a character” to create material using “Parts Work” (Jungian Sub-Personality work)
- Using humor to bring an audience into or out of uncomfortable moments
Characterization:
- Creating & establishing characters
- Types of narrators & their function
Performance:
- Acting preparations for bringing your best performance
- Creating Moments (of Grace, Beauty, Magic, Tenderness, or Simple Presence)
- Creating real vulnerability and bringing your heart your work
- Bringing your audience on a profound journey that leaves them transformed
- Staging your piece (we’ll cover how to stage, but not actually do staging)
Nuts & Bolts:
- Building a show piece by piece
- Principles: Show, don’t tell, Specificity & universality, Truth vs Accuracy
- Working from page to stage–or vice versa
- Utilizing special skills like singing, dancing, etc., Length of solo shows, Working with a director, lighting & sound
What you’ll have at the end of 7 weeks:
Here’s what you’ll get:
- 7 Weeks of Live Teleclasses via Skype with the Group Value: $700
- 7 Weeks of totally customized assignments for your solo show’s development Value: $350
- A Collaboration and Accountability Partner with whom you can do your exercises Value: $250
- An Online Discussion Board to get support and get questions answered Value: $100
- An Ongoing flow of information on solo performance including video clips, inspirational reading, and valuable insights Value: $100
- 2 Live Interview calls with working professionals offering Q & A coaching: Value: $250
- one with a nationally-touring solo performer/actor
- one with a critically-acclaimed solo performance director
- My Book Make it Funny! which is chock full of writing exercises and other guidance on how to be a comedian, how to be a solo performer, etc. Value: $50
Begins: March 19th, 2012. Enroll by March 5th and get this bonus:
- 30-minute Individual Laser Coaching Call with Alicia on story arc, character development, or clarity Value: $75
Value: $1875
Your Investment: $497
(or 3 payments of $179)
Your moment to decide has arrived…
Is today the day you will honor your highest self and dissolve into the love you are capable of delivering to the world? You’ll know if you feel that familiar sensation in your stomach …a quickening that says ‘This is for me!’ Even though you might be scared to begin the journey.
Even though you might think you’re not quite in a place to begin. (In fact, that’s one of those smoke screen obstacles our minds love to throw up.) Hold steady to your guidance, friend. It can be trusted!
Even though you’ve done “lots of these things” before.
On the other hand, if you’re getting a clear no … beautiful! I honor your clear decision and thank you for reading this page. And I sincerely hope there was value for you here even just in reading this. My intention is to touch everyone who walks through this virtual door, and that would include you.
