Saturday, Jan. 07, 2006 - 8:48 PM
We Three Rants of Joyful Noise Are
(aka Joyful Annoys 3, Return of the Julie)
I swear, this is the very last thing I will say about the Joyful Noise Tour 2005.
Fine, don't believe me. ;o)
I'd like to offer a review of the tour as a whole. Not of the shows, not of the performances, but of the tour itself and everything surrounding it. What actually *happened* in the last two months.
First, before I get to my lists, I want to say that, for me, the thing that made this entire enterprise worthwhile, the one thing that touched me and I will hold in my heart forever, is Clay singing to his grandfather. I love it, and will cherish it always. And I know I'm not alone.
Okay, the lists.
First, the happy list: WHAT WENT RIGHT.
#1 -- Clay wrote a play and got it on a stage. That's an achievement. Many people work their whole lives and don't get that opportunity. Bravo, Clay.
I swear I'm not being sarcastic. My personal feelings about the content or the timing of this play in his career notwithstanding, it's an achievement he should be proud of, because he created something.
#2 -- Clay provided numerous performers with an outlet that gave them national exposure that they would not have received otherwise. It was a generous thing to do, and he's to be commended for it.
Again, no sarcasm. He's always good about using his celebrity to give visibility to others. I love that about him.
#3 -- With this play, Clay touched a lot of people, and gave them an entertaining and emotional experience they will remember forever.
Just because I wasn't one of them (with the exception of Beautiful Star of Bethlehem), doesn't mean I can't recognize and appreciate that lots of people loved this tour. I'm not that heartless, people.
Before I go to my next list, I want to explain my perspective a little bit, for those of you who don't know me.
I'm a writer. I know what it's like to work on something for a long time and put my heart into it. And I know what it's like when something I'm really proud of gets very little response, and something I threw together at the last minute with hardly any effort gets an avalanche of positive feedback. It's a crapshoot. Some things touch people, and some things don't. It's part of the risk you take putting yourself out there.
That being said, here's WHAT WENT WRONG.
#1 -- Jaymes Foster Levy explained the play to us, because she thought we weren't "getting it" when response to the play wasn't what she (I'm just gonna be fair and put this all on her, because I can't say for a fact that Clay had anything to do with her comments) thought it should have been, since she loved it so much. She talked to us as though we were too stupid to pick up on what was, apparently, a complex message that was deeply hidden in multi-layered symbolism. It must have been our stupidity at fault, because otherwise, we would have loved every second of it. Oh, and she also felt it was necessary to inform us that Clay worked very hard on it. And thank God she did, because I just assumed he woke up one morning and there it was in his Alpha-Bits.
Okay, THAT was sarcasm. But I get sarcastic when I'm insulted.
#2 -- Clay, in several interviews, told the audience how they should respond. He made comments about how the play made HIM cry, and so the audience would also cry, because, and I quote, "it's very heartwarming". Sometimes he even made statements implying that he didn't understand people who didn't cry, because they had something wrong with them. Okay, he was joking�but when someone has gone to a show and finds out later that the performer she loves and respects is belittling her for not having the preferred response to his work, that's not very nice.
As a writer, and one who occasionally writes things that might elicit an emotional response, I understand how Clay might feel like he can assume that people would react in a certain way. BUT, and I hope he learned this, even if he's thinking it, he should never say it out loud. If you're gonna make a statement like that, it's better, and far less obnoxious, to say "I think it might make some people cry." Don't tell us how to feel. And never EVER comment on the people who don't see things your way like that again or I'm gonna have to thump you on the noggin.
#3 -- About halfway through the tour, Clay "got the word out" to the audiences of future shows that he wanted more cheering from the people who enjoyed the show. Rather than allowing what's supposed to happen, which is each audience member responding in accordance to what she's feeling, at exactly the level she's feeling it, Clay wanted to make sure he ended every show with an audience that was cheering as loudly as he thought they should. How much more wrong could that be??
Putting on my writer's hat again. Let's say I write a story and post it on my site. Let's say a few weeks go by, and I'm getting hits, but only a couple people have posted comments in my guestbook. Assuming that they're out there loving me and just not being vocal enough, I call up a buddy of mine. "Hey, do me a favor. Put the word out that I want to really really hear from all the people who loved my story. I wanna really hear it loud and clear. I'd tell them myself, but that would be begging." That would be pretty damn obnoxious, wouldn't it?
Okay, I'm done. Three and three. That's fair.
Now let's put all this ugliness behind us and move towards the future, and the fantastic new album we've been promised. Just don't tell me which song is supposed to be my favorite, or I'll kick your skinny ass.
love ya always�from the gnat up your nose
�
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