Looking back at 2011

A few weeks before Christmas 2011, I bumped into a punter at Horse MeatDisco who told me: “Hey, didn’t I see you perform in Edinburgh last year? I bought your booklet, remember? You were amazing!” I already alluded to this punter earlier in this blog: http://ontheflesh.blogspot.com/2010/08/ending-on-high.html

This interaction prompted me to look back at what I had written here at the beginning of 2011 and try and figure out how many of the goals I had set myself back then I had actually achieved – how and to what extent. The goals were perhaps too ambitious. First and foremost it is obvious that, early on, I gave up on my intention to bring my Edinburgh show (In the Name of the Flesh) to other festivals or venues around London. I was feeling exhausted at the beginning of the year and the prospect seemed like too much hard work to me at that point – so I did not even attempt it. Another planned activity that did not progress as much as I had anticipated was the creation of new videos. In 2011, I preferred to focus my creative efforts on: hosting and promoting my poetry events (Glam Slam UK and Velvet Tongue) and writing.

Keeping that in mind, I list here some of my highlights of 2011:

• My erotic literary soirée, Velvet Tongue, which I started in February, went from strength to strength, with great audience and press reactions --  Velvet Tongue is back with a  vengeance in 2012: http://velvettongueuk.blogspot.com/2012/02/january-velvet-tongue-thanks.html
• The success of the 4th (and final) edition of Glam Slam UK was impressive, with unprecedented audience numbers, excellent contributors and a transatlantic flavour (as it included the participation of the creator of the original Glam Slam in New York: Emanuel Xavier)
• I was interviewed for the Gay and Lesbian section of London’s weekly, Time Out: http://www.timeout.com/london/gay-lesbian/article/2601/naked-poet-ernesto-sarezale-interview
• A musical rendition of my sonnet “The Fall” appeared in Othon Mataragas’ award winning album, IMPERMANENCE (Nov. 2011), sung by Ernesto Tomasini. The track based on my poem has been mentioned as one of the highlights of the album in various reviews, whether in English (in England and Scotland), in Greek, in German or in French
• I won First Prize in Tally Koren’s lyrics competition as part of her ‘72 Days’ project, with a poem entitled “72 Words”.
• I continued to develop new material for my forthcoming one-man show, “The Pornographic You”, some of which I tested in stand-up nights and even led me to winning a (crazy) comedy “competition” (Comedy Heat's 'Asylum!'): http://vimeo.com/27540585
• I was invited to pose for The Naked Muse Calendar 2012, a "naked male poets" calendar produced by Wild Women Press to raise money for JDRF, a charity that supports research on type 1 diabetes. My photograph, taken by Julie Cook, appears in the month of July next to Gill Hands’ poem, “Fetish Negotiation.” The calendar was featured by the Independent as one of the 10 Best Calendars for 2012
• I was also photographed by Magnus Arrevad for his Boy Story project
• One of my poems (“The Aftermath”) was chosen for “See what you say,” a project combining poetry and photography organised by the University of East London. Two female photography students created wonderful photographic sets to illustrate the poem.
• I finally managed to perform my poetry in Madrid, at a literary event in Bukowski, a bohemian, literary pub in the artsy/alternative neighbourhood of Malasaña
• In London I performed at many wonderful poetry, comedy & cabaret events throughout the year but two of my highlights have to be:

o   My performance at Ronnie Scotts, on the same bill as the legendary Michael Horovitz, for Jumoke Fashola’s Jazz Verse Juke Box

o   Performing alongside Erasure’s Andy Bell at Paul Burston’s queer literary salon, Polari, in the Southbank

• I also did quite a bit of writing throughout the year: blog entries, poems and fiction pieces, some of which will be seeing the light soon
• …as well as countless drafts (for poems, plays, short stories, scripts performance pieces – e.g. The Couch) on which I intend to keep on working…

As regards 2012, my plans include:

• a stronger focus on writing (poetry, fiction, performance material) and on publishing
• a consolidation of my erotic literary soirée, Velvet Tongue
• further developing my forthcoming one-man show, “The Pornographic You”
• …and other bits and pieces still to be defined

Developments...

Ernesto is currently looking for new outlets (other festivals, theatres, spaces) for In The name of the Flesh...

In the meantime, he is also:

• writing short fiction (as well as poetry)
• promoting a new event, Velvet Tongue
• planning the 4th edition of the Glam Slam UK
• expanding his under-construction one-man show "The Pornographic You"
• developing a new Freudian multimedia performance piece, "The Couch", on the themes of voyeurism, exhibitionism and other psycho-sexual deviations...
• sketching new video work
• ...and more

 No rest for the wicked.

Was it worth it?

[Updated Oct/Nov 2010]
 
So… was it worth it? Well, I suppose it depends on what I was really expecting from the Fringe... Do I even know? 

There were many motivations behind my participation in the festival. But I guess what I was mainly looking for was: “the experience"… the experience of the Fringe.

And an experience it was! The Fringe was both exciting and stressful, exhilarating and dispiriting, addictive and off-putting, uplifting and depressing.  Unpredictable. Predictably, my experience in the Edinburgh Fringe with In the Name of the Flesh (ITNOTF) had its ups and downs; its highs and its lows. 

Let’s start with the LOWS: the unavoidably variable & grumpy Scottish weather (with its outpours of rain); the stressful technical complications of the video projection setup at the Banshee Labyrinth; the few times that the Hammer and Tongue slams (preceding my show every night) overran (thus adding to the stress); the disruptively noisy atmosphere at the goth/punk venue; the (baffling) hostility from the local free gay press; the non-stop flocks of tourists on the Royal Mile; the random clueless audience members one can face some times (not only for my show but also for other people’s); the low turn-outs for ITNOTF on two or three of the nights; Edinburgh’s limited gay scene; no stand out shows at this year’s Fringe; a long list of could haves and should haves (of course, I will always regret not being able to participate in The Naked Brunch, which took place, fittingly, on my birthday, which I spent far far from Edinburgh); and the odd bits and pieces better left to oblivion.

But I'd rather focus on the HIGHS: the vibrant parallel spoken word universe surreally hosted in the grungy Banshee Labyrinth and dedicatedly orchestrated by “ringmaster of spoken word” and not-that-you-would-notice-it-heart-failure-sufferer Richard Tyrone Jones; the friendly vibes coming from the electrifying Hammer and Tongue slams that preceded ITNOTF every night; winning one of the Hammer and Tongue heats and thus making it to their final, which was filmed by Billy Watson;  finding a long queue of punters waiting to get in on the first night of ITNOTF; a very rewarding performance at Scottee’s Eat Your Heart Out (EYHO) in front of a lovely young crowd, many of whom came to see my full show two days later; the warm words and signs of appreciation from audience members during and after my performances; some very sexy audience members for ITNOTF, especially on Monday 16th; some interesting shows (EYHO itself, Mysterious Skin, Lady C, Belt Up’s Lorca is Dead); our daily routines (such as tasting  post-show pseudo-mojitos, pseudo-margaritas or Pyms at the C Venues’ “Urban Gardens” between Chamber Street and Cowgate, surrounded by the young, good looking performers from the nearby venues – so young, so cute, so fresh, so full of enthusiasm); discovering new restaurants in Edinburgh; unexpectedly bumping into Ugly Betty's Michael Urie and a few people I know from London: Tonny A., David Mills, Tom Webb, Jonathan Kemp, Arkem, Natacha Poledica, Becky Fury and more;  the nice words from Ben Walters about ITNOTF in his article in Time Out; the sustained applause at the end of my show at the well-attended last 3 nights; and so much more... Oh, yes, last but by no means least, my partner John’s much valued assistance, support and love.

Other people's experiences...

As a counterpart to my own personal thoughts, I would like to quote other people’s reactions to the Ediburgh Fringe. 

I am intrigued, for example, by the cynical pessimism expressed by Armando Ianucci in an interview he gave a couple of years ago: "I always carry with me, when I arrive in Edinburgh, that inherent sense of the disappointment of it all." “…you might as well assume now that this is a waste of your time.” And how about these comments from someone like Greg Davies (in a Time Out interview, October 2010): “The amount of work, sweat, fear and narcissism that goes into it is exhausting. It’s such an intense thing to do. You get lost in the Edinburgh bubble and we all convince ourselves that it’s more important than it actually is – the rest of the country doesn’t give a shit, really.”

Is Edinburgh still what it used to be? Or is the spirit of the Fringe dead? See, for example, veteran John Fleming’s ruminations in his blog: “Scots comedienne Janey Godley has been telling me and has blogged that she feels this year’s Edinburgh Fringe is different. That the spark has gone. That it has lost some of its character. I told her it felt that way every year.” “But, in the last few days, I have come round to agreeing with Janey Godley. The old Fringe is dying or is already dead.” John Fleming seems to see the future of Edinburgh in the free fringes, as does Project Adorno's Russell Thompson in his (not terribly optimistic but very candid and incredibly spot on ) review, where he says, among many other insightful comments: “the Edinburgh Fringe is about the most regimented thing you can do: it’s a case of get up, go flyering, go home, do rehearsal, do show, go home, see a show, go flyposting, go home, collapse;”  “There’s an oft-repeated snippet of Fringe lore that goes: ‘Did you know that the average audience-size for a show is [any number between one and seven]?’ ” (thankfully, the average audience for ITNOTF was higher than that...).

I wish I had read earlier the wise and thoughtful views that Tom Webb had shared online at the start of this year’s Fringe: "I have heard so many sad, tired stories from my returning Fringe friends. They wince and moan about the cost and small audiences and terrible venues, all with their own myriad misadventures. The only similarity is that they've all come back improved – battered and bruised, but better."

I also fancy including here a comment from Matt Panesh, The Monkey Poet, whose show went on every night at the Banshee Labyrinth after UTTER! We were chatting outside the venue, during one of his fag breaks, when he said something like: “Just the fact that a person has chosen my show and has come to see me is rewarding in itself.” I couldn’t agree more. The knowledge that, out of all the shows on offer each night, someone out there – this anonymous audience member whose motives I cannot even begin to imagine – chose to see me (picked my show, made the effort to find the venue, arrived on time, stayed until the end, clapped) was very special indeed.

To sum it up, I could just quote David Mills quoting a comedian he met at one of the open mic shows where he performed: “We are all going to die.”

On a more personal note...

Continuing with the theme of "lessons learnt", I am aware that In The Name Of The Flesh (ITNOTF) is not  for everybody -- with its extensive doses of nudity, phallic references  and gay sexual content... plus – God forbid! – performance poetry and  (undoubtedly the show’s most challenging content) material from the  Eurovision Song Contest! If I were writing this during the second  weekend of ITNOTF in Edinburgh (after experiencing distressful animosity  from the local gay press and a couple of poorly attended nights), the  tone would be totally despondent. I would be announcing the end of  ITNOTF as a live piece and marking the last days of Ernesto Sarezale as a  performer. Luckily, there was a shift on the Sunday night, which  brought a good crowd, most of whom seemed to know what kind of show they  were coming for and reacted warmly with extended applause. This shift  was confirmed by the reassuringly well attended last two nights of he  run.

Yes, I know there is an audience for ITNOTF. The difficulty is finding  it. What now seems perfectly obvious to me is that... Edinburgh is not  the place to look for it.

Realistically, if there is something that Ernesto has learnt from his  Edinburgh run (partly prompted by the self-imposed exercise of keeping  this blog) is something he has always known, really, namely, that his  real vocation, his true, true vocation is: writing. His extroverted  escapades in the last few years at clubs and venues like Kashpoint,  Horse Meat Disco, Gutterslut, Caligula, Carpet Burn, Stunners, Vogue  Fabrics or The Dalston Superstore (to mention just a few), being  featured in BUTT or iD magazines and performing regularly at a wildly  diverse range of events (poetry, cabaret, arts, nightclubs, stand up) in  London and beyond (Brighton, Manchester, Glasgow, San Francisco, New  York, Montreal, Barcelona, Madrid and, last August, his 11-day season at  the Edinburgh Fringe) have been exhilarating experiences. However,  something is telling him now that the time has come to rediscover his  introverted self. The time has come for a more reflective Ernesto. An  Ernesto more focused on his writing, less concerned with the live  audiences, enjoying what he really enjoys the most: bringing out,  through words, all those stories, those images, those universes, those  characters, those crazy ideas bubbling inside him and demanding to be committed to the page (or the computer screen).

I’ve got the feeling that you will be seeing a lot less of Ernesto (and  his average-sized talking penis) in the days to come.

[UPDATE (22/11/2010): I have just re-read this post. In spite of what he wrote above, Ernesto has already started working on new material for performance, you see...]

15 (or so) lessons learnt at the Edinburgh Fringe 2010

[Updated: Oct/Nov 2010 - Admittedly much of what follows is pretty cynical and based on crass overgeneralisations – but, even so, I’d argue there is a lot of truth in it]

Here are some lessons I learnt at the Fringe – mostly about the Fringe:

1. If you are going to perform at the Fringe, it helps if you are young. Physically preferably; but, if not, at least, in spirit. The Fringe is draining.
2. This may sound obvious, but all seems to be about promoting, promoting, promoting; and then networking, networking, networking, networking; and then promoting, promoting, promoting, promoting… It always helps if you know the right people, of course.   
3. Internet presence and social networks are crucial. And Twitter seems to be a critical tool for networking nowadays; just a shame I never got too excited by this application and did not bother to learn many of its features before going to Edinburgh… facebook, with which I'm much more familiar, did not seem to be enough (too self-contained).
4.  It is very difficult to figure out where the audiences come from. What attracted them to your show? What made them come? The printed catalogue? The fliers? The ad? The posters? The online listings? The listings on the Fringe‘s iPhone app? Previews online? Previews on the press? Video trailers online? A review (whether good or bad)? Performing sneak previews at other people’s shows during the Fringe? Having a cockroach on the stage?  Gimmicky fliering on the Royal Mile? Blogging? Word of mouth? (...all of which brings us back to lesson 2 and its emphasis on promoting and networking, of course).
5. If you take a show to Edinburgh, it helps if you 'dumb down' (to put it bluntly). If in doubt, bring the safer, less demanding version of your show (I can think of at least two shows I saw in 2010 where this was manifest); forget subtlety; and make sure you have a gimmick, preferably connected with TV and celebrities (be it Emma Thomson, Michael Urie, John Hegley, Penelope Cruz, Faulty Towers,...).
6. The more expensive the ticket for a show, the more favourable the audiences – and the reviewers. It feels like free shows have to be twice as good as paid shows to get half the appreciation. It is a real shame that so much quality stuff is presented at the Free Fringe without the deserved recognition.
7. This is probably the most obvious point on this list, but will never be overstated, I think: the relationship with the press is always difficult.
8. Old school gay activists in Scotland hate the Eurovision Song Contest. ("Nemo me impune lacessit.")
9. It may not be a good thing if a show is deemed “unique” or "unclassifiable" (adjectives that only seem to work if applied to bigger-than-life characeters like, say, Grace Jones). In fact classification at the Fringe is crucial. Make sure you get your show in the right category if you want to get the right audiences and the right (sic) reviews. Unfortunately the number of categories in the Edinburgh Fringe is limited (“children’s shows”, “comedy”, “dance & physical theatre”, “music,” “musicals & opera” and “theatre”) and the boundaries rather nebulous. In which of these categories would you include a multimedia spoken word production with some humorous content but not conceived as stand up? I have already discussed earlier my uneasiness about listing “In the Name of the Flesh” (ITNOTF) in the “Comedy” section. It is interesting that someone like Kate Fox has expressed similar concerns. Such concerns had tempted me to conclude that non-comedy-orientated spoken word shows would probably be better suited to the “Theatre” category. But then I found this blog from Helen Mort, whose spoken word show, 'A Pint for the Ghost', had been listed in the “Theatre" section of the Fringe. How did she fare? On her blog, Helen complains about a damning reviewer who "appears to have approached the piece as standard theatre (..) rather than a poetry and storytelling event". She then goes on to mention a more sympathetic reviewer who still "would have preferred a little more theatricality." Go figure.
10. A bad review is probably more useful to get bums on seats than no review at all. Shocking but probably true. Well, you know the old motto: ‘there’s no such thing as bad publicity’ and all that.
11. When reading Fringe reviews some times one can learn more about the reviewers’ backgrounds and preferences (their tastes, their likes, their dislikes, their prejudices, the schools they studied at, who they kissed as teenagers) than about the show that’s being reviewed. In fact, one can encounter reviews that have the intellectual depth and cultural insight of Amanda Holden’s comments on Britain’s Got Talent.
12. The Edinburgh Fringe does not seem to me the most gay friendly of festivals. Ok, this year there were a few successful gay comedians (e.g. the very funny & polished Paul Sinha) and a handful of well attended gay-themed shows (among which I particularly enjoyed Mysterious Skin,  for example). There is also the worthy, enjoyable and popular Sunday Fundraisers at the New Town bar showcasing gay Fringe talent; I will always be very grateful to the late Scottie McLaren for supporting my Fringe acts and giving me the opportunity to perform at the New Town bar more than once (I was very sad to find out that he died in an accident while on holidays in Spain shortly after the end of the Fringe). But I must admit I get the general feeling that the Edinburgh Festivals do not quite cater for the gay contingent. I feel there is a bit of a gap there. (And the gay scene in Edinburgh can come across as so "petit bourgeois" some times...) Ok, quite a few cute local boys though.
13. Do nudity and sexual content get bums on seats at the Fringe? The jury's out on this. Shows with naked flesh and sexual themes still get a good deal of media coverage (for example, here, here and here). However, the nudity and the sex can still make people very uneasy and audiences have been known to walk out en masse because of their apperance in a show. I can think of two or three people who walked out of  ITNOTF because of that and I was told this also happened during the (sexually explicit) play Lady C. According to this blog, it also happened in the middle of the Malcolm Hardee Documentary. Can one really believe the (increasingly frequent) journalistic claims that nakedness and explicit sexual content do not shock audiences anymore? Allegedly, though, in 2010, shows have not been conspicuous for their exposure of naked flesh. If we are to believe this blogger from The Stage: “Another shocking thing we’ve noticed is that this year, for the first time in years, we do not have the usual unofficial nudity list going on our notice board. None has been spotted.”     Where have they been looking?
14. Once you’ve made the effort to go all the way to Scotland to perform at the Fringe, you may as well spend the whole month there and go for the full run. I had already been adviced this by other people (e.g. Tonny A. and Leon Conrad) years ago. But I was always sceptical and, in fact, my original intention this year was to present my show just for a long weekend until I was compelled by RTJ to go for half the run of PBH’s Free Fringe: 11 days. Now I realise how right that early advice was. By the time I was starting to really enjoy my performances and the show was starting to get clued-up audiences and some media interest, the run was over and I had to go back down to London. It felt a bit like coitus interruptus.
15. There is no much point in describing one’s show as “surreal” or “challenging” or “unique” as these are claims that are made about pretty much every other show. Besides, if what you do is really challenging and unconventional (if it is truly edgy and boundary-pushing) you are likely to have a hard time, I'd say. A bit of controversy, a bit of naughty content, a bit of innuendo in the title may help. But make sure your show is not too unorthodox as your average Fringe audience (and reviewer) may not be able to cope with it. Forget all those rumours that the Fringe is about taking risks, experimenting, cutting edges. This may have been true in the past (I wouldn’t know, I wasn’t there). But, nowadays, at least based on my experience, the Fringe seems to be more about the blunt, the sanitised and the mainstream than anything else. Playing safe pays off. And I am not alone in this observation. I am tempted to sympathise with John Nicholson, who, lamenting the absence of "naked left wing student(s) doing obscene things with a cucumber" at the Fringe, wondered a couple of years ago: "Maybe conformity is the new rebellion?"

Colourful titles at the Edinburgh Fringe 2010

A selected few:

1. A young man dressed as a gorilla dressed as an old man sits rocking in a rocking chair for fifty-six minutes and then leaves 2
2. The Head Girl, the Gap Year, and Sue Ellen
3. A Study of Embarrassment by a Guy With Two Bumholes
4. Too middle-class for Chlamydia
5. Sex and Hugs and Forward Rolls
6. Penelope Cruz Doesn't Eat Sand
7. The Typhoid Marys
8. Robert White's Outrageously Peculiar Organ
9. Sex, Lies and the KKK
10. The inconsiderate aberrations of Billy the Kid
11. Mushy ate my credit card
12. Call me old fascist
13. Shit Theatre presents: A shit poster presenting Shit Theatre
14. The Lonely Mortician’s Guide To Myiasis
15. Quiz in my pants
16. Don’t Happy, Be Worry
17. I, Claudia
18. A Perhaps-Too-Intimate Evening of Music and Hilarity
19. A Matter of Life, Death and Middle-Distance Running
20. Kevin Eldon is Titting About
21. Firing Cheeseballs at a Dog
22. Inglorious Stereo
23. The Three Stigmata of Pacman
24. Girl Constantly F***ing Interrupted
25. How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse: Reloaded