Ira Glass, great advice on Creativity

For those with nothing but a faint song in their hearts, a little candle with a fragile flame of enthusiasm telling them that the Way of the Showman is for them. For anyone starting out on their creative adventures the advice from Master Storyteller Ira Glass is awesome. I wish someone had told me. It might have saved me from laying in the dark nights of Norway wondering if I would ever make work I would be proud of. I did hundreds of shows with my dad. Kids shows in shopping centres and at christmas tree parties was were I cut my teeth but our material was not something I could bring with me to show my punk friends. It took a long time, but it did happen in the end.

You become a Creative because you have good taste, good enough to know that for a long time, sometimes a very long time, you can tell your work is not good enough for yourself to like it. Stay with it! The act gets better!

Lesson from the Way of the Showman - 65

Mr Mysterio's parting advice to students.

"Before sending budding bafflers on their way, I always do my utmost to impress upon them that each performance, successful or otherwise, contains a lesson. Each failure show the performer what not to do, while each success shows the performer how it can be done. And there are still more valuable lessons to be learned.
"Was each line delivered at the right moment, for maximum impact? How well was your misdirection covered, in slights involving that interesting art? Were you able to control the attention of the audience in exactly the way you desired?"
For an attentive performer, the question never cease and the journey never ends. There are always ways to make even the oldest trick new, ways to improve the presentation or performance of virtually every effect you know. Even the simplest of feats can be refined to the point that it becomes a master piece."