New Coat Of Paint

Thought I'd post a quick bit of video of "New Coat of Paint", my hat & cane routine, as it was performed at Proud Cabaret recently. I started putting the routine together years ago - I saved a bit of money and took a month off to see what I could come up with. My only rule was "no funny". Pretty much everything else I do on stage has an element of humour to it, so I thought it would be an interesting exercise to create a routine that wasn't intended to be funny. Even worse, it was intended to be cool. I've never thought of myself as remotely cool, so this was realllly outside of my comfort zone.

It's a middling routine, skills-wise, but it's the one I'm usually most nervous about performing. With any of my other bits, I can always cover a fumble or a drop with a good line, but this one has no escape routes, no getout clauses. Everything has to work, and it has to work first time, on the right musical cues.

And it sometimes doesn't.

But.. When it goes right. When all the tricks feel easy and fluid and correct. I do feel cool. Sometimes I even feel a little bit like a dancer. Just for a moment.