Monday, October 22, 2007

Kanye West and me

Kanye West is my hero. Not because he makes a jillion dollars a year or knows how to rock a pink polo shirt, but because he can make a mistake and handle it with style. Case in point: his performance on Saturday Night Live. He flubbed some words in "Everything I Am" and then regrouped: "I just messed up on my rap — live TV" and kept going, "But hey, here we go again." It was an inspired, inspiring performance. Crowd goes crazy.

This morning I did an appearance on live TV, demo-ing a necklace from Cool Jewels on a local news show. I had a hard time getting my nerves under control and wasn't as dynamic as I'd have liked. (Note to self: try not to demo a technique like crimping that requires fine motor skills.) The two people who saw the show noticed my hands were shaking when I tried to finish the necklace. And I don't have the freestyling skills that Kanye does, so I ended up not really having a solution and giving more importance to the parts where I struggled.

I had a good talk with our publisher afterward and she gave me helpful advice: "Try to get past the idea that things have to be perfect." This is challenging for a perfectionist. But, it's a worthwhile goal. And while I'm not a professional entertainer, I'm hoping to get more experience so I don't fixate on my mistakes. Also, the producer wants me to come back again next month, so it couldn't have been as bad as I remember it.

But hey, here we go again.

1 comment:

Jean Katherine Baldridge said...

You are not my first blog friend who has mentioned doing this on some sort of film or tv appearance. I guess it must be very very common! I do know that NO one is realizing what is going on in your head...unless you tell them. So if you say : "I am crimping, here!", and leave it at that, you can be doing a slightly less than perfect job, but what they are seeing (picturing) is you, crimping well, because you said so!

Have a really nicely finished piece--the exact same piece of jewelry, which you can then pick up immediately when you are done, to show off, which is finished more to you liking, if you really want to relax in advance! You will know you can't possibly fail with it made and sitting there! :)