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Luke's Creative Podcast
I'm finally releasing real episodes of a podcast project where I talk to creative people about creativity, and related topics. Episode 1 was just me chatting about the project, the motivation behind it and how it developed over time.
Episode 2 a long conversation with David Friedman. David is a photographer, blogger, and inventor, with a lot of crossover between these different creative strands. You might not know him, but the chances are you've read some of his blog posts, as he has a habit of coming up with cool ideas that go viral.
In future episodes I'll be talking to all kinds of other creative people in other creative fields, even a professional comic book illustrator who is quite familiar to readers of this forum.
Check it out!
Episode 2 a long conversation with David Friedman. David is a photographer, blogger, and inventor, with a lot of crossover between these different creative strands. You might not know him, but the chances are you've read some of his blog posts, as he has a habit of coming up with cool ideas that go viral.
In future episodes I'll be talking to all kinds of other creative people in other creative fields, even a professional comic book illustrator who is quite familiar to readers of this forum.
Check it out!
Comments
In this episode I have a long conversation with Nat Osborn, a musician living and working in New York. I hung out with him a few times last year, as explained in the podcast, and wanted to get his thoughts and views and ideas on record.
Here's a music video of his from last year showcasing one of his bands (and it looks like they all had a lot of fun making this crazy video!):
We talk about quite a few other musicians in this episode, so check out:
Nat Osborn or Nat's MySpace page.
Nigel Hall also on MySpace.
Sveta Bout
Aimee Bayles can also be heard on MySpace.
Lyle Divinsky has a MySpace page too.
Billy Libby
We also talk about: The songwriting group. Inspiration and motivation from being in a group. Surrounding yourself with more talented people. Song writing. Changing choruses throughout the song. Not being able to play your own music. Being in a band: good! Being in a band: bad! Production setup at home. Different software. Different equipment leading to more creativity.
I mentioned some of my own music in the episode too. For example:
Future Luke - too many words, will finish writing it in 10 years time, chorus changing all the time.
Wonderful - took 4 years to write, the chorus changes all the time. and it has too many word.
On The Hill (mp3 download) - not being able to perform your own music, four different vocal parts per verse/chorus. Also: too many words.
I'm happy to hear Funfetus though.
I for one welcome our new etc. etc.
For context, the video now has 127,000 views. I saw it on the day it was released, and the view count stood at 2. Way ahead of the curve on this one.
(or download the mp3 here)
In this episode I chat with Brandon Palas, a professional comic book artist. I asked him to draw a self-portrait sketch to include in this blog post (see above).
I've not got much to add here, except that Brandon's dreamed-of web comic project is starting slowly. He said in the podcast "I don't have the time!" but in a recent email he said "I'm never going to have more time, so I might as well try to work on it now."
Note's and links:
Brandon's Blog
ConceptArt.org
Paul F. Gero photography blog
Marko Djurdjevic's Character Ideation - trailer (WMV file, 11.4mb)
The expressive stick figure art of XKCD
"It's not about the best illustration or the greatest art, it's about telling the story."
"Faces and heads are the most important part."
Windows and windows and windows (learning shortcuts):
This is a warmup sketch before he settles down to real work:
"How many pages per day?"
More random notes:
Brandon is a comic book artist.
Luke doesn't know anything about comics!
Getting into drawing as a kid.
Creative energy can get diverted by other endeavors.
Messing around, just sketching, builds confidence.
Faces and heads are the most important part.
If something's wrong with an arm, most people won't notice. Something wrong with the face? Everyone notices!
Working nights… what am I doing with my life?
Near death experience forcing you to move on in life.
"I bet you're 27… you're going to wait until you're 40?"
Working for someone else focuses the mind.
It's not about the best illustration or the greatest art, it's about telling the story.
Learning from what you appreciate about other artists.
A photo lacks motion and life?
A series of photos in the same order as a comic doesn't work.
There's no point in being a human camera.
Comic book illustration is an art of shortcuts and gestures.
How to make things out of focus in comic book art.
Spotting blacks and line weight.
Warming up to drawing.
Spending money on training. Spending money on your job!
Going professional, and giving up the day (night) job.
How many pages per day?
A two year project, and how much you improve over that time.
Art style evolving all the time.
The expressiveness of stick figures and XKCD.
Luke's stick figure art story.
Brandon's next project?
I was able to individually get the episodes by clicking on them in the iTunes store, but not through refreshing my podcast feeds. FYI.
Hopefully iTunes Store will work out it should be looking at that one soon. Not sure how it changed.
Just listened to the Brandon Palas episode and enjoyed it immensely.
This is the first recording I made for this podcast project. I had a good time chatting with Bram, just like always, and of course I talked a lot more than I first planned during the discussion. The reason I didn't put this episode out first is that the sound quality isn't great. We recorded it in a gym, where people were juggling. Sorry about the background noise.
Here's Bram and Sander performing at the same festival last August:
Links:
Pol and Freddy.
Compagnie Ea Eo.
Previous interview with Bram.
Pol and Freddy.
End the show with eating yoghurt.
First aid!
Club juggling is popular!
Getting annoyed.
Bram sulks in the car.
Compagnie Ea Eo.
The bit with the hoods.
The stage comes apart and gets smaller…
… and smaller.
Luke and Pola with the Art of Juggling.
More random notes:
Drinking vodka. Characters, non-verbal comedy. Nerdy juggling for non-juggler audiences. Luke's 3 ball and video routine (link). Juggling puts the props between you and the audience. Finish the show with the juggling that gets in the way of my character least. Character development through conflict.
Working on a show with a group of people. The role of a director. Financial considerations of working with a group. Creative control as a director. Where ideas come from in a group.
Inspiration comes in phases. Writing ideas down. Or not writing them down. Bad ideas. Ideas from dreams.
Genius creating anger. Definition of creative genius: "I could have never come up with that idea!" Anger fueling creativity. Writing the show "Powercut".
Creating new material to keep your job fresh. Old material feeling stale. Avoiding repetition, and being spontaneous.
Using negative emotions to affect the audience. Getting out of your comfort zone. Dancing alone on stage is way harder than five clubs. Breaking expectations n regards to emotional journeys. Visceral non-reactions to shows can almost be valid as positive reactions?
Fuckit, every one of these discussions is my favourite whenever I listen back to them a few months after the recordings!
Gregg Margarite is creative in many different fields, and so am I. We didn't get into the specifics of any creative field, but had a great discussion about being someone trying to make their way in a world that likes to put people in boxes.
Links:
vitroglyph.com - glass art by Henner Schroder, with help from Gregg.
Gregg's audiobook recordings - the only other project he does under his own name.
As he said in the podcast, Gregg is the one with the beard:
More random notes:
Only one thing, but manifests in many different aspects.
What "making glass" entails.
Three dimensional canvas.
Making the glass is almost a performance art, because so many people come to watch.
How did you get into this? Well, there was this girl…
Glass turning from a craft into an art.
A hobby has a whole subculture, and within it superstars.
Gregg's father was all about security.
Not wanting to bring in money from creative endeavors.
Not trying to accumulate laurels any more. You have to have laurels to rest upon them.
When I'm finished with something, I'm not interested in it anymore.
Everything springs from itself… everything's connected.
I want to be as good on my best day as the best are on their worst day.
Doing something under your own name versus using a pseudonym.
Sometimes the audience doesn't understand.
If something ends up as a "product" that's great, but I create as a bodily function.
Gregg: I don't want to look like the guy who thinks he's a genius.
Luke: Hmmm, maybe I sometimes come across as that guy.
Generalists.
Is there a box for me?
There are examples of generalists, but few and far between. Like Buckminster Fuller.
Generalists in a specific medium transcend the medium.
Specialist is best for most people, as generalists will probably never have as much knowledge as the specialist in any one area.
Luke uses his generalist attitude to stand out.
Gregg hides his generalist attitude to make cocktail parties easier to bear.
And he always uses another name.
Gregg doesn't want to be known as the poet/musician who is a really crappy musician and a really crappy poet.
Luke is happy to be pretty average across the board.
Art is when you learn a craft so much you come out the other side.
Musicians seem to think they are being paid by the note.
Has Gregg set Luke a challenge?
Cross pollination of skills and the leverage of audiences.
In this episode I talk to a fellow juggler and entertainer John Nations. We touch on street shows, but concentrate mostly on our ideas about comedy and juggling, and our comedic influences, and we rant quite a bit about the things we hate about other professional comedians.
Random notes:
Escaping the juggling wasteland of South Carolina.
The class clown.
You're not the best juggler in the world… rely on jokes instead?
New material for street shows.
Developing comedy without talking.
Mime with talking and sound effects. Hypnosis shows without hypnosis.
Surround yourself with funny.
The comedy mind is a muscle.
Tell jokes because YOU want to, even if the audience doesn't understand.
The audience is more important than your ego.
Giving variety to the audience is more important than showing your juggling wang.
The permission to be funny AND do technical juggling, not instead of.
Magicians describing what they do is redundant.
Magicians and jugglers use their skill as growing up as a substitute for social skills.
Tributes to other comedians… or just ripping off their jokes?
Ten hours of new material in ten years… can it be all A-grade?
Sometimes you want to see the greatest hits!
Admiring comedians for doing clean material about well-trod topics.
Challenge: be funny with no props!
No comedy subject should be out of bounds.
Inspiration from bad examples.
Luke rants about dishonest, stale comedians.
I want to be compared to the best, and I want to be the worst person on stage!
LCP s01e09 with Ibarionex Perello
In this episode I chat with Ibarionex Perello, a photographer, writer, teacher and podcaster. He hosts one of my favorite podcasts ever, The Candid Frame, and was a big inspiration for this very podcast project.
Notes:
A professional photographer who writes and teaches, or a professional writer and teacher of photographer?
Worked out how to make a living doing exactly the kind of photography he enjoys the most, despite it not being obviously commercial.
Find the interesting light first. Then find the subject.
Luke talks about a recent photograph in the park. Not a great photograph, but illustrative:
Capturing what we felt at the time of the photograph.
What interests me most in this scene? Then remove everything else.
People watching my juggling show don't ask what equipment I'm using.
Taking risks as a juggler.
Finding a personal style through a personal subject.
I say: Finding a new style by finding a unique subject. Photographing jugglers gives me a distinct style, photographing the same old travel shots makes me the same as someone else.
Ibarionex says: Find a new style with the mundane, and when the unique comes along your photograph will really shine.
The Candid Frame Podcast - conversations about photography, not about gear.
Using magazine credentials to secure first interviews. And then using the interviews so far to secure later big names.
If you want to be a good interviewer, learn how to listen.
A list of questions is a questionnaire, not an interview.
Studs Turkul - interviewed everyday people for his books.
Interviewing is hard, and very personal.
Want to get something out of the subject that they didn't know they wanted to share.
The discussion nature of this project is so I get things out of myself that I didn't know I knew.
Is this a selfish project?
The gems fill only 60 seconds per episode, but everyone will have a different set of gems.
Becoming a blank canvass for the listeners, so everyone can find their own specific appeal.
Interviewing people who have never been interviewed vs old hands.
Interviewing as a conversation, not just soft-ball questions and press releases.
"Wommack!"
Cringing for and alongside the guests.
Pass a humanity test. People crave human connections.
As I becoming more personal in my podcast, more people care. And listen.
The legacy of non-technical content. People will remember the personal connection even 10 years later.
The final podcast of season 1. I talk about some of the creative things I've been doing over the last three months, the highs and the lows, what I've learned along the way, and what I plan to do differently in the coming months.
Random notes:
Attempts at live standup comedy.
Live music.
Hiding behind juggling.
Comedic songwriting.
Continually improving at juggling.
Dropless shows.
Failing at the Berlin FotoMarathon.
Other photography.
Writing 215,000 words in my diary over the past 12 months.
Leaving enough brain energy for writing fiction.
Back To Work with Dan Benjamin and Merlin Mann.
First Care.
Having to schedule work means I'm not passionate about it.
Future plans.
Thanks for listening to the podcast! Email any feedback or comments to luke@juggler.net and I'll get back to you.