Writing the new show: Take Me to Your Readers

Without a doubt, the hardest work I do is writing a new show. Marketing and scheduling and travelling and bookkeeping and graphic design are all parts of my job that are boring, difficult, or just not fun, but WRITING a show is, by FAR, the most difficult work.

The goal is that I come in and every joke is funny. The goal is that there's never a dull moment. The kids are laughing hysterically, the adults are laughing at how much the kids are laughing, and no one realizes how much they are actually learning. Until it's all over, and they think back about the jokes and the puppets and the magic and it dawns on them that it was all a "mini-play," a theatrical experience that conveys a story, and stories are one of the easiest ways to learn things.

But the best stories are the hardest ones to write.

For me it's even more difficult because I have these other goals I add in about using puppets, using magic tricks, comedy for kids, comedy for adults, which books I want to talk about, and this year I'm incorporating some Maker-space concepts so I'm having to really learn some new skills as I literally have to build a robot for this show.

Keep tuned for updates. Right now I have to practice writing code for the Arduino that will be the "brain" for this robotic character in my show. Still working on a name for him...or her? Hmm, so much to think about.