Connie's "N1 Synergy" thing was at the Library@Esplanade this afternoon. She had tapped me way in advance about this and I promised her a 10 minute mime demo and another 10 minutes of interactive talk time with the audience.

I intended to work on my demo as soon as the 'A's began but I didn't actually start rehearsing anything till this morning after June left for her follow-up eye exam at TTSH. It's not that I created something from scratch: these were a couple of skits that I've wanted to play for a long time, but never found an audience for them until today. No... actually, I have shown them during one of the JC1 GP lectures early this year, but in a completely unrehearsed, unpolished form to a captive audience. About 1+ hours' polishing went into the skits this morning then it had to do for the library's audience.

2 skits, one entitled, "Burglary," and the other, "Quality Time," debuted in front of a 'live' and mobile audience this afternoon. "Burglary," is quite straightforward. A pared-down version of a previous solo skit I devised a very long time ago. In this version, the burglary is carried out as the burglar finds solutions to opening various doors he finds placed as obstacles in front of him. "Quality Time," came out of an improv session also a long time ago and it deals with the complex relationship between a father and a son.

Both skits still feel rough and raw. What can you expect from only 1+ hours' rehearsal time? Tina would say that they are still full of "frou-frou" movements, meaning that there are still many incidental, unintended movements and gestures that mess up the story. Not pared-down minimally enough, in other words. Connie got it all on video, so I'd like to borrow the tape and see for myself just what the audience saw... and cringe.

The programme ended way earlier than expected. The poetry recitals lasted a fraction of the time that was budgeted for, so I had to extend my audience yak for far longer than the expected 10 minutes. I guessed this might happen, so I took the opportunity to give a rather reluctant audience a few pointers about "creating objects in space." Elements of shape, size, pliability (stiffness), and weight (or mass, or resistance) are essential to creating the believability of an invisible thing (ball, box, door, cup, etc.). So I got the audience slightly freaked out passing invisible objects among themselves.

If not for the enthusiasm of a little tourist boy and his Mom seated in the front row, my fellow performers in the back (Shan and entourage, Jane, and Anne) and a local kid who was watching though he wasn't even in the audience (he was seated in the cafe), I would have lost steam partway through my spiel. I still had to end the session earlier than budgeted 'cos I was running out of things to occupy the audience with, but I think at least I quit while I was ahead. That is, while I still had an audience.

Spent the rest of the evening wandering around Suntec City with June who came to support me. Bless her. Dinner at Kenny Roger's. June bought a clutch bag made of authentic kimono material in preparation for the prom. We also bought 2 Korean movie DVDs (2 for $30) at Blue Max. Teach Me English was playing on their plasma display and it looked quirky enough to catch our attention. I picked up Natural City to see how the Koreans interpret sci-fi. Also bought a bunch of fruit and vegetables from Carrefour 'cos they were cheap.

Oh yeah. Also Half-Life 2 is up and running. Once again, I'm feeling the effects of motion sickness so I'm sticking to Easy mode and playing only in small chunks at a time. 'scuse me, head crabs need my attention...