Startup Weekend. A standardized experiential learning process that encourages entrepreneurship. One is happening around here, so I struggle and make it, though drab.
An idea for an app that enforces pill taking for aging boomers is transformed — by me — to a radio show on your phone, hosted by your friend Caroline, who helps remind you.
One smart guy across the way just keeps up with me, and we hand off, leading the project to one that a smart coach says is the best developed and considered of the seven running.
And the female college student who had the original idea says she sees Caroline as Mrs. Doubtfire and we need to bring her to life. And I should play her. She sees something and it’s appealing. It’s a joke to her, but I just mumble “It’s possible.”
It’s clear that I hold the soul of the project, the energy of the idea. It’s my idea, anyway. What does that mean?
A coach who looks most like me, a larger woman who favours hip black outfits comes in and says the idea is too small, that she had an aging mother and she needed help with the whole megilla, and why can’t we do a full service shop where she could get all she needs to help with caregiving? She would pay, she would pay big.
I come back to the house and hear that my aunt died the day before and I am again reminded life is short.
And I struggle with the whole idea of “being” Caroline today for the pitch.
I record a long note to TBB to work out my ideas. I tell her how I feel sick, how this has limits, all that. How do I bring any energy in the context of a tight five minute business pitch where lots of technical questions have to be answered.
And then, I say, well, let’s just try. So I throw on a a wig and one of my favourite dresses and scarves and suddenly, in the mirror, I see that it really isn’t that hard for me to manifest.
I go to the computer and potz with Tumblr, looking at the new Jerrick Hoffer/Jinkx Monsoon stuff. She’s on Drag Race this season and is hot right now. I actually wrote for IFGE Tapestry and Holly’s Genderquest as Jinx Slidell when I wanted a pen name.
And I find new YouTube uploads of performances of Jinkx from 2010 at Sylvia Stayfomore’s Bacon Strip. So I download some, and then go back. One looks interesting, in black and white
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXGkfbR18Yg
And it’s Jinkx doing “I Don’t Want To Show Off” from “The Drowsy Chaperone,” which Sutton Foster did on Broadway, and which I love, love love. It’s a song about saying small and manifesting big, big as you bloody well can. Energy everywhere.
And I’m in my dress and scarf and my heart is pounding and I feel the energy.
And I remember being told at a big product launch by the pro from Regis McKenna, that if anyone was going to make it fly, it was going to be me.
An energetic feminine persona with Robin Williams energy, has a radio show and is a friend and helps you and your parents with caregiving.
Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang.
I wrote down the presentation in the voice bit to TBB because while I knew I could play Caroline — play Callan — I knew that this presentation, this audience offered little time to bring the energy. Five minutes, five people who want to speak, tough, even though I know that my creation of character is at the heart of the brand, at the heart of the pitch, at the heart of the buy in.
Now it’s 6:30 AM, and the sessions start at 9, with a run through at 3 and pitches at 5
And I have to understand what.
So, I guess I should play “Show Off” again, either version, or both.
And see what I can take from this damn damn damn
…It’s like the joke about the man who has been notified that his house is going to be flooded and he needs to get out of the house. He says no I don’t have to, God is going to take care of me. Then the flood starts to rise and a sheriff comes along and tells him to get out. The man says no, God is going to save me. So, the floods continue to rise, and he climbs on top of the house. A boat comes along and he’s told to climb into the boat. He says, no, no , God is going to save me. Finally, a helicopter comes along and they lower the net to rescue him. The man says, no, no, God is going to save me! Well, the man drowns and goes to heaven. When he gets to heaven he says to God, “why didn’t you save me?” God says, “I sent the sheriff, I sent a boat, I sent a helicopter, what more did you want me to do?”
damn.
Callan 