by One time is plenty. A single experience can last a lifetime. Once is always enough!
I am always amazed when the student actor wants to do a graded scene performance again to
make it better and when the live performer begs you — after the
performance — to attend a second time because the time you just donated
to watching them was wasted in the valiant effort of a “dead live
performance.”
I rarely do things twice. I don’t buy a book more than once. I don’t watch movies two times. I am completely satisfied in the singular experience instead of the multiplicity of copied live experiences.
We must accept, and realize that — for many of us — we live in the midst of the “one shot deal” and that means we have but one, and only one, opportunity for us to get it right.
Asking for a mulligan or a do-over is not only poor form, it is uncouth and a waste of time.
To implore and demand someone who just finished watching a live performance promise to attend again is not just selfish, but unrealistic, and that request even more unfavorably colors the result of your confessedly bad performance.
We understand mistakes happen and that nothing is perfect and what was a major fail to you was, most likely, not even noticed by the majority of the audience.
We are perfectly capable of seeing the perfect whole in the imperfect veil of moments of a live performance — and the fact that you were able to persevere without complaining or begging — speaks to your unwitting grace and genius and to mention the obvious only devalues the strength of your resilience in situ.
Funnily enough, Elizabeth and I were just talking last night about how we haven’t seen the film The 40 Year Old Virgin this year and she said something along the lines of how she wants to see it at least once a year because it’s such a funny film.
When I was a student and had to ‘perform’ for my public relations classes, we were not allowed a do over — why should anyone else get a second chance barring something really bad happening during the first performance?
Yikes! I do know some people watch movies over and over again. “The Wizard of Oz” is a childhood totem that leaps forward each year into our adulthood.
I’m more likely to want to see a live performance a second time — if I really have to — than watch a movie or read a book a second time around — because there is always something new in the live telling.