Thursday, May 29, 2008

Practice Is A Pain In The Neck

Well as the last post stated I have been practicing for my June 9 performance. I have been doing it in my newly created practice area. I practiced for an hour the first day (Tuesday) and for 30-45 minutes the second day (Wednesday).

On Wednesday night as I was getting ready to retire for the evening I noticed that the back right side of my neck was bothering me. It hurt like I had pulled a muscle or something. I asked my wife to look at it and maybe try and massage some of the discomfort from it. Upon examination she discovered that not just the neck but the muscle going across my right collar gone was swollen. It was also very painful.

She asked me if I had lifted anything heavy that would have pulled the muscle. I told her "no" that I hadn't done anything very physical during the day. I had spent the afternoon practicing my sketch. That's when I realized what had happened. I had ventriloquist shoulder.

Not being one who has practices too much (or should I say "ever") I didn't realize the effect sitting with your hand in the back of a character and arm at an angle for an hour at a time would have on me.

I'm very excited about the opportunity I have coming up at the library. I am also motivated by how much practice I am doing and how prepared I am going to be for this event. However, I am finding that one of the most vital elements that goes into making a ventriloquist better, practice, is, initially a literal pain in the neck.

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