Fifteen States and Jurisdictions!!!!

It is funny how the mind works. Slow to pick up some things, while fast to react to others. About a week ago, I was talking to someone about my time as a folksinger, and I recalled a tag that I used in my intro before I started my set. I had to dig for the memory; it was sixty-plus years ago, you know! But then it was fast to pour out after the crypt was opened.

The intro serves to warm you and the audience up. It’s a sort of pablum. But it entertains, eases the way into the songs, and tells a bit about you ( true or fabulous). It can be brief or very long, depending on the performance, or how you sense the audience: fast or slow.

An Intro

A better-established friend who was a folksinger maintained that if you wanted to become famous, you had to be famous ( or infamous!). So his intro was all about how impressive he was – in a humorous and fun poking way. He coached me over several nights in Cafe Renzi’s music room into developing an intro. So I started introducing myself in a rather sling shot manner as”Hi! I’m Lou Carson, infamous in fifteen states and jurisdictions….” From there, I’d go on for a while with themes that I thought might warm up the audience. Like ” I can’t tell you what I’m infamous for…it’s too embarrassing!”

Hopefully, you build a rapport and swing into your set.

Now that whole thing about if you wanted to become famous, you had to be famous was the Bull Shit Factor. I wasn’t infamous at all ( so far as I know). But with a good leer at midnight and an audience at the Cafe Why Not, eager to be entertained, who knew? If I got a laugh on the first bit, I’d spread it a bit thicker.

All about Peanut Butter!

Some of these bits made the rounds of the coffeehouses. After a while, one of the real chestnuts just couldn’t be done anymore because Peter, Paul, and Mary included it on a record. You may have heard it: “There are three ways of removing peanut butter from the tip of your finger.”

No? Well, there are three ways to remove Peanut butter from the tip of your finger. You can shake it off ( performer mimics an unsuccessful attempt to shake it off). You can blow it off ( a huff and puff demo that doesn’t work). Or you can scrape it off on the roof of your mouth. (The performer now sounds like he has a wad of peanut butter on the roof of his mouth.) “Now, there are three ways to remove Peanut butter from the roof of your mouth.” They performer unsuccessfully attempts to shake it off. Blow it off the roof of their mouth, but eventually scrape it off with their finger. “Now there are three ways to remove peanut butter…”

Yup, that was a popular one for a month or two. Then PP&M popularized it and no one could use it to warm up the audience.

Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Onward!