Tonight I did a stand-up gig that didn’t go well at all. I’d rehearsed some material during the day, but the second I arrived at the venue my intuition kicked in & said: ‘not sure this crowd is gonna enjoy the stuff you’ve rehearsed babes maybe do some of your other material?’
But I didn’t listen to the warning from my intuition. I don’t think I even understood that that’s what was happening in my mind; I just felt ‘off’. If anything, to combat feeling a bit off, my logical side grasped resolutely for the rational & reminded me fervently why I needed to stick to the ‘plan’.
And of course, lads, I STANK the place out as a result.
But despite the fact that the resonating silences of an unimpressed crowd feel like they’ve been etched into my soul for all of eternity, I have learnt something extremely valuable.
Sometimes, when it comes to creativity & the magic of connecting with a room full of strangers, you HAVE to sack off The Plan. Don't get me wrong, having a plan is good, it's smart, it gives you something to work off. But ultimately, when it comes to mysterious alchemy of making and performing creative work, The Plan - the logical, the rational and critical - can only get you so far.
In fact, sometimes (most times) when it comes to creativity, I've found that intuition is Queen. You have to learn not only how to recognise when your intuition kicks in and tells you something but ALSO how to be unafraid of actually acting on it.
And if, like me, you're a deep thinker and a fan of Planning, listening to and acting on intuition can be difficult at best, terrifying at worst. But every gig I do, every blog post I write, every project I work on is helping me hone the crap out of my creative intuition. And the more that I hone the crap out of that, the easier it gets to sack off, or at the very least, adapt The Plan.