Thread: Help, Newbie driving herself crazy!

Hi I'm a newbie who is taking her sweet time to get an act together largely because I've developed a kind of ocd thing about whether I'm doing another persons act.
Recently I was most distressed as I had been working hard on one only to discover someone had already performed a very similar act with the same theme and song. This happens quite alot and usually I just start again and try and think of something else. I try and look on the internet but there are so many different acts and great minds think alike so how do you keep track?
I know it's important to be origional but I'm sure I'm being too neurotic about I just don't want to be treading on any ones toes and don't really know the protocol.
How does everyone else deal with this as it must come up a lot?

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Hi, yep this is something that comes up a lot as great minds do often think alike. I think the only thing you can do is carry on doing your research and developing a wide band on burlesque contacts.

If you have an idea, check out youtube, veoh, myspace, facebook and of course MoB's community. But bear in mind that loads of routines aren't filmed or sometimes even listed on people's websites or social networking pages.

Also get talking to burlesque people up and down the country, find people in the know and you can trust and chat to them about your idea in general terms (you can keep back costuming, visual jokes etc so that you don't reveal it all) and ask them if they know if anyone's doing anything similar.

Also try and get to as many performances/shows as you can.

But be aware there is NO WAY of completely ensuring you're unique.

As long as you try your hardest and do your research, there's not much else you can do.

I suppose you can try and steer away from some acts that obviously have lots of different versionings already, but on the other hand you could also take one of them and trun it totally on it's head. I'm working on a laundry day routine at the mo. Now I know that this and the 'housewife' character are done quite a bit, but I might start off with something quite expected......but that quickly changes into something people hopefully don't expect. I could have decided not to do it because there are others, but there are so many items with the concept (ironing board, hangers, starch etc) that I want to use for little visual jokes I decided to go with it anyway. The other thing I've done is that I have chosen off-the-wall music - I've gone for the unexpected......plus I've edited it so it's got extra sound effects in it not in the original.......................so even if someone is doing something similar, there are still ways to make it your own.

However, a wise idea if you are doing embarking on doing something other people might recognise as something such-and-such already does...........email them and talk it over. Explain how you hope your routine won't copy theirs and see what they think. I did this about a year ago when I was developing a bearded lady act and at the time the only other one I knew of was RedSarah's. I explained mine and she was very gracious and said mine was sufficiently different and I should go for it.

Just because someone else is doing something shouldn't mean you should immeidately write off your ideas, just do your research, be respectful of other performers and think outside the box about making yours different.

Good luck!

A round of applause for Tempest! Sage advise.

The sad fact of being a new performer is the slow realisation that almost every idea you have had for a routine has already been done, thats just the way it goes I'm afraid. It does take a huge amount of time to keep on top of who's doing what, but the important thing is to push on and not be detered.

It also depends on what you are looking to achieve. If you are just wanting to perform for fun, then it should be fun. Don't worry too much about performing acts in over-used tropes, as long as your not actually coying another act. Put together something lighthearted that you enjoy doing and makes you feel good.

However, if you are looking to entre the professioanl circuit then orginality is vital, and thourough, in-depth, and continuous reseach is part of that.

xxxxx

it's not down to WHAT you do
it's HOW you do it

so don't feel guilty if you discover someone has a similar act,
it happens

good luck

Thanks guys! I've been away for a bit so I've only just read your replies and they've made me feel much better!

Originally Posted by Vendetta Vain

If you are just wanting to perform for fun, then it should be fun. Don't worry too much about performing acts in over-used tropes, as long as your not actually coying another act. Put together something lighthearted that you enjoy doing and makes you feel good.


xxxxx

I think I've been taking it all a bit too seriously and the important thing is to get on with it and learn from mistakes etc and thanks again for all the advice xxxx