Happy New year

vGreeting's.

Happy new year indeed.
January is now in full swing. I swung into 2011 like a child swinging on a swing, having completed the 45 show run for The Great Escape (A Borrowers Tale) at BAC which I really enjoyed,  and finishing runner up in the Manorlogz 2010 Extreme Spoken Word Competition.
http://www.youtube.com/user/4frontTv#p/u/0/5xTD0yBFUAg

I was pretty chuffed to finish runner up so thankyou to everyone that voted. It taught me to stop being so shy when it comes to self promotion, spoken word is a small scene in a small country. My pipe dream of letting the words and performances do the talking is just that, a pipe dream. Even when  I smoked (don't tell Mum!!), I was never one for pipes anyway...

Congratulations of course to Mark "Mr T" Thompson who won not only the overall prize but was the people's champion as well. At the end of the day Mark stepped up and delivered as only a pro does. Having spent a good amount of time backstage with all the contestants (at least 4-5 hours), I gathered quickly that Mark is an intelligent and knowledgeable guy, and a good bloke too. You can find out more from Mark and his various projects on http://www.theccpress.co.uk/.  Generally the vibe backstage was good and I enjoyed the company of everyone that performed. That was only the first show for Manorlogz and the 4front team who have set the benchmark.

I started off the beginning of 2010 deciding that I was going to quit my full time job, pay off a loan and move back to my parents by the summer, in order to peruse a complete change of direction which I've managed to do. At the moment I'm looking into some courses in becoming a mentor and youth work, which hopefully will tie into my work as a performer. It wasn't until I was 25 that I realised this is the life I wanted to lead, and be lucky enough to have the right people show some faith in me. If I can help a young mind realise their potential and calling, I'm quite sure that would provide me with far more than just job satisfaction.

I'm not sure what my highlights were from last year, there were so many, but the one's that stand out for me were the "If I ruled the World Festival" at BAC, which I helped produce and perform at, the nights I performed with the Roundhouse Poetry Collective at Shunt, Tounge Foo, the Edinburgh Fringe and the Oxjam "the Camden Incident" at the Greenote.

I hope 2011 is as good as 2010 and I continue pushing forward. The Rubix début show "House Party" is starting to take shape (we now have a page on the Roundhouse website though they spelt my name wrong http://www.roundhouse.org.uk/explore/portfolios/rubix)  and I will also be performing at Rum Punch, Mixed Messages and Bang Said The Gun in the near future.

I've temporarily come off the swing for now, I must have been hogging it, but I'm twice as hungry as I was this time last year, so with a lot of learning ahead of me I'm looking forward to the challenges of the coming year.

Happy new year

Paul

P.S Fellow Rubix member and stand up comedian Sean Mahoney, and former Rubix member and poetry superstar Indigo Williams will be dropping his EP's on Roundhouse Records this month http://www.roundhouse.org.uk/explore/portfolios/roundhouse-records. Having had the pleasure of working with them both I can assure you these will both be works of ground-breaking greatness.