Why CDs?
Sometimes we get asked why we're still putzing around in the vanishing world of spoken word audio. A couple of people have explained that they don't buy CDs anymore, and they don't want to buy ours in particular because so much of what they enjoy in our performances is conveyed visually. And it's true, there is a strong physical element in what we do. We use our faces, bodies, and hands to convey meaning, and to relate to the audience and eachother, and part of the fun is in the watching. So (say these people) "I'm going to wait for a DVD."
Well first of all, none of these people have actually heard our CDs. They are guessing they wouldn't like it, or at least that they would like a DVD better. They're wrong. Our CDs
are way better than any DVD we could possibly make.
If care is taken to do it right, recorded audio can really capture the magic and excitement of live storytelling. The listener's vision goes into the story, which is as big as a world. You seem to be in the same room as the performers, who bigger are than life. You sit with the live audience. You're there.
But I have never seen video by a storyteller I admire that's a tenth as good as their live show. The good part just doesn't come through. An exciting charismatic global performance becomes something dinky, a long-winded shadowshow barely able to hold the corner of a room.
I can imagine the possibility of a good storytelling video, given enough time, money and technical/artistic expertise. After all, Louis Malle's "My Dinner with Andre" made two guys talking over dinner interesting from beginning to end. But (a) that was astonishing, and (b) that's not us; realistically speaking we don't have what it would take to make a DVD anywhere near as good as our CDs, or what we're like live.
It's true, everybody's CD sales are plummetting. I've seen confident predictions that compact discs will disappear as thoroughly as cassettes and 8 tracks within the next five years. But on the other hand LPs seem to have come back, so who knows?
We like what we do. We want
it (as our teachers used to threaten) on our Permanent Record. Everything we do is old-fashioned, but as long as it's good hopefully there will continue to be a niche for it. There'd better be-- there's no Plan B.
