Vampire Ball Report VII: Tom Lenk presentation
“The Lenk Lewk for Less”
Tom Lenk does this thing where, if a celebrity wears something completely off the wall or ridiculous, he parodies it by making something that looks similar to the otfit, but made out of household items.
Then he post pictures of the outfit on the internet, and it’s become a thing where sometimes the people being parodied regard it as a badge of honour to have been “Lenked”, and even re-tweet his efforts.
He showed us some of the outfits that he’d parodied, and asked us what we thought they looked like. The first one looked like it was made out of newspaper - which I shouted out - and sure enough, his parody version was made of newspaper! We did a few more, and mostly got them right!
Meantime, Tom was imparting some of his wisdom about working methods - most of which are the antithesis of how I work! He recommends moving on quickly to your next project.
“Don’t take it personal - you don’t just have one good idea.”
“Find the frame” - find freedom in creating within limitations” - eg. as he does, by restricting himself to using items you find in a normal household for his “creations”.
“When you’re blocked, give yourself an assignment - an exercise.”
“Sometimes, a project will come together because you’re half-assing it.”
“Expect less”!
“Perfectionism is the death of creativity.”
“Better done, than good!”
“Don’t care - don’t prepare!”
He’s doing a play at the Vault Theatre in London in February - “Tilda Swinton Answers and Ad on Craigslist.”
Unfortunately, in the middle of Tom Lenk’s talk, the Gold ticket holders with my number got called to queue for autographs. There were separate queues for Jenny, Kristen, Ksenia, Brody, Andrew, Brian, and Mark.
Looking at them, I calculated that it would take at least two hours to get all the autographs, and for the pleasure of shuffling along in one line after another, I would have to sacrifice the second half of Tom Lenk’s talk, and the whole of James and Juliet’s second Q & A.
Not cool.
So I went straight to Mark Metcalf’s queue - the last one - and got my stuff signed - a photo of the Master, and both posters we had been given. I also showed him the great photo we had had taken, because I was pleased with it.
Then - calculating that people would still be queuing at the end of Tom’s talk, and maybe after James and Juliet’s talk too, I went back to Tom Lenk’s talk.
When I came and sat down he was talking about his love of wigs - he has lots and lots of wigs - but he broke off and said something like, “Oh, no - she’s got the clipboard again! Stop writing things down!”
Then he went on about how he has all his wigs organised in separate boxes, with a label and a picture of the wig on the outside of the box.
So I got up and said “But doesn’t that fly in the face of your not being too organised, and half-assing it?”
And he replied, “Touché! …but I put them all in the wrong boxes!”
There were a couple more questions. Tom said that originally, when the Nerd trio was thought of, it was intended that Tucker be leader of the trio, but the actor wasn’t available, so Warren (Adam Busch) was made the leader, because Tom didn’t have the right vibe (I think.)
That was all I wrote down. But I definitely think I need to take a leaf out of Tom’s book now and then, and be a bit less of a perfectionist.
Tom Lenk does this thing where, if a celebrity wears something completely off the wall or ridiculous, he parodies it by making something that looks similar to the otfit, but made out of household items.
Then he post pictures of the outfit on the internet, and it’s become a thing where sometimes the people being parodied regard it as a badge of honour to have been “Lenked”, and even re-tweet his efforts.
He showed us some of the outfits that he’d parodied, and asked us what we thought they looked like. The first one looked like it was made out of newspaper - which I shouted out - and sure enough, his parody version was made of newspaper! We did a few more, and mostly got them right!
Meantime, Tom was imparting some of his wisdom about working methods - most of which are the antithesis of how I work! He recommends moving on quickly to your next project.
“Don’t take it personal - you don’t just have one good idea.”
“Find the frame” - find freedom in creating within limitations” - eg. as he does, by restricting himself to using items you find in a normal household for his “creations”.
“When you’re blocked, give yourself an assignment - an exercise.”
“Sometimes, a project will come together because you’re half-assing it.”
“Expect less”!
“Perfectionism is the death of creativity.”
“Better done, than good!”
“Don’t care - don’t prepare!”
He’s doing a play at the Vault Theatre in London in February - “Tilda Swinton Answers and Ad on Craigslist.”
Unfortunately, in the middle of Tom Lenk’s talk, the Gold ticket holders with my number got called to queue for autographs. There were separate queues for Jenny, Kristen, Ksenia, Brody, Andrew, Brian, and Mark.
Looking at them, I calculated that it would take at least two hours to get all the autographs, and for the pleasure of shuffling along in one line after another, I would have to sacrifice the second half of Tom Lenk’s talk, and the whole of James and Juliet’s second Q & A.
Not cool.
So I went straight to Mark Metcalf’s queue - the last one - and got my stuff signed - a photo of the Master, and both posters we had been given. I also showed him the great photo we had had taken, because I was pleased with it.
Then - calculating that people would still be queuing at the end of Tom’s talk, and maybe after James and Juliet’s talk too, I went back to Tom Lenk’s talk.
When I came and sat down he was talking about his love of wigs - he has lots and lots of wigs - but he broke off and said something like, “Oh, no - she’s got the clipboard again! Stop writing things down!”
Then he went on about how he has all his wigs organised in separate boxes, with a label and a picture of the wig on the outside of the box.
So I got up and said “But doesn’t that fly in the face of your not being too organised, and half-assing it?”
And he replied, “Touché! …but I put them all in the wrong boxes!”
There were a couple more questions. Tom said that originally, when the Nerd trio was thought of, it was intended that Tucker be leader of the trio, but the actor wasn’t available, so Warren (Adam Busch) was made the leader, because Tom didn’t have the right vibe (I think.)
That was all I wrote down. But I definitely think I need to take a leaf out of Tom’s book now and then, and be a bit less of a perfectionist.