I would have shared this interview with your earlier, but…..
….yes, procrastination gets to us all. Some are in denial, some get frustrated or disheartened. Some turn it into an awesome 5 star show!
Sam About Town managed to sit down with Cristina Lark and after a few games of Candy Crush we eventually talked about her Adelaide Fringe show.
SAT: Thanks for your time Cristina. Could you tell us more about your show?
CL: You don’t have to thank me for my time. I have plenty of time. The show is about leaving everything to the last minute (or never getting round to doing it), missing deadlines, and being always late. You know, ficticios scenarios that never happen to any of us because we’ve all got our shit together. It answers questions such as “why do we procrastinate?”, “is procrastination genetic”?, “Is being always late a lack of respect for others?”, “Do we procrastinate because of lack of willpower?”, “Should we really listen to our shoulder angel?”, “What would have happened if the bravest people in human history had procrastinated?”, “What if there’s a better version of us living happily in a parallel universe in a different timeline?”, and “What is time, anyway?”
SAT: I’m sure our readers would love to know a bit more about you. Who is this “firecracker with a mind that moves as fast as lightning?” (Arthur’s Seat).
CL: Thanks a lot for the question, I’ve read it, googled “how to answer to tell-us-more-about-yourself without coming across as a jerk”, and spent 20min reading job interview blogs, got hungry, googled “how to make kimchi”, had lunch, mindlessly scrolled my Twitter feed, saw I had a chipped nail, filed it, and realised 98min had passed. But I guess this pretty much sums it up as an accurate answer.
SAT: We all have moments of procrastination I’m sure. To make a show about it, I’m wondering if it’s a particular area of “expertise” for you…
CL: Of course not! It’s totally fictitious, ok? I have my shit totally together. [pauses] Although I have to say I may or may not have missed the registration deadline to be part of the Fringe. It was the 4th of October at 5pm, and somehow my brain decided to memorise 5th of October at 4pm. So I thought I was “early” on the 5th in the morning when I woke up to finish registering, and quite confused when I found myself locked out of the system and read “registration closed, best of luck next year”, until I finally realised what had happened. Thankfully the lovely Fringe organisers were kind enough to manually finalise the rego anyway. [pauses] But yeah, I really don’t know what you’re talking about.
SAT: What inspired you to create this show?
CL: I always wanted to have done a Fringe show (emphasis on the verbal tense). I live in London, and was fed up with being sent to auditions for heavily stereotyped roles based on how the director saw someone with my shade of skin, gender and foreign accent, and I wanted to take my career by the reins. So I was in Edinburgh in August, just watching Fringe shows, when I saw the Adelaide Fringe stand, and though: “this is it. This is the year. I’m writing a show and taking it to Australia”. And then I thought “Oh shit. What am I even gonna write about? Oh, I know, genius idea! I’m gonna call my show “Under Construction” or something, and base all the marketing, poster, press release and venue pitch on the “cute joke” that the show is not ready yet. This should buy me some time, right?”
SAT: You incorporate comedy, solo theatre and storytelling. Could you tell us more about this?
CL: I’m not a standup comedian, my training is in acting and performance. So it was never my intention to just come up with a standup routine, or a “spoken word” show, you know, “this is me, this is my journey”. My first ever contact with a Fringe festival was in 2016 in Melbourne, when I was invited to direct 2 shows, and went to see a lot of other shows with my artist pass. This demystified what “a solo show” could or should be. And I realised I had no excuses not to do my own show (I still procrastinated for 1.5 more years, though). Mixing solo theatre with storytelling is easy: you devise some scenes, and talk to people as yourself in between them to advance the narrative. The comedy, in this case, is because you gotta laugh to keep from crying.
SAT: You are a woman and also a foreigner to many of the places you’ve lived, but you don’t speak about feminism or being a foreigner. You speak about universal themes. Have you been surprised by people’s reactions? Are there stereotypical expectations?
CL: Ha! I naively thought that in 2019, just being a human talking about universal themes that affect many humans wouldn’t be unsettling to so many people. Huge mistake. After hearing from more than one male punter “Whoa! Can this woman talk!” and “How can you store so many words in this tiny head of yours?”, I realised that women still need to fight for their right to perform a 50 min solo show (which fairly implies it will involve a woman talking for 50 min) without being labeled as “a woman who talks too much”. And after hearing that it’s “confusing that a show with a foreigner as the lead character is not about being foreign”, I realised that had I written a story about “the struggles to adapt into the local culture”, or just “celebrating my culture” (whatever that means), I would “make more sense” than having written one where I’m fully integrated in society. People ask me if it wouldn’t be easier to just “play the game”, go for more stereotypical roles, include “my national culture” as a feature (and I quote, “to differentiate myself from the local white girls and have a selling point that they can’t have, otherwise I’m just one more” -so wait, I’m only differentiating myself if I play a national stereotype, because not adding “this flavour” will put me in disadvantage, whatever my personality is? And it will differentiate me from the “local white girls” by being the “token stereotypical non-white foreign girl”?). There’s a quote by Mystique from the X-Men that I love. Someone asks her “If you can shape-shift into anything, why don’t you just look human all the time?” And she answers: “Because I shouldn’t have to”. It’s important that people see foreigners and women (and foreign women) of all ethnicities playing lead roles that are not ethnicity-specific, gender-specific, nationality-specific, to keep imprinting this message of inclusion and equality in the collective subconsciousness until the idea is no longer confusing. The next step in the evolution of feminism is women not needing to talk about feminism, because everyone already understand that their equal place in society is a normal thing. But there’s still such a long way to go, and I’ve now added another anecdote to my collection:
Last week this man in Perth left in the middle of my show (the first person ever to do so), and to my surprise, came back after it was over, said “young lady, sit down, I need to have a chat with you”, and started saying that I have a voice that’s “too deep for a young lady”, and that he “had to leave” because I “talk too much”, so this was “driving him up”, as he “had been trying to say something too but couldn’t get one word in”, that he likes “giving feedback to people, you know?”, and he wanted to have done that during my show, but felt frustrated that there was no space for this. That the show was not designed to revolve around him. I’m only sorry he didn’t address these points DURING the show, because it would have been hilarious (but of course, he wasn’t so brave to stand his ground in front of my whole audience, was he?) So yes. Happy 2019, everyone.
SAT: You have lived and performed all around the world. What are a few of the highlights?
CL: Nothing will top the moment when the Australian Border Officers opened my suitcase and found half a garlic head and 100g of lentils. I was in an AirBnB in Greece before I came and totally forgot about that. I was so scared, I’m sure if it was weed or meth it would have been less of a big deal. Also, when I moved to the UK. I obviously finished packing last minute, and didn’t realise I had checked in my passport. Thankfully I could get in the country with my national ID card, but this is sadly about to end with Brexit, so I need to start being more organised soon. #goals, right?
SAT: Any scary or awkward performances you’d care to share with us?
CL: So, I decided to promote my show on Tinder. You know, swipe right, talk to guys, convince them to come see my show. And I did get one sale. Actually 2, because the guy… brought… his… MUM! Not scary or awkward, but it makes the cut. And that’s not all! After the show, I was still behind the wings, separated from them by this cloth, but obviously non-performers are always oblivious to these things and think they’re now in private, and the mum says to this other random woman in the audience, sounding really surprised: “She actually did quite well, didn’t she?”. From that moment on, “Surprisingly not shit” is part of my official audience review compilation.
SAT: What do you hope audiences take away from seeing your show?
CL: If they have a good time, I’m happy. But of course, if they experience a reality check and reassess their messed up lives, take action and go after their long parked and dusty dreams, that will be the cheapest (and most fun) therapy session they’ll ever do! The content will hit home for sure: if you can’t relate to any of the material, NASA should be studying you, but certainly you know someone who is like this, and hopefully you’ll be able to better understand them. If you can’t relate to any of it and don’t know anyone who can… SETI should be studying you. Welcome to Planet Earth! (please help us sort out climate change).
SAT: How did you locate the venue A Club Adelaide? What is it like working with Kerry Marsh and the team?
CL: I contacted the Fringe (late!) and asked which venues would be suitable for my type of show and chose the A Club. Kerry is the hardest working producer I’ve met! He’s a hustler. He’s always on the ball, pushing the shows forward. Every time I log into Facebook there’s a tag from him asking his artists to take some action that’s going to help promoting the show. For a procrastinator like me, it’s been a lifeline.
SAT: Have any other Fringe shows caught your eye? Anything you’re hoping to see or recommend?
CL: I’m sure every other show at The A Club will be great. Also, there’s a show that I originally directed for a short run at the Melbourne Fringe 2016 that is back for Adelaide this year. It’s called Joyous Depression, performed by Nores Cerfeda, and it’s hilarious (and very uplifting, even if it’s about depression). I want to see how the show is doing 2.5 years later.
SAT: What else do you have planned for 2019?
CL: I’m launching a book and scaling my public speaking coaching business online, to be able to serve more people. And of course, creating my new show that will premiere in Edinburgh. No title yet. But, well, there’s plenty of time to think about that. Right? [start to look panicked]
Cristina Lark: Caution – Deadline Ahead (A Comedy About Procrastination) is on
27 Feb – 16 March (excluding 4, 5, 11 March)
Loft at A Club Adelaide
109 – 111 Waymouth St, Adelaide
Tickets can be purchased here: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/cristina-lark-caution-deadline-ahead-a-comedy-about-procrastination-af2019
Follow Cristina Lark:
http://www.cristinalark.com
https://www.facebook.com/cristinalark
https://www.instagram.com/cristinalark/
https://twitter.com/crislark
