Man of the Month

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Man of the Month - Norman Foote

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Hi all!

This monthly interview highlights some really amazing men who are making a difference and using their creative edge to do what they do best. They have been chosen because I’m impressed by their contagious spirit, creative thinking, and the opportunities they bring to the world, plus how they reflect infinite possibilities back to the rest of us. If you haven’t already checked out last month’s posting on Al Simmons, scroll down to read all about him as well.

February’s Man of the Month is:

Norman Foote

Here’s a little bit about him:

Norman Foote’s musicality and humour is like no other. He is a masterful entertainer who uses original composition, props and comedy to engage and spontaneously interact with his audience. Norman has received several awards including Socans Best Songwriter, NAPPA and Parent choice gold awards. His songwriting credits include Disney Records, CBC, Shari Lewis, Koba/Nelvana (Little Bear), National Film Board, BC Cancer Board and several others. His performing history has taken him throughout the world to theatres , festivals and with symphony orchestras.

And here’s how he answered my 6 questions about creativity:

What inspires your creativity?

A new set of strings on my guitar is very inspiring to me. To hear them ring out so clear motivates me to play.

Such a broad question…many things inspire me. Everything has the potential to inspire me…it is whether I take notice. Musically, both comedic and dramatic slices of life inspire me to write and begin a process of creating a song or comedy piece. It may be one catch phrase that will set me off on my habitual songwriting, or it may be a heart felt line that lends itself to a rhyme. So much of creative writing, no matter how simple it may seem is a way of getting yourself into a better space. Songwriting is not a pretty sight often. I can carry ideas and bits of melodies around with me for years.

What inspires me the most and makes me the happiest  is seeing the  growth of my 5 children and two grandkids. Ages form 6 to 32.  I now do many shows with my 17 year-old daughter Maria who sings like a bird.  A total inspiration…when she is not giving me a dirty look!

How have you reinvented yourself thru your creativity?

I have often written my way into a new way of thinking and like everyone I have my favorite songs that feel so good to hear over and over.

Based on response to your creativity, how do you involve others?

I am a true believer in collaboration in songwriting. Many ideas can be basically clever but not enough to blossom into a song. Then some one else comes along and takes it somewhere where I never would have gone and puts the idea over the top.

What is the wildest journey your creativity has taken you on?

the creature from the vacuum

the creature from the vacuum

Being an entertainer for young and old has taken me throughout the world and put me into countless wonderful and not so wonderful situations. I can testify that showbiz is not glamorous. One day doing a command performance for the Prime Minister …and the next day in a mall in Grand Prairie with a sign in the parking lot “puppet show today.” There I was on a 4 by 8 shag carpet stage in the middle of the mall by the food court. The only person in the audience was my cousin who I hadn’t seen for years.

One wild period was my Disney years (91 to 96). They were very busy years, touring over 200 dates a year throughout North America and producing videos out of Los Angeles. Not only was I starting a new family but also trying to prove to Disney that I was worthy of ongoing investment. When they realized I wasn’t, the deal was over and I was happy to record for other labels…and my own.

What is your most memorable moment in the act of being creative?  

My first show with the Vancouver Symphony stands out in my mind.  My parents always wanted me to be a high-school band teacher. Something I didn’t want to do but I thought I would see where that could take me so I applied to UBC’s music program after graduating high-school in 1972. However, I failed the music entrance exam and didn’t attend…much to the disappointment of my parents. I never looked back. So, having my music played by all these fine symphony orchestra musicians, superb arrangements and my parents in the audience was rewarding both musically and personally. It proved to me that there is more than one way to get there.

Peak to Peak Launch, Whistler, BC

Peak to Peak Launch, Whistler, BC

With musical director and arranger Bill Sample we created a unique concert experience with a full symphony.  We have performed the show with symphonies through North America.  With this show I do feel that showbiz is amazing.

Now when I think about it , my first duo in New Zealand (1975) or could it be the first coin thrown into my guitar case as a young busker in Sydney Australia back in ‘76.   This month’s show, February 10, 2010, for the Olympic  torch in North Van was very memorable.

So many memorable, creative opportunities I am thankful for and hope for many more.

What’s next for you?

A full tour schedule both in theatres, festivals and workshops.  Another CD.  TV and voice work in an animated series I am developing with a local producer…it’s top secret. Ok, it’s about a young sasquatch boy who is trying to fit into society and shows his new found city friends the ways of the forest.   This idea has been brewing for a while and is now taking shape. I have my fingers crossed.

And here’s something that inspires his creativity:

Jane Goodall

Al Simmons

Bruce Greenwood

Dolly Hopkins

these people inspire me!

Check out Norman Foote’s website: www.normanfoote.com

—

Thank you Norman! You make showbiz amazing!

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Man of the Month - Al Simmons

Friday, January 29th, 2010

January’s Man of the Month was:

Al Simmons

Here’s a little bit about him:

Juno award winner Al Simmons is a creative genius whose charm and humanity have won over a legion of fans at theaters and festivals around the world. His highly original performances of profound wackiness and array of off-the-wall inventions take the arts of Music and Comedy to unparalleled heights of hilarity.

Al Simmons

Al Simmons

Al and his wife Barbara have been married since 1976 and live in harmony and pandemonium near the small Manitoba town of Anola. They have three sons, Karl, Will, and Brad, and three granddaughters, Ashley, Kaitlin and Marley. Their home, built around two train cars, is equipped with a fire-pole that connects an upstairs shop with a main-floor playroom that’s lined with mattresses and filled with pillows. Their 15-acre yard is flowered with zip lines, Tarzan ropes, slides and swings.

And here’s how he answered my 6 questions about creativity:

What inspires your creativity?

I love hearing people laugh, and there must be something in that laughter that inspires my creativity because the more shows I do the more wacky ideas I come up with.

How have you reinvented yourself thru your creativity?

I started out in show business as a baggy-pants-slapstick-comedian but in Winnipeg, in the early 1970s, there was little work for Vaudevillians so I became a singer and cowbell player in a Rock and Roll bar band. I started wearing different hats and acting out the lyrics to each song and we soon became known as a “dance and show band.” My agent suggested that in my spare time I do a clown show at kid’s birthday and Christmas parties so I donned make-up, sang kids songs and learned how to make balloon animals. I quit the bar-band gig and created a solo “baggy-pants-slapstick vaudeville” act, which grew into a show that I’ve even performed with symphony orchestras.

Lately I have been commissioned to create and perform comical historical, scientific and classical music shows.

It seems as if every time I reinvented my “onstage persona” my “off stage personality” grew and evolved as well. Creating new shows and taking more risks have made me less attached to perfection. If something goes wrong on stage I let the audience observe me as I deal with it. What ever happens during a show is suddenly part of the show —sometimes it is the best part of the show. It has taken years, but that attitude is now part of my life. If something goes awry I now try to accept it, deal with it and move on. It is too late to go back, the only way is forward and onward and upward.

Based on response to your creativity, how do you involve others?

I like to involve my audiences in my shows. On stage I want audiences to realize that they are not just watching a show, they are a big part of it. I cajole them into leaping to their feet and yelling things at the stage.  Off stage I’m always asking people for their opinions, advice and assistance.  My wife Barbara is a great help and an inspiration to me. My three boys and three granddaughters are probably most responsible for my creativity, not me.

What is the wildest journey your creativity has taken you on?

For the past 40 years I’ve been traveling around the world making people laugh. It’s been a wild ride.  I am amazed that I have been able to earn a living listening to laughter.

What is your most memorable moment in the act of being creative?

It is hard to pick just one. At Canadian Air Force Base Penhold I shaved my head, dyed my body with green food colouring, and wore an aluminum foil bathing suit to celebrate the first Moon landing. In the middle of a show I once leapt off the stage, ran across the street, and climbed to the top of a clock tower to demonstrate how far I would go in the name of comedy. I invented an exploding toilet. I won a Juno Award, and, by taking a bite out of the competition, I was the winner of the Creston B.C. 2005 World Championship Zucchini Race. I’ve played pool with René Lévesque, played the part of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and Hudson’s Bay Man; ran for parliament as a member of the Rhino Party of Canada; and sang Oh Canada with Rita McNeil in Australia in front of 60 thousand people. And now… Creative Architect Dolly Hopkins has named me Man Of The Month!

What’s next for you?

I love being on stage and I love being with my family. I’ll be found playing with my children and grandchildren, building preposterous props and costumes, writing humourous songs and making people laugh.

And here’s something that inspires his creativity:

I admire people who perform random acts of kindness and seeing folks use their talents to benefit society inspires me.

—

Thanks Al for making me laugh…out loud!

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Man of the Month - Philip Clement

Friday, October 30th, 2009

October’s Man of the Month was:

Philip Clement

Peter Clement

Philip Clement

Here’s a little bit about him:

At the ripe ole age of 30, after years of working in farming on a kibbutz, and driving for a living, with no direction home (hey Bob), I wandered into an expressive dance workshop, bitten by the improvisation bug and have been infected ever since.  Within three weeks I had quit work, gone on UIC, bought contact lenses, and was on a dance floor 4-5 times a week.  For the first time since I was 13, I had a major breakthrough in my chronic back pain, and began the path to discovering what made me an’ my body ache, tick, crash and fly.

California in the 70’s and 80’s, then called a state of mind, is where I immersed myself in what was to be known years later as the field of “Somatics”.  When I told one of my bodywork mentors that I had been diagnosed with ‘permanent muscle tissue damage’ he blurted out:  “Permanent eh? — that just means the doctor didn’t know how to fix it!” and by the time that exclamation mark punctuated his sentence, some of the pain in my back was gone.  His empowering image instantaneously sparked a shift in my attitude, which shifted my posture, which shifted my entire relationship to pain.  Capable thumbs digging into muscle, sensitive souls showing me the motion in my emotion, opened me up and I found home in my body.

And here’s how he answered my 6 questions about creativity:

What inspires your creativity?

Helping people bring out their best. Observing innocence.  Simplifying complexity.  Shamelessness. Chance dance floor meetings. Making people laugh. Giving people hope.  Winning a child’s heart.  Making my woman feel loved and wanted.  Treating my adult children like children-ish adults.  Wrestling with dogs. Heart based relationships.  Erotica.

From another angle illness and cowardice inspire great creativity in me!  Over the years I have been scheduled for and cancelled surgeries for abdominal hernia, shoulder and back repair, and to remove a growth on my eye.  All problems (thank God) were creatively solved sans.

How do people respond to your creativity?

With gratitude, skepticism, appreciation, controversy, contagion.  Ever since I pushed my identical twin down the birth canal 6 minutes before I followed, I find myself often playing a role of catalyst, with friends, family, colleagues, clients, animals, birds, projects, ideas, buying chocolate, and life transitions.

What is the wildest journey your creativity has taken you on?

There’s a two-way tie for my answer.  In 1977, compelled and inspired, I spent 12 months living in, and driving my faithful ‘67 two door Volvo from Vancouver to Israel and back again.  A long spiritual quest which I only truly grasped when it was over.

I have also been privileged to have been a lay birth attendant and ‘caught’ seven babies, six at home.  That same privilege has had me attending as many loved ones in their final transition.

Death is the truest teacher, death never lies.
Love is the truest healer, love never dies.

Who loves you for your creativity?

Uni-lingual couples whom I’ve helped with translations from manspeak to womanspeak.  ‘Non-dancer’ types who find their dance.  Bodies relieved from pain.  Various beloved dogs, cats, and birds who think I’m weird but cool.

In which ways do you see yourself as Breaking New Ground?

No one can heal another.  Similarly, no one can teach anyone anything.  The most one can do is create an environment where healing (and learning) take place.    After 30 years as a health professional, it all comes down to kindness, empathy and respect.

What’s next for you?

Maintaining the illusion of being a 49 year old while in a 62 year old body :-)  Continuing to provide a safe space to cry without shame, laugh louder, dance harder and eat more chocolate.

And here’s a few of the things that inspires Philips creativity:

Albert Einstein
His Mother and Father
Kindness
His wife’s unconditional love
Team Hoyt: Rick and Dick Hoyt, father and son team.
Jill Bolte Taylor: Stroke of insight

To check out Philips website go to: http://www.philipclement.com/

Thank you Philip! I look forward to a dance floor meeting, by chance!

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