I had a busy day yesterday. I did a short spot at Robin Ince's science show and guested on two chat shows before doing my own one man show in the evening.
Which probably explains why I've got a sore throat this morning. I normally start to suffer much earlier in a festival but this time I've been surprised by how well my voice had held out.
But once it strikes it's pretty hard to sort out. More a case of trying to stop it getting worse than actually making things better.
I might well have supped my last alcohol for the festival. Time for only healthy liquids to pass these lips. It's all about the show after all.
Honest. It is. No, really. All of it.
Pssst: got the extra show tomorrow (Saturday) at 2.30pm. (Tickets) Business as usual - 7.40pm every night - for the rest of the run from there.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Gargle
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9 comments:
Gargle with Listerine, mate. It's like Domestos. Kills all known germs etc. You'll feel much better in the morning.
tyrozets from the chemist, they are the business for sore throats
I am seeing you on Tuesday, hopefully your throat won't be dead by then.
@emma6 It's not really about germs - it's more overuse. It just needs to be rested. But a show every night doesn't allow you to recover properly... so it's more about maintaining it than curing it.
@mcjules: Tyrozets numb it. Which eases the pain... but can also give you that just-been-to-the-dentist speech pattern if you're not careful. Also... pain is there for a reason. It stops you from hurting yourself even more. Numbing the pain can sometimes mean you blithely carry on doing bad things to your throat... best handled carefully.
@Thomas Knowles: it will be. I normally encounter these problems sooner and have never had to cancel a show because of them yet. And I'm well versed in dealing with them. I will forego alcohol for you!
@emma6: may not be bacterial. Overuse through repeated shouty outrage (of which I am banking on there being some of in Dave's show) can just leave your throat with nothing left to give.
Voice care was part of teacher training and there really is nothing you can do about a sore throat other than not talk. All medicines generally make things worse in the long run, apparently (either drying out your throat or making you think it doesn't hurt so using it more). Although I think gargling with warm salt water is supposed to help in some way... something to do with leathering up the vocal chords.
Water, water, water, don't talk, diaphramatic breathing, use the chest cavity for projection, all that jazz. And some kind of vocal exercise that involved talking while keeping an imaginary feather in the air...
Yes, a part of my training was in geriatric drawing into the mouth of ellipsoidal bodies.
psst back: "one 'many' show" /pedant
@Emma Spreadbury: that's about the size of it. It's never shouting-in-order-to-be-heard onstage - there's a microphone for that - it's always about an emotional response of some kind. Outrage mostly. Using the diaphragm to breath properly like an act-or doesn't help with that. There is the having-conversations-in-a-noisy-bar thing too - where you don't realise you're straining your voice to compete with the background and don't feel it because of the booze. But like I say, I'm off the grog for a wee while.
psst: Typo fixed. Ta.
Awesome show today and cheers for the signed book! How could my day possibly get better.
fantastic show,glad to see you in your original style and well jewish:)
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