Here is the transcription of my most recent video blog:
(And here’s the audio on AnchorFM)
Hey everybody, it’s Queen Mab here. I’m still on my phone at this incredibly flattering angle, haha. And I am going to talk to you today about memorization of a solo show. So I am on solo show #2 now. My current show is “Yes, No, Maybe So.” My previous show was called “International Man of Mystery,” and you can find a recording to that in the links below. “Yes, No, Maybe So” is gonna performed again on October 19, and I’ll put information about that below as well. PS, it’s free! So hope to see you there.
But anyways – memorization! That’s what you’re here for. So it’s a very intimidating process, and I’m gonna tell you about what worked for me. And I’m gonna tell you another little bit of information about myself, which is that I am a neurodiverse person. This was a term coined by a sociologist, Judy Singer, in the ’90s, and it’s meant to describe those of us whose brains work differently. My first diagnosis, which I probably got…it was kind of a process, but I would say officially in 2012…was ADHD. Cool, okay. ADHD. It didn’t totally fit. My more recent, more accurate identification is that I am very likely on the autism spectrum, and that’s another video that I’m gonna do another time, okay?
But why do I want you to know this? Because my short term memory – what they call “working memory” – is not great, okay? I have the short term memory of a goldfish. This is why if things are not attached to me – so like, for example, my keys or my glasses or anything like that – I will lose it. Period, end of sentence. This is why I am so into fanny packs, okay?
But what does this have to do with memorizing lines? Well, I am definitely not that person who can like…go through and memorize a chunk and have it stick for good. It takes me two or three times before I really get it into my long term memory, and my long term memory is outstanding. I will remember that awkward story that you told me about when you were in the fourth grade and you peed on the floor for ever and ever and ever and ever…but I won’t remember where I parked my car, okay?
So when I’m memorizing a solo show, there’s two things that help me. The first one is to do it in really short chunks. So like…maximum seven minutes at a time. If I think I have to concentrate for any longer than that, I’m not gonna do it, okay? So that’s the first thing. Short chunks.
The second thing that really helps me – and I think this is another idea I got from Jessica Lynn Johnson – is to record it and listen to it. So what I do is I’ll record the whole thing on my phone, and then I’ll also record each individual scene. So that way I can like go for a walk, and I can put on my earbuds, and I can just listen to that scene over and over and over again. And that really helps. I started doing that after I had done the show the first time, so I can’t tell you if that’s helpful for like, the first pass at memorization, but for maintenance, that’s been really, really helpful for me.
These are the techniques that I’m gonna use as I am working on re-memorizing the parts that I’m cutting, and I will keep everybody up to date on how that’s going, and in the meantime – if you’re a solo artist, or an actor or performer of any sort – I’d love to hear about what kinds of things work for you when you’re memorizing – especially if you are a neurodivergent person like me. So thanks! Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and I hope I see you at “Yes, No, Maybe So” on October 19th at 7:30 pm Pacific. Bye!