Don’t Give Up Your Day Job

by glenn seaby

I’ve been on a bit of a mission trying to get more musical improv into Improv Queensland.  Culturally, I’ve been up against it. Not from the Improv Queensland community, but from the community we live in.  

We have a very low tolerance for people who love to sing but aren’t top shelf.  We even have a standard putdown for people who are singing: “don’t give up your day job”. 

I’m not the world’s greatest singer, but I am good enough that people have paid me to sing at their weddings, pubs, parties and even theatres.  Despite this, I’ve been told to “not give up my day job”. 

Harmless joke? Probably not. 

If those comments hadn’t been balanced by people encouraging me, as well as a family that loves music and singing, I probably would have stopped. 

It’s bizarre to me that we put people down in this way.  Not all cultures do.  In my travels to countries like Ireland and various Pacific Islands, I’ve been in situations where it was just expected that you would sing, and everyone was happy that you did.  Even when I went to China on business, a night of karaoke with everyone getting a turn and singing, with the complete spectrum of tone, seemed to be very normal.  The curious thing is, we love our Aussie music, just not the whole spectrum.  If you’re not at the top end, shut up.

So what's this got to do with impro?  Well, I believe it lessens our shows because people aren’t game to try.  Singing, particularly improvised, isn’t for everyone, but I maintain it is for a lot more people than the ones who currently volunteer to do it for shows.

A year or so ago, I was backstage before a free community Theatresports show and the MC asked if there were any games people didn’t want to do.  “Nothing with singing in it” was the pretty universal response.  That’s not how it should be, and it certainly hasn’t been my experience elsewhere in the World. 

As a result of this experience, I have run some improvised singing courses to try and reduce people’s fear and normalise singing in impro, but we can’t all do that or even get to a course.  There are things you can do however; never say “don’t give up your day job” and maybe when you’re at a free community show, cheer and clap when someone is brave enough to stand up, sing and give it a go.