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Lucy's Sherwood Oaks Comedy Seminar!


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Not necessarily. Perhaps she didn't have her own stage monitor, where the miked sound would be facing her so she could hear better.  

 

Since we can't see and it's audio only....hard to say.  Just a thought. :)

Yea, I wouldn't think they'd have those monitors and would just have speakers because (I thought) this was held in a large class room- and acoustics in a class room is pretty good,especially with a mic at the podium - so I don't know why she can't hear the questions. The mic's are even picking up light coughs and small giggles, so I don't know why the person has to nearly put it in their mouths in order to be heard lol But as you said, we can't see much, plus its awesome to hear none the less. I just get distracted by her constantly asking them to speak up, and use the mic, and do this and that. lolol I know some classrooms are large, but my goodness. lol

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Finally listened to all of this and what a treasure!  Hopefully other weeks of the seminar exist.  The sad part, given this was 35 years ago or so, is that all of these hopefuls who want to be stars and directors: whatever became of them?

Lucy is wrong about Mitzi Green who outlived Fanny Brice by 18years.  Fanny died in 1951 at age 60.  Mitzi in 1969 at 48.  Lucy as Fanny: probably not in musical, but what a thought!

Lucy's relatively kind to the class but sometimes is harsh when they ask ridiculous questions.

Lucy's rise to fame was unique.  She always dismissed actors who did not want to be typed, saying she was thrilled to be.

What she leaves out is, it's only great to be typed IF there's demand for you type.

The audio is a little hard to hear around 2:30 but someone is talking about handling success and this could be Shirley Hemphill.

Hope they post more.

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They showed about 30 to 45 minutes of video of a session at a Jamestown festival about 10 years ago. She pretty much acted the same way in that one, except we could see her chain smoking in the video. One part I remember is when, for some reason, she is talking about one of her miscarriages and I believe finishes the story saying something like, "Singing is the best way to get your uterus back in shape!" It got a laugh with her students and with the Jamestown audience!

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Seeing one of these would have been wonderful. I sort of figured she smoked the whole way through these. I have seen a picture or 2 of her at one of these. In listening to these 3 hours though she seems to plow through the time. There is only one break. The first time she asks if anyone wanted to take a break but everyone agreed no and kept going. Sounded like she was good to go too. Wonderful stamina. I know she talked a lot about acting and the business in these as is evident from this 3 hour one, but I wonder how many personal stories she shared too. Sort of perseverance in life lessons. In this seminar talking about the Business Manager is relatable to managing your life and career. Rick do you remember anything else she talked about in relation to the miscarriage or what may have prompted her to talk about it? Any other personal stories she told? The singing thing is funny. Was that maybe to tighten your muscles in that area?

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I've been trying to think of what prompted the miscarriage story, but I can't remember. I do remember more of the story itself. After a wild ambulance ride, she said an anesthesiologist was brought in where said "Thank God", kissed his hand, and passed out.

 

She also talked about Vivian a good bit. She talked about how listening, reacting, and acting was crucial in scenes her and Viv did. She mentioned it briefly in this audio, but she talked about when she and Viv were having trouble with a scene, they went off to a dressing room by themselves and worked to get themselves into a mindset of children. After they were able to do that, the scene fell into place.

 

I hope these sessions all wind up on YouTube or are shown at another festival because I think this is as close as we can get now to get to know the "real" Lucy in her own, uncensored, words.

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Thank for that information. You are right, this is probably the closest we will get to hearing her candid. Here she had really no limit on what and how long she could talk about something and from this taste we have seemed comfortable enough with the group to honestly share information. I’d love to hear more about how she actually broke down a scene and worked with her fellow actor to get to the end result. I’m sure she got to do this the most with Viv since she shared the most scenes with her over the course of their work together. You forget how hard they probably worked on a scene because it was done to such perfection you forgot they were acting. I wonder if we nicely asked whoever posted this to post more.

 

 

 

Thanks for the info on the miscarriage story. I know I read in a book somewhere this crazy ambulance ride story but it may be in a book I don’t own, just read at one time. Does anyone remember what book this was in?

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I read about the ambulance ride too somewhere and I'm trying not to confuse what I read with what Lucy said. I think I read that a door flew open and either Desi or an attendant almost fell out. But I remember her specifically saying in the video about the anesthesiologist and the singing part.

 

I dug out the schedule of events from that festival (August 2003) and it said the six week lecture series took place in 1977.

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They showed about 30 to 45 minutes of video of a session at a Jamestown festival about 10 years ago. She pretty much acted the same way in that one, except we could see her chain smoking in the video. One part I remember is when, for some reason, she is talking about one of her miscarriages and I believe finishes the story saying something like, "Singing is the best way to get your uterus back in shape!" It got a laugh with her students and with the Jamestown audience!

Hmmm...wonder what you're supposed to do if your uterus isn't......musical??? :HALKING:

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I read about the ambulance ride too somewhere and I'm trying not to confuse what I read with what Lucy said. I think I read that a door flew open and either Desi or an attendant almost fell out. But I remember her specifically saying in the video about the anesthesiologist and the singing part.

 

I dug out the schedule of events from that festival (August 2003) and it said the six week lecture series took place in 1977.

So then I'm thinking the video is from another one of the weeks this posted one came from.

 

I think it was the attendant that went flying out the back. I'm thinking there may not been much they could do with her until she got to the hospital.

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