#BARS Workshop - Week 3
The third week of the #BARS Workshop began with an hour-long interview between Black Thought from The Roots and instructor Rafael Casal. The full interview is on The Public Theater's Facebook page.
During the interview, Black Thought shared a number of entertaining stories, including the band's names before they were called The Roots, how The Roots had to compete against Boyz II Men in their high school talent show, and how he first met Questlove. But the story that really stood out seemed like one Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories from Chappelle's Show. Black Thought talked about the time Mos Def left the recording studio to get a fish sandwich:
Hear @blackthought explain what happened when he & @MosDefOfficial tried to record DOUBLE TROUBLE #fishsandwich pic.twitter.com/HU7DGZUzV8— #BARS @ The Public (@barsworkshopNYC) August 3, 2016
What impressed me during the interview was Black Thought's work ethic. He had "made it" by any degree of evaluating success, and yet he was working as hard as he ever has. Black Thought said that he "goes for blood" in every performance and gig he does.
The interview at the #BARS Workshop was his 4th gig that day, which started at dawn on a movie set in Brooklyn, then he went to 30 Rock for a taping of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and then recorded a track with hip hop legends, while he was leaving 30 Rock to come to us. It was only 7pm when the interview started, and I wonder if he had a 5th gig that evening. This work ethic of Black Thought, Questlove, and others in The Roots is astounding!
Some of the funniest moments of the conversation came towards the end when Rafael Casal moved away from the interview format and played games with Black Thought, including a "Deep Thoughts" style game where they pontificated on deep questions in a humorous manner. Rafael Casal, a man of many talents, can add late night TV host to his resume. After the interview, we each got to meet with Black Thought, and he was really attentive to what each of us said (despite having been working since dawn).
After Black Thought left, Sarah Kay led an inspiring poetry workshop instructing us how to write our homework assignment. She performed a poem which we gave her a standing ovation for. She told us to focus on images and metaphors that the audience would immediately connect to. The key, she said, is to talk about abstract ideas like love and hate, using sensory details that the audience emotionally responds to. A pop culture example is instead of Bruno Mars saying, "I'm in love with you" he says "I'll catch a grenade for you." Using sensory details makes the material more accessible and allows you to trigger emotions and feelings in the audience to draw them into your story. We wrapped the class with a short writing exercise.
Looking forward to Week 4!
