Part of doing a weekly creative content offering, is getting to dig through the files from the past, and bring out some rare and unreleased material. 2015 I was on tour in the US, working on a piece that never made it to Edinburgh when I was in Europe. To put it mildly it was quite a wild year, some of my best moments, some of my worst, and through it all I was writing and performing. For me I don’t really tell a story till 6 months after it happens, and it takes about 5 years to turn into material for the stage. To get it to the point where it works as an esthetic whole, it’s close to a 10 year journey to really make it into something. I’m still aging some of the moments that proceeded these performances in 2015 (Video in Moab, UT./ Audio version in Boise, ID.) - But as I’ve heard other storytellers say, ‘now is the time to tell your story’, and I believe that. -And so you get these messages. I shall Proceed. To Rock the Mic.

This pieces deals with the experiences of hearing voices, and was the grand finally of a poetry month in 2015, where I sent a poem out everyday in April to my list. Raise your hand if you remember getting this daily email (Hi!)

While that list has expanded, Voices to Arches became its own side project for a while where I discovered how to voice the experience of hearing voices.

If this is happening to you or you are looking for support, there are groups to attend:

Hearing Voices Network is a support group based in the UK, with a US chapter-

There’s also a bunch of other groups for mental health that I have had a long history of being apart of that I can recommend:

DBSA (Depression Bipolar Support Alliance) is the group I started with as a teen, and ended up founding and facilitating their Young Adults chapter for 8 years. They now do 5 different groups online.

NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness) I’ve been a State Speaker for their CA conference, as performed mental health comedy in NY and CHI on their behalf. They do great work with friends and family experiencing mental health.

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And Yes, I am doing my own group. It wasn’t clear it my last blast, but here it is:

Breath, Beats, and Balance (Register)

“Exploring breath-work as a meditative and musical practice, through yogic breathing and beatboxing (the art of vocal percussion). Use your vocal instrument to balance your creative life through music and meditation.”

(To Gain access to this monthly group you become a “Founding Member” in the Mad One Media Subscriptions.)

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Mad One Media is still very much finding it’s stride. Weekly Audio and Written word content is what it’s become through this substack page. But I would also very much like to enroll you as collaborator to do more in person events, videos, groups and performances.

Whatever your talent list is, you could be a video/graphics type person, or want to advocate by helping with booking. I have a wishlist here of sorts of people I am looking to work with. Take a look and get back to me to see you want to collaborate on this years Comedy Special/Book Release/Live Tour…. We are doing a little bit of everything and even if you have a reference or an Org or individual to work with this would be of great service.

“Creativity as Practice for Mental Health”

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