Video conferences.
Zoom.
Facetime
Microsoft teams
All of that video connection stuff that’s been a facsimile for human contact through the pandemic?
I’m grateful that the tech is here.
And, I’m tired of it.
And yet, as a walking talking human contradiction, a steaming pile of fresh hypocracy, I’m organizing a zoom meeting.
It’s a party and event.
And it’s on Zoom.
Sigh.
As someone with a penchant to stir up shit, I’m offering a great tool at this one.
As part of the launch of the Remarkable Fools Society’s Registry of Certified Fools, I’m offering a tool that you can use to disrupt pointless zoom meetings.
The goal is to add levity to the meeting and introduce the notion of absurdity. Which is perfect because many of the pointless meetings we attend are patently absurd. Meetings that are held in synchronous time to discuss things that could be discussed through threaded comments asynchronously are moronic.
They are in need of an intervention.
They are in need of a mime.
That’s where you come in.
I can hear your objections from here, in the past:
But James, I’m not a mime.
I know, but with a little bit of help you can be a mime too.
Mimes are not magicians.
Despite the illusions they create, the ‘walls’ or ‘the box’ they get trapped in are not real.
No one has ever been killed by a mime shot gun.
Ideas can be powerful. The imagination creates reality.
And?
Mime knives don’t cut carrots.
Miming involves acting out a story or telling a joke or communicating with an audience without words.
That’s it.
In my mime studies, it was more about the poetics of space and the dynamic relationships that emerge between people within a space.
In this micro workshop, you’ll learn some mime basics to bring into your online video conferences.
Will your boss and collogues love it?
Unless they are the kinds of total idiots who would rather have a three hour meeting than an email, they’ll probably thank you for transforming their day and adding a little levity to things.
It’s like the old saying goes:
A mime is a terrible thing to taste. Also. Don’t eat people. Even mimes. You’ll choke on the bones.
Yes, so tired of video conference meetings! But not in this capacity, sounds like fun.
Thank goodness people can begin to come together again, in life and the workplace.
Look forward to your meet!
I am only on camera in a professional capacity and when I am, I am being recorded. Anything I do that could be edited or interpreted in a bad way is fodder for an evil genius wannabe. In meetings, I am off camera. It's my only professional appearance privacy. Considering my mouth is what gets me in trouble, maybe I should consider taking up miming as a way of being. (Drops mic and walks down an escalator.)