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I saw that the two worlds of psychology and music overlapped while working
as a psychodramatist at the Community Hospital of The Monterey Peninsula
in Carmel, CA. "The best therapy we get around hear is when Chic
brings his guitar to work". I would hear this comment time and time
again from patients, staff and administrators; as if music were an emotional
magnet drawing tensions out of the body long enough for it to heal.
I left psychodrama and the States for Paris, France to record my first
album, "Growing Up", where I sang about some of the complexities
of young people growing up in America at the time. When I returned to
the States I founded Chic Street Man's School of Performing Arts. I knew
the art of performance and the ability to communicate effectively way
were based on the same fundamental principles of confidence and self-expression.
I knew that music expressed spiritual and emotional values which were
both personal and universal, and that it would expand the creative abilitites
of all who use it. The goal was not to make performers out of participants,
but to help generate in all students an enthusiasm for life and a fun
and exciting way to express it.
I began to look at some of our most entertaining entertainers. The ones
who could really captivate an audience. Groucho Marx. Michael Jackson.
Bette Midler. Bill Cosby. Gilda Ratner. Jimmy Durante. Ella Fitzgerald.
Ray Charles. John Kennedy. Martin Luther King. What was it about these
people that made them so fascinating to look at. To listen to. What made
the magic. The charm. What did they all have in common. Apart from talent
(we all know they had that), I found they had a willingness to share.
To connect with their audience while on stage.
So, what about this willingness to share. What was it. Where did it come
from. Why did some have it and not others. Why would some who had it on
stage lose it when in a one-on-one situation. And why would some who had
it in one-on-one situations lose it on stage.
That summer I offered a class on stage presence to the general public
and wound up with fifteen students who appeared to have very little in
common. There were professional musicians, poets, and actors mixed in
with others who'd never spent a moment on "stage"; a doctor,
a mother of three, a fireman, an attorney, two school teachers, a nurse,
a bag boy and a little league coach.
But what one might expect to happen didn't always. In many cases, the
non-performers were more ready to share and take risks while on stage.
Perhaps because there was less ego attached and thus less fear of failure.
In other words, if you're not supposed to be good at something then what
do you have to lose.
Well, we are all entertainers. Every single one of us. We all have things
we want to say. And we all find ways to say them. I call that communication.
And I call that entertainment for in order to be understood we have to
be listened to, meaning we have to captivate the interest of our audience.
I began designing exercises to stimulate creativity using the stage as
a metaphor for getting up, "getting down" and feeling good about
ourselves. We examined Michael Jackson's wiggle, Groucho Marx's comic
crouch, Ray Charles' free weaving, John Kennedy's stately display and
much more. We tried them on and threw them off. We bought none of it.
We borrowed. We made it our own laying the groundwork for building self-confidence,
effective communication and community interaction. The result was Chic
Street Man's School of Performing Arts.
My motto is "Even vegetarians have a little bit of ham". A
little bit of ham is healthy. It's what makes us want to communicate.
We attach this ham to the ordinary vehicles of communication, the way
we talk, body language, eye contact and temporarily exaggerate to get
a good look at our own willingness to be connected. It's fun. But more
than that, it works.
--Chic Street Man
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"Every
child has the right to full and free opportunities to explore and develop
his capacities in the field of music in such ways as may bring him happiness
and a sense of well-being; stimulate his imagination and stir his creative
activities; and make him so responsive that he will cherish and seek to
renew the fine feelings induced by music."