Marketing
I believe in honesty, refreshing candor.
Not some bloke whose smoke and mirrors
Hawks the honey; a bystander
With a two month contract
Telling you about his contacts,
Titles fine (New York Times), countless winners -
All online.
Candor, while you’re handing
out
To some nice person or some lout
A bunch of cash for name and profit -
But if it’s
the
truth, then tell me,
Which of his or her praiseworthy clients
Reached a gradient
Where he/she can live gainfully
And permanently pain free.
I believe in word of mouth. Quality.
If you’re lucky, somebody
Who helps you write or paint or play,
Sculpt or dance;
Who markets you from day to day
Not asking money in advance,
Prepared to take a chance
On you, your talent, with his time;
Someone who believes you’re prime,
And doesn’t phone from god-knows where -
At some unspeakably strange hour
Asking for your money’s power;
With, to boot, no guarantees at root.
Just a promise of a sort.
I believe in work and patience; perseverance.
Talent brings its own reward.
Can you afford the ads unstable,
No food on an empty table,
And continue to create?
After all, who knows one’s fate?
I submit one market self with modest phrases,
Writing praises as you see them.
All life long ‘you’ are the song.
It can’t go awfully, badly wrong.
You can’t imagine what rich savour
Can evolve - and in your favour.
W. C. Fields as carnival sideshow barker Gabby Gilfoil in "Two Flaming Youths"
William Claude Dukenfield began his theatrical career in 1898 as a vaudeville juggler named "W. C. Fields." Though he was silent in his early career to conceal a stutter, to get laughs he began adding muttered patter and sarcastic asides, reprimanding "a particular ball which had not come to his hand accurately" or muttering "weird and unintelligible expletives to his cigar when it missed his mouth," according to one of his early peers. From 195 to 1922 he abandoned juggling in order to appear as a comedian in the Zeigfeld Follies, elaborate Broadway revues, and he perfected his persona as a colorful small-time con man (in this case Prof. Eustace McGargle in the 1923 musical "Poppy;" Fields reprised the role in 2 movie versions of the play, D. W. Griffith's "Sally of the Sawdust" [1925] and Poppy" [1936], a talkie in which Fields delivered the famous line, "Never give a sucker an even break"). From Ziegfeld he moved to silent films, most of them are now lost, including "Two Flaming Youths" (1927), in which he played Gabby Gilfoil, a circus barker. In all of his silent films he wore a scruffy, fake-looking clip-on mustache because he knew audience would dislike it.
ReplyDeleteBarkers attempt to attract patrons to entertainment events by exhorting passing members of the public, boastfully announcing the shows' attractions.