Today's Live Mark Twain Performance
Traveling through Time and Space
Update 3/4/2023: I came across this article about my Mark Twain show that was printed almost exactly three years ago (3/3/2020).Today (Saturday, February 17th, 2023) I dusted off my Twain duds (black tux, white bowtie, etc.), combed my mustache down and my eyebrows up a la Twain (after deliberately not trimming them for the past few weeks), had my wife curl my hair, and then performed my Mark Twain show The Adventures of Mark Twain this afternoon at Park Lane, a senior living community in Monterey.
I explained to the audience before I began the lecture (as speeches were often called back then) that it would last approximately 30 minutes, but that I would stick around afterward to answer questions and such; that it was set in 1896 (hence the black tux — Twain didn’t begin wearing his iconic white suit until 1906, four years before his death); and that my performance wasn’t based on a single lecture/speech Twain gave at any time but rather was an amalgamation/mashup of several different speeches.
Prompting a question at the end of the performance, I also told them the reason for Twain’s 1896 world speaking tour: the enormous debt he had incurred — the purpose of the tour was to pay off those debts. He and his wife and oldest daughter traveled from the U.S. to Australia, New Zealand, Europe, India, and South America; he also wrote a book about his experiences on the trip (Following the Equator) to generate revenue.
I also let them know that I would be speaking in a Missouri/Kentucky accent, as Twain had spent his formative years in Missouri and everybody said he spoke exactly like his mother, a native Kentuckian. In case you’re wondering, Twain’s father was originally from Virginia, but he died when Twain was young, and the two weren’t especially close, anyway, so it’s unlikely Twain would have picked up much of his father’s manner of speaking.
The audio of the performance (not this performance literally, but the same material, which I recorded at home yesterday), along with the text, can be listened to (and seen) here.
Here are a few pictures from today:
Ready to head out.
Live from Fillmore West Park Lane (if I was a virtuoso musician, I could probably pass for Chris Hillman, too, with that hair). I prefer not to use a microphone (anachronistic), but it was necessary today as many in the audience were having a hard time hearing.
Post performance meal at Lalla Grill
I said I would stick around to answer questions after the show, and they were:
How old was Twain when he made his ‘round-the-world speaking tour in 1896?Answer: 60 for most of it (he turned 61 on November 30th).
Why was Twain so deeply in debt?Answer: He had heavily invested in an invention that showed great potential (the Paige automatic typesetter) — which it never lived up to — and the company went bankrupt. Twain was the primary investor. Mergenthaler’s linotype machine ended up being the one that accomplished what Paige’s machine set out to do.
Why didn’t you say anything about cats? Twain loved cats, once having 17 at one time, and renting cats when he was away from home.Answer: Twain did love cats; in fact, he loved dogs, too, and animals in general, but cats were, indeed, his favorite — he said a house wasn’t a home until there was a cat asleep on the hearth. He did sometimes rent cats when he was on vacation, and once actually owned 19 felines at the same time; he gave various cats of his such names as Sourmash, Blatherskite, Buffalo Bill, Tammany, Soapy Sal, and Pestilence.
Are there any recordings of Twain’s voice?Answer: No; or, to be completely accurate, probably not: there were some made, but it seems they were destroyed in a fire. There is a short video clip of Twain walking around his last house, Stormfield, in Redding, Connecticut, and sitting at a table inside it with a couple of his daughters, but it has no audio.
We do have descriptions of Twain’s voice, but they are often at odds with one another. Some said his voice was low (which would make sense, as he was a heavy smoker); others said his voice was high and thin. Most spoke of his pronounced southern drawl, but one critic described him as having a “down east” accent (since he lived in Connecticut and New York for many years, he may have picked up a little of the accent, to be sure). The one thing everyone agrees on is that Twain spoke extremely slowly. Even in those slower and more patient times, many were annoyed by just how slowly he spoke. I know that wouldn’t “fly” today, so I speak at a “modern” pace.
This space (ramblingnotesofageezer.substack.com) regularly features Twain material: Sundays with Mark Twain presents a different short story written by Twain each week; on Tuesdays, I publish a chapter from my biography-masquerading-as-an-autobiography Rebel With a Cause: Mark Twain's Hidden Memoirs.
For booking inquiries, email me at marktwainat60@gmail.com
The amazon page for Rebel With a Cause: Mark Twain's Hidden Memoirs is here.
