Jacqueline Novak on reviving her critically acclaimed live showGet on Your Kneesafter a year away.
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The classical house music and casual chatter of audience members floated backstage as I tinkered with my appearance.
Is it a vestigial organ, or is it doing something?
My last performance ofGet on Your Kneesin New York was on February 16, 2020, after four extensions.
I took a bow and really milked it.
The task upon me was to keep doing what I was doing, keep doing the show.
I imported the audio from every performance into GarageBand and spliced it up, joke by joke.
Then I created a track for each joke.
That track would feature a back-to-back collage of every nights iteration of that joke.
Then I could listen all at once, note which was the best version, and lock it in.
I imagined that kind of thorough tweaking would be immensely satisfying and comforting.
I put the project aside for a few days … and then I forgot about it for a year.
Now that quarantine is coming to a close, Ive decided to mount the show in New York again.
Suddenly, I find myself less than two weeks from my first post-quarantine performance.
That tinkering I thought I could do in a month, and then decided to spend a year on?
That did not happen.
Whatdidhappen was more, lets say, organic.
I puttered around inside during quarantine, not thinking about the show.
A thought about my show would come to mind, and Id text myself a note.
Those notes were then stuck in a doc called GOYKSHOW NOTES.
I remember seeingLes Miserableswith my family as a kid.
Little Gavroche is sick, and the understudy too.
They want to know if you’re free to fill in?
Despite performing my showGet on Your Kneesover 138 times in New York City, a full year has passed.
All of the cells in our body are completely turned over every seven years, is it?
That means Im one-seventh new.
So I find myself approaching this next run, feeling that same feeling as I did as a kid.
The old fear was,Am I good enough?
As good as another?Now its,Am I as good as myself?
Get on Your Kneeswas nominated for a 2020 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance.
Tickets for New York and Boston tour dates are now on salevia Novaks website.
