ANST - Court Herald Style

[Tim McDaniel]

On Wed, 7 Jan 1998, John Ruble <ulf at urocor.com> wrote:
> Just remember to be at ease with the crowd.  Chances are, most of
> them know you.  They'll forgive the small mistakes and
> lost-thought-trains that you will undoubtedly experience.  And for
> the bigger mistakes, well, stand closer to the Crown so that they
> don't dare shoot!

These notes are not just for court, but for any public performance.

They'll never know about some of the mistakes.  The following is an
invented scenario: "Shit, where's the insignia?!  Quick! they're
already coming up the aisle!!"  "I know them, so I'll give them my
insignia and tell them I'm so impressed with them, and dig another out
of the baronial box later."  In a play, if you forget the exact line,
try to do the sense.

The best policy is not to stop, and do not acknowledge the error, or
if you must, do so briefly and go on.  ("Did he just say Outman and
Aryanhwy?  Well, nobody reacted, so I must have misheard. / Nobody
reacted, so it must be no big deal.")  The worst thing is to make a
big deal out of it.  Just keep tap-dancing and don't look down.

Court heralds always have at least one Court From Hell, with one
disaster following another (dropping scrolls in the mud, forgetting
business, ...).  I'm sure players (actors) do too.

-- 
Daniel de Lincoln
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com
is work address.  tmcd at tmcd.austin.tx.us is wrong tool.  Never use this.
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