Polly Frost: She MIGHT be near you soon!

I was first able to interview Polly Frost because she's going to be performing her one-woman show, "How to Survive Your Adult Relationship With Your Family" at The Canyon Crest Winery in Riverside. Before she contacted me - I must admit - I thought her name was a bit familiar - but I didn't quite know who she was. I shoulda - given my interests - and now I'm glad I DO.

(I don't know who to credit this photo with, but it's a beaut!)

Want an introduction...and more? Go to pollyfrost.com...or just click HERE

(photo by Erik Kragh, erikkragh.com) 

How To Survive Your Adult Relationship With Your Family, while comedic, is not standup comedy. Polly has a number of standup comic friends, and said that this wasn't what she wanted to do for her show. The show combines storytelling, survival tips, and observations. TRULY - observations. I brought up how David Mamet picked up on dialect so well from taking notes, quietly, in a coffee shop. And that some of Tina Fey's best Sarah Palin bits came directly from the transcripts - not the writers, per se.

Polly said that some of the stories are indeed close to being "transcripts", and that to write the best "material"...all you really have to do is quietly take notes.  She wrote the show because she discovered that "...no matter how much you've come to terms with your childhood - no matter how much therapy you've had - it won't prepare you for the surprising ways in which your adult relationship with your family can change..." and that some people can change quite dramatically.

At some of her performances, she's seen people laugh, cry...then laugh again. At first, when seeing this, Polly thought she should possibly pull back just a bit. After encouragement - FROM audience members - she knows that this type of interaction is JUST what's called for.

(photo by Erik Kragh, erikkragh.com) 

As you'll see from Polly's website - again, pollyfrost.com - she's not just a performer. She's a published author, playwrite, and was part of the team to create TheFold.tv. Along with husband Ray Sawhill, and Matt Lambert, they in essence took EVERY idea they had brought to the table...and kept ALL of them. With this, you have a man with Aspergers...who is also a time-traveller. Without making fun of folks with aspergers OR time-travelling abilities, you now have something that's part sci-fi, part sex comedy...and part art movie. This was created on a budget of some 8,000 dollars and was released as a 6-part web series.

There are quite of few OF Polly's books to choose from. Among them - erotica. One of the things that Ray said when talking about TheFold.tv, is that regarding sex in the movies...there's either mainstream...or porn...nothing in between (speaking of which, she DID get a rather nice endorsement from Ron Jeremy for her erotica collection, Deep Inside). Polly, Ray, and Matt all have an appreciation for the '60's - into the '70's - "sexploitation", horror and sci-fi. Things like Barbarella, Roger Corman films, Japanese "pink" movies, and "Japanamae". She was surprised when I mentioned a couple names. Names like Jess (Jesus) Franco and Tinto Brass. More than surprised. QUITE pleased. The three of them are all big Franco fans, and just the mention of this niche director made it clear that we were indeed on the same wave. LIKE Franco, Polly's erotica goes beyond just sex. It delves into the supernatural. And horror. And, of course, humor. 

(photo by Erik Kragh, erikkragh.com) 

Well before our conversation was over, I felt that rather than some interview...with some person...at some venue, I was just hangin' with a friend. I SO look forward to her performance at Canyon Crest, followed by dinner, some wine...and continuing the conversation.

Folks - I've just barely scratched the surface. Go to her website, pollyfrost.com. Beyond tour dates for her current show, there is SO much there.

Ya better bookmark it.

And see? I sometimes CAN go beyond The Human Canvas, and back to amazing authors, performers and players. Or in this case all of the above!

Please check back. The Human Canvas adventures will continue as soon. There's one or two in the batter's box right now.

Sci-fi Author Robert Balmanno

“Hi. I just wrote a book.” I had just seen a dog that I wanted to point out to my wife. It looked like Asha Maya Weiner, one of ours – had she been something more specific than the half-blind chihua-wiener type she portends. So we were in a Border’s Bookstore in Sunnyvale, California. Yes, the dog was in the bookstore. We never made it to where the dog was, but while discussing how long we had until our friend was done with her pedicure, we heard - off to the side, “Hi. I just wrote a book.”

We turned and saw a man in his late fifties, sitting at a table, looking up at us and smiling. He was an unassuming man – just as excited to meet people interested in his works as anyone there might’ve been to meet an author they enjoy. Imagine Peter Jackson, if he were really, really cleaned up – and someone has just asked about The Lord of the Rings, or “just what is a hobbit, anyway?” That’s where we were. We spent the next 10 minutes or so talking to Robert Balmanno, pen in hand, and surrounded by stacks of The Runes of Iona.

This is the second book in the Blessings of Gaia series. While it is a follow-up to September Snow, the first of four planned books, it does stand alone as a complete work.  “Following the traditions of George Orwell’s 1984, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the work is set in a dystopian near-future”. The books are in the realm of Sci-fi, but ring as a possible truth for our future. To continue to quote from Balmanno’s website, the setting is in a war-ravaged, environmentally damaged world. The stakes are nothing less than saving the world from further environmental recklessness, while fighting against a corrupt and totalitarian world government.

      It doesn’t take much of a stretch of the imagination to guess where inspiration for these books came from. It also wouldn’t be much of a stretch for us to end up in the setting of Balmanno’s works. Maybe that’s why sci-fi can be so appealing to so many. Maybe this is why these books will continue to be a success. Again though – The Runes of Iona is a stand alone work, so you’re not commited to a series of books by picking up the one. If you do want a series though, this will more than meet your needs. Robert is currently working on the third installment in the Blessings of Gaia series, Embers of the Earth.