How We Did It: Your Backstage Pass to the NYC Everything is Figureoutable Experience

In this episode of MarieTV, we do have some adult language. So if you do have little ones around, grab your headphones now.

I’m going to capture this because I think it’s going to be important for me to remember at some future date. I’m a few minutes away from going into my first day of rehearsal for the New York City event, specifically for the dance portion. Here’s the way I feel right now, basically like I want to puke, like I want to jump out of my skin. So my mind is saying, “What did you get yourself into?” Again, I’m very conscious of the fact that I created this whole thing. I set this whole thing in motion. This was my vision. This was my decision. Anyway, so wanting to puke, really nauseous, want to jump out of my skin, the mind saying, “What the fuck did you do? Why did you create this? Why didn’t you just do a normal book tour like everyone else? Why did you have to just go above and beyond?” That’s basically what’s happening right now. So we’ll talk again after first day rehearsal.

If I were to get hit by a bus tomorrow, this is the one idea that I would want to leave behind. So if I can communicate it effectively in words and then I do get hit by a bus, I’d be like, “Fine, I’m good. I’ll go onto my next adventure,” but in terms of this particular event, so you may know I had a little bit of a career in dance and fitness. I am not a trained dancer, so I have no technique. I am all passion and all heart. So you will see my geekiness as we do whatever we do, but I just love dance and movement so much and I think it is so transformative. I think we have so much wisdom that’s locked in our bodies and we live in such a sedentary culture. For a lot of folks in the world, they’re sitting on computers all day long or they’re looking at screens all day long and they’ve lost touch with this incredible vehicle for creativity and wisdom and joy.

There’s so much that we’re doing that we’re just going to have to figure out on the fly, which is exactly the whole point of the book and of the idea that you don’t need to know everything in advance, that you can take risks, that you can step into new zones and you can have a really good time doing it with beautiful people who are up to the same things in life.

What do you think?

Fuck yeah.

Yeah, hi.

Hi. Oh my gosh, you guys look so good. I heard that music about, “Where have you been all my life?”

I rehearsed in Ripley. I was traveling and I can see now…

How there’s no …

Well, I can’t move.

Yeah.

I have to do…

I’d love to travel.

I have to keep this so small.

Yeah.

And then push, yeah, push, keep everything right here, otherwise I’ll fuck up our whole formation.

This morning was in New York City. Jumped in a van with the team. The entire production is here, out in Pennsylvania. We drove three hours. It’s a little after 10:00. We’ve been going since 7:45 this morning, and not going to lie, definitely tired. We are all fried, but the show is… It’s starting to come together. We’re starting to work through a lot of kinks, stuff not really fitting together. We had to change out some music. We had to change out some lighting cues, but we’re going to see how this whole thing gets figured out, because… I don’t know, I got to stand behind my book. Everything is figureoutable, right? Let’s hope so. Such an opportunity for transformation, because once you get it, once you play with it, once you experiment with this, it will give you freedom like nothing else.

So we’re here at day two in Pennsylvania. Going to do some full run-throughs today of the show, like full dress rehearsal. I am definitely tired, but also really excited. It’s that strange phase when there’s so much energy and so much excitement, but also a lot of just physical exhaustion in so many different places. I’ve been thinking and tweaking and changing, but I feel good and I feel excited and I can’t believe that there’s only a few days left to get all this material in this noggin and have it all work the way that I envision it.

I can’t… Not that I… I can’t… Obviously I saw the version that we did yesterday, but it’s still like…

Yeah. You don’t know how you were up there.

Yeah. No, no, no. I have no ability to see anything really. I mean, I saw it, but…

It’s a full body, soul-stirring experience.

Okay.

They don’t know you’re exiting. They just think you’re talking to them.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. So…

And if it feels weird, we’ll change it back.

Okay. Okay, great. Perfect. My brain has gone wahwahwah.

No stress at all.

No. No, no, no.

Exploring angles, sort of checking our lens angle.

Yeah.

We are wrapping up our time here in Pennsylvania. It was incredible. We built basically the whole show. We worked through a lot of the technical kinks. We dress rehearsed a few times. The performers are amazing and we have a lot of the blocking down. I really think this is going to be an extraordinary experience. To be honest, I’m already thinking of how we can do more of these.

Dear heavenly Father, thank you so much for bringing this incredible group of people together, this group of creatives, this group of artists, this group of change makers. Please keep everyone in our entire show, from the performers to the tech, to all of our audience members, please keep us safe. Open our hearts, let us take in joy. Let us take in celebration. Let us spread love and let us have a fucking ton of fun. Amen.

Thank you so much, New York City. We love you. Good night, everyone.

We fucking did it. Oh my God.

Well, that was the hardest piece. Now, we go on tour. U.S., U.K.

No big deal.

Australia.

No big deal.