16 March 2006

Jill Sobule + Julia Sweeney = Magic

I wish you all could have been there... A little bit of TED magic lit up the stage at LA's Largo last night, where fast friends Jill Sobule and Julia Sweeney created a new kind of performance together. After meeting at TED2006, the two decided to collaborate, but freely admitted that they weren't quite sure what that meant. To the delight of the 150 people gathered, they just made it up as they went along.

The result couldn't have been more delightful: an uncategorizable combination of music and comedy, with the intimacy of old friends swapping stories. Jill would play a song, and then go into a jazzy riff (with back-up on guitar and stand-up bass) as Julia told a loosely related tale, in the down-to-earth, yet utterly captivating way only Julia can. They were small stories — of break-ups and mean girls and gym teachers — but each was a small gem, hilarious and poignant and real. A lot like, well, Jill's songs.

(Speaking of her songs, Jill played, on request, the happy song about global warming she wrote in Monterey. She also premiered "The End of Love," a beautiful, moody piece inspired by Helen Fisher's talk at TED2006. We'll see if we can get that posted here ...)

Truthfully, I've never seen anything quite like Jill and Julia's shared stage appearance. And having seen each of them perform many times, I've never seen them have more fun. I'm hoping this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship ...

Posted by June Cohen | Permalink | | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)