Happy Birthday from Ireland, Laughter Yoga #289

is there an irish birthday song there is now and it's thanks to me i put together a song called

happy birthday from ireland cedric the bedlam bards hypnotizes with wit and charm then he

shares how laughter is the best medicine especially with something called laughter yoga

i know crazy this is pub songs and stories number 289 my love is like a red red rose that's newly

sprung in june my love is like a melody that's sweetly played in tune so fair are thou my

bunny lass so deep in love am i and i will love thee still my dear

till all the seas

my love and the rocks melt with the sun

and i will love thee still my dear

for the sands of life shall run so fare thee well my own true love and fare thee well a while

and i will come again my love a twirl ten thousand miles

my love

a twirl ten thousand miles

my love

a twirl ten thousand miles

again my love

again my love a twirl ten thousand miles

so fare thee well my own true love and fare thee well a while

and i will come again my love a twirl ten thousand miles

welcome to pub songs and stories i'm ireland cedric the bedlam bards hypnotizes with wit and charm

I am Mark Gunn.

I'm a Celtic musician and podcaster living in Atlanta, Georgia.

If you're new to the show, please subscribe.

You can do that at pubsong.com or send an email to follow at celtfather.net.

We kicked off the show with, okay, my love is like a red, red rose.

So I sang that acapella on my CD, Soul of a Harper.

So you can check out that as well.

But just imagine, take away all the music.

The music was edited by my friend, Rimbo, and I released it on The Secret World of Celtic Rock,

a compilation CD of Celtic rock from my Irish and Celtic music podcast.

So again, if you want to hear Soul of a Harper, that is my very first solo CD.

It came out 20 years ago, and you can listen to it on Bandcamp for free.

And you can also find it over on, you don't have to actually be subscribed or anything.

Unlike Spotify, Amazon Music, and other places, you might have to actually subscribe to something.

But on Bandcamp, you can listen to it for free.

And then you can go vote for it.

Over on, your favorite song on the album, over on Patreon.

There's a link to both of those things in the show notes.

And of course, if you become a patron, hint, hint, hint, hint, you can get a free copy of the CD, Soul of a Harper.

So that's part of it, my gift to you for joining Patreon.

So go sign up, please.

Plastic Free July, that's what we're in right now.

It's a global movement that helps people be part of the solution to plastic pollution.

So we can have clean air.

Cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities.

It's pretty easy.

The idea is to refuse single-use plastics.

Things like plastic bags.

You go to the grocery store.

Things that are only used one time.

Like most of my CDs, when you buy them, they are, look, some of you still do the CD thing.

I heard you.

Thank you.

You're there for me.

Thank you.

Some of them still have plastic, and that's because they were printed, you know, years ago.

But most of the new, all my new CDs.

Stop it.

I heard you do it again.

You have CDs.

You have CDs?

I, um, what was I saying?

I don't even remember anymore.

They, oh, the new ones, the new ones don't have plastic on them because I'm trying to be better for the environment.

So hopefully it helps.

If you want to join me on a Celtic invasion vacation, every year I take a small group of Celtic music fans on a relaxing adventure of a lifetime.

We get to know the region through its culture.

History and legends.

And in September, we're invading Scotland's whiskey distilleries in between hiking through the country.

It's going to be fantastic.

And I hope you will join us, not just with an auditory and visual adventure of podcasts and videos, but you can find that over at Celtic invasion.com.

But come join me.

Sign up while the space is available.

There's only like one or two spots.

Top two spots is what I can say.

But if there's only one, that's fine, too.

So now it's time for my favorites of the Celtic top 20.

Every week.

I asked the.

Irish and Celtic music podcast fans to vote for your favorite songs on the podcast.

The votes are compiled at the end of the year to create the Celtic top 20.

Your pick of the best music of the year.

And I got to say, there's a lot of great music.

I put on an album called Celtic on the inside.

Best of the Irish and Celtic music podcast.

2023.

You can get that CD over in my store as well.

But it's fantastic.

You'll hear if you listen to the episode, you can listen to the episode again for free over on Celtic music podcast.com.

But.

You know, go get the album, too.

It's a great way to preserve the music or you can support the artist because that is the number one way.

Support the artist.

Here's another favorite from my recent episodes and particular 659.

No place like home.

It is Melanie Grubin with water charges songs based on a true event.

It's from her album like a tide upon the land.

And she'll tell you all about it through the song.

Here's Melanie Grubin.

We live in brutal times.

Can't afford to rent or buy.

Can't afford to stay warm.

While the landlords feast and thrive.

And their cronies on their phone.

Try to blame it on war.

But you are far too wise.

You can see their wicked games.

And you heard.

And all before.

You've a right to be inspired.

For we rose up and took control.

Not so very long ago.

And just when hope is gone.

And you think we'd be better off.

If we burned the country down.

Remember how we won before.

We got our way when we stood our common ground.

And there is time for us to turn this thing around.

Glory, glory, we stopped the water charges, we will do it again.

It was 2014, the Irish government announced a new law to be rolled out.

How we go about it?

We are back in this country.

We are a� obligated to be pro-Mar insider and not a prisoner.

We are a

military.

You know, we're in this country, we are going to protect the people.

I don't know if we've got enough money, because we don't have enough money for our

to run a program like this.

It's very stiff.

And we're very grateful to all of you for supporting us, because we need this at the moment.

And the Irish government is doing this . . .

Great.

Thank you.

blood and in our brain our taxes fund the water main there's plenty falling from the sky

you say it's for the earth we're calling out your lie you try to squeeze the poor

your mandate will defy we're on an island for fuck's sake we won't run dry

glory glory we stopped the water charges we will do it again

the irish people would not obey the working class i'll raise our fists the women

led us to resist

we said we won't pay no way the population that complied was below 50 percent so then there came

the threats they said we'll take you into court no water till you pay your debts it was echoed by

the press we launched a leaflet and campaign all their tactics to address 200 000 more

the

, the protests gave us strength and hope but this call for a greater goal the tip-off networks kept us wise

we blocked the trucks from putting water meters in when guard showed up we stood together once again

three million non-paying irish people made us win

glory glory we stopped the water charges we will do it again

glory glory we stopped the water charges, we will do it again

let's stop the arenasara

party

let's stop the arenasara

LETS

LET'S HAVE A WAREHOLDEN

no no

LET'S HAVE A WAREHOLDEN

J o bel ante

through our way a working class network could well seize the day don't rely on politicians

to fight for our fight because it's far past time to make housing right

glory glory we stopped the water charges we will do it again

the story of happy birthday from ireland well as i said in a couple episodes back

uh happy birthday from ireland was written about the same time as the leprechaun i had just had

this meeting with this guy who was saying you know celtic you don't play celtic music and then

i got on the road with andrew um and we were driving to dallas for a gig and it must have

been actually now i think about it must have been coming upon

you know the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the

st patrick's day because ultimately what happy birthday from ireland is is a happy birthday song

for myself i i know yeah i know i i get that it's very selfish and sometimes you write things uh for

yourself and birthdays were have always been a weird thing for me because i i always wanted these

big birthday celebrations and i'm sure everyone does but i never felt like i got them until you

know until the past few years um so i was trying to celebrate my birthday and and

i wanted to write a song for it and i thought at the same time it would make a good song for

other people who were uh irish americans and were newly connected with their heritage because that's

what the song is all about it's a it's not just a birthday song it's about connecting with your

irish heritage even if you don't know what that means because you know like i said this guy had

just been correcting me and saying you don't play celtic music and i'm like well i i i do

now i don't know what i think you know because uh my heritage i i know i'm not you know i'm scots

i knew at the time i was uh scottish uh because my last name is gun and uh but later i learned

you know that we had a whole bunch of irish immigrants in our family as well but i didn't

entirely know of all about that so uh this when i was writing the lyrics it was about connecting

with that and uh musically i used uh bing crosby as my inspiration so there's this very

lovely uh sound that comes out of the this where i'm singing with this um i don't know 40s or 30s

inspired uh musicality uh much like bing crosby would have done and because again it is an irish

american song so let's go through the lyrics on saint patrick's day i was born that's me i was

born saint patrick's day american by birth my heritage unknown i didn't really know what i

who i was growing up you know actually funny um i did did remember

hearing somewhere i don't totally remember where but that the scottish wore orange on saint

patrick's day and you know the the irish of course were were green on saint patrick's day i didn't

know what that was all about and it wasn't until basically andrew was had picked up the brought us

the song uh the orange and the green that i learned that orange was protestant and green was catholic

and so learned a whole bunch of things on the pot in the process so two years ago on a musical

my heart flew to ireland on the wings of a note so the song was written in 2001

and i know that because of this this line here because in 1999 that's when i started playing

irish music irish songs and and i fell in love with music oh ireland how i long for your valleys

and mountains how i long to see your hills and streams from my home across the ocean i hear

your voice singing happy birthday from ireland my child of the green la la la la la la happy

birthday from ireland my child of the green

my doll played the tunes on squeeze box and fiddle and the songs they were tuned to the

harp in my soul saint patty you never told me that i was irish till i heard your voice singing

bringing me home so my dad was a i guess he played fiddle a little bit but and had a little bit of

squeeze box but not a whole lot his main instrument when i was growing up was the banjo that's what i

most associate with my dad but he was the one who who had bought a couple auto harps and i ended up

stealing from him

when i first started playing my first auto harps were ones that i had borrowed from him

i went off to college with one and i didn't do anything with it until like 98

uh so but he played all these folk instruments which was a little bit how i guess you could say

my songs were tuned to the harp in my soul uh he took into a lot of folk sessions and so there

wasn't as much i don't remember as much uh irish or scottish songs except for when we went to

grandfather mountain highland games uh many of them were songs that i had borrowed from him

i don't have no clue when but we had gone and it really stuck out in my head and he had uh he had a

recording of brian bowers who sang the scotsman so that brought some of that celtic heritage home

with me i know irrelevant for this but saint patty you never told me i was irish and this is where i

didn't realize that i had irish heritage all of a sudden it clicked not long ago sad to say when i

was thinking of family members i think we have an o'reilly or in our family and uh there's a lot of

on both sides o'real is another one uh so there were some irish in there and my mom had made a

comment actually once that um her mom uh tried to hide the fact that they had irish heritage

and that was because the irish were so poorly treated in at the turn of the uh 20th century

and so i think for the longest time even even in i don't 40s and even probably into the 50s

she didn't uh recognize or or say anything much about their irish heritage but through a little

research we

we we found out definitely we have irish so we are scots irish till i heard your voice singing

bringing me home now two years have passed and ireland sings with me and every song that flows

from my voice and harp but i see your eyes smiling and your arms wide open from the way your children

open their hearts and their hearts eyes smiling is uh of course inspired by when irish eyes are

smiling um the harp of course i play the auto harp which is my instrument of choice and i found that

the songs did flow for me especially when i got to irish when i before i started playing celtic music

irish songs in particular um i never felt like i had a voice that i i liked my old rock band i was

like yeah and i think that might be a usual thing for rock for um new recording musicians that you

hear your voice and you're like yeah but uh but for me uh definitely when i started singing

irish music all of a sudden things clicked musically and instrumentally everything so

and the last line by the way your children open their hearts and their hearts there were a lot of

people over the years who celebrated their celtic heritage with us and that was because we were

singing these songs and it made them feel connected to uh their their culture so i did

actually rewrite this song a couple years ago actually three years ago it looks like i did

some fine tuning at the beginning of this year but um a few changes uh on saint patrick's day i

was the rhythmic beat of a thousand years like a green green linux song on a musical journey

my heart flew to island on the wings of the note one of the reasons i started changing this is

because i was i wanted to write a song that i was not again just a selfish me song uh so you know

eventually i'll record this but i wanted to capture that a little bit better i also changed the my dad

played the tunes on banjo and fiddle and that was because uh my dad played banjo and it seemed more

less than appropriate the songs that are tuned to the harp in my soul but it was through the music

that i was reborn when i heard your voice singing bringing me home now the years have passed and

ireland sings with me and every song that flows from my voice and harp i guess the the ending it

looks like it's all the same uh but i loved how this this song i love the song it's beautiful

it's going to be a little less the next version will be a little bit less schmaltzy uh with the

bing crosby inspiration and a little bit more true to myself i think so in the meantime

here is happy birthday from ireland from my cd soul of a harper

on saint patrick's day i was born american by birth heritage i know

oh it was two years ago in a musical journey my heart flew to ireland

on the wings of a note oh ireland how i long for your valleys and mountains

how i long to see your hills and streams from my home across the ocean i hear a voice singing

happy birthday from ireland my child of the green

well me da played the tunes on squeeze box and fiddle

and the songs they were tuned to the harp in my soul

oh saint patty you never told me i was irish till i heard your voice singing bringing me home

oh ireland how i long for your valleys and mountains

how i long to see your hills and streams

from my home across the ocean i hear your voice singing happy birthday from ireland my child of the

green

happy birthday from ireland my child of the green

now two years have passed and ireland sings with me

every song that's heard from my voice and heart

but i see your eyes smiling your arms wide open

by the way your children open their hearts and their hearts

oh ireland how i long for your valleys and mountains

how i long to see your hills and streams

from my home across the ocean i hear a voice singing

happy birthday from ireland my child of the green

la la la la la la la la la

happy birthday from ireland my child of the green

once again i want to thank all of my amazing patrons on patreon it is because of your generosity

that i get to create this music share these podcasts talk to you a little bit i don't know

it it means a lot to me i hope it means something to you as well if you do enjoy it then please

join the gunrunners club on patreon you can sign up it's just five dollars per month you can save

a fifteen percent when you get a yearly uh membership uh it's it's a wonderful way to

support music especially in a day when cds are not the thing that people want to use so uh i really

appreciate any support you can give if you can't do that that's okay too you can still follow uh

the patreon page you'll get uh notices as well and you can get um this podcast as well ad free

just send an email to follow at kelpfather.net there's a lot of stuff over the page that is free

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out

a special thanks to our superhero patrons janice g cecilia fairly not higgins cjt maxwell sarah

crockett william mccassic carol baril eric ray james reagan and troy rogers thank you all so

much for your amazing support it's time to hypnotize you with some funny music cedric is

the fiddler and one of the singers of bedlam bards a comedic celtic group from austin texas that was

one of my big influences while we were learning how to put together a show a few years back i sat

with cedric to have an in-depth interview about how he escaped lubbock to join the sca form a

celtic band and hypnotize his audiences with charm and wit here is my inner my first interview with

cedric he's really great all right all right this is the celt father mark gunn with cedric the fiddler

and more cedric hazel rig yeah james hazel rig is my legal name yeah you never combine that with

your stuff i do yeah

i use my legal name when i'm doing hypnosis

what's wrong with cedric cedric's very real too yeah the only problem with cedric is i decided to

be cedric the fiddler years and years before this guy who just later yeah became and he might have

already been cedric the entertainer but he wasn't wasn't famous right so and i and my wife has told

me that when people make oh you're cedric the entertainer i'm not allowed to mock them for

coming up with the obvious joke yeah anyway right so um now right

you play with the bedlam barge here at the sherwood forest fair but you

where did you begin where's tell me about your how life began for you

as life yes i want to know about your life life itself life life it's well my don't go

there's nothing else to do in lubbock texas

okay we got the lubbock texas so you grew up in lubbock no no i got out as quickly as i could

after a year and a half my family moved to missouri i lived in missouri until i was 10

moved to laredo texas on the border with mexico yeah and uh i dreamed the entire time i was there

of seeing trees actual like tall trees palm trees or mesquite and so yeah so then i i went to east

texas and went to college in nacogdoches got involved in the sca there and society for creative

that's the one yeah yeah what year is that or how old are you sorry i don't know that was that was

1985 yeah i joined the sca and i what was it like back then um the sca well it was they they wore

medieval clothing and hit each other it actually has changed um the the the the populace of the

sca has um aged yeah so when i joined you know we all slept in tents and you know we got there

as soon as we could on friday and we stayed as long as we could on sunday and that slowly started

sunday has kind of disappeared and now the last time i tried to camp at a regular sca event not

penzic of course penzic is still a massive event but uh i got there and i said so where are people

camping they said oh there's a hotel down the road i'm like what what i mean i uh sounds like

i thought i was late for the parties me at renaissance festivals yeah well yeah now i'm

like oh i try to avoid setting up a tent ever ever um i did for penzic but i still had to

so you started playing at you started barding at sca that when you're doing barding is horse armor

i started doing bard craft i started performing yeah yeah i started and that's that's really where

i got my performance chops and were you a fiddler at the time oh yeah yeah i'd been fiddling since i

was i don't know 14 15 something like that what kind of stuff were you doing uh i was doing old

time i actually i started there were no fiddlers in laredo at being on the border with mexico so

yeah there was a lot of and a lot of mariachi music which had an influence on western swing

which i kind of got i started playing some western swing but i it was actually because

the birds made that country album called sweetheart of the rodeo and it had a couple

of gospel songs on it and at that time my my brother and sister and i were all engaged in

our teen rebellion against our unitarian parents so we were all fundamentalist christians and my

brother was bothered by the fact that he couldn't listen to to all the music he had

loved except the birds recorded some gospel songs and so some of them had fiddle and so i started

you know trying to figure out the fiddle parts um and just by trial and error the fact that my

mother's a music professor and could kind of help me figure all that out so i had an old time

country band when i was in high school really yeah yeah i didn't have any dates um but i did

have an old constant sorry yeah i was a man of constant something yeah

when i when i found the sea that's where i'm like okay this is what i was supposed to be doing i'm

supposed to be dressing up like a medieval or renaissance character and doing bard craft and

yeah so not barding yes not barding no people in the sea said that too

nice so so you guys started uh uh playing the fiddle there were you writing songs or just

learning learning your chops or learning i was more writing writing poems and telling stories

um i wrote a few poems and i wrote a few poems and i wrote a few poems and i wrote a few poems

did you did you uh you say stories did you i mean have you always been an incredible storyteller

because um i well my how did it get started my dad told stories all the time and he he told

stories that his mother had told him and and so when i was a kid i just heard them all and i it

was really when i got into the sea that i had a venue to do it and and one thing you know we're

here at a renfrew and i'm praising the seo but but that's okay um

is one of the few places you can tell stories to grown-ups and call it storytelling everywhere

else i mean if i put up a sign that said story hour here at the fair everybody would bring their

kids right that's a fascinating point yeah and it's the same thing in out in general public

library storytelling bringing the kids and and that's great no adult storytelling just doesn't

quite sell it yeah i don't want to hear that no no although i did i did tell some of those

the one about the the king

king the cow his concubine and all of that stuff back in the seo and that that could work there

and of course that's where i learned a bunch of dirty songs that i now sing at renaissance

festivals um and it it wasn't really until after i had quit doing the seo for the most part although

i still stop by occasionally um i love them to death and i was driving back from oklahoma

renaissance festival and it's a really long drive and i had nothing to do and i started writing

um a filk of the hero of canton jane the man of jane and i realized that the secret to writing

songs is i was supposed to write them about firefly i know you know what that's like yes yeah

yeah and of course that led to writing one about my cat i don't know who writes songs about their

cat i don't know yeah so yeah but that's how i got into writing is that really so that late

yeah yeah i mean i've written filks here and there but i hadn't written a lot of i mean i'd

written an original song here and there what year is that oh god i don't know i don't know

god uh 2000 it was before serenity came out yeah and i'm trying to like what year that came out

before serenity came out so uh 2008 yeah six five seven or eight yeah somewhere in there boy that's

i'm a bad brown coat i don't know the year but uh yeah it was it was a while back uh i mean i'd

kind of i'd played around with writing a few songs but that's really it's true as i think about it i

hadn't yeah i mean you had a couple i know you had your album cedric's overmode yeah which

i think there was at least one original song right it was a oh yeah there was a farewell song

isn't there well there's a fiddle tune in there called cedric farewell um which i had written but

no actually there was a song that i wrote for the four winds fair right yeah that's right

yeah i vaguely remember it too and yeah that was i think that was the only like fully original

song there yeah i guess i had written a few yeah it was a slow start and yeah and you learned your

bass pretty much by by

right yeah yeah i mean well that's the easy way you know yeah i mean back as far as high school

that's even that weird i mean i think about my my friend uh david he he's a

all the songs came off sounding like getty lee uh from rush and right right but his songwriting too

i mean as i listened to the songwriting i mean he was basing it on the the heavy metal hard rock

music that he listened to and that's how he started writing songs so i mean it's the same

except here we occasionally parody it you know or right um right yeah well i mean you know it's

easier if you're writing new lyrics to an existing melody you know so i yeah i mean i was doing that

as far back as high school yeah i'm doing some of that now now uh i of course first met you in 99

when did you when did the bedlam bard start we we started officially i think 98 we hadn't been

around that long and you were doing a good show i felt well in my head i was doing a good show i felt

amateur stage yeah well you were you were right very perceptive no i mean yeah i mean but it was

it was entertaining is what i mean is that uh a lot of what i learned from y'all was the interaction

um how to interact and you you're just very entertaining together i mean but how did you

learn to put on a show i mean um well i mean a lot of that like i said in the sca i kind of developed

that okay so your skill yeah and 13 years before that

Yeah, I'd been working at being able to perform in front of a crowd and really play the crowd and interact with them.

And then I also, gosh, what year was it?

Well, I started teaching college when I was working on my master's, so that was like 89.

And teaching a class is like putting on a show.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, Gene Simmons was a school teacher before he was a rock star.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, and in an interview he actually said it's very similar.

You're getting up in front of a bunch of people and you're working with a group, except that they pay attention when you're a rock star.

Yeah.

You know.

So, yeah, and then actually when Hawk and I teamed up.

When did you meet Hawk?

When did I meet Hawk?

I met Hawk, well, I met Hawk because of Four Winds.

So it was right before Four Winds started, which was, I was still, no, I was in.

I was done with my, so that would have been early 90s, like 93, 94, somewhere in there.

Yeah, 90, no, maybe 95, as late as that.

Maybe 95, 96, somewhere in there.

Yeah, yeah.

So I met him way back then.

And he was always a real, well, not always, but he, by that time, he was a really amazing performer.

He had a great stage presence, a very big presence.

And when we teamed up.

He started kind of toning it down to give me a little bit more, you know, focus.

Because we didn't want to just, you know, he's the front man and I was behind.

But I remember he went off to Washington one summer because he goes up there every year and plays fairs.

And he came back and he said, you know what, I realize I've been toning it down.

And you have a choice.

You can step it up or you're just going to be blown away and nobody's even going to notice you.

And I said, oh, really?

And so he created a monster and regrets it to this day.

And I regret it.

But yeah, I mean, that's when I said, OK, fine, I'm going to get out there.

And so so we don't have a front man.

We have two competing front men trying to steal the focus of the show from each other.

I'm seeing a blackboard with keeping score.

You know, we'll make jokes like if I'll look out at the audience and see that most of them are sitting on my side, I'll say, you know, it's been scientifically proven that the more charismatic performer will have more people sitting on their side of the stage.

And I did that one time and a couple of people got up and moved.

Yeah, we have we have a lot of fun.

Yeah, I remember I remember Hawk saw you guys first because I actually I didn't get to play every weekend of that fair when when you and Andrew of the Noggin Bards when you guys were out there.

And so he came back and told me there's this other pair of bards there and their name is really long and it starts with a B.

And it means really huge or really marked by great size.

And I said, oh, Brobding Noggin masters in English.

The one person who the only person who actually knew the word.

Exactly.

We've introduced an entire new culture.

Did you hear that we were ripped off by Big Bang Theory 2?

No, they did.

They did a Brobding Noggin head of desk that sheltered.

Holden got in the office and he says, it's very Brobding Noggin.

And someone says, say it three times fast.

We've had it on our website.

So someone obviously ripped that off.

Very, very cute.

Very cute.

That's yeah.

It was highly amusing.

One of one of my hypnosis instructors is named Richard Nongard, Dr.

Richard Nongard, which is only one syllable away from the the the character they kept talking about in Parks and Recreation.

But my my life coach, Dr.

Richard Nongard.

And when I saw that, I just about fell over.

I couldn't believe that.

Yeah.

There it is.

So ninety nine, you start playing at the Excalibur Fantasy Fair.

Yeah.

And and then you're still you're doing Hawkwood, I think, at the time.

Yeah, we had.

Yeah.

Hawkwood came around kind of more or less at the same time.

We had teamed up at Hawkwood.

I was actually supposed to be there to play for belly dancers.

But the night before.

The fair started the that troop of belly dancers was informed that they that they didn't have a contract that that that well, the fair was having to renege on it because they didn't have enough money to pay them.

But I was already there.

And so waiting in line to get in the front gate, I ran into Hawk, whom I had jammed with before at Four Winds.

And I'm like, you know, and I had negotiated to have a few of my own shows, I guess.

Well, it's for the next weekend.

I negotiated with them to get my own shows and to get myself paid a little bit.

It was like twenty five bucks a day or maybe a weekend.

I mean, twenty five a weekend.

Yeah, I know we're in the money now.

But yeah, so it was just kind of accidental that he and I teamed up.

I would just go to his sets and he would go to my sets.

And and we had separate tip jars and sometimes we have back to back sets.

So it was like a longer set.

So we would just switch which tip jar was in the front.

And then we discovered people would put a dollar.

And each tip jar.

So we were making more money.

Oh, yeah, I know.

See, I never thought about that.

You and Andrew can do that next weekend.

Yeah.

Yes.

For the inevitable reunion tour.

See who gets in more money.

I like that.

No, no.

It wasn't about that.

It was about we've combined at the end.

Yeah, obviously.

No, but the idea is that for the audience.

Right.

Well, yeah.

Yeah.

It's like right twix, left twix.

Yeah.

That's right.

And so then, of course, in 2007, you release On the Drift,

which is, I think, your best-selling CD, right?

Unless Firefly Drinking Songs has a super popular CD.

You know, I'm not sure.

Yeah, I think it's probably our best-selling CD.

I know Take Out the Trash did very well.

A lot of people like Trash, but yeah.

I got to say, I don't like that title.

Okay.

Well, that's fine.

That's fine.

I love the album.

I've enjoyed the album a lot, but the title, I just.

You don't like Take Out the Trash.

No.

I don't know.

That was a title.

Hawk.

It actually picked out years before for another band.

They were going to do one called Take Out the Trash.

There was a, someone, a while back, someone had parodied,

did a song of the Minstrel Boy, and I don't remember all the lyrics.

I remember at the very beginning, they parodied about the cats.

Oh.

The naughty kitty on the floor has gone in the litter box.

I don't know.

Right, right.

Basically, it's all about the cat pooping.

And someone said to me at some point, they said,

you really shouldn't write about it.

I was like, you know, I kind of agree, as I thought about it, when I thought about it,

which is the same reason why I didn't like the title.

But, but, but, but on the flip side, I say that, but I also know that, you know, I think

of Voltaire, who's, uh, writes songs that I don't think anyone should write about.

But.

Well, look, no, I mean, we make no bones that no one should come to our dirty shows.

Those songs are filthy.

No one should listen to their tech.

I'm ashamed.

I'm ashamed sometimes to sing these songs.

I know.

My wife won't even sit through a show.

She's like, ah.

She used to come to them, and she's like, you can't look at me during your show.

You're like a different person.

And I am like a different person doing that show.

And I mean, years ago, somebody gave me a CD where they had, they had burned some song,

and it was, it was sort of a mock Irish song, and it was really crude.

And there was a, there was a line in it about, you know, up at the bar, there's a pretty

young thing.

After I, her, she'll get up and sing.

And I'm like, I'm not singing that.

That's a, I don't know.

That's, that, I mean, I have standards here.

I mean, you know, even though our stuff is really nasty.

We shouldn't, we also try to avoid scatological references.

You know, yeah, we don't go for, for, you know, the back end of the, do we do go for

the front?

What?

Not the back.

I mean, we'll make it anyway.

Yeah.

We, we try, we actually try to keep it from being as nasty.

Now, when you go to renaissance festivals, you just do two, right?

Is that, do you do more than just Oklahoma and Sherwood?

At this point, I'm, I'm actually, yeah, I've kind of settled into just doing Oklahoma and

Sherwood.

Do you, do you do mostly filthy shows or are you doing?

Yeah, actually.

Yeah.

I mean, those are the best selling ones.

Those are our best selling shows.

You know?

Yeah.

I mean, I mean, we'll eventually get a following of people who started out seeing us do dirty

stuff, who decided they like us enough to come see our clean stuff.

But, but that and, and Firefly are the two things that, that really, you know, cause I

mean, you know, phase it, we're, we're a couple of, you know, ugly old guys with ugly old

voices and, you know, I mean, you know, we need a hook, right?

You know, we're not, we're not young and handsome and all that stuff.

So let's go to a different, uh, no, no, um, uh, no, um, what are your, what are your biggest

challenges?

What are the things that you've faced over the years?

What are the biggest, uh, challenges you've faced?

As a musician, as musicians, the biggest challenges we've faced as musicians.

Well, I don't know.

I've never really, really thought about our challenges.

Um, think about that a sec.

What about biggest success?

Well, our biggest, our biggest success I think is that we, we have stuck together.

Maybe that's a secret to our success.

We, we did, we decided early on, you know, a lot of those bands out there are no better

than us.

It's just that they've been around forever.

And so they didn't split up.

And so, you know, um, we, uh, we decided we would, we would stick with it.

I think tapping into the Firefly community definitely was a big, uh, success there.

And I was, I was worried about that.

I didn't know if they were going to say, okay, yeah, you're one of us.

Yeah.

Um, but, but they did.

Um, so yes.

Okay.

Some, one challenge is fair owners being nervous about the idea that we're going to do

dirty songs and telling us, Oh no, you can't do those here.

We want to be a family show because families have so much expendable income at fairs.

And we keep trying to explain to them, no, actually it is young married couples and young

saying it's people who don't have children who are going to spend money at your fair.

So you want them, but, but yeah, a lot of times they don't, uh, they don't recognize

that.

So that's often been a challenge to us.

Um,

the, uh, the other, the other challenge, this is something that's changed a lot.

And you can even hear in the background, I imagine on this podcast, you can hear, uh,

some really awesome musicians who are loudly amplified.

And, and I remember the first time I saw somebody carting around a tiny little amplifier and

a microphone at Hawkwood.

And I thought, you can't do that.

What are you doing?

Learn to project like the rest of us, you know?

I mean, and I remember you,

you went through that process.

I remember at first you were much quieter and I mean, now, damn, you got pipes, you

know, you, and you put out so much energy and fervor and, and yet somewhere along the

line, someone decided it was okay for Renaissance Festival bands to be amplified.

And, uh, and I, and I'm not a hundred percent against it.

And in fact, we have to use it now at some of our shows.

And, and so, so that's a challenge to me.

And the other biggest challenge, this is funny, has been getting, see, I knew there would

be challenges.

This is just a chance to complain, isn't it?

So yeah, the other biggest challenge has been getting, um, fair management to trust us when

we say things like, you should give us an hour long time slot to do the dirty show.

It's not going to fit in a half hour.

And they act like, Oh, this is a giant favor they're giving us.

And I'm like, no, we're telling you how to use us best.

Cause you're not going to be able to do it.

You're not going to be able to do it.

And the other one is, um, and unfortunately Sherwood doesn't seem to have much problem

with this, but convincing fair owners that audiences need to be able to sit in the shade.

Yeah.

And I cannot tell you how many times I've, we actually, we were doing a fair.

I'm not going to say which fair, but we were doing a fair and we got there and it's middle

of summer.

The sun is pounding down on the stage.

It was like the anvil of God pounding on the stage, pounding on all the seats.

Fortunately, they did have seats.

They were hay bales, but they were seats.

And this, this fair also as a sign of how little glue they have.

Those people aren't managing a fair anymore, by the way.

So they, they won't get offended here.

They got upset once at me, but anyway, um, they had a stage manager.

It's very, very, uh, very, um, uh, diligent young woman.

And actually never having been there, Hawk had played that fair before, but me never having been there.

I found that stage before we started.

And I was hanging out at a booth right across from about 15 minutes till our show.

A young lady comes over and she, Oh, are you Cedric from the bed and bars?

Yes.

And she said, I'm your stage manager for this stage.

Where's Hawk?

I said, I don't know, but your show is in 15 minutes.

I said, I, I know, but, but, but where, where's Hawk?

I said, I don't know, but you're on stage in 15 minutes.

I said, he'll be here, but he's not here.

I'm like, there's 15 minutes.

That's not a very big thing.

He will be here.

So anyway, we got there and we stood up in the sun on the anvil of God stage and two people sat down in the sun to listen to us.

Right.

You know, and we did the best we could.

Well, our stage manager is always saying, is there anything else you need?

Anything else you need?

So I figured out the first weekend, what I had to do was say, Oh, I forgot to get water.

And that way she'd disappear for most of the show.

But at the end of that first week, I said, you know, what we really need is some shade over the audience.

A shade.

I got you.

You'll have shade.

All right.

So we get there the next week.

There is.

There is an easy up on the stage, not over the seating for the on the stage.

The first guy gets up.

He's like, Oh my gosh, I love this.

I don't have to stand in the sun.

And he plays to two people.

We get over there and I grab two patrons and Hawk and I each grab a corner and we move the easy up over the hay bales.

And we stand in the sun and play to a full crowd.

The easy up and the other performance like, Oh, yes.

So we actually with newer festivals.

Lay it out in the contract that, uh, our audience will be shaded and seated if they are not, we will charge more and we write, it'll be a hundred dollars more per weekend if our audience does not have shade, it'll be another hundred dollars more if they do not have a place to sit.

Nice.

And you know, if that's what you have to do, you have to do it to get.

Yeah.

I say they, there's a threat of rain today.

I'm like, you know, I left the, the three stag stage and now I'm regretting it a little bit.

Well, okay.

Now here, here's the fun thing.

All right.

On a beautiful sunny day, having the stage that's inside that people have to find with the cover and all that is a disadvantage.

Yeah.

On a day like this where it's just overcast, you know, and if we get a downpour, all the shows will be moved in there and we are now at a disadvantage.

So it's like we get screwed either way.

Yeah.

But now you shouldn't have invited me to complain.

Are those looking for complaints?

Well, you're telling me.

The challenge is we're just so good looking that women keep trying to go home with us at the end of the show.

And I mean, I can only satisfy so many in one night.

I know.

That's a terrible challenge.

Now, one of the things that I look at your, I've always admired about you, number one, your storytelling.

Aside from the music, of course.

But is number one, the storytelling and number one, you are also a hypnotist.

It was two number ones.

I like that.

I am so number one that there's no number two.

There's no number two, actually.

Is your ability to sell, to get people to tip, to get people to buy stuff, which is a challenge, you know, for most musicians.

How?

How does this come about?

How does this happen?

Well, I mean, you mentioned that I'm both a hypnotist and a storyteller, which is actually redundant.

See, that's the reason I just listen.

Yeah, that's both number one.

I do that.

Yeah, and actually, yeah, I mean, and now a lot of people don't connect those.

But actually, in the early 20th century, the most prominent hypnotist of the 20th century, at least to hypnotists, was a man named Milton Erickson,

who figured out that he didn't have to sit there and wave a pocket watch and do all the standard stuff.

He could basically tell people stories and affect them hypnotically.

Because hypnosis is really the art of getting a real result from an imaginary event.

Hmm.

Which you don't.

You do.

When you get up on stage and you start telling them a ridiculous story, even in a song, and people start laughing, they're laughing about something imaginary.

When you do a sad song and people cry, they're getting a real result from an imaginary event.

It's not really happening in front of them, but they're still feeling that emotion.

So that ability to capture and lead the imagination.

Also, selling is about getting commitment, as hypnosis is.

In fact, one of my hypnosis instructors.

Told the entire class, go buy business clothes for dummies.

Which is by Tom Hopkins, if I remember.

Business Closes?

Or Sales Closes.

Sales Closes.

Sales Closes for Dummies.

Okay.

And I think that's by, if I remember right, the name is Tom Hopkins, who was a big sales guru.

Uh-huh.

And, because yeah, if somebody comes to me to quit smoking, I'm really selling them on being a non-smoker the whole time.

And there's a lot of, you know, there's techniques.

There's something called the Yes Set.

Where you get people to say yes.

And you get people to do little things, and then you lead them to something more.

So, all through our show, actually before people get to the show, I take them through a Yes Set.

Hey, do you love music?

Do you like to laugh?

Do you like music that makes you laugh?

Do you like jokes?

Do you like dirty jokes?

When you hear dirty jokes, will you laugh really loud?

Will you laugh really long?

Will you tip really well?

Right?

And I'm getting them to shout yes, after each and every one of those questions.

And the last one, some of them will just shout yes to the yes, we'll tip.

And others go, yeah, well, why?

What?

And I say, we'll work on the last one.

But I've already planted that seed, hypnotically, that they're going to tip us when they get to the show.

So, we get them to the show.

We get them clapping.

We get them singing along, doing all these things.

So, they're kind of used to doing what I tell them to do.

And at the end, I say, all right, now, here's the part for the ultimate audience participation.

Reach into your wallets and purses.

Pull out your money and hold it aloft so that all may know you're a patron of the arts.

And then Hawk says, or that you like us.

And we will circulate amongst you to collect it in our hats.

Ladies, feel free to honor the internet.

We'll see you next time.

And Hawk will say, we didn't start this tradition.

I'll say, but we're not going to discourage it.

Pull it out.

Stick it in.

Last chance to tip the bedlam bars.

Last chance before we ask you again.

So, we've got compliance going.

And then we have a big request.

Put the money somewhere on you.

Well, all right.

Some people aren't comfortable with that, but they'll step back to just giving us the money, which is ultimately what we want.

Right.

I mean, yeah, it's fun to dive into about it.

This is, well, yeah, of course.

But ultimately, I just want their money.

So, I'm looking at the time, and I have a show in about nine minutes.

So, you know, if it's okay with you, I'd like to talk some more.

Yeah.

But maybe next weekend or something we'll get together and talk a little bit about the Harmony Hypnosis, which is your other company.

And some of the other stuff we were talking about earlier today.

Sure.

Laughter yoga.

Yeah.

In the meantime.

Where can, now that we have a good look at Bedlam Bards and history and such, where can we find Bedlam Bards?

Well, bedlambards.com.

Whoa.

It's very easy.

Yeah.

Or if you've got a CD baby, you can search Bedlam Bards.

You can actually spell that other than robinoggyandbards.com.

That's, yeah, it is.

Yeah.

Well, we spell it B-E-D-B-E-D-L-A-M-B-L-A-M-B, right?

And A-R-D-S, which is apparently someplace in Ireland.

Right?

That's what I'm told.

So, yeah, Bedlam Bards.

Thanks so much.

Once again, as always, I love talking to you.

Well, thank you.

It was awesome.

So, you take it easy.

All right.

Take care.

Well, fisherman, fisherman, I thought you'd look to see.

Now, do you have a crayfish at you?

Sell to me by the wayside, I diddly-died, oh

Yes, sir, yes, sir, now that need I do

I've got a little great fish I'd gladly sell to you

By the wayside, I diddly-died, oh

So I took him home and I thought he'd like to swim

So I filled up the chamber pot and I threw the bugger in

By the wayside, I diddly-died, oh

Oh

The lady said,

Last night I'm sure I thought I'd have a fit

But my dear wife got up to take

Wash her face!

By the wayside, I diddly-died, oh

Now has been, now has been

She cried out to me

The devil's in the chamber pot

He's got a hold of me

By the wayside, I diddly-died, oh

Oh, children, oh children, grab the looking glass

Come and see the crayfish that bit your mother's face

By the wayside, I diddly-died, oh

Oh, children, oh children, did you hear the grunt?

Come and see the crayfish that bit your mother's nose

By the wayside, I diddly-died, oh

Liddy Lime

Now that's all there is

And there isn't any more

I've an apple in me pocket

And you can have the core

By the wayside

I'm Liddy Lime

That was The Crayfish by Bedlam Bards.

It's from their album Take Out the Trash

that has Hawk the Balladeer

singing on that track.

Next up though, we're doing a Laughter is the Best Medicine

interview that I did with Cedric

a few years after that.

In that interview

Cedric is a certified hypnotist

and he has some really funny

advice on laughing

and including things about

laughing yoga. It's just really awesome.

Go check it out. But first, listen to this interview.

Potentially the

female

I can't tell if she's too young

Yeah, I think she looks too young

She's got a slightly youthful

look on her face, plus that

teenage disgruntled pout. Yeah, yeah.

So that's

yeah

Yeah

, see it's all about selecting

the right group of people

Now you look like

fun-loving people. Are you fun-loving people?

We are. We like fun. What kind of fun?

Oh, see, well, the best kind of fun

but now, see I have a secret

I can entrust only to truly fun-loving people

and I was ready to just tell you

based on just the overall look

it's sort of a profiling thing

but now you've cast aspersions

I'm going to have to give you the security test

Make sure that you are fun-loving enough

because we cannot let the secret fall into the hands

of the boring. If that happens, the Saracens

win. Hey, they laughed

at the Saracen joke

Alright, so, but I'll tell you what

I'll make it easy for you. I will give you the answer

before we start. Oh, I wish they'd done that in school

You know, if they

had done that for me, I would have finished the 5th grade

Worst three years of my life

Alright, so gathering close

gathering close, especially you ladies

right here in the middle, gathering real close. Alright, thank you

Now, the answer to every question

on a fun-loving person's security

test is always going

Yes! Can you answer

that way? Yes!

No, no, no, enthusiastically, like I said

Yeah, like that. Can you

answer that way? Yes! Very good

Pretend you've had beer. Alright

Yeah, so, first question is

Do you indeed, as I suspected when I first saw you, truly

love fun? Yes! You like to laugh?

Yes! You like music? Yes!

You like music that makes you laugh? Yes!

You like jokes? Yes! You like dirty jokes?

Yes! Alright, my people

If you hear dirty jokes, will you laugh loud?

Yes! Will you laugh long? Yes!

Will you trip well? Yes! Alright, yeah

We'll keep working on it with you

So, the secret

is that the Bedlambards in active

balladry with violins will sing dirty, naughty

songs today. Songs about

things that she is still trying to get you to do

in the bedroom

I don't mean dishes

and laundry

Yeah, that one thing, we

sing about it

Bondage, discipline, sex with chickens

Yeah, it is

Yes!

Yes! Alright, yes

That joke was foul

Yes!

Yes, yeah, alright

So, this is a front row pass

to the shows your mother warned you about

They will happen at the Three Stags Pub

which if you look through the forest, you won't really see

because there's stuff in the way, but it's right over there

If you look as far as you can, you'll see that

tan building with the dark archways

You have no idea the power of the dark

archways, but in there

is where the infamous 1230 Dirty and the

330 Dirty happen every day

Guess when they are?

1230 and 330

Very good!

Yeah, we used to do the 330 at 245

I got the 30

Nobody made it

We used to only do one dirty show a day

but you know why we do two dirty shows a day now?

We found out women like to come more than once

Oh!

Don't look so surprised, sir

It's true, yeah, she's

So, this is a front row pass

With this, you and your friends may sit in the front row

as long as you get there when there's showroom in the front row

So, get there early to get a seat

Not a good seat to get any seat

Get a beer, make sure you're fortified

It's a 45-minute show, which means

we last much longer than most men

I used to say twice as long as most men

and women were like, so it's a 10-minute show?

What?

2-minute show, alright

There we go

I'm sorry

I am so sorry about that, you know

Have you tried thinking about baseball?

I was talking with musicians earlier

and we were talking about, you know, having music

when you're, you know, in flagrante, delecto

Yeah

And one of the musicians

I'm not going to reveal who it was

but it was Vince Conaway

said, you know, the problem with that is I get distracted

listening to the music

That's a musician

One of the others said, you know, I've got this amazing playlist

with all the right rhythms

I'm like, yeah, you know, at my age, really, I just need a ringtone

Hello!

So, anyway, this is a front row pass

I want to give it to the one who clearly stands out

as the leader, the one who's...

I'm excellent

at spotting leadership qualities

So, the one who really I can count on to get everybody there

Yeah

Alright

12.30 and 3.30

Totally different songs at each show

Yeah, yeah

We know more than half an hour of dirty songs

We're like professionals

Yeah, cool, awesome, thank you, sir

Thank you

What is your name, lady?

My name is Vanessa

Vanessa, that's correct

Vanessa, you have such a beautiful smile

But I beg you, smile not too much at night

lest the birds begin their singing

and enhance their labors

each thinking your smile is the dawn

I will try not to

You don't get your hand kissed often, do you?

No, what am I supposed to do?

Well, here's the thing

See, a hand kiss, it's not about the hand

and it's not about the lips

It's the eye contact

I should have known

There you go

Now you do that

I kissed my own hand

Alright, very well then

Before we part ways

I wish to give you the Bedlam Bards guarantee

If you come to the show

and you do not laugh so hard

that you pee in your pants

we will pee in your pants for you

Deal, I'm going to hold you

Don't hold me while I do that, please

And that is

Sergic the Fiddler of the Bedlam Bards

rocking it

Let me grab some more

water before we talk

I don't know about you

but I'm busting up laughing

So I am

This is Mark Gunn

the Celtfather

Last week

we had an awesome interview

with Cedric

Hopefully you got to listen to it

If you did, I'll have a link in the show notes

It was just totally awesome

He was talking about music, life

and all the good stuff

that came to be who he is

and doing what he is

But one of the things that we did not touch on

was, well, that

That's for sure

And also

He's also a licensed

Not licensed, certified

I don't know how that works

He's a certified hypnotist

And he has a company called Harmony Hypnosis

And we're going to

talk about some of that

And I did want to

before we get straight into the

talk about the Harmony Hypnosis

I wanted to find out about

other tips and suggestions

that things that you

do

like that

They're just so amazing

To market and promote yourself

at fairs and such

I noticed you have little cards

with your show times

I do, yeah, show cards

When did you start doing that?

We started doing that

at the Oklahoma Fair

20 years ago

We had our show

at the Black Boar Pub

And anybody who's been to OKRF

knows that you have to go into the Great Big Castle

go all the way to the back of the Great Hall

and go in through this little tiny door

that nobody even notices

into this awesome, modern pub

And that's where

we were doing our dirty show

And so if we didn't

tell people about it

nobody was going to make it there

And actually

to be honest, there were times when I would notice

hot chicks at the fair

And I'd think, wow, I really want them to come to our show

And so I would

I would go up

and invite them specifically

And I thought, wow, you know

And so for a while I would have them shout the show times back to me

You know, which kind of worked

It made them say it

And you know, when you say something you're going to remember it more

But I started printing up show cards

with the times

and the location and all of that

Awesome

It makes it a lot easier to invite people

Yeah, yeah

And I always tell them it's a front row pass

Because you want people to sit in the front row

That's true, I like that too

I didn't think about that, but that's very awesome

You know, they say you can't do comedy across a gap

And

We used to have this problem at King Richard's Fair

We had a pretty nice

big venue, relatively big for what we do

And people would want to sit in the back

like it was church

So what we started doing is

Hawk would start in on a joke or a story

or a song or something

And I would go up to people near the back

And I'd look and say, oh, party of five, we have your room right here up at the front

Come with me

And I would just sit there like a maitre d' and reseat them near the front

And that totally works

Until the first person

says no

Once one person has said no, you're shot

You have no more authority, you can't get anybody

Did you ever try starting the show

from the back side of the church

of the church

A lot of things in the back row of a church

You let them all sit down in the back and then you go

Now we start our show back here

You know, we haven't ever tried that

That's a really good one

Yeah, I've occasionally been tempted

You know, when you get the people who sit down with their back

to the stage so they can eat

It's like, seriously?

I mean, there's picnic tables here

What do you do about that?

Do you ever call them on it?

Yeah, but it doesn't do a lot of good

Now over at the Three Stags

where we do our dirty show

I actually make an announcement at the beginning

that the Alamo Drafthouse rules apply

And people who live in Texas

know the Alamo Drafthouse

and they know they are incredibly strict

about talking during the show and all that

So I tell them all, seats face toward the front

If you're here to have a conversation

go outside

If you're here to have a beer, be sure to tip the waitstaff

Get some food before the show

because it's a little bit longer than most

Yes, we're longer than most

And then I deputize them all as ushers

I say if someone is speaking next to you

and having a prolonged conversation

and it's disrupting

then you are hereby deputized

to turn to them and say, ush, ush

because you're an usher

Or, I hope you can say this on a podcast

but it's the adult pub

Or you can turn to them, smile very politely

and say, could you either shut up or get out?

So that helps to discourage that

But yeah, the sitting down with your back

It just, yeah

Last weekend I had someone

I just wasn't in the mood for it

So I was like

You can either, you know

turn around or leave

And I mean, I totally get

That also threw off my rhythm a little bit

because I'm like, ahh

I hate doing that

Yeah, it's so tough

because it's not good

We used to have a lovely lady

that we referred to as our bouncer

and she would of course jump up and down

at some point to bounce

It was very entertaining

But she was very tough as Neil's redhead

Yeah

So she didn't take anything

So yeah, when we would be doing a show

and there would be a group of people talking

she'd just walk over to them and pretty much say

what I just said a minute ago, very politely

but tell them, you gotta

either shut up or get out of here

Now she has a booth

Dammit, I hate it when people get respectable

I know, I know, I know

Any other tips that you

would suggest for

you know, putting

promoting shows or

promoting your music in general?

Well you know, I mean

everything about marketing that I know

I learned from you

That's not true

Now sales is a slightly different thing

Well I'm thinking about, okay last weekend

you told me a little bit about

this great idea about having

two tip baskets

on our stage

and yesterday we did our

and we've never made so much tips

in our entire career

It is weird

How could I not do that anymore?

Yeah, yeah

Yeah

Wow, I don't know

We have kind of worked out in certain songs

when we do

verses that aren't on the recording

so we'll actually do a thing right in the middle of the show

talking about how, hey

this isn't on the recording but you can get that recording

at the end of the show

so we kind of get to plant the seed

a little bit earlier

So gosh, there's that one

Let's go on to

Harmony Hypnosis, when did you

first get into hypnosis

and how did

that come about?

Well that's a funny question

My mother used hypnosis to control the pain of childbirth

Oh really? Interesting

Yeah, which

and it's a really great story

it gives me a lot of bragging rights

it really didn't get me into hypnosis

except that I heard the story many times when I was a child

so when I saw hypnosis in cartoons

I knew that wasn't what it really was

It is, you just stared deep into my eyes

Right, yeah

Yes, it works like that

the eyes are now spinning in a spiral

but no, I knew it was something

real and something that actually worked

and so

man, it's

that question

there's always so many different things

because I studied

literature and I started figuring

out things about how

the stories you tell yourself

change who you are

and I wrestled a lot with depression

and low self esteem when I was in high school

and college

and I eventually

had to start figuring out

how to change my thoughts

and that kind of led me over to

getting really interested in hypnosis

and how that works

but it was really

like 2006

I guess, around 2006

that I got really interested in it

I said this is something I really want to pursue

I went and got formal training

and I've never stopped learning about it since

Yeah

in 2008

and then relocated it in 2011

when my first office burned down

What?

How do you fix that with hypnosis?

Well, I mean a lot of the things I learned

did apply

you know, they did apply

because I reframed

I gave a new meaning to what had just happened

you know, all the stuff I lost I realized

was tuition for things I learned

I learned I didn't have to have all the stuff

around me

that everything that really mattered to the business

was there inside my head

and then the other amazing thing

was when the word got out

because I mean other hypnotists

around the world

we all get together online

and we know each other

and of course the news of a big fire

in Bastrop got out

and people said hey, doesn't James

that's what they call me

live over there in Bastrop

and so people asked and I said yeah

my office just burned down

and before I knew it

I set up a crowdfunding page

and hypnotists

from all around the world

came together to contribute money

and also they knew that my

books had all burned up

and so they would go through their libraries

and if anybody had an extra copy of something

they would send it to me

authors sent me their books

some people contacted authors

and so instead of having had one book

I now had three of their books that were autographed

and a DVD

and a really great library I rebuilt

where is your office

now it's in Austin

it's at the intersection of Lamar

and 183

north Lamar and 183

fantastic

it's a sweet little place

actually I didn't hear that your office had burned down

yeah the old one

that went back in 2011

so you set up

practice in 2011

no you set it up in 2008

right yeah initially

and what kind of stuff

is your focus

I know you've gone through

looking trying to find your niche

yeah and really when I

relocated to Austin

I decided to

to focus on

smoking cessation

as my main niche

and so about half the people that I see

are quitting smoking

but I also probably

what I love doing most is helping people

with stage fright and fear of public speaking

because I mean I was a really shy kid

you can tell

totally

and so I love helping people

get over that

because I know how exciting it is

when you actually get out and perform

and beyond that

all kinds of different fears

I've helped several people with fear of flying

fear of spiders

actually all the fear of spiders clients I've had

are people who work at fair

because most people don't have to deal with spiders

all that much but you come out to the forest

and there are spiders everywhere

how do you do spiders?

I mean it's all the same stuff

right yeah I mean it's pretty much the same thing

we basically

cut and paste the confidence

or comfort you have in one area of life

onto a new area of life

so your automatic

reaction to spiders is no longer

it's more like

interesting

it's really fun

I've had people who

had issues with gagging

and yeah

I mean one guy couldn't brush his teeth

because he would

gag uncontrollably

any time he tried to brush his teeth

and I had another lady she had to get dentures

and she had terrible gagging issues

she couldn't even use a full size fork

before we met and she said it was like a miracle

yeah

so those are really fun

I've also helped a lot of people get over nasty breakups

and that's always a really

rewarding one

well that's

interesting

I've hypnotized a lot of belly dancers

I've actually done workshops

specifically for belly dancers

and what about?

well the thing is a lot of women get into belly dancing

because it's really fun

it's great exercise

and there's a sort of camaraderie

you have a group you get together with every week

and you do these dances

and then after about a year

they're told well it's time to perform

and you need to wear something kind of like this

and they go oh my god how am I going to get up in front of a bunch of people

and perform

so they get stage fright

and even once you push through that

still often times

the beautiful thing is beyond

stage fright there's really stage enhancement

that we can do for people

helping them to be more charismatic more outgoing

on stage

and then there are little habits

like the coat rack arms

and I

actually sat down with several different belly dance

instructors and interviewed them

on the things they wanted their students to be better at

and

from there created a product

I said ok well these things I can help with

these things I can't

and so I created a recorded product

and a workshop where I would

teach them how to go into a self hypnotic state

teach them how to rehearse mentally

when there wasn't enough space to rehearse physically

right

wow

so a lot of this is about

conquering fear

have you encountered

a lot of fear outside

in your own life

that has helped that

I mean you say

when you were a child

like I said I was a painfully shy child

and I was afraid of a lot of things

and I lived in fear for a long time

I lived in doubt for an awfully long time

and

yeah so I mean

I really think learning to overcome all these

things is part of why I have such a passion

for helping people do that

very cool

now one of the things you were talking about last week

and I've been anxious to hear more about it

is the laughter yoga

yeah

so what exactly

when did it start

what is this and how did it grow

sure yeah well

it started 21 years ago

1995

in a park in Mumbai

India

1985 you mean

1995

no that's 21 years ago

oh jeez yeah

I know I know

yes

I have the same problem

yeah I'm like wait how many years

no I can't be nearly 50 that can't be right

21 years ago

in Mumbai you said

yes

and there was a medical doctor there

named Dr. Madan Kataria

and he had

encountered the idea that laughter

was the best medicine

and he said well I want to put this to the test

so he and his wife

who was a yoga instructor

got a bunch of people together in the park

and they did a little bit of deep breathing

and then they told a bunch of jokes

and people laughed for about an hour

and went away

they did this everyday for about 5 days

and by then they started

running out of good jokes

and in fact they started

turning towards some not very nice jokes

and things started getting mean spirited

people were getting offended

and uncomfortable and you know

and a lot of people who were doing it

said to Dr. Kataria you got to stop

this is off the rails it's not good

and he said give me one more day

I have an idea of how to do this

so he went in the next day

and instead of telling jokes

he said let's just laugh

let's make laughing noises

and trick our brains into thinking

that we're amused

and so from there

taking kind of the cue from his wife

the yoga instructor

so you start off with some deep breathing

and then you go into

some laughter exercises

and they usually use

a little imagination

they're kind of silly

if you've ever been to an improv class

it's very similar to an improv class

at that point so for instance

you might stand in a circle and throw a ball around

and when you catch the ball you laugh

and everybody mimics that laugh that you just did

so

it's all based on the premise

that your brain doesn't know the difference

between conditional laughter

that's when you laugh at something funny

or unconditional laughter

when you just laugh because it feels good

to laugh

and the fact is your brain either way

is going to release endorphins

the moment that you smile

when you laugh it's going to release serotonin

which is your natural antidepressant

dopamine which is your natural painkiller

and oxytocin which is the love drug

and it's the one you get

when you are engaged in hugging

or any kind of bonding exercise

our children feel it

our dogs get a burst of oxytocin

I even heard a study that

when people hear the text notification

they get a little burst of oxytocin

you love your phone as much as your dog loves you

it's sad

nobody's tested cats

I think my cat gets oxytocin

when she's loving on me

but

so yeah

we do these exercises

you make a lot of eye contact with other people

and it's interesting because some of these are total strangers

but you do feel more bonded to them

by the end because you've been laughing

and making eye contact

and the other cool thing about it

and this is what excited me as a hypnotist

is that

we play certain games

that are related to unpleasant

aspects of life

and you laugh during it

so there's like what they call bill laughter

where you pretend to open up your bills

and look at the amount

and you sort of laugh and cry at the same time

like ahhhhhhh

and you point it out to your friends

and they look at it and then they show you theirs

and you commiserate

or we play

red light green light

where you start up your pseudo car

and run around the room until

the leader shouts red light

and then you stop

and just laugh uproariously

until the leader shouts green light

and then you zip around the room

and when we first did this I said

oh my god this is hypnosis

this is restructuring your reactions

so that instead of going

red light I hate the world

you go red light

yeah that's brilliant

it's really cool

I was just thinking about the driving

the traffic the other day

it was horrible

I can just imagine how that would make a big difference

it does

when you start laughing

there's a car in front of me

exactly and that's the cool thing

in fact I'm working on a book right now

called Laughnosis

and I've applied this with my clients

getting them to use

unconditional laughter

to change their reactions

it's going to be very cool

a good friend of mine

the guy who actually got me into all this

this guy named Dave Berman

and he has a Facebook group

called Daily Laughers

and every day this year

starting on January 1st

he's posting a 10 minutes or less

laughter video

and many of us

have a link to that too

yeah totally

it is really cool

so he's promoting this idea of laughing daily

even just for a few minutes

it totally changes your mood

it changes how you feel about everything

so check that out

he's doing Skype with laughers from all around the world

so they're sharing the different

laughter exercises

so they're totally not anonymous

yes look at me I laugh

so it's very cool

it's a movement

and Dr. Kataria's vision is

world peace through laughter

and I don't know if they'll ever really get that

but it's a nice idea

so there are

laughter clubs by the way all over the place

and you have some here in Austin as well

yeah well there's an

Austin laughter club meet up

is that one you do on Friday

yeah well the one I go to

usually is the one on Friday nights

at the Unity Church of the Hills

but

at the meet up there's actually

several different laughter clubs

in different parts of town

and different times of the week

that cracks me up

oh it should

it's just oh my gosh it's so much fun

and you just let yourself go

and have a good time

and at the end we do what's called

laughter meditation

where you just lie down or sit in a circle

or whatever and just laugh

and there's no game or anything

and at that point the laughter is laughing you

and it's this amazing thing

I don't know if this is a typical

laughter yoga experience

but this is what happened for me

I was actually leading a class

I'm a substitute leader for the one on Friday nights

and we're all lying there on our backs

laughing and you can kind of feel it

through the floor which is a neat part

and there's this one guy

and he's this big tall guy

and he's like a

what is it

he's not a bounty hunter

that's not quite the term

but you know the dude who serves papers and all that

he's a big tough guy

and he just laughs like you wouldn't believe

so he's just laughing like crazy

and I'm hearing his laugh

and it's making me laugh

just to hear his laugh

and I thought man I love his laugh

and then I thought I love him

and then I thought I love everyone in this room

and I know it's the oxytocin speaking

but I'm like wow it's so cool

and so then we left

and we do a little grounding meditation

to where it's silent

or actually kind of a guided meditation

I'm a hypnotist

and it's pretty much the same thing

and so then afterwards

I left and I needed to get a bite to eat

so I went to get a bite to eat

and I was alone in the restaurant

I mean nobody at my table

there's a bunch of other people

and I hear somebody laugh at another table

and I started laughing with them

because I heard them laughing

and I'm like oh wow

and I'm just kind of keeping it quiet

but I'm laughing there alone

in the restaurant

and I'm sure my pupils must have been huge

I'm like I love everyone

and I swear there were no

external chemicals involved

this was all internal oxytocin

so then I got in my car

and I started thinking about laughter exercises

and I started laughing

and I drove for like a good 10-20 minutes

laughing like crazy

and I actually was thinking to myself

am I safe to drive

and I was just laughing

my body was laughing and I'm like

I don't know well alright

well let's stay alert

I'll let my body laugh and I'm going to stay alert

and then I thought you know

I probably drive better when I'm laughing anyway

but I realized I was stoned

I was stoned on oxytocin

and it was just a

glorious experience

I'm sorry uh

I hate to pull you over

but you're driving crazy

officer I can't help it

I'm cracking up

I want to see that

there's one for Saturday Night Live

might actually be funny

that would be funny

people would laugh at it

but now that ability to laugh

because I mean yeah

I love humor I love making people laugh

and I'm all down with that

but there's something about being able

to laugh just because

it feels good you know

people take all kinds of pills and medications

and smoke all kinds of things to try to change

how they feel and I'm like you know your actions

do the same thing yeah wow

pretty cool

that's a really cool way to

start wrapping this up

let me find out a little bit more

so you are here in Austin

people want to find you you have a website right

yes my hypnosis website is easy to find

it's hypnosisaustin.com

hypnosisaustin.com

nice and simple

how would you hypnotize someone into remembering

hypnosisaustin.com

yeah well that's a good question

actually if you're a visual kind of person

who pictures things just picture it written

right there

hypnosisaustin.com

h-y-p-n-o-s-i-s

a-u-s-t-i-n

dot c-o-m

dot com

yeah now if you're a really physical kind of person

you could actually just imagine there's a keyboard in front of you

and imagine typing it out right now

if you're an auditory person you could just say it to yourself

hypnosisaustin

and just visualize yourself

right now imagine how great you feel

having gone to hypnosisaustin.com

and gotten those wonderful results

no longer afraid to give speeches

or to talk at a meeting at work

no longer terrified by spiders

no longer chasing cars uncontrollably

when you see them running out barking at them

like that crazily

and laughing the whole time

awesome

yes I feel pretty good about that

I feel really good about hypnosisaustin.com

hypnosisaustin.com

and if you can't remember it just search for hypnosis

where you are in Austin

and you'll find me

you should talk about this in another one at some point

but the other thing I'm going to be doing in the next year

is creating a hypnotic storytelling

class online

oh gosh

it's going to be fun

time wise you're not going to let me do that

that's ok because you have a book

do you have any idea when you want to finish this book

I do

sometime soon

in the meantime you can see Cedric

at the Sherwood Forest Fair

for the next what

five weekends after this one

and it's a great show

best fair ever

it's just one of the best fairs ever

so awesome

alright we're going to finish up

if you enjoy this podcast of course

go subscribe at kelpfather.com

and you can always check out

Bedlumbards at bedlumbards.com

and that's about it

I will talk to you later

go like this thing on iTunes as well

talk to you later

thanks Mark

let me tell you

a story that happened to me

one day while I was down

at yore by the sea

sun it was bright and the day

it was warm

says I a quiet pint

well it didn't do me no harm

well I went in and asked for a bottle of stout

said the barkeep to me

oh the beer is sold out

try whiskey try party if you know it

says I a try cider

I heard that it's good

oh never oh never

oh never again

a hundred or a hundred and ten

fell to the ground

and I couldn't get up

had a drinking a quart of that Johnny Jump up

well after leaving the dirt

I went back to the yard

where I bumped into Brophy

the big civic guard

come here to me

why don't you know I'm the lord

so I up with me fist and I shattered his jaw

he fell to the ground with his knees doubled up

but it wasn't

I didn't hit him

it was a Johnny Jump up

next thing I saw down in yore by the sea

was a cripple on crutches

and he said to me

I'm a beard for me life

I'll be hit by a cart

won't you help me on over

to the longshoreman's bar

after drinking a quart of that cider

so sweet

he threw down his crutches

and he danced in the street

singing never oh never oh never again

for a hundred and ten

fell to the ground

and I couldn't get up

had a drinking a quart of that Johnny Jump up

well I went back to bed

with my friend for to see

well they call it the madhouse

near court cannery

by the time I got there

the truth I didn't tell

they had that poor booger locked up in the cell

now the jailer he said

say these words if you can

the ragged rocks the ragged rascal

ran now tell him I'm not crazy

tell him I'm not mad

the loneliest sip

of the cider I had

oh never oh never oh never again

if I lived

it'd be a hundred for a hundred and ten

fell to the ground

and I couldn't get up

had a drinking a quart of that

Johnny Jump up

well a man died in a union

by the name of McCrack

and they washed him and they laid him

outside on his back

and after O'Connor his measurements did take

his wife took him home

for a bloody fine wake

about twelve o'clock

and the beer was high

when the court seat sets up

and he says with a sigh

I can't get to heaven

he won't let me up

till I bring him a quart of that Johnny Jump up

oh never oh never

oh never again

if I lived it'd be a hundred

and ten

fell to the ground and I couldn't

get up had a drinking a quart

of that Johnny Jump up

that was The Bedlam Bards

with Johnny Jump Up from their album Furious

Fancies alright well that concludes

the five part

series on Soul of a

Harper my very first solo CD I hope

you enjoyed this series did you

like it let me know send an email to

follow at kiltfathernet.net

you let me know if you want to hear more series

like this and I might be able to do

other albums this way

or maybe not maybe you know

just do it going forward I don't have to

necessarily go revisit all these songs

do I I don't know you let me know

or is there an album that you'd like to hear

let me know another thing

that you can fill me in

on hopefully

I will be back as of recording

in May I don't have

a next series

planned so

we're gonna just hold off while I try to

figure out what I'm doing next in the

meantime thank you so much for listening

and have a wonderful

time I'll probably next up or it's gonna be

a live show another

concert so stay tuned for that

I'll talk to you soon Sláinte

Thank you for listening to

Pub Songs and Stories this episode was

edited by Mitchell Peterson you can follow

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