336. The Untalent Show

A few months ago on our Terrible, Thanks For Asking Patreon we hosted an Untalent Show! We invited listeners to share their mediocre art, baking projects and musical performances. Today we share a short part of that episode with you all.

Watch the full Untalent Show for free on our Patreon if you join as a free member!

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.

Nora: I’m Nora McInerny and this is It’s Going to be OK.  A few weeks ago on our Terrible Thanks for Asking Patreon, we hosted an untalent show. It was a celebration of effort,  not outcome. It was a place for people to come show off the things that they are just trying for the heck of it, for the fun of it, for the thrill of learning something new and putting themselves out there.

It was so much fun and it was so inspiring to see  so many people  who are out there,  um, and it was so inspiring to see how many people are out there just trying things. Trying things that they might not yet be good at.  And so I wanted to share a few of these untalents with you here today. We actually broke the show up into a few different categories because, you know, some people are good at arts and crafts, some people are doing sports stuff.

There were a few music submissions that, uh, and of course, one was the performing arts. And this, what you are about to hear,  is one of my favorite submissions from the Performing Arts category.

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Nora: Back to the performing arts.  Uh, I picked up a saxophone again for the first time in over 20 years in pursuit of healing two very different wounds. The first is a more immediate pain, Spawned from a breakup that left me living alone and single again at the age of 35.

That might sound dramatic, but then you’ve probably never had to work the Saturday baby birthday party circuit as the only unmarried and childless attendee.  Yeah, I can feel that. The second is an older wound, mostly scarred over, but it was the reason I quit the saxophone in the first place. I had a band teacher who squashed my spirit to a paste.

I was an admittedly talkative student, but once he set his sights on me, the enjoyment of belonging to the school band was over. He singled me out regularly for a public reprimanding. I dreaded every session with him. It’s only been a few weeks back in the saddle, and I’m still getting reacquainted with everything from finger placements to reading music, but as you’ll see in the  It gives me an inexplicable sense of joy just to play.

The perfectionist in me somehow loosens its typically white knuckle grip on my brain. And when I inevitably honk my way through the music, it’s basically impossible to keep from laughing into my mouthpiece. So the next time you think you can’t do something, know that At 5 p. m. every day, I retreat to my little bedroom, crank the A. C. because I sweat profusely when I play, of course, stuff a dish towel down the horn to dampen the sound for my neighbors, and I play the sax poorly. Scales honk. Good King Wenceslas.

Honk. First of all, Good King Wenceslas. When we do Happy ish Holidays next year, I’m making everyone sing that song. It’s the funniest song to me and for some reason it is stuck in my head regularly all throughout the year. I will just burst into song and be singing Good King Wenceslas. My kids are like,  straight to the asylum for this one.

The lady you’re scaring us. Yeah, the lady you’re scaring us. Greensleeves honk, and I’m gonna keep on honking and laughing, and Mr. Scanlon can’t say boo about it. That’s right. and I’m gonna keep on honking and laughing, and Mr. Scanlon

can’t say boo about it. BUS! Yes! Yes! Yes! Keep going. That was great! That was  super. Super dope. That was so great. Also I like that she’s like bopping along. Yeah, yeah. That’s what you should do. Do, do, do, do. That’s fun. I love that. That’s so fun.

I’m Nora McInerny. It is okay to not be good at something. It is okay to try something. It is okay to just honk your way through.  So go out there and try something today.  And, uh, practice because who knows when we will have another Untalent Show.

It’s Going to be Okay is a daily podcast. We’re here Monday through Friday to put a little okay in your day. We’re an independent show produced by Feelings Co. Our team is Claire McInerny who produced this episode, Marcel Malekebu, Grace Barry, and myself. This episode was mixed by Amanda Romani, and our theme music is by Secret Audio.