It seems like every ten years, I embark upon a new adventure. In 1971, I started my existence as a human, becoming a very rare Sarasota, Florida native. In 1981, I started playing hooky from Ashton Elementary, which caused me to spend my formative years in a fundamentalist Christian school in order to straighten me out. In 1991, I left Stetson University in Deland, Florida to attend Mars Hill College in North Carolina, moving out of state for the first time. In 2001, I set off to hitchhike across the country to find an alternative to consumerist culture. In 2011, I challenged myself to live for a year without money. And now, in 2021, I’ll be motorcycling around the United States performing my new show Steve McAlphabet Explains ABC Squared Economics to celebrate my fiftieth birthday on the West Coast on August 4. Say what you will about me but I know how to celebrate a decade.
I will be debuting the hour-long show at the PlayThink Festival in late June after riding my motorcycle from Sarasota to Kentucky in order to attend the festival. I would love the opportunity to have a few practice performances along the way, as well as some other opportunities to perform it afterward. As you’re reading this, I hope you consider hosting a performance or helping me find someone in your area who would.
The show consists of original poetry and songs, most of which were written in the last year, and the message is basically about realizing our power as spiritual beings living in bodies driven by minds guided by hearts. It’s a show about revolution, evolution, and finding solutions. My intention is for it to make people dance, laugh, feel, and think (not necessarily in that order), and point the way toward using our growing technology to establish a more participatory democracy and an even more perfect union.
I’ve put together a video that features the entire script so that you can hear the music and get a sense of what the show is about. Of course, I’ve also got plenty of other songs and poems to share if you’d like a longer show, and I have recently released a CD of 16 original songs called Be Here Now that are currently only offered at live performances. I can also offer performances of my shows The Cowboy Cabaret, Will Rogers Revived, and Seamus O’Day And The Irish Way if you’re seeking further entertainment (and if you don’t mind if I peek at my scripts). I have a small PA that allows for living room, backyard, and block party performances, but I am always open to playing at larger venues and festivals where better amplification is provided.
As far as compensation is concerned, I generally like to work on a pay-what-you-want basis, but if I’m being paid by the hour, I request 49$ for each of them until August 4th, when it will rise to an even 50$. More importantly, know that any revenue I generate contributes to the Artistry of my life and the Business of sharing my craft while also consciously contributing to my Citizenry and world Community. That’s what ABC Squared Economics is ultimately about, and my hope is that it will guide us toward s a more balanced, enjoyable, resilient, and sustainable future.
I have had an incredible nine months of working on my craft under an artist’s fellowship in Sarasota, Florida. Now that we seem to be coming out of the pandemic, I feel compelled to get out and share what I’ve been working on in order to offer a different perspective on things. Plus, it gets really hot in Sarasota during the summer, and I don’t want to endure it again. If you would be interested in hosting a performance of Steve McAlphabet Explains ABC Squared Economics or know of someone who would, please contact me at stevemc.xyz@gmail.com.
