Mental Floss To The Rescue: Skills You Can Pick Up On YouTube
Hey there!
As I record this video, summer is approaching, and with it, some time to take a break, and maybe pick up a new skill.
Mental Floss, one of my favorite online (and offline) magazines, has got just the ticket for you to learn something awesome. 50 tickets, as a matter of fact. A recent article on MF links to 50 things you can learn by watching free videos on YouTube.
Here are a dozen of what I think might be the most interesting to performers.
Hope this helps!
David
Raw YouTube Captioning
hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
another one add a video for the year of
2019 we’re doing a video every day and I
love Mental Floss I don’t know if you
read Mental Floss if you get their
emails it’s like one of the things that
I look forward to during the day you
know how sometimes you sign up for a
newsletter and you go like maybe you’ve
signed up for this newsletter and you go
but I signed up for Mental Floss a few
years ago and I’ve never failed to be
entertained informed I just love it and
you know used to be a magazine that I
got I stopped getting it after a while
but now that they have the online
version I just really love it and they
just had a an article that really struck
me as something that would be very
useful for all of us we’re always trying
to increase our special skills you know
that part of our resume where we talk
about oh I can ride a horse so I can
play tennis you know you should only put
things on there that you actually can do
by the way but they had an article that
was crazy
50 things you can learn to do on YouTube
and they don’t just give you links to go
get the video at YouTube they actually
embed each one of these videos into the
article and I’ve got the the link either
above or below this I don’t know where
you’ll find it when you wherever you’re
watching this video but it’s called 50
skills you can learn from YouTube or
something I think that’s what the title
is anyway I called the top dozen that I
think would be most effective for you to
take a look at and the first one is how
to speed read you know being able to
take in an entire script or an entire
scene all at once and not have to labor
over the reading of it is something that
can really accelerate your deal flow
when it comes to auditions when it comes
to doing the work and learning how to
speed read especially an entire script
and then go back and look for the scenes
that really you have something to do
with and that sort of thing I think
that’s really cool
how about how to say hello in nearly 50
languages you know when you’re presented
with somebody who’s from another country
and you can say gin nobody Akshay bocher
you can say hello or you can say
bon jour or whatever you you know
whatever languages you speak and by the
way I don’t speak Polish I don’t speak
German and I don’t speak French but I
can say hello in those three languages
and a bunch of others how to tie a tie
now here’s what I would say certainly if
you don’t know how to tie a tie you
should learn how to tie a necktie but if
you are in a role where you’re in a
romantic situation and you’re helping a
man or a woman put a tie on learn how to
tie a tie from the other side learn how
to tie a knot with you wearing it but
with them wearing it right how to be a
better dancer in three steps man I don’t
know how many times I’ve been in
auditions and like hey can you can you
do a little thing where it doesn’t look
like you’re a dancer but you actually
are and you know and occasionally I can
do a quick step or two that would be
cool this one I love how to juggle I
have always wanted to learn how to
juggle so when I’m done with this video
I’m gonna go watch that and see if I can
if I can figure out how to how to make
that happen another thing that is you
know I don’t want you going out and
working birthday parties unless you
really want to but how to make balloon
animals you never know when something
like that could come in very handy
you know perhaps you’re a prisoner and
you you amuse your captors in a way that
is unexpected
by making them a special balloon animal
I don’t know I’m grasping at straws at
this point how to perform a magic trick
that’s always fun I mean when you can
when you can take an item and make it
disappear it always starts a
conversation it’s something that you can
do you know in in the beginning of an
audition in the middle of an audition
I’m talking mostly on camera here but
some of these things are are applicable
to voice work as well here’s one that I
think is not for auditions and skills
but just for your own well-being and
that’s how to meditate I have learned so
many things doing this series of videos
about meditation that I did not know
before I mean I love the book ten
percent happier and I love the the apps
that are available for meditating and
finding out the truth behind meditating
and
what you think meditating is all about
is a really wonderful discovery for more
how to drive a stick how to drive a
manual transmission I know how to drive
a manual transmission I made myself
learn because my grandfather wanted to
give me a car my very first car was an
automatic but he also had a very cool
car that was a manual and he’s like you
can’t drive that and I’m like watch me
and I taught myself how to do it it has
come in handy at least two or three
times in my career when auditioning for
things when I auditioned for and got the
the part on lost I didn’t have to drive
a stick but they asked me if I could and
I said yeah and and the and the writer
was kind of funny he was like really
what’s the first thing you do and I said
the first thing you do is put in you
know push the clutch and put it in first
and then slowly ease out so you can
engage the gears and he goes this guy
knows how to do you go you go she knows
how to drive a stick no problem
how to moonwalk you know being able to
do that just in the middle of something
you know as an ad-lib is kind of cool I
wonder how long that will be effective
you know there’s so many other moves
like that that thing where you do the
arm thing I can’t even do it because my
shoulder is killing me that final – how
to play pool I am amazed at how many
scenes there are where you are asked to
shoot billiards and play pool and then
finally how to beatbox this is something
that has eluded me because I my
breathing is not right for it for some
reason I’d like to go watch that video
as well so I linked to the article as I
said it’s either below or above the
video and all of the videos are embedded
on that page on Mental Floss so awesome
hey what by the way what is your super
awesome special skill that nobody does I
have said this before when I’ve done
these videos my skill is a Fritz Feld
impressionists I can do Fritz Feld like
crazy follow me that’s that’s Fritz Feld
and if you don’t know if or it’s felt is
it was an awesome awesome impression of
fritz felt but what’s yours what’s your
special skill I’d love to know leave me
a comment below tell me what it’s all
about if you want to
subscribe to my channel go ahead and
click on my head there it’ll take you to
the subscription or find a subscribe
button seeing the latest video is as
easy as clicking on that frame I’m David
H Lawrence the seventeen thank you so
much for watching and I’ll talk to you
tomorrow.
I don’t know if it’s a special skill, but I can do basic baton twirling. It came in handy during a local community theater production of Hello Dolly. I ended up leading the parade scene. Who would have thought that something you learned in elementary school would be useful many, many moons later?!?
I learned how to fly an airplane some years ago, and actually got my private pilot’s license. Oh, and I do voiceover and voice acting.
I learned to yodel on the internet… and it led to one of my most interesting VO jobs.
As for unique skills, I can impersonate a camel.
Joe! Was that you. Great job, man! I always wondered who Joe Camel was. 😉 😉
I feel confident saying I’ve got special skills for days and they have come in very handy over the years. A trained dancer, choreographer, mime, Cirque clown, face painting, balloon animals, costume designer/construction, puppet maker, bead and jewelry designer, watercolor & acrylic painter, sketch artist, and animal handler. When I don’t know something I always head over to YouTube. For tech questions, there is always a knowledgable 11-year-old ready to help with the answer. Lol. Yoga is fantastic on YouTube. Yoga With Adriene has saved my back and neck this year. Love her.