IMPRO-THE SHOCKING TRUTH!

INTRO:
The main difficulty in gaining a deeper understanding of just about anything, is that we tend to view things in isolation. Consequently we see impro, as being solely about performance, theatre maybe, having fun, comedy, and so on. Being identified with our view of the world means we have this narrow focus and this prevents us seeing that that things do connect. One thing does merge into another. Our narrow focus though demands that it doesn’t. In this purist sense then, impro is only about impro, as theatre is only about theatre, and film is only about film. Put another way, we do not see that life is a whole, and that if we are going to tune up one area, like say the performance area, we do need to carry that through and tune up all the other areas. Like for example, we can become a better improviser, and still be terrible at relationships. For these are two different things, quite unconnected, and we have decided we want to be better at impro, for we have performance ambitions in that area, but we are not too bothered about relationships, for we feel that that’s just how we are. Or that this is not our preference, for something to work with. Now what I have spoken about here is something which it is very difficult for the rational mind to grasp. This is a truth you cannot flatten out and explain. Consequently I’ll begin this exposé of the shocking truth about impro, by saying that it doesn’t matter if cannot grasp what I am saying here. SHOCK! HORROR! Try to let go of that desire to analytically understand everything, at least in this context. And then try to just flow with your feelings. So in the end, if all this article does, should you get to the end of it, is just to annoy you, then that in a way is good. It is how you feel. And that is the right place to start. And if you can do this and keep doing this whilst suspending judgement, understanding will arrive, sooner or later.

The shocking truth: The Beginning!

So, to begin with, in the first instance, no matter what the deeper truths of the impro scene are, I would encourage everyone to do it. Working with our blocks and inhibitions in a creative way, can only be a good thing. This holds good even if your interest in impro is purely a performers interest, and not a therapeutic one. Now, moving on to the deeper truths, when people first come to impro they are to different degrees blocked and inhibited, lacking trust and technique, and through doing impro, they are taught a set of rules, which greatly facilitate being un-blocked and spontaneous. And this really facilitates performance, helping the performer’s gifts to really shine through. You internalise the right response to situations, those which allow space, development, and general positive characteristics, and this leads to more satisfying performances. This is the blueprint Keith Johnson, who wrote the book on it, has given us. So job done! People are now free spontaneous improvisers! So what’s the problem?

The problem is, and this is a truth we’d all, in our mad scramble for fame and glory, much rather ignore, is that impro shows are entertaining and funny, and audiences are amazed to see people working without a script, and yet these same shows are also predictable, and a bit stereotypical, with obvious plots and obvious characters. To recap, you create a comedy product, but it lacks authenticity, or any deeper level. What you get is the appearance of spontaneity, but not spontaneity itself. You don’t get anything new, quirky, left field or original. Now if we just want bland X-factor type entertainment this is fine. But if we want, like Oliver, a little more, then this a problem. And if that the case we must identify where problem stems from. Now. I always felt uncomfortable in impro classes because people would insist on me following the rules. And I knew, the rules do work. I DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH RULES!!! I am not proposing anarchy. Society needs its rules and laws to function effectively. So why was I uncomfortable? And then I realised this was because a part of me knew to be spontaneous, you can’t really follow rules, no matter how well they work! The one doesn’t jibe with the other. The definition of spontaneity is something beyond rules, not in their moral sense, but in sense of what kind of behaviour is allowed. If I push a custard pie in a vicar’s face at a Fete, it would go against the rules of polite behaviour, and yet it would be spontaneous! No question. Pie. Face. Spontaneous. This makes me think of course of Mad Hatter’s tea party in Alice In Wonderland, a situation with a lot of rules about polite behaviour, the English Tea Party, which the Hatter and Hare do not subvert, but simply ignore, thus making an outrageous scene.

Now I’m well aware that most people are happy with the bland predict-able safe comfortable option. They don’t want to be challenged, and neither do they think it is necessary to be challenged. Why bother to think deeply about things, when you have another champagne party instead????? No. This not an easy option. It is very much the ‘unknown’. And that is frightening and difficult. But still. Think. If we hadn’t embraced the ‘unknown’, we wouldn’t have air travel. The internet. Seinfeld. And do you really want to live in a world without those things???

Lecture over. AND NOW IT’S…

The shocking truth!

What has happened is this. The improviser has replaced a bad set of rules, with a good set of rules, but he still in many ways no better off, for he still following a set of rules!!!!!!!!!!!! The point being that our inhibition was never the problem. The problem was what created the inhibition,in the first place, which was rules themselves! So if we continue to adhere to systems that use rules, we are continuing to inhibit ourselves at some deeper level!!! Another way we could put this is to say that in applying the rules and standards that apply to life, society, human conduct, too impro, we are ignoring the fact that impro isn’t life. It is fantasy. Invented. An imaginative realm. So the problem is one of discrimination. We do not discriminate between life, and not-life!!! So that’s all it is. A very simple truth. And yet, one that it is extremely difficult to grasp, as it is really to do with the heart, and not with the head.

Finally, you may think, but this negative truth does not empower me! But think. We automatically see the negative as being something bad and undesirable. And yet in truth, it is just a different type of energy. Positive energy. Negative energy. In physics they wouldn’t say negative energy bad. That would be ridiculous, even for scientists!!! And this is just social conditioning, that has always insisted that we must avoid the dark side. And so we discriminate against, and not between. Bad. Doh! But finally, my last appeal, I would also encourage you to look at successful comedy people like Spike Milligan, John Cleese, Eddie Izzard, and many more. These marvellous people who have done so much to change our awareness of things, and ask yourself, do these people follow the rules???????????? The answer is no. What they have in common is a disregard for rules in general. Look at Cleese goose-stepping in front of the german tourists. Is this following the rules???????????????????Is it???? (Don’t mention the war!!!)

EVERYMAN & FELLOWSHIP

(A modern version of scene from ‘Everyman’ the medieval miracle play.)
(Enter John Everyman. He addresses audience.)

JOHN. Hi. John Everyman. I run a creative design digital media network. We’re at the sharp end of the information highway. (Sighs.) Yadda, yadda, yadda. But having just met ‘ Death’, who informed me, I have to go on a long journey to meet ..(Looks up.) that doesn’t seem quite so important anymore. (Pause.) What am I going to miss most? Golf? Ascot? A private view with Tracey Emin? (Tenderly.) My two boys, Josh and Sebastian. And Belinda of course. Although we have been going through a bit of a rocky patch lately. We did consider counselling, but then we had a row and went off the idea. What can you do? She wants me to go to one of those Tantric sex weekend things. But I find all that new age stuff, too touchy feely. Anyway. All that’s behind me now. Must get moving.

(Pause.) Look! I’ll be honest! The thing I fear most is going alone. Always was the sociable type. If only I could get someone to come with.

(Enter Tony Fellowship.)

Hello! It’s Tony Fellowship! I know him from golf, openings, racing. Just about everything, come to think of it. Tony!

(Tony saunters over.)

TONY. John! Fancy meeting you here? In this busy street in a modern city.

JOHN. Yes. Co-in, or what? Walk?

(They walk and chat.)

So. How’s Biz?

TONY. Oh. Mustn’t grumble. We got the Fairchild contract.

JOHN. Oh well done! Mountains of moolah.

TONY. Yes. Mountains! (Pause.) But money isn’t everything.

JOHN. (Shaking head.) No.

TONY. (Shaking head.) No.

(They walk. John lowers head.)

TONY. You seem a bit despond old boy.

JOHN. Am I?

TONY. Yes. Got a prob?

JOHN. Yes. I’m in trouble.

TONY. Look John. Whatever it is. You can depend on me. I’m your friend.

JOHN. I appreciate that Tony. You’re a brick.

TONY. So. Come on. Out with it. If some bastards done you over I’ll…

JOHN. No. It’s nothing like that. But I am worried. It is bad. Very bad. And if I unload on you, and it’s like too much, then I’ll feel ten times worse. I know I will.

TONY. (Open arms.) John! I won’t let you down!

JOHN. You won’t?

TONY. (Firm.) No.

JOHN. Yeah. You always were there for me.

TONY. (Conviction.) And I always will be! Why. If you were in Hell, not that it exists, I’d go right down there, and get you right out!

JOHN. You would, wouldn’t you.

TONY. Yes. Indubitably. Without doubt.

JOHN. It’s only as much as I deserve, considering.

TONY. Don’t talk about deserving. I’m not doing this because you’re deserving. But if a chap can’t back his words up with actions, what is he? A worm.

JOHN. A louse.

TONY. A worthless fellow. So John. Tell me what it is. And I, rest assured, will stand by you.

(Long pause. I mean long. There is a long pause. John overcomes his inner conflict and then speaks. After a pause.)

JOHN. I met someone or ‘something’and it informed me, and there is no argument about this, I must, I must, I have to go on a long journey, right away, to meet… (Looks up.) And, big and, I need someone to ‘come with’.

(Long pause.)

TONY. Right. (Pause.) Now let’s consider this like rational human beings.

JOHN. Yes. Let’s.

TONY. I have said I won’t let you down. That’s taken as read, isn’t it?

JOHN. Yes.

TONY. Even though, anyone in his right mind, would be just a little scared out of his wits, at such a prospect, I said, I would.

JOHN. You said you would, even go to hell! Not that it exists, and get me right out, should that be the case.

TONY. Yes. I did ‘say’ that. You’re not wrong there. Those words. Yes. I spoke them. (Pause.) But all that aside, important as it is, if we go on this journey, when will we be coming back?

JOHN. Well, never.

TONY. What never?

JOHN. No. Never.

TONY. Just what was this someone or something you met?

JOHN. It was Death.

TONY. DEATH! Well that means then you’re asking me to go on a journey to my certain death! Me! Tony Rupert Fellowship!

Who never had a day off sick in his life! Me! Dead! Gone! (Pause.) I’m not fucking going!

JOHN. But you promised!

TONY. Promised. Promised. That’s putting it a bit strongly. Promised.(Pause.) Look. Ask me anything else. Drugs. Money laundering. Even to go on one of those touchy feely Tantric sex things, but don’t ask me this. I just can’t die. Not today, thank you very much. (Pause.) I’d even go as far as murder.

(John grabs him by the shoulders.)

JOHN. LOOK! I don’t need a murder! I need someone to come with me on that long last road to see … (Looks up.) Remember. Remember all we’ve shared together. When we won the Cup. When we had sex with those 2 girls at Uni. in a field under the stars. Our men’s group vision quest when we all got naked and roared at the moon!!!! For God sakes REMEMBER!!!!!!!!!!

(Pause.)

TONY. Good times, bad times. But death is death.

JOHN. (Deflated.) Yes. Out brief can…Yes. You’re right. Well at least walk me to the tube. I must be off.

TONY. I would. Honestly. But I’m due at the Office.

(Tony begins to leave.)

JOHN. (Bitter.) Go on then. Go to your office!

(Tony comes back. Gives John a look.)

JOHN. Don’t worry. I forgive you. Go on. Go and live. Have a long life. I give you my blessing.

TONY. Thanks.

(They hug. Tony exits.)

JOHN. O false and fickle world, my fate is set, I am everything, and nothing yet.





CURTAIN

What are the Toltec Teachings?

You may have heard the word Toltec and vaguely associated it with Aztec and Mayan cultures, or, you may be able to connect it to the work of Carlos Castaneda, who is rightly considered the father of all new age movements, being the first to get wide recognition for bringing up self-development and self-empowerment issues. In actual fact, the word Toltec, as it is used by Theun Mares, the Nagal, and creator of the Toltec Teachings, (see www.toltec-foundation.org.com) refers to a covert tradition stretching back across millennia, whereby through methods and techniques known to members, and initiates, knowledge, true knowledge, could be gained that would lead to freedom. This knowledge and the tradition it stems from have been now made public by Theun Mares, by virtue of fact that since June 1995, mankind has come of age, and now must take responsibility for himself, and his world.

Now the first emergence of this knowledge was through Carlos Castaneda, specifically through the man he named Don Juan, who was indeed a fine Toltec warrior. Confusion has arisen though, because many see Castaneda as a Toltec teacher, when in truth, he was simply a very gifted messenger, of the existence of the teachings, and not a teacher as such. It’s also true that he did not always report the teachings exactly as Don Juan gave them to him. He was, economical with the truth. A product perhaps of him being a best-selling author? Whatever. He was one of the great writers of the twentieth century, who does present us with profound, awe inspiring, sublime, truths. Also, it is important to understand that before Castaneda, all esoteric writing had only a small coterie audience. Castaneda brought it into the mainstream, creating an interface between the academic and the shamanic world. In doing this he did us all a profound service. Don Carlos was my first teacher. Not personally, but through his work, and I, along with many others, owe him an immense debt of gratitude.

Since 1995 the true Toltec teachings have existed in book form. A complete set of Toltec manuals for self-transformation and empowerment, and a very brilliant, well presented and well conceived set they are! Perfectly structured to the lead the would-be apprentice from right side awareness, through to left side awareness, with apposite axioms and guidance, at every step of the way. If I may cite my own case. I had made good progress working with Castaneda, but was still far from any true understanding, or real self-awareness. The true teachings solved this problem for me, and I was eventually able to see the interrelationship of life, something which has empowered me enormously.

Now the point of this article is to show the teachings in relation to other systems, or things available at this point in time. The list would include Neil David Walsch, Osho, Eckhart Tolle, Suzuki, Watts, De Mello, A course in Miracles, and many more writers, teachers etc. Now, I want to make it clear that I think all this work is extremely useful, and it does, for the most part, contain absolute truth, and that this is a wonderful and comforting thing. So. How do the Toltec-Teachings differ? The answer is that if, if, you were really committed about self-transformation; were you one of those few dedicated beings who will settle for nothing less, than being a warrior on the path of freedom, then the above, is simply not enough. Why? Because it is not enough simply to be told ‘the truth’. We may know it, but we still do not own it. Like it or not, it is a verifiable fact of ‘depth psychology’, that due to our inner split, we can hold knowledge, without really acknowledging it. Or, put another way, being enlightened isn’t just having the right answers. Nowadays we can memorize the right answers from any number of published works, but will that guarantee that when we walk out the front door we will act in an enlightened manner? The answer must be a resounding NO!!!!!! Another analogy would be the math’s test. If we were to take one and simply write down the right answers would we pass? No. Without the relevant working out we will not get full marks. Similarly it is not enough to talk glibly about ‘process’ work. How people love to talk, but is this ‘process’ really going in the right direction. It it an effective ‘process’? Whichever way you turn the same fact confronts us.

INFORMATION IS NOT KNOWLEDGE

And just because we talk intelligently about things does not mean we have gained experience or true knowledge. And this is how the Toltec-Teachings differ, in that they do not just impart truths, but also provide us with tools whereby these truths can be corroborated for oneself. They provide practical techniques whereby truth, can be owned through experience, and then put to a meaningful use within your life. In short they don’t just tell you things. They give you guidance on how you can find things out for yourself. I make this point strongly for so often I see headstrong people, who have all the answers on anything you care to mention, and yet these people are still desperately unhappy and dissatisfied with their lives. They will sit there advising you on self-development, or inner work, whilst at the same time being incapable of being happy, or having a relationship, or knowing any kind of purpose themselves. Madness.

This is how the teachings differ. I hope this article might help to clear up some of the confusion which surrounds the word Toltec. I am not an official spokesperson for the teachings, just someone who has used them successfully. Obviously in the final analysis there is no substitute for the teachings themselves, and I urge everyone to familiarize themselves with them, for no matter what your motive, they are mankind’s most invaluable asset, at this moment in time.

www.toltec-foundation.org

the authentic you and theatre improvisation

Problems often stem from having internalised or introjected (clever depth psychology word), a very literal model of life, the universe, and everything! So that what always happens is this. Example. You feel stimulated and alive, say as a teenager. Then you get a bit older and through habit or whatever, you lose that feeling. To regain it you start drinking more stimulating drinks, like tea and coffee. Problem solved! Or is it? Well, in truth, as we all discover, stimulating yourself is fine, but there does come a point where the toxic nature of this forces you to stop. So there is big drawback with this method and, there is also the fact that stimulating yourself leaves you feeling empty and hollow. It like Chinese water torture. This is a stimulant which over time turns into a nightmare of pain. Problem being that it doesn’t spring from within you. It just a delusion, or what we could term delusional behavior. Somehow or other we have become conditioned into accepting it as the real deal. It is a dogma. Creed. Belief. We say, I will create or make the way I feel. I will not simply accept the way I feel. But to accept a feeling state you forced on yourself! as being real, the ’authentic’ you, is a delusion! We go on doing it though, for we have invested so much faith and trust in it, we really can’t imagine a world without it. It is our comfort, our balm, our pint of bitter and a packet of crisps! Try and remove it and the weeping and wailing begins. Or rather, THE ANXIETY! And people, even big strong men, do not want to feel their fear. Now I said at beginning, rather dogmatically, that all problems stem from being too literal. How does this apply here? Well stop. Think, Horatio!

1. We don’t feel stimulated.

2. Stimulating drinks stimulate us so we drink one.

3. We feel stimulated!

In other words, our way of solving the problem IS QUITE LITERAL! It is simple cause and effect. A + B = C! But as I have demonstrated, this literal model is not helping you. You’ll end up feeling hollow and empty and toxic, and is that what you want really want, really want?

Here is another way to look at it. Suppose you have a problem with John. You get an angry unfocussed feeling when you near to him. So literal model states you must go straight to the problem. So you must confront John about this. But fact is, John is gay. You are a straight bloke. This is real problem area. So you confront John and say, “I’ve got a problem with you. You must do something.” So john says, “Yes. I’ll stop being gay.” Problem solved! But truth is, he just humoring you, and even if he isn’t, what about when you meet other gay men?

Now. Here is yet another example. Suppose you don’t understand yourself. Your subjective world. So, Literal Model states, you go straight there. You take a drug. A mind altering substance. This forces the hidden part to emerge. It unlocks the door. Hey presto! Problem solved! But is it? And this the hard part to understand. There is big difference between experiencing something and working with it. It therapy terms it the difference between what is ‘acting out’ and what is ‘resolving’. This difference is not one though that the rational mind can easily grasp. Only thru experience can you begin to grasp the difference here. Bear in mind, experiencing is not experience. Experiencing is what is constantly happening, whereas experience is something looked back on which we have learnt from. I can corroborate this from my own experience. As a teenager I experimented with LSD. I remember vividly, on one trip, looking in a mirror and seeing a monster starring back at me, and at the time thinking, I will not deal with that now. Now is not the moment to try and deal with this monster inside me. And it wasn’t. I was experiencing. Years later, when I started therapy, I began to work with this monster. Which was not a monster at all, but simply my latent potential.

Moving on to Theatre Impro. You can see this same thing quite clearly. Scenes always tend to go in an unproductive, in the sense of not developing in a more psychological or interesting direction, i.e. not just comedy, because people approach things head on, or in too literal a manner. If scene starts with ‘A’ in a room. ‘B’ will enter and direct his focus and attention onto ‘A’.

(A in room painting a wall. B enters.)

B. What are you doing?

A. I’m painting the wall.

Now this is really a block, it impedes development, as we can see what A is doing and speech told us nothing about B. If on contrary, B enters and does not direct his focus onto A, i.e., is not literal or head on, and instead sits on a chair with his head drooped, we have..

(A in room painting a wall. B enters. Sits with head drooped.)

A. (Painting.) You’re not still depressed are you?

B. Yes I am.

Now this not a block. It tells us stuff about the characters and points the way forward; we must now learn why B is depressed, and what the relationship is, and all because it arose from a non-literal model. Think! Literally speaking a scene which begins with a man painting a wall is about wall painting, and the man’s relationship to it. Just as a play about injustice, has a man wrongly accused of crime and being sent to prison. THIS IS THE LITERAL MODEL!

HOWEVER. None of the above is a hard and fast rule. These are rather guidelines or areas to think in. Generally speaking, when entering a scene, it is more about feeling around something, rather than looking straight at it. It is like crossing your eyes. Shifting the focus. Ask yourself, how do I feel here? Literally, you may be in a shop buying trousers but non-literally you are feeling impatient because…????? You’re late? You’re tired of wearing trousers???? The shop assistant loves you but won’t admit it?????

To recap. You enter a scene in which it is not decided yet what scene is about, but in which some action is happening. Say a man reading the paper. So, Literal Model states, you go straight there. You approach man and say, “ Why are you reading the paper?” This version A. But in version B. The non-literal model. You enter scene where man reading paper and it not decided what scene about and you ignore the man, go over to window, draw curtain, look out, and say, “They’ll be here in ten minutes. Don’t you think we should get ready?”

Now. Which version will lead to a more interesting outcome. A or B?

Another impro issue is naturalness. How can I act natural in a scene? How is it done? Again, taking a literal model we say to ourselves, what is my memory of naturalness or other people’s behavior? I’ll imitate that! This means every shop assistant you play will be modeled on some behavioral model you’ve witnessed and remembered. This is natural. Real. You remember how shop assistants are so if you imitate that and it will, WILL, be natural. It stands to reason.

But think Horatio. This is yet another LITERAL model. It’s literal because there is a literal connection between observed behavior and your performance because it is an imitation. It is the same. However, the audience will not see it as natural for they know shop assistants are also people, regardless of behavior and people are all different. They all have agendas based on their own quirky and idiosyncratic feelings and ideas. So again, the literal approach will convince you, you ARE being ‘natural’, when in reality, you’re not, Horatio! NO YOU AINT!

If through lack of experience of doing impro you find all this hard to understand, don’t worry. Important thing to understand is that it is possible to work with issues of authenticity in a theatre or impro context. And this not psycho-drama. In psycho-drama, negative feeling states are enacted to identify with them. In our work we use the non-literal model in order to detach from these feelings states and see beyond them. So we can, see ourselves ‘acting out’. ‘Identifying.’

It is only normal though, that people have trouble accepting this. We do live in a very ‘literal,’ ‘more is more,’ ‘things go in straight lines,’ world. To move beyond that is a real leap of faith. Imagination. It is worth leaping though, for in impro terms, or theatre terms, or just in living your life terms, contacting the authentic you will put you in touch with where all the really juicy scenes are, HORATIO!

Backwards Theatre Workshops August!!!

The Third Point of Reference
A theatre/improvisation/music workshop. (Come and have fun improvising, acting, singing, or even just observe, no pressure.)
Monday nights during August at 7:00 (3-09, 10-09,17-09,24-09.)
@
The Chisenhale Dance Space
64-84 Chisenhale road
Contact: Ian 0207 987 9678
Stella 0208 694 0197
backwards theatre

Delbert's Glasses illustration

Delbert's Glasses (Children's Story)

Once upon a time there was an elephant named Delbert Trunk who liked to look at everything. He liked to look at a tree. He liked to look at a lion. He liked to look at a river. He liked to look at a cloud. He liked to look at a flower. He liked to look at a mountain. Everything! That was all he did. The other elephants in the herd did important stuff. Banking. Book keeping. Stamping about. Inventing things. But all Delbert did was look.
But then he got ill.
He went to the herd Doctor, Dr. Tusk, who said, you have eye disease from too much looking! You must stop. So Delbert did as he was told, for he respected the medical profession, and he closed his eyes.
Forever.
The other elephants led him about by the trunk, so he was okay, but he didn’t look anymore. Not at a tree. A flower. A lion. A river. A mountain. Not at anything.
Nothing! And the Doctor was pleased. You’re cured! Yes, said Delbert. Cured. And everything seemed fine.
But then at the weekly stamp in the big clearing Delbert did a strange thing. He was supposed to stamp to the right, but he stamped, to the left! The herd was shocked. Delbert was called before the elephant council. Why did you stamp to the left? I just forgot. Forgot?! Forgot?! But an elephant never forgets! Sorry. There was much shock and outrage throughout the herd. But it didn’t stop there. Delbert now continually forgot stuff. He forgot to trumpet on hearing a lion roar. He forgot to take some flowers to the elephants’ graveyard. One time he even forgot he was an elephant! In the end it was too much. He was called again before the elephant council. Delbert! You’re banished! What?! Yes. Banished! With a capital ‘b’! but…but… but… no buts!!! Pack your trunk. So Delbert the elephant packed his trunk and said goodbye to the herd.
He wandered in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights until at last he fell in a heap on the floor, next to a cave. Oh why was I so obsessed with looking? Why? Look where it’s got me! But then he heard a noise in the cave. It was the sound of a drum going bum, bum, bum.
Oh no! Now I’m going mad and hearing drums that go bum, bum, bum! But out of the cave appeared a tiger. A tiger? In Africa? Yes. A tiger. And he was banging a drum, and there was a funny look in his eye as if he were flying high in the sky. But then he saw Delbert and he said, in tiger-ish, which luckily Delbert spoke, he said, I am the shaman tiger of the wilderness.
On my magic drum I fly to dimensions unknown, to find answers to tricky questions and stuff. Really? You bet! In Africa? Yes! What’s your tricky question? And Delbert explained.
The shaman tiger thought long and hard and then he began to bang his drum, bum, bum, bum, and that faraway look came into his eye, and it was obvious he was… and eventually he said. I have travelled to the dimension of elephant conundrums and I have it. What? The answer stupid. And he thrust out his paw. And in his right paw were a pair of glasses. These, he said, are elephant conundrum glasses! They aren’t. They are you know. And these glasses will answer your question. And then he disappeared back in his cave. So Del-boy stood there holding the glasses. What a strange tiger. He should be in a circus, or something. Then, without opening his eyes he put on the glasses, and even though his eyes were closed, HE COULD SEE! SEE! They really were magic glasses!! And in a flash he knew what to do!
40 days later he arrived back at the big clearing and there was the herd stamping around as usual. Delbert put on his magic glasses. He looked at the herd, with his magic glasses, and what did he see?
?
He saw a bunch of idiots stamping around from right to left and from left to right, trumpeting at lions, and so on, and doing stuff, simply because they had always done that. Just a bunch of socially conditioned pachyderms! engaged in a lot of absurd ritualistic behaviour patterns, thinking they were important, when in truth they were just being a bit silly. And Delbert took off the glasses and opened his eyes, for now he could see. He didn’t need to look anymore. He could see!
Yes. Delbert had seen beyond the herd mentality which, as ‘Long Trunk’ said, the famous elephant philosopher, is the beginning of wisdom and stuff! And Delbert didn’t identify with the herd anymore, and he went and to live near the waterfall, and he set up a business as an independent trunk examiner, and soon the elephants were flocking, well, not flocking, herding to him, with trunk related issues, the like of which, well, you never, no not like, ever. And he met a nice lady elephant and lived happily ever after.
　
OH! The glasses? Yes. They are in a special glass case above his desk just waiting for the day when a young elephants get tired of just looking and come to him to ask him, if they can try them on.