Spalding Gray and Performance

As I said in class on Tuesday, my inital reaction to Spalding Gray's Swimming to Cambodia was that it was boring and difficult to follow. SG's digressions and hyper amimated facial contortions were a distraction for me; Spalding's phsical movements such as taking a sip of water or pointing to cities on the map behind him put me in a trancelike state when I was watching the monologue. I admit that it is partly my own fault for thinking that Swimming to Cambodia was boring; I allowed myself to become distracted, and this undermined my ability to experience the full artistry of the film. To be fair, I think I should probably watch the film again before I make any more judgments about it because I feel like I haven't fully grasped the story. However, I have the feeling that even if I were to watch the film again, I would still find at least parts of it to be boring. I think the reason for this might be that I am having trouble relating to what Spalding is saying about his experiences in Cambodia and Thailand and the insignts that he developed when he was there. Since I have never been to South East Asia, there are some aspects f the monologue that I will simply not understand even though I was trying to imagine what Spalding was describing. The digressions and lack of linearity made the monologue less compelling because I was sometimes unable to follow the storyline, and I often felt like he was rambling nonsense. I realize that he organized his monologue in such a way as to render it compelling and interesting, but I didn't experience this when I was watching the film.