Awesome Doug Fine visit!

I so enjoyed Doug Fine’s presentation last evening! The live performance of recounting his adventures and misadventures conveys his message so much more effectively than in print alone - while Farewell, My Subaru was humorous, the skillful performance of the stories, the engagement of the audience, allows an emotional connection that makes a powerful message come alive to the American public through humor. Well done!

Fine may be onto something with this eco-comedy performance. Not only does he render acknowledging the environmental destruction we're imposing on the planet nearly digestible to the American masses (the minivan drivers in Duluth?) but he promotes it as a “fun, hassle-free way of living” that we can aspire to by taking baby steps. Fine says, we can all “inch toward living locally” and delivers encouragement through humor. Brilliant! I love the delivery style, too – the acerbic humor, comic asides, and very physical (re-enacted) comedy really draw the audience in and give them a stake in accepting the message. Fine creates emotional buy-in by the audience to stellar theatrical effect.

I am really glad to have seen the live delivery because I guess I was confused when I read the book. I left it with the impression that Fine was trying to be a farmer. I understand now that doesn’t seem to be the case – he is, like many urban ex-pats from both coasts – simply trying to live more sustainably in his little corner of the world. Fine is a writer and performer (his are not farmer’s hands) crafting his livelihood from his home environment – from the goats to the gardens. He is providing for himself and his family’s needs with a little left over to trade with neighbors doing similar – an excellent model for what each of us really can do. Even in the city (yes, chickens are legal to keep in Albuquerque, for those who are wondering) – Fine’s message is that we can all do something, little by little reducing our footprint.

Fine had the good fortune (and, from his live performance, I venture to add a generous dollop of “persuasive ability” that fortune) of generous support to set up the backdrop and source of his humor – the Funky Butte Ranch. In setting up what appears to have been a well-funded publicity ploy at the outset, Fine has really hit on an extraordinary combination of sustainability and humor that is palatable to American sensibilities (or lack thereof?).

I wonder if billing Fine’s presentation/performance as comedy – “ecocomedy” (which seems to be a nascent movement, google it) – might be judicious to avoid audience confusion in the future? Promoting Fine’s presentation as humor might reduce misunderstandings. Not only the misunderstandings like mine – he’s a writer who has created a garden of material at home, not a farmer or rancher blogging about farm/ranch life – but also possible future difficulties that will likely arise if people really do follow his suggestions. For instance, Kevin Forrest made clear to me that the veg oil must be strained (for solids) and heated (to evaporate off the moisture in the oil) before using in the vehicle – its not quite as simple as pulling up to the back of the restaurant and “filling up.” When presenting “facts” in comedy, its perfectly fine to caricaturize processes and issues as the point of the presentation/performance is the message – and Fine’s message is powerful and important. His is a vital part of the sustainability conversation, providing levity and relief of tension.

I think its important to also keep in mind the ethical responsibilities of representing authority on a topic, however. Fine claims/asserts, and/or is assigned by his audiences, authority in the topic areas he writes about. While on one hand he says “baby steps, everyone do something little,” on the other hand he says he wanted to prove that if he can do it, “anyone can.” Professionally, I feel this raises serious concerns – if other “mall-rat consumers” were to follow his example, would they be successful? Without the significant financial cushion of the $80K or so that Fine had to work with at the outset of his experiment, I would have to say the answer is “not likely.” Is it ethical to promote with authority a way of life to an audience for whom following that advice would be financially (at the minimum) disastrous? See, even though the audience of the humor is the mall-rat minivan drivers, the only audience that would have a prayer’s chance of following Fine’s footsteps would be other writers with good back-east publishing connections/support and the generous (trust-?) funding to dismiss practical, real-life financial concerns. I don’t think that is quite such a big audience.

Fine said a couple of times “I’m not an expert on this so you should research it more if you’re considering it, BUT ….” Perhaps if he said that more often, my concerns wouldn’t rap so insistently at the door of my professional ethic. If that caveat were implicit in the presentation itself (beyond explicit embedded in the performance), there might not be reason for concern at all. By billing his routine as ecocomedy, Fine would be making the caveat implicit – this is intended as humor, although you might think these are good ideas, they really need a LOT more development before they can responsibly be recommended as financially and practically feasible to my intended audience.

Because the actual audience and highly simplified content of Fine’s performance situates it in, or defines it as, humor/comedy, it seems most appropriate that it would be called that as well. By presenting himself as a serious voice, Fine runs the risk of people taking his suggestions seriously and running out to attempt the same kind of stunt. This would be extremely ill-advised from practical, business, and financial perspectives and would make him feel really guilty – like the first lemming, maybe. If he presented his act as ecocomedy – a comedic routine with a powerful green message – the caveat of just kidding, but serious would be implicit because it is understood as implicit in the comedic genre. Fine would have an even broader audience for his routine if it were billed as comedy, too (thereby increasing his speaking engagements) – he could take it to more popular venues to reach more than just conference attendees. He could reach the entire American public – OMG!!! Go, Doug!