Paul Gordon

“The Law” is often synonymised with order, bureaucracy, and justice; not art and creativity.

Paul Lee Gordon didn’t get this memo.

Growing up, Paul was inspired to study law by the portrayal of fictional lawyers like Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie.

Drawn to the stage but not sold on the idea of the ‘starving artist’ trope, he was compelled to join the courts.

Law seemed like a way to perform while maintaining a stable income.

“The idea of being able to just get up on stage and be really present in the moment to collaboratively create a story carried a lot of appeal,” he says.

Law requires a certain level of flexibility. Being able to think, make decisions on the spot and adjust to new information as it’s presented is a valuable tool, and it’s one that Paul has been able to develop in his artistic career and apply to his law practice.

“Improv teaches a whole lot of different skills that are really applicable to life in general but particularly to legal practice, so things like thinking on your feet, coming up with creative solutions to problems, and being able to work collaboratively within a team. All of these elements of the arts are useful universal skills that you can use in any profession but particularly ones where it’s necessary to advocate for people.”

The arts scene in Adelaide has always punched well above its weight compared to the size of its population. Even without the global recognition of cities like Sydney or Melbourne, Adelaide maintains a strong artistic presence through its support of artists and artistic institutions.

However, Adelaide isn’t always the most hospitable when it comes to artist appreciation.

The city’s audiences are known to be some of the least forgiving to even the best performers.

Adelaide is peculiar in that it’s almost two different cities – one during Fringe, and another outside of Fringe.

When people are expecting to go out for a laugh they’re very much invested in it, but if they’re not in that frame of mind they can be a little bit stilted.

It’s been said that ‘if you can get a laugh in Adelaide, you can get a laugh anywhere’.

Paul remembers a time when he stopped performing for a good three or four months . “I kept on having flashbacks to how terrible it was with an audience that just sat there stony-faced at us the entire time no matter what we did.”

On top of quiet crowds full of tough critics, Adelaide is one of those scenes where it’s not easy to break in.

Sometimes you have to make your own opportunities.

So when Paul first started out, he wasn’t getting many invitations to be in shows that other people were putting on.

“I said, ‘Fine,’ and I started my own shows.

I looked for the other performers who I respected and who I thought might not laugh at me if I asked them to be part of the show, and I put the financial risk [on] myself.

It’s important for people to make their own opportunities and get advice from others.”

Adelaide, being the big small-town that it is, makes networking into a mission of finding the people you’re already connected to, as opposed to going out and creating new connections. But, for artists who are looking to maximise their success, finding these connections is a must.

“For better or worse, Adelaide is, to a great extent, a town where it’s not what you know, it’s who you know, and so looking for people who can help introduce you to the relevant scene is really important.”

“If you’re an individual production company and you’re not one blessed with significant sums of money, it is very hard to get the same level of traction that you get during those periods.

Without an industry or government-based promotional campaign for ‘Check out what’s happening between the festivals’, I don’t know if anyone’s ever going to have the ability, the funds, the knowledge of how to do it properly.”

Paul goes on to mention a few resources for artists who might be struggling with PR or legality. Resources like Vaulting Ambitions which teaches artists how to run their businesses, and the the Arts Law Centre, for artists who run into legal trouble.

As an artist who is intimately familiar with the worlds of art and business, Paul recognises the value of using his non-artistic experience to advise and help others.

He tries to share his knowledge as best he can to help people get to where they want to be.

“I’ve been involved with a couple of programs out there for artists that are about how to set up yourself as a business, what should you do in terms of protecting your brand, how can you avoid getting into trouble if your venue falls through.

I think there is definitely a gap between the well-established, highly-professionalized scene and the people who are working as artists full-time but haven’t quite made it.

If that knowledge gap can be bridged, it will help move people up a lot faster and get emerging artists to where they need to be.

There are so many talented people in Adelaide, but being talented in one area doesn’t mean that you know everything about running it as a business, and that’s where we want many of our artists to be.

We want it to be their life, and to do that, artists need to make money, and to make money they need to make sure that they’re properly protected.”

As is the case with any career, it’s essential to have a strong foundation for any amount of growth to be possible.

One of the issues with creating a foundation for artists in Adelaide isn’t in the quality of the resources provided, but in the quantity.

“As a city, Adelaide needs more performance spaces that are accessible to emerging artists.

There’s always a challenge to locate a space to perform that isn’t going to charge a stupid amount of money, because often these shows take once the marketing and promotion are paid for, and a lot of people do these things for love, at least initially, until they get to the stage where they can become self-sustaining.

The more creative spaces that open, that are accessible, the better it will be for everyone.

More collaboration between different areas of the arts is something which would be really useful and helpful.”

 
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This article is part of the Festival City Stories series, a collection of reflections about Adelaide made by the people who make this a festival place. The project was funded through the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Arts South Australia, Arts Recovery Fund, and delivered in partnership with the State Library of South Australia. 

Written by: Christian Best

Photography by: Declan Hartley-Brown