I suffer from a slight case of A.D.D. And when I say slight, I mean hey, it sure is windy today. I wonder if it’s gonna rain. I should check the weather. Why do all the weathermen in L.A. have vaguely meteorological-sounding names? Dallas Raines. Johnny Mountain. And why do they wear such shiny suits?(45-minute break between paragraphs.)
Where was I? A.D.D… of course.
My friend Jon, an actor, is the polar opposite of me memory-wise. Give him ten minutes, and he can learn six pages of dialogue by heart. Bastard.
I finally asked Jon for advice, and his very simple answer surprised me: concentration. The card game in which you lay out a deck face down and take turns flipping over two cards at once, trying to find matches. Jon bought a kids' deck, featuring ducks and cows, and it totally worked.
A few months ago, I found an online version, and began playing it religiously. Recently, I realized my capacity to memorize long monologues is off the charts better. I can take pages of material and within a half hour have them down cold. It's amazing.
This game can work for anyone in any field in which memorization plays a role. The timer below the pictures makes it actually kind of addictive. I’ve done it in 1:16, and I’m sure many of you can top that. Have at it.
