Paul Toshner

Life is Grand, Baby! Paul Toshner

Life is Grand, Baby! (Notes on Performing) by Paul Toshner.
Memoirs and insights on the intimate performance of song from a real-life Piano Man.

Paul is an all-round entertainer: speaker, piano looper, and singer. He took classical voice lessons for three years with Lidea De Rosa and piano with Jim McDowall in Glasgow. The rest he picked up on the road to where we are now. Paul has honed his "Life Is Grand, Baby!" show, book and album after developing a repertoire in various London West End hotel residencies; four hours a night, four nights a week, for three years. As well as stints in European ski season hotel piano bars, and East coast USA concerts.

"I really did write it for myself, I can say that with total honesty. For the first time I'm sharing secrets I've built up over the years as a concert act, a lounge act, piano-bar act, a shopping-center act, a restaurant act. Added to these are some more personal mémoire-like moments and "lessons learned." I have been inspired by the American way of doing things. One such attitude is to "pay it forward". I hope my book brings a deep and practical understanding and improves the lives of those who listen to you, and that you go places and enrich people who might be melancholy with a word, or a song, and a smile. I address the need to be concerned with the way something is delivered, as much as what and where it's being delivered.
This book is for the front man, or the soloist. Someone who takes responsibility for the flow, pace, structure, material selection, engagement and many dynamics relating to audience relationship. It would never have existed had I not lost so many bookings because of Covid-19, or without the support of my wife Tamar.
I started off life as a musician playing piano in Princess Square, a classy Glasgow shopping center. I moved on to local hotel lobbies (The Grosvenor and the Albany). But it all started when I got to cover for a job in Denmark for a friend who played in "The Baby Grand" called Danny Thompson. He couldn't do the gig and offered it to me. There I met another piano player and he introduced me to his agent. It went from there to piano bars in Denmark, ski resorts in Klosters and St. Moritz Switzerland."
"Life is Grand, Baby!" A book, a show and an album that reflects finding joy in the midst of sorrow.
I hopefully deliver an uplifting exposition on the brighter and darker sides of life (while how to see the positives).
Set on a backdrop of material mostly by Billy Joel and my originals (which sometimes go down best of all), plus songs by: Danny Kaye, Bob Dylan, Pavarotti, The Beatles, James Taylor, Coldplay, Garth Brooks, Elvis, Opera with original lyric adaptations, plus an inspirational story or idea from my book "Life is Grand, Baby!" when I also usually give away a signed copy."

"An invaluable tool for anyone and everyone in the entertainment industry. You will gain insight and inspiration from this important work." -Yechiel Spero. Author. "He sports a white fedora, speaks in a distinctive Scottish accent. With a friendly, bubbly personality that lights up the room."-Baltimore Jewish Times. "An instruction manual about how to do a good performance, it speaks to me. Very well written thoughtful stuff, fascinating." -Avraham Rosenblum, The Diaspora Yeshiva band. "I wish I'd have met Paul Toshner 30 years ago, he has taught me many things about the world... about work, gals, money, investment, how to deal with people under any circumstance, fairness, kindness, hard work, consistency, the value of perseverance, the importance and the guts to destroy your own work, if necessary, in order to start up again from zero, just to upgrade that 'little' notch, the absolute always essential tool of not taking things too seriously, specially, and more particularly oneself!"-Mesoud Benasuly. Guitarist N. Y.