Party piece

The party piece relates to the tradition of oral storytelling but has literary connections. Berners Jackson writes that the party piece had a "long and honourable career in the English-speaking world rising to its height, perhaps, under [Queen] Victoria". Adding that there are many instances in the diary of Samuel Pepys and even speculating that William Shakespeare had a party piece that he performed for the entertainment of his fellows when he was a boy.Jackson, B.A.W. (1962) Stratford Papers on Shakespeare. W. J. Gage. pp. 58–60.

Alan Warren Friedman has defined the party piece as follows:

"Party pieces" are a peculiar kind of public self-representation. Neither formal recitals within a prepared program nor wholly spontaneous (like bursting into a drunken song), "party pieces" are something in between. Performed at festive gatherings to entertain the assembled group temporarily configuring itself as an audience, they are intended to create an atmosphere of conviviality, fulfill social expectations or requirements, and express or repay hospitality within a reciprocal economy in which host and guest may perform welcoming and after-dinner speeches. To perform willingly, or after minimal persuasion, is a sign of generosity; refusal may be deemed churlish.[https://www.jstor.org/stable/25474052 "Party Pieces in Joyce's 'Dubliners'"] by Alan Warren Friedman, James Joyce Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Spring, 1999), pp. 471–484.{{subscription required}}

The need to perform a party piece may occur at a seasonal holiday such as Christmas or New Year when family and friends are gathered and there is an expectation that everyone will contribute what they can to the entertainment. In December 1949, The Times wrote of the burden felt by children obliged to learn something by heart or of the adult who felt that he or she had little to offer, not being able to perform a card trick, bend a poker in half, or tear a telephone directory in two."Party Piece", The Times, 13 December 1949, p. 5.

In 2019, Rob Rawson wrote that although sometimes considered outdated, party pieces may provide opportunities for hidden talents to be revealed.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZNqEDwAAQBAJ&q=term+party+piece&pg=PT34|title=GO CREATE: Easy arts and crafts projects for worship and outreach|last=Rawson|first=Rob.|date=2019|publisher=Saint Andrew Press|isbn=9780715203767|location=Edinburgh|language=en|chapter=7. Pentecost}}

In 1717, the actor and playwright Colley Cibber wrote The Nonjuror as a party piece for King George II who paid Cibber £2,000 and appointed him poet laureate as a result.{{cite book|author=Lemprière, John.|title=Universal Biography: Containing a Copious Account, Critical and Historical, of the Life and Character, Labors and Actions of Eminent Persons, in All Ages and Countries, Conditions and Professions ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EsY8AQAAIAAJ&pg=RA23-PA2|volume=1|year=1810|publisher=E. Sargeant|location=New York|page=23}}{{cite book|title=A New and General Biographical Dictionary: Containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons in Every Nation &c.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OKkDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA532|volume=III|year=1798|publisher=G. G. and J. Robinson|location=London|page=532}}

The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge's party piece was the recitation of his poem "Christabel" which he performed for others many times before it was published in 1816.[https://books.google.com/books?id=yOtd_t0AqP0C&pg=PA662 "Coleridge's Literary Influence"] by Seamus Perry in {{cite book|editor=Frederick Burwick |title=The Oxford Handbook of Samuel Taylor Coleridge|year=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-165109-0|pages=661–676 (p. 662)}}

In the twentieth-century, the novelist D. H. Lawrence was said to recite the poetry of Swinburne as his party piece.{{cite book|author=Ellis, David & Howard Mills.|title=D. H. Lawrence's Non-Fiction: Art, Thought and Genre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMgV4rZ_3yMC&pg=PA146|year=1988|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-32739-8|page=146}} Alan Friedman has described the special place of the party piece in Irish literary culture in his book that explored their role in the output of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett.{{cite book|author=Friedman, Alan Warren.|title=Party Pieces: Oral Storytelling and Social Performance in Joyce and Beckett|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bE5mVONxR2gC&pg=PR15|year=2007|publisher=Syracuse University Press|location=Syracuse|isbn=978-0-8156-3123-1|page=15}}

In 2004, the Scottish broadcaster Sally Magnusson described a traditional Hogmanay in her family at which party pieces were performed that included the songs of Flanders and Swann, a rendition of the folk song "Sisters", an Australian medley by visitors from that country, and "an actor friend doing his Hamlet-in-three-minutes monologue".{{cite book|author=Magnusson, Sally.|title=Glorious Things: My Hymns for Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B62aMNVT5KEC&pg=PA94|year=2004|publisher=Continuum|location=London|isbn=978-0-8264-7417-9|page=94}}

British school teacher Raymond Butt was said to be able to recite pi to 3,500 places and to have once memorised the entire British railway timetable.{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/raymond-butt-obituary-9cbr7g9bc|title=Raymond Butt obituary|date=2 July 2018|access-date=28 August 2018|newspaper=The Times}}{{subscription required}}[http://canterburypilgrimsboatclub.yolasite.com/pilgrims-offcuts.php Raymond Butt – an Appreciation.] Clive Killick, Canterbury Pilgrims News. Retrieved 28 February 2019.

The term has also been used to describe techniques in demonstrating mathematics,{{cite book|author=O'Brien, Dominic .|title=How to Pass Exams|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c-57C2ebrFwC&pg=PT105|edition=3rd|year=2013|publisher=Duncan Baird|location=London|isbn=978-1-84899-166-8|page=105}} and even the ability to wiggle one's ears.{{cite book|author=Yeates, Sybil.|title=The Development of Hearing: Its Progress and Problems|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=24ChBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA38|year=1980|publisher=MTP Press|location=Lancaster|isbn=978-94-011-7215-8|page=38}}

The term is sometimes used to describe a virtuoso performance by someone in the normal course of their profession such as solos by the members of the rock group Cream, who have been described as each having one party piece during a concert: Jack Bruce with a harmonica solo, Ginger Baker with a drum solo and Eric Clapton with a vocal and guitar solo;{{cite book|author=Larkin, Colin. (Ed.)|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_NNmFiUnSmUC&pg=PA398|edition=5th concise|year=2011|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=978-0-85712-595-8|page=398}} and, in sport, the elimination race as ridden by the cyclist Laura Trott, which has been described as a "dramatic high speed event which has become her party piece".{{cite book|author=Fotheringham, William.|title=Racing Hard: 20 Tumultuous Years in Cycling|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fsXBFbAvX7wC&pg=RA2-PT214|year=2013|publisher=Faber & Faber|location=London|isbn=978-0-571-30363-2|page=214}}

• Oral tradition

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.artnet.com/artists/vida-g%C3%A1bor/his-party-piece-3QIhPKGWk-M8bx_ms6kIog2 His Party Piece] by Vida Gábor

Category:English phrases

Category:Literary terminology

Category:Culture of the United Kingdom

Category:Culture of Ireland