Actor Moment

I had one of those odd actory moments in rehearsal the other day.

I was doing one of my numerous monologues in the show and my perspective sort of stepped back in my head. I was still doing the monologue almost on auto-pilot, but a small part of my mind was freaking out. "What the fuck am I saying? Do we really open in 5 days!?! Holy fuck. What if I screw up the lines like I've been doing? Arrgh!"

It was a moment of insecurity. It happens. This was because I have the most lines in the play. It is a difficult play by a very erudite author, Tom Stoppard. The language is so British and so well written that it needs to be done the way it's written. And being a bit of a language purist, I want to get it right. You don't paraphrase Shakespeare or Stoppard. It is written in a way that makes it difficult to make up...

It's very odd to have a bit of your brain disconnected and still function on the task at hand. But people do it all the time, driving and talking on the phone, watching TV and building a nuclear weapon. (just checking to see if you are paying attention. ;)

The show will open this Friday, and we will be awesome...

A Compliment

In life you don't necessarily get compliments. You get compliments for doing the extraordinary, but not the things you do everyday. You do your job, but do people compliment you for doing your job? You may do it well, but do people notice and tell you that you are doing a good job?

I work in a lot of disciplines. Technical; acting; general awesomeness. But I got a compliment that surprised me today. This past week I was working on the Sci/Tech Oscars. This is the ceremony where they get a hot Hollywood chick to host the Academy Awards for the geeky stuff. This is sound and camera technology and computer stuff. In the Oscar awards it shows up as a 20 second clip.

In preparation for this event I had a long phone call with the guy running the crew. He wanted 2 riggers to come in for load in and to be there certain days. I told him I think I can do this myself, there's no reason to bring in another guy. I know the room, what he described to me was nothing unusual for me or the room. He said it was up to me. So I did the entire thing myself.

I was my normal competent self and did the job. It was pretty easy for me. Today as we loaded out he asked where I work. Who I work for? He told me he liked my work ethic. I said thanks. Because in his experience, when people say they "can do a job themselves, they don't need help", most of the time they are wrong. I was not.

Nice to get noticed and be appreciated.

So You Want To Go Into The Theatre

That is the title of a book by Shepard Traube I found. It's interesting. Let me give you the forward.

TO THE UNINITIATED

If you want to go into the theatre, you should be told that the odds are against you. You have one chance in a thousand--ask anyone who knows.

You have no way of proving you have talent until you've proved it.

The professional theatre is centered in New York and New York pays no attention to unknowns.

The chances are you are wasting your time if you make the plunge.

The intent of this book is to present the facts as they exist. Everything about this book is supposed to be discouraging.

You've probably been warned how hard it is to become a success in the theatre. It probably has had very little effect on you, and you probably won't pay too much attention to the cold statistics which crop up in this book.

Well, you are quite right-- if you have talent and nerve, the fact remains that there is a chance for you in the theatre and the information in this book may be valuable to you.

On the other hand, you may be disturbed by some of the cold facts and your fine enthusiasm is dampened.

So read at your own peril!

What a fucking buzz kill this guy is. The really funny thing? It was published in 1936. I guess even then the stage was not an easy thing. Or maybe this was the book that was given to aspiring actors and directors and producers by their parents to dissuade people.

"See? It's tough. You should go into haberdashery like your father. People will always need hats." I can imagine that there was a version of this book in the ancient Greek world. "Testacles, read these tablets before you waste your life trying to be an actor. Not everyone can be in the Chorus."

The powers that be will tell you "no." But after time all the "no" becomes background noise. You don't know what you can do until you try. The bitch of it is, you may fail. But you won't know success or failure unless you try.

P90X

Okay. I am back doing P90X. It the really tough work out that has been the latest fitness craze. I got to admit, it works pretty well. I'm mainly trying to lose what was, for the first time for me, a bit of a midsection tire.

My leg healed and I started doing it January 3rd. There are some of the DVDs I like. There are some I hate. Most of the workouts are 1 hour long. The Yoga X DVD is 1:30 long. But I got to admit, having done yoga for a number of years, it bores the shit out of me. I find endless sun salutations boring and not challenging. So I changed the yoga workout to suit me. I made it harder and less repetitious. I like the stand on your head type of stuff. It requires more strength than 500 sun salutations.

I have lost 10-15 pounds. And I notice I am a bit thinner in the waist. I had to get a belt for some pants that had previously been tight.

Only 7 more weeks to go. I think.

Facebook, Privacy, and Stalking

I got to admit I find it funny that people on Facebook get apps that tell them who is looking at their profiles, their pictures, and how often. If they were really so concerned with pictures and privacy, they wouldn't post anything on a social network that disseminates your information all over the world.

Instead of getting an app which tells you who is looking at your site, make the privacy settings super tight. If you think someone might be a stalker, don't "Friend" them. Or if they are a friend, unfriend them. So what if they might be offended. How often do you really see your FB friends in person or talk to them on the phone?

I know someone who has over 2600 "friends". I can't imagine what it would be like. I don't know that many people. My true friends I see in person. I talk to them on the phone. We go get a beer. Getting a beer with 2600 people would require a small stadium.

So where the fuck is this post going? I don't really know. I just wanted to vent. ;)

Banks Suck

I'm leaving Chase bank. I never actually started an account at Chase bank. Nor did I start an account at Washington Mutual, or Home Savings. I had a free checking account at Coast Savings 15 years ago. They were bought out, then that bank was bought out, then Wamu was bought out. So I have had 4 banks without ever leaving the building.

Because my account was a free checking account originally I was begrudgingly given a free checking account by one of the banks in the middle. JP Morgan Chase has changed the free checking to free with conditions.

1. $500 single direct deposit per month.

2. $1500 minimum daily balance

3. $5000 spread over all of your Chase accounts. Checking, savings, CD, money market.

I'm an actor, and I do production. I don't have any direct deposit with any of the 23 companies I might work with in any calendar year. Also, I'm as actor, I don't have $1500 or $5000 just hanging around.

So Bye-bye Chase. Your tellers were nice, but you don't need $10 a month from me to do your fucking job. Especially when you are making $4.3 billion recently and then 11 billion something the time before.

I did go in to talk to someone at Chase to find out if there was a way not to be charged beyond the 3 listed above. The guy said every bank will be charging for checking within a year. I doubt that. It sounded like something to say so that the customer would feel defeated by some inevitable juggernaut and not close their accounts.

I started a free checking account at a bank nearby in December in anticipation I would be making a switch. Then I overdrew my account while moving deposits to the new bank and didn't cover what was out there circling. Stupid of me not paying attention, but it happened 6 days ago, and Chase still has yet to notify me I'm overdrawn. But in this long delay, where I could have done something about it, 3 other things hit. All for the bargain price of $34 each. So I get screwed (yeah, I know, I should have paid closer attention.) for $136.

Banks are not out for the guy scraping by from paycheck to paycheck. It might be easier to stuff your mattress with $20s.

Hound

I got cast in the play, The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard. I'm playing one of the 2 leads, basically. The play is very well written, the playwright is the one who wrote the movie Shakespeare in Love. His dialogue is great, the vocabulary is awesomely English. I have huge chunks of monologue that I do.

I do feel the urge to do something with the words more than just say them. Because I am the sole focus for some large chunks of time, I feel the need to work the words to make them dynamic. Which is not acting. I'm just insecure that I won't be interesting enough to hold the audience for such a long period of time. The insecure actor in me wants to camp it up or over act because I think the audience will think, "He's still talking!"

Part of the problem is I'm just learning the words. I still need to find the music of them in relation to my character. It will work out. It always does. I did a one man show 3 years back. Over 90 minutes of me talking. But as the physicist Richard Feynman. It was a huge task, but I never felt the need to ACT because I knew and loved the character so well.

Just need to settle in...