Watch Me!

There are so many people out there who will tell you that you can’t. What you’ve got to do is turn around and say “watch me”

 

If there is one thing that I have learned from my friend and mentor, Jim, it’s that there is nothing I cannot do. Jim would tell us to say “I Can” in rehearsals to keep us from telling him that we couldn’t do things because he was tired of all the people who would say “I can’t…”. The funny thing is that if you say it enough, you really begin to believe it, so, yes, I took this one step further, and have attempted to remove the phrase “I can’t” from my everyday life. I’ve been trying this for some time now, and it’s had a drastic affect on my life, and I’ve come to realize that I like it even less when someone else say’s “I can’t” for me. What I’ve come to realize is that when someone tells you that you can’t, it isn’t because they don’t think you can. A majority of the time, it’s that either they do not believe they can and thus neither can you, or they will not let themselves.  Now this is not always the case, sometimes they are truly concerned for your well being, but there is a difference between “shouldn’t” and “can’t”.

 

So here’s a challenge:

The next time someone asks you to do something, seriously consider all the reasons why you want to say “I can’t”, then realize you can say “I can”, even if you have to follow it up with “but I’m not going to”, then comment and let me know how it felt. And if you don’t mind sharing, leave a comment about any time when you wanted to say “I can’t”, but didn’t, then describe for me what resulted. Good or bad, I’d like to hear both.

 

2009 Phantom's Feaste Auditions!

Wednesday night found me out at the KC Renaissance Festival grounds standing in an empty feast hall with about 30 other people. All of us were ready to lay our emotion on the line, bare our souls to an as of yet unknown audience, and show how we can break through our own limitations and comforts. Yes ladies and gentlemen, we were there to audition for the 2009 Kansas City Renaissance Festival’s Phantom’s Feaste: Kansas City’s only Adult Halloween Dinner Theatre.

(2008 Phantom's Feaste: Adam as Ancil, and Me as Vlad)

I hadn’t actually been sure I was going to audition this year. I had been looking at being a server, and dancing in the Macabre Cabaret, and doing those wouldn’t have allowed me to perform. When I hadn’t heard back about being a server, I made the decision that I still wanted to be a part of the show, so I’d audition for all the roles I could, and just see what happened.

(2009 Phantom's Feaste: Wendy as Bella)

By the time the evening was over, I had auditioned for Frankenstein’s Monster, Igor, a Maniac, Dr. Jekyll/ Mr. Hyde, Dorian Grey and a Cabaret Dancer. Each role was fun to audition for, and after losing the weight I wanted to, I had no problems running around in next to nothing. Even though I was exhausted, and not at the top of my game, my mind wasn’t making the leaps and connections it normally would have.

(2009 Phantoms Feaste: Maniacs)

(Matt, Me, Andy, Cody)

(Adam, Curtis)

I feel that I gave a very strong audition, and casting could have gone a number of ways. Cody and I were pretty neck and neck for the roles we were both going for (Maniac, Monster, Igor), and we were feeding off of each other’s energy. What made me really happy, was that we weren’t competing! We helped each other because neither of us were in a this or nothing situation. Even though Cody really wanted to be a Maniac, he couldn’t help but be awesome as the Monster or Igor, and I believe that even though he didn’t feel the connection with the Monster, he had it. And that is why the casting went the way it did. Cody will be Frankenstein’s Monster, and I will be Igor! Check out the full Cast List, everyone did a really great job this year. I did not envy Maestro at all, everyone put on their best performances, I was so proud and impressed!

Acting Needs: Training

Last night I attended my very first Film Acting class! Thanks to Bailee and KCStage I found a great little training studio just up the street from where I live. It’s Brian Cutler’s Commercial Actors Studio, and the main instructor is none other than Brian Cutler. The class set-up is done so that all the levels are in the same class together, just working on varying degrees of difficulty. Every time you take the class, you move up to more difficult levels, and new students join in and get to learn not only from the instructors, but from the more experienced students as well. Last night was the first night of a 4 week On-Camera Class, and we started with Commercials. So the two other new students and myself got to watch the dozen other actors perform what they had been working on (oh, almost forgot, they film it all with lights and sound so you get a feel for the camera), and then received a little extra instruction about marks, slating, and things to keep in mind before we did our own one-line commercial. We were then given notes, and got to try a couple more times. Before the night was over everyone had a couple more commercials to shoot, and us first timers had some larger ones, and a partner one as well. After everyone presented what they had been working on, we then got to watch and critique all the shoots we just did. During all of this Brian and Jill (who was running the camera) were giving constant feedback, and would take the time to talk about auditions and agents, even what to and not to wear to a Film audition (guess what color is most suggested to wear…blue! Blah!). The great part was the other people in the class, everyone is very welcoming, supportive and encouraging.
I realized that I have a lot to learn. While yes my experience in theatre will help me, I've always been winging it when it comes to camera work. There are some very little things that I could do to be better. For example, I need to work on keeping the action and energy of a scene going until the director says cut. I usually would freeze when the scripted action was done, I did this because I didn't know what else to do. What I was doing was making the directors job more difficult by giving them less to work with. The second major thing is that I keep shifting my eyes away from the camera. I've become so used to being told not to look at cameras (photo, not video) that I've adapted it to film as well.
Next weeks class will be cold reading of scripts! The format will be very similar to the commercial class, I can't wait!

Well I had a busy 3 day weekend, relaxing, fun, but busy. This is going to be a long Post, just warning you!

On Saturday I went out to opening day at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival, and had a marvelous time. This was a little awkward for me however. It was the first time I had been out there not performing since the fall of 2004. Heck, I even went so far as to go in Jeans and a T-Shirt, and walked around with a plastic cup full of alcohol. Jake and I called this our “date” as both of our girlfriends are a part of Festival, and we’re not. We watched the Gypsy Girls “Troupe Mystique” first thing, followed by the Gypsy Boys “The Kumpania Boleyn”. Both shows were very well done, and I have to say Bailee looked beautiful up there on stage in her gypsy costume! (Yes Cody, so did you but I prefer Bailee by quite a bit!)

(Bailee as Natasha Artiene)

We then walked around for a bit, sat in and watched “John Mallory and Family”, then got more to drink. After a rather disappointing Parade, we ended up going to the “Fabulous Feaste of Fooles” for the Murder Mystery lunch, and my answer got chosen for the stupidest answer they’d heard (which is what I was going for). The show was hilarious, and the food was delicious, I highly recommend it (if you have the money to spare)! After Feaste I met up with Madame Red and her lovely working wenches, and they escorted me to the Chess Match and made me the envy of every man there.

(Azure and Madame Red)

Chess Match was a little ruff, the dialogue was excellent, but being opening day the fights still needed to be tightened up and made believable. Jake and I then caught the Faerie Dance at the Maypole, they danced so well, and I loved that they let the kids join them. Oh, and Noland, you looked beautiful too, and I bet you thought I wasn’t going to say anything. From here we headed went over to watch the Gypsy Showdown, Jake and I cheered very loudly for the Girls to come back whenever the boys were dancing (sorry guys!). The day ended with Last Huzzah and Gypsy Revel outside the gates. Overall, it was a beautiful day, everyone worked their butts off, and I think I can speak for all the patrons that we had fun. I admit, it was hard for me to not go up to random strangers to ask them how their day was and if they were enjoying themselves, and the hardest part was not approaching children to play with them, cause then I would have just been some Creepy McCreeper guy, and that’s just not cool!

Sunday was my second of three shoot days for Paragon the movie. This was a very simple shoot, we were only doing 1 scene, it had a total of 5 lines between 3 characters, and I had 2 of the 5 lines! *does a little happy dance* This really has been a different experience. There really is no rehearsal aside from running the scene a couple of times before filming (even that is filmed just in case), and it doesn't take a whole lot of time. Totally different from Theatre. Once we were done filming, we got everything set up and reviewed lines for the next scene. I then went shopping for my new costume for my gypsy character Apollo, and went home and created some new jewelry. Kind of a non action packed day (I need those sometimes).

Monday had me back out at the Renaissance Festival! I didn’t go out with anybody specific on Monday, but I ended up hanging out with a number of different people. I walked around mostly, looked in some shops, and hung out with Madame Red and her girls for a good part of the morning (they had me shirtless almost the whole time I was with them). I also got to watch the new “Bawdily Harm” show, which I have to say has the best fights I’ve seen at Festival so far. I caught the first scene of the Scenario “The Battle of the Bards”, I was so happy for Wendy as Marlow, she gets sword fights! I was then pulled up on stage to “audition” for the plays being done by the dueling bards (Romeo and Elspeth by Shakespeare, and César by Marlow), I made a right proper full of myself, I know who’d have guessed! I finally got to see a show by the “Washer Well Wenches”! For about 3 years now I have always told people to go see this show, and I’d never even seen it myself! Now I know why I always told people they needed to see it, I laughed so hard! I then met up with Bradford and Andy, we went and watched the “Royal Masque” being done by court this year. It was an all musical Masque with a good story, and was really well performed. I have to learn it because Prince Phillip cannot be there for 2 days in October, so I will be filling in for him (I couldn’t say no, Patrick couldn’t think of anyone else), so come see me the 3^rd and 17^th of October! Then I met up with Mandy and Allen, and we went to see Chess Match (much improved since Saturday), and then went to the “Royal Smoker”, no, I didn’t smoke, just drank. Oh, and Roger, if you’re reading this, please let them serve WoodChuck, I’ll buy a ticket if they get WoodChuck *does a sad and pathetic Oliver Twist voice*. The show was properly rude, crude, and completely adult! Then to end the day we went to Pub Sing, again, rude, crude, and completely adult! Loved it! If you can’t tell, on Monday, Bailee had to drive home.

So there you have it, my Labor Day Weekend. I hope you all had just as good a time as I did, if not more so. And if you haven’t gone yet, go to the Renaissance Festival! You’ll have fun, I know I did!

It is no secret that I have an overactive imagination, in fact most the time my mind is in about 5 different times and places doing a million different things. This active imagination of mine is kind of why I started acting. After college, with the loss of easy access to pianos and violas, I needed a creative outlet to contain my constant daydreaming. Acting was a way for me to "Play" the scenarios that took place in my mind, and I get to pretend to be other people, it's the greatest thing in the world. So it really should come as no surprise that one of my favorite cartoon characters is Calvin and his pet/toy/best friend Hobbes. Calvin always had the best adventures with Hobbes, but he never left his backyard. This style of play was the staple of my childhood, and I drew inspiration from Calvin! So when I came across this rewritten version of the best comic ever, I almost cried. This is what Calvin would be like if he were a modern day child and today's child psychologists got a hold of him:

(Don't know if I can legally show this, but the copyright is on still on it!)

Found it here: www.thehighdefinite.com/2009/08/this-is-the-saddest-thing-ive-ever-seen//

And just like that, no more adventures, no more cannibalistic snowmen terrorizing the front yard, and no more imaginary friend (I can feel the tears coming again!). I think the reason this is so sad, is because it is true. Psychologists today would more than likely spend 10 minutes with young Calvin, prescribe 3 different medications for ADD and ADHD, and call him cured (there is nothing wrong with him in the first place!). Then I look at all the other children in comics that I grew up with: Charlie Brown would be on anti-depressants while Lucy van Pelt was in anger management courses and Schroeder was being treated for OCD. Dennis the Menace would be in a home for boys with behavioral issues, and Hagar the Horrible would be a contestant on "The Biggest Loser" with Garfield!

Sorry, went on a bit of a tirade there, but when you think about it, it's really scary and sad, especially for a guy like me with a highly active imagination and a Peter Pan complex to top it all off. I keep thinking, if I were a kid today, would my parents have medicated me? If so, then I would never have even thought about acting as a creative outlet, and I would not be posting on this blog right now.