ACTORS

October 21st, 2009Blog1 comment

Your Mike Golamco is thinking about getting into acting. Just a little bit. Just for kicks. Maybe do other peoples’ staged play readings. Just for fun.

I remember when I first got into acting. I was in elementary school. I was so nervous they had to tape my lines to the inside of my cape. I was playing a vampire, so this was a smooth move. Plus this was well before the current vampire trend so I was ahead of the curve.

That early episode had two effects on me. First, it made realize that I should always be prepared from then on. Secondly, it made me really dislike acting. Oh yes, I did some acting again in college, but I was never in love with the process or the craft. I always liked writing more.

But now I’m thinking about studying it a little bit. Taking a class, volunteering to do a few staged reads for people.

These days I love being up in front of people, either doing a pitch or giving a speech. I feel totally comfortable up there when I know I’ve got good stuff to say — stuff that they want to hear. When I’ve got the pitch/speech memorized and I know it’s a good piece of work, being up there is no problem.

So maybe I could get back into this acting thing. Maybe it’d be fun.

I have a lot of friends that are actors. I respect actors tremendously, but I feel that there are so many people that want to be actors that it makes it very difficult for the people who actually should be acting. It sucks up the time and energy of casting people, agents, managers, producers, directors.

Plus acting is an unforgiving, extremely difficult way of life. It forces you to drive all over town, face rejection constantly, read and act material that you may not believe in, and sorts you into a very specific label/”type”. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. And yet hundreds of thousands of people come here and give it a go.

Now, there are some people that I’ve met that have it: The Thing. You look in their eyes, you watch them do their work, you see it. That Thing that lets you immediately know that, yes, this person will make it as an actor. It’s an amalgamation of many different smaller Things: Sheer, doubtless tenacity that is clear in the person’s eyes. Clarity. Fierceness that makes everyone else look sorta dull by comparison. And as our good friend Dave says, a successful actor is the kind of person that a casting director can look at and say, “I know exactly what to do with this guy.” Clearly categorizable, usable and useful.

And beyond that there’s the willingness to do hard work — to study, to put in the time, to do the motherfuckin’ work. And also the willingness to drive all over town, face rejection, etc.. And you don’t have to be leading man/woman-good looking, but it helps.

I know several people that have The Thing. Most of them are my friends, and all of them are successful actors.

I don’t have The Thing. But fortunately I don’t want to be an actor, and I have a different Thing.

But there is something I do have that could make me quite a decent actor:

I don’t give a fuck.

Not giving a fuck is a very useful attribute to have in any particular situation, but particularly useful in acting. I’m not saying that I don’t care — I care very much about everything I do. What I’m saying is that I have other things going on, so whether I am successful or unsuccessful as an actor is inconsequential to me. Therefore, no matter what I do up there, my confidence is always going to be sound as a pound. And confidence — total believability and an ability to never be shaken by your nerves — is essential to acting. You’ve got to be able to sell it.

Let’s take Ken Jeong for example. He’s a hilarious guy who is blowing up all over the place, most notably on Community. So the guy’s a doctor. His wife’s a doctor. He doesn’t need the money, he’s got plenty of it. So I’m pretty sure that he acts and does comedy because he loves it. And since he’s freed from the financial burden of having to book gigs to earn money, he doesn’t have to give a fuck about that and can concentrate purely on the work. I would argue that this is an ideal situation.

So not giving a fuck could conceivably make me quite an actor. However, it will also guarantee that I will never be a great actor or even a very good actor — since I don’t give a fuck, I will not give a fuck enough to be great or even very good. At best I will be a middling actor that is fun to watch. And maybe I can make up for this by utilizing my skill as a writer to properly disseminate and understand the material. But I guarantee you that I will be fine up there no matter what.

And honestly, that’s all I want. To be up there, to have fun, and to kick a little bit of ass.

Besides, I got this writing thing going on.