Author: theactorvist

I love the Theatre. It's my church. It's my joy. I have been performing in plays and musicals for over half of my life, and I would be lost without it. Now more than ever, people are cutting back on everything that is too expensive or unimportant to their lives. As an actor, heck as a person, I don't know of anything that is more important than the arts. Art reflects history. It shows humanity at its worst but also its best. Every day some artistic program is getting cut from a school or a great show goes unseen. Maybe a talented singer isn't able to audition for American Idol. There are a ton of people who live in the South Bay Area of California, who go unseen or unheard. There are many production companies that are just bursting with talent, but people don't see the shows. I will do my best to bring you interviews with local artists of every kind, send out the call for local companies looking to cast people in productions, and much more. Stay tuned because this is only the beginning.

Have You Met My Mother…

Sunday was Mother’s Day.
So I called my mother.
She didn’t answer.
So I sent her a text message to which she replied almost instantaneously.

My mom is like me in a lot of ways. Or rather vise versa. Here are some of our shared traits:

Stubbornness
Refuses to ask for help
Loves pop music
Loud. Well… not so much anymore
Loyal
Always wants to learn
AND hates having her picture taken

My mother and I have had some tough times as I was growing up. Lots of arguing, smart-assed comments galore, and the like. I guess it was for some attention. Being number 3 out of 5 kids was never fun. My two older sisters were trouble makers in the fighting at school sort of way. My two younger siblings were
prone to tantrums if they didn’t get their way. My dad had a lot of trouble with the “law” so that left my mom to raise us mostly on her own.

I don’t know how she managed to do it. She just kind of hunkered down and got it done. That’s how she got over her smoking addiction. If she had withdrawls, we never saw them.

I don’t want to brag, but I was an observant kid. I knew she had her hands full with my sisters and brother, so I had to become independant. Almost like a latch key kid by my own choosing. I was never allowed to be home by myself because I had a knack for breaking things. (Radios, telephone, VCR, and a microwave) but when i knew no one was there, i would climb in through the window. I had a small supply of food items, mostly junk (what did you expect? I was a kid.) I kept to myself by decorating my room themed on current holidays or colors. I would get the colored paper from old magazines and cut it up. It was like I had my own little art class. My mom would see this and just shake her head.

She never understood my need to make stuff. To some degree, I still don’t think she does.

I always want to ask her sometimes, when we are just sitting quietly, if there was anything that she wanted to do but never got to. I never do. I guess I am too afraid to find out the answer.

If we are as similar as I think we are, I feel like there are so many things that she would do differently, which of course would mean a different future. So I don’t ask.

I am amazed at how she has coped with all the sh…tuff that life had given her to handle. I hope that I can be as strong as her whenever I need to be. She’s pretty incredible.

It’s All In The Timing. Well… Timing And Prep.

Last weekend, the Munster and I went to the Improv in downtown San Jose to see some com-e-dey. We have been before and had a blast. Especially when we saw the hysterical Bob Saget. With Crazy for You getting off the ground, I figured that I could use a little more comedy for these old bones.

The venue wasn’t especially busy so we sauntered right in. We got a pretty good table and waited for our waiter to order beverages. For the oustide of the building to look as meh as it does, I was surprised to find that rest of the place is actually well kept. The 4 lights that were out were way up out of the way, so they didn’t affect the room with random dark spots. We could watch the waiters and patrons as they came and went.

Eventually, the lights were dimmed and the host for the night stepped out of the wings. At first, I thought we were going to be stuck with an incredibly lousy show but after a few attempts at audience connection he found a chuckle here and there. He introduced the featured comic who was an energetic self depricating jokester. Her jokes were funny mostly, but there were a few that toed the pity/uncomfortable line. Even so, she plodded through her set-ups to get to the punchlines. I appreciated her energy and fight to keep the audience engaged.

The headliner it turns out was an insult comic. So for the most part he bashed on the crowd. The first thing he did was to tell the audience what to expect, and did tell people who are easily offended that they should probably leave. True to his word, he shocked the house into laughs by saying some truly cringe worthy remarks. The problem I had with the performance was during the last 20 minutes, he didn’t have any filler jokes between the times he was trying to think of something say about one of the spectators. This in turn led to a lot of people stirring their drinks on the silence. Hearing the ice cubes bouncing off the sides of glasses killed any momentum he was working toward and draining the smiles off of the crowd’s faces.

I don’t know how to do stand up, but I would imagine that it could only benefit a comic to have a few jokes in their bag of tricks for just these kinds of moments. You know, kind of like how an actor needs to have songs and monologues prepared just in case at auditions they ask for another song or speech. Or maybe you didn’t know that.

I do know about performance though. And nothing is worse than not being able to get to the payoff OR not being able to harness that energy built and drive it back into the crowd to keep them with you.

Next time you go to a comedy club, take a moment to watch the give and take between the audience and the performer. It is amazing when everything goes right, and still pretty fascinating when it doesn’t. At least for the audience anyway. For the performer, it pretty much sucks a turd. I would say to try it at a show, but those are stories of moments that all tie together so you have to pay attention.

Have you ever tried stand up? I’d love to hear your experience. Drop me a line and we’ll chat!

Inspiration or Insanity…

2014-04-13 18.54.55 — Image taken on 4/13/14

I have been called crazy probably a million times.

Lemme ask you something. Is it crazy to look for ideas from the world around me? For example, the picture above is actually a white strip in a parking lot that marked the spot that I parked in. Upon opening the door, I looked down immediately and saw this. I know most people will see random grey and white markings and not much else. To me, it looks like a cosmic notice calling out. I can see my name. Well, at least the first 3 letters. What are the odds that I was just about to put my foot on this exact spot as I got out of my car.

This is how I see the world. Check out this:

This image I took in the parking structure of the Santa Clara Library. It is simply a tire smudge on a column. I see a Native American tribal elder.

I call this one a Crystal Skull. I got this image when I was closing a window one day. This is just a reflection off the glass, but it freaked me out a little. I know that our brains are hard wired to look for patterns. Facial patterns are usually the easiest ones to recognize. I find a ton of them in the dots on our bathroom floor.

I don’t like to think of myself as crazy, though I can see why people would use that word. I know that my imagination is always working. Sometimes it is a curse when I can’t turn it off at night. I like my skewed view of the world and even though I see a lot of dark things like this image above, I try to always focus on the fun and happy things.

Goofy things are the best kind of things and they always seem to find me. I call the next one “red Wilson” Hahahahaha.

2014-04-14 18.46.47 — Image taken on 4/14/14

I never thought I would find a use for any of these pics aside from the first one, but it was nice to dig back in my photos to see this pattern emerge.

I look at the world and see things all the time that I glean ideas from. The smallest things like a steady stream of cars driving over a grate give me the beginnings of a beat for music which I usually forget before I can get to a computer. I will see the way a vine trails up a stake and seek to place that motion into a dance step.

Somewhere in my “insanity” I find my inspiration.

How do you get inspired? Nature hikes? Those are fun, too.

It Is Finished…

Cast and Crew of SUPERSTAR being goofy! Photo by Edmond Kwong

I have been pussyfooting around the acknowledgement that this show that I have lived with for the last 13.5 months has finally come to an end. On my last two days off of work I was expecting to get hit with a blast of depression that comes with ending a show. One of this magnitude, I was sure would take me out of the game for a while. But it never came.

When we started this show, I said I see this show as a fight for love. Instead of the show being a simple Judas wronged Jesus, it was accidental. There was no one to “blame.” Everything was supposed to happen. Like Jesus sings, “You’re far too keen on where and how but not so hot on why.” I wanted a positive spin on the show. I also wanted Jesus to be as human as everyone else. My hope was that people would be moved to see a fellow human being treated so horribly during act 2. To see that he was afraid and sad but still willing to go through this for his love of the people. I had the white out at the end to ask the audience to look inside and find your love for your fellow man and for hope that this world can be a better place in doing so.

Then I was lucky enough to get this amazing, supportive cast! But my luck didn’t run out there. One of the very first things I fought for was an amazing sound department which was an incredible 3 man team. So John, Dan, and Brett: Thank you for an outstanding job with this difficult show! The crew was small but mighty and headed by an amazing Stage Manager, Ms. Pye! I am grateful to the amazing producers Nancy and Liz, who worked so tirelessly to ensure that the vocal director, Judy, and music director, Jean, and I had everything we needed.

I have realized that there is a reason for the non-depression. As I disassemble the Blooming Wall, I have the chance to read all the beautiful paper “flowers” with things that people love. Simple things. And I understand that we did exactly what we set out to do. We did share the love.

And so did they. With that in mind, what is there to be depressed about?

To ALL of you, I cannot say thank you enough.

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Keep Your Eyes on the… Oh Tap Dancing!

Antsy that I didn’t have a next project, aside from something I need to create from the ground up, I auditioned for the baseball play “Take me Out” and for the musical “Crazy for You” to varying degrees of success.
The play is being produced by Dragon Theater, and I have been trying and dying to do a show there. At the callbacks there were about 15 other gentlemen there. The ones I auditioned with were all great. That didn’t make me nervous. The nudity in the play didn’t make me too nervous, but what I think was my kryptonite was when the director had me only read for one of the characters that only speaks Spanish.

NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo……..

Damn, delicious caramel colored skin. I know some Spanish, but I cannot carry on a conversation! Curse you, terri ble high school decisions!! Why did I opt for French, when Spanish is so much more useful? I am sure longtime readers can see the pattern that I never take the easiest route. That’s what I get for being an “on a whim” person. After the reading, he actually said, “I completely believed that you were fluent in the language. That was really good.” I felt much better after he said that.
Sadly, my happy fuzzies would only be a fleeting moment. He then asked us to circle up and after doing so, he brought out a baseball. It looked like it had been well used. The dirt on it wasn’t just on the surface of the ball. It found a home in the small wrinkles of the cover and stained a majority of the surface. He began to use it as a type of hackey sack for his hands. Each time he would use the back of his hand to catch it, I could hear the hard ball knock against his knuckles. He wanted us to do the same and being the slight germaphobe that I am, I already didn’t want to play. With everyone’s hand in the center, I figured that odds are pretty good that I wouldn’t have to touch it.
Yeah, those were terrible odds to count on. I dropped the ball like 4 times and threw it wildly to, or more accurately at, someone. Ahh, then the horrible memories of high school phys ed came flooding back and all I wanted to do was to get back into my car and drive away and sing. No me gusta, my friends. Not inthe slightest.

Then, last Thursday, I got to audition for “Crazy” which was a show I didn’t really know much about. After some research, what sold me was the character motivations. I realized only after I got to the hall that I had no music, as I had spent much of my time searching for tap shoes that have long been missing thanks to a car break-in and a pilfering of my dance bag. So sans music and sans taps, I nervously walked into the hall. There was a quick round of “how do you do’s?” Sides were given and we got right into some renditions of “Happy Birthday” and then into reading. I never try to think “what can I do to be funny” because that never seems to work for me. Instead, I try to find an exaggerated way of saying a word here and/or a line there that I think may make sense in a regular conversation. It doesn’t always work out, but I lucked out. There was a lot of laughing and I left there feeling good about being able to play with the script and finding some solid moments with only a handful of minutes to see the scene.
And now we wait…
Welp, as I was writing this, I got my “thank you for auditioning” letter for the play. Not that I was expecting to get in. Just glad I didn’t chicken out of going in the first place. Feels good to move past a blockage that I had created for myself. Oh, there is still a wall there, mind you. It’s just now there is a window for me to jump through whenever I decide to open it.

With the P.E. feeling still fresh, I wish I tried to participate more in the group games. Archery and track were the only things I did more than half well. Do you think a more partipatory role in high school sports would have been beneficial? Did you have a good experience in your P.E. classes? Or were you more of a lone player like myself? Lemme know in the comments below!

Thanks for readin’!