One Less Bitter Actor's Blog

This is the greatest blog of all time...

A tip of the hat to Kanye for handing me that blog title.

You have to wonder how someone who professes he wants to use his celebrity for "good," ends up grandstanding through someone else's moment. Or maybe you don't have to wonder at all...

Sure this is way after the fact, everyone has had their say but as usual I ponder things for a bit and then I see how it can used as a lesson for, well, good.

Celebrity is just odd. Anyone who can make themselves a spectacle can become a celebrity and "capture the imagination" (see Sarah Palin) of America. Anyone.

Kanye is a talented musician. But what makes one stand in the wings at an awards show (which is truly the top of celebrity events) and become so outraged by the selection of a winner that they feel compelled to set the record straight for the poor soul who was robbed. As if Beyonce could ever be seen as an underdog that needs fighting for.

my first thought...really...? strategy. Beyonce is married to one of the most powerful musicians in the biz. I don't know the record label politics but I do know that it's good to have Jay-Z on your side. Wanna show him you'd take a bullet for him or his wife...? Stop an awards show to tell the world that Beyonce's work is the best of all time.

That's massive guts and a massive claim.

But what did it get him?

Scorn.

This tells me Kanye's world is so small and so insular that he's lost touch with the planet and knows only his needs.  If you ever find yourself thinking that it would be okay to insult someone because recognition is being given to someone for their effort that you see as not only wrong but wrong on an "all time" scale...know that you've left the world of reality and know live in your own world. It might be nice to live there for a while but reality is a bigger place and it will find you.

Like it found a tongue tied and lost looking Kanye on Leno.

I received this email from a friend in NYC. He went to The Neighborhood Playhouse with me after getting an degree in English from Stanford,  now he’s a commercial producer.  He points out how  accepted  the concept of  form over function. For me it started with MTV and Madonna. Even when the world around me was hailing this new artist and new medium, I kept thinking that she was no more than a pop singer whose one trick would soon wear off. Which it did. She really isn’t much of a singer ( by her own admission) or dancer but she is a marketing wonder. Form over function. She introduced me to the idea of marketing yourself  like a product-- not a person, not an artist, not a musician. This is what has kept Madonna, the person, “on top” for so many years. It was my feeling that before Madonna the world actually demanded their artists have some art to offer, if even briefly, or they were rightly discarded. 

This is  my friend’s email...

Was depressed as hell watching the video premiere for "Fame" 2009 last night.  Why?  It's not because I despise hip hop as the death of authentic musicianship, which I do, (fast forward to 2049, and see if anyone will be remastering Kanye's songs for throngs of new fans -- see BEATLES) but here's the reason:

The original, Irene Cara version of the song was sung with such passion, vulnerability and hope that you really hoped she'd make it -- against incredible odds.  There is bluster in that vocal, just on the cusp of overcoming an inferiority complex, making you feel that if she believes enough, trains, works at it, it will happen.  It was sung to a driving, pop/rock beat that syncopated, instruments weaving in and out, giving you the feeling that nothing is certain, the world can turn, for good or bad, on a dime, and the best you can do is hold on for the ride and make the best of it -- live forever.  I always had the feeling that I was being invited into her world, where impossible things could happen, with tons of hard work, luck, and mantras of "I can do it."

This song was the best thing about the movie, which was mostly pretty damn hokey (by design - tip of the hat to old-time Hollywood musicals). 

Fascinating how the same lyrics can take on a different meaning when the beat changes.  The 2009 version is talk/sung to a steady, measured, medium/fast beat that never deviates.  It merely drives forward like metronome clockwork -- like time.  In the vocal and arrangement, success is a foregone conclusion, and vulnerability does not exist.  Passion is replaced with inevitability.  Luck doesn't exist.  Eat or be eaten - move forward, relentlessly - swing from award to award no matter what the cost.  This version is ALL bluster and no humility.

And this is the disease of fame in our current time.  Bowie nailed it in '74, as he did most things, way before it mainlined its way into the Zeitgeist, but at least you knew, being Bowie, that there was some irony in it (hammered home with Lennon's backing vocal and guitar).  No irony now, it's just depressing.  It's the kids doing stuff at 12 that I couldn't, or wouldn't imagine doing at 23.  It's a business that dresses little girls like whores and screws us all on her way up and back down.  The 2009 Fame-er won't merely strip for the audition, she'll blow the guy before he starts the camera.  The gay kid will only try to off himself once enough people watch on YouTube.  Apply years of technique and training to be on a reality show.

Congratulations.  You've made it.

Celebrity is the disease that keeps growing, feeding on need for fame.  Its shallowness will consume us all.  It's the ultimate distraction from the Evils Men Do in boardrooms and Congressional halls.

Those of you who aspire to get on a reality show  that can launch your career don’t need to train in an acting class. Hone your business and marketing skills, they willl give you the “market mindset” you need to succeed. 

If you want to offer your art to the world don’t mistake the bright lights of celebrity, for really having something to offer humanity. I’m not saying artists shouldn't know how to market themselves, they absolutely should. 

What I'm offering is the idea that the world is now full of people that have nothing but their marketing skills to market, their actual content is Twitter long and just as deep. Make your self uncommon to this practice. Offer your art and make people seek you out among the noise of distraction that has replaced meaning and content and real function.

Killing your own Mojo

I saw this on a friend's Facebook page...

"I have an audition next week for a teen comedy with ----- -----....omg thats a train wreck of a film waiting to happen....I can't wait till I can audition for some quality films."

I bet this sounds like something you've said in the past. We've all read bad writing and thought "Why are they wasting the money?!"  I just want you to consider the consequences of walking into an audition with a mind full of arrogance about the "trainwreck" this is going to be.

First; why even go?  Easy answer, right?  Because we need to work, we need the money, it's a film credit nonetheless, you never know what it could lead to...etc.

Okay then, why judge it? Well I warned this younger friend against doing that and this was the response I got back, "generally I'm pretty happy about all my auditions...but I'm human and have real emotions and there are times when I'm not gonna lie to people and tell them I'm excited about something when I'm not."

Defensive? Feeling...Judged?

Must you LOVE everything you audition for? No. I'm as critical as anyone about writing. 

The thing I cautioned this person about was creating a habit where you judge the audition harshly and fool yourself into thinking you're really doing your best work in there with a head full of "train wreck."  

So then you might ask, "yes, but if you hate it, can you really do your best work?" and the answer is, of course!  NEVER judge your character. Do the same work you'd do on Mamet or Shakespeare as a teen comedy. Why not? It might feel like over kill but altering your process because you leapt to a decision about the quality of the material, will alter the course of your creative process. The part may not require the same depth of research, but that will become apparent as you go. Don't start with the idea that the words are beneath your talent and you're doing that movie a favor but when a quality film comes along, that's when you'll be able to show off all that talent.

Starting your process with, "what a waste of time" clouds your thoughts and it clogs your artist up with value judgements. If it's really beneath you, then don't go. See if staying home felt better. or, see if you were just scared of some part of the audition and that made you judge it.

I read a script years ago that I thought was okay but way too simple and cliche'd for the star power attached and the budget. I couldn't understand why it was being made. When it came out I absolutely loved it. When I first read it I couldn't see in the words what other actors did, and it taught me that even after 15 years of doing this I had more to learn. 

I judged it pretty fast but I auditioned for it and I thought I did a solid job. I didn't get the part, but the film won a deserving Best Picture that year.  It was a good lesson. Maybe there is magic in the words you don't see at first, but reading the words through a "trainwreck" lens won't ever get you there. Your mind won't allow it.

If it is another senseless teen comedy that doesn't deserve your brilliance, your brilliance will tell you, just don't mistake your arrogance for your brilliance .