Click...it's the 'Other Half'

It's Monday morning, post-July 4th celebrations and I'm ransacking my brain about what to write, ah-hem, blog about this week. It's summer, people take off. I hate that.

And June was well...Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, Billy Mays, David Carradine...how many eclipses were there?!

It was a holiday weekend and it seemed the only people in the industry that were working were those online casting websites that charge you a package deal for a year's worth of submissions. You almost feel like you're talking to a car insurance salesman.

I am flummoxed. There's not a lot going on and I hate that THAT is what I'm hearing. I have to be in the world where there IS stuff going on, all the time!

People are leaving LA and going back to NY because there's nothing going on; and others are doing just the opposite for the same reason. 

I look to my cross country friend in New York for inspiration. I'm sure he's in his cubicle, smoothie in hand, looking for a temporary pause from his corporate world.

"You could also talk about non-actors in the sea of acting," he suggests, "the other half". I start to feel something stir, I like the title.

"People who live in LA and really are not directly tied to the entertainment business...", it was something about the way he continued that sentence (which is not shown here) that made me ask.

"Did you ever have fancies for it (acting) yourself?", I wondered

"Acting, yes," he replies.  And there it is; I realize just how close and who that 'other half' is...

"I was in a play as a kid, and then I was in the improv club in college." he admits.

I had no idea. I guess I had never asked. Most people at some point in their lives are dazzled by the thought of pursuing the arts as a career. But the reality is that it is most likely a harder life than not.

I always knew my cross country friend was artistically inclined, what with his music tastes, traveled world view, and his Carpe Diem philosophies about life. Like attracts like after all.

"You really think I am dull," he says and I am reminded of all the people I know who once in their life had thought about doing what it is I have set out to continue to do regardless the odds.

And no, I never thought he was dull; not by a long shot. I had always and presently still admire the life he has built for himself, at times even envy it.

"But it was never a dream for me...because I wanted to make the world a better place and it is a lot harder to impact poverty (other than your own) when you are in a play, not that making people smile or cry isn't a benefit for the world," he explains while I try swallowing the guilt-ball that has suddenly formed itself in my throat.

I have friends that today are starting out in the business after just having left previous careers; not jobs, careers in finance, chemical engineering, consulting, the list varies.

A director that I worked with in 2000 once said to me that he never felt like he got that 'click' that you're supposed to get when you suddenly realize you're an adult in 'adulthood', with adult responsibilities and tendencies. 

He thought that maybe that's why he pursued the arts. He wanted to keep on 'playing', pun intended.

I wonder if it is this 'click' that separates someone like me from my cross country friend; me from the 'other half'. But I can't think of anything else, at age 17, that I would have wanted to go to college for, or that I felt passionate about, besides storytelling...'click'.

But my cross country friend has a point. Why is it that audiences worship more the actor who played the part as opposed to the person who lived the life? Isn't it more appropriate to applaud John Nash as opposed to Russell Crowe, who 'played' John Nash? 

And is this lack of the 'click' an indication that half of us are stuck in some sort of Peter Pan Syndrome attitude towards life?

The sometime financial sacrifices almost force upon us an arrested development, not to mention the irregularity of romantic relationships and commitment.

"Do you have any regrets (on not pursuing a career as an actor)?", I ask.

"I guess I missed an opportunity to live fast, meet models, get paid to tan and obsess over my proper inflections", he quips sarcastically.

And yet somehow, I don't think you solely have to be an actor in order to do the above mentioned activities.

He then tells me to start watching the HBO series, "Californication" as a means of understanding the rest of his philosophies. This makes me wonder; which came first, the character or the real man? And what would one have to do, to get to that 'other half'?

(photos courtesy of punchstock)

Yours Truly -- Ann Hu

Comments

[Shawn Dempewolff]

I was just about to start writing a 'nothing to write about' blog. You have beaten me to the punch. Humph.

I'm still waiting for the click.

[Rodney S. Siau]

Ann,

You hit on something with that article. I had that click, but I felt that the adult thing to do was to pursue performing. When you love something, there will be sacrifices, but the money will come. It's about living your life as you see fit. Yesterday was my 31st birthday. I want an X-Box 360 so badly, but why haven't I bought one yet, you ask? Because, the adult in me knows that buying a new keyboard will get me a lot farther in my music and my career versus the X-Box that will take the kid in me away from practice time. Kids needs discipline. The kid in me loves to play music, but it's the adult in me that gives me the discipline to practice at least 15 minutes every single day. It's the nature of the instrument. YOU MUST PRACTICE EVERY SINGLE DAY.

To a certain extent, there is some arrested development. Both my brother and my sister own houses. Financially, they are way more stable than me. Financial ability does affect dating, but then I've never been big on dating any way. I think dating sucks.

As we speak, I just put gig money in my traditional IRA.

To paraphrase my mother, the little kid in you never goes away.

I think that becoming an adult is the older you working together with the younger you to accomplish your goals. Pardon the MJ reference but, "with a child's heart, you can face the worries of the day." You had these dreams when you were young. Now, you have the where-with-all to pursue them. Persistence and perseverance. Lessons you were taught as a kid to carry you into adulthood.

Keep pushing.

Rodney