From BERLIN, GERMANY
May 10th, 2008
Dudes, oh dudes. (Am I allowed to say "dudes" when in Europe? Will the cool police come and get me and throw me in the loser tank for the night?) Dudes, my darling ones, mein dammen und herren, here I am safe and sound across the pond, madly typing away on a silly Euro keyboard from Berlin before catching my overnight train to Big Fat Gay Paree. Just wanted to say a few words from Germany.....
APFEL!
VERGNÜGEN!
ACHTUNG!
PFANNKUCHEN!
That's all. Goodbye.
(Most blessedly short update the Tourist has ever written! All this German efficiency must be rubbing off on me.) On second thought.........
Okay, first of all, Berlin is pretty awesome. I hadn't pictured it quite so green, and even though I'd read somewhere that the city is something like 40% green space, I had to be here to really comprehend what that means. (Hey, no one ever said I was the brightest bulb on die tannenbaum.) It means trees EVERYWHERE, stupid. Parks everywhere. And then - get this, concrete-dwelling Torontonians - trees.....that aren't even in parks. Now that's just weird. I mean, get off it already, fancy Europeans. Seriously.
The weather here is insanely good right now, so it's a prime time to enjoy all this nature and crap. I arrived what should have been completely exhausted but the sunshine managed to wake me up, miraculously. I'm about eighty days behind on sleep right now. And I only got here on Thursday.
After a fairly sleepless Tuesday night in Toronto, I took the bus to the airport from Kipling Station, which I'd never done before. There we all are, a gang of strangers on the bus platform waiting for the Airport Express, and I'm thinking, Hey, Isn't this neat!
Surely this was no ordinary TTC bus. It would be full of world travellers, both excited and sophisticated. We'd talk about our travels, share stories and advice, wish one another luck. I thought we'd, I don't know, hold hands and stare into one anothers' eyes and join in singing It's a Small World After All. I'd get lots of autographs in my yearbook, and comemmorate the experience with a new tattoo. I thought it would be beautiful.
Instead, everyone just shoved their fat asses and their suitcases on and glared at one another, like on any other bus ride. I was the only idiot who couldn't stop grinning, undaunted even by the puffy, scary man across the aisle whose face looked like it had the habit of being punched at least twice a day and who continually glared at me as though he wanted me dead.
I became (still cheerily) convinced that he was a regular user of this route for the sole purpose of robbing tourists at the airport, and promptly reported him to security as a terrorist when we arrived. Last I saw, they were punching him in the face.
I boarded the plane with my usual assortment of undeclared liquids, gels, illicit drugs and a miniature chainsaw, and some declared shampoos and things in their little see-through case, each of which airport security insisted on swabbing with some mysterious goop. Because the bottles have no labels, security woman says. What does the goop do, say I, merely curious. We have to put it on if there are no labels, she says. Yeah but, I say again, what does it DO? Then she tells me if I don't want goop next time I should buy mini travel shampoos and things instead of using my refillable blank ones. As if I couldn't have filled a Head and Shoulders bottle with something else. I explain that I don't like wasting the plastic. She looks at me like I'm a retard. I punch her in the face and run away. Problem solved!
Another thing that joined me on the plane was my arsenal of sleep thingies. I had my soft fuzzy eye mask (like a teddy bear is sitting on your face), my earplugs, my pillow, my syringe of heroin........all the things a seasoned traveller brings to conk out en route. Unfortunately, I'm also a quite accomplished insomniac, damn me, and didn't get one wink. When I did drift just to the edge of sleep, the army of screaming babies attacked. This one kid five rows behind me spent most of the trip screeching as if his mother had ripped his arms off. I was ready to suggest she do it, as having arms was obviously doing nothing for him.
And there's the broad next to me, no earplugs, no eye mask, nothing......out absolutely cold. Lucky German bitch.
I've decided that all planes should have a soundproof room on them for babies and for frat boys who want to spend flights comparing, A) How drunk they got where they were, and B) How drunk they plan on getting where they're going. And another soundproof room for me and me alone. Oh why didn't God make me deaf? Instead, he made me funky.
So I arrive in green Berlin at nine (Berlin time) the next morning, take a cab in and drop my stuff off at the hostel (which I can't check into until THREE), and spend the day wandering along the River Spree, sitting in a beach chair at a waterside bar, and napping briefly in a park full of Berliners tanning in their underwear. By the end of day one I'd developed a tan and some truly silly tan lines..... It was great. It's been upwards of 25 Celsius here every day, and the outdoor life in Berlin is glorious. Every bar has a patio, the Spree is covered in them, the parks are gorgeous (Volkspark Friedrichshain would be the biggest and best park in any other city; here it's number two or three. When I come back here after Paris I'll hit Tiergarten, the big one, which is enormous.)
So yes, The Tourist is staying in a HOSTEL. I know, I know, I'm too old for this shit. I just really wanted the experience of bedbugs and diseases caught from toilet seats. Joking. This place, East Seven Berlin, is cute and clean and looks like an IKEA catologue come to life. I did have my own private room the first night, and then switched to a dorm with five other people (mostly Germans who won't speak to me) as the singles were booked.
I was unsure how I felt about sharing a room. Everything I'd read told me this place was not a big party hostel, but still, I anticipated staid old me being woken by loud nighttime partiers stumbling home. Instead...well....reverse that. Yep. I'm the asshole.
Day two I decided to take a walking tour of the city that leaves from the hostel, expecting something kind of serious yet informative. I didn't know it would end up leading me to partyland. (Indirectly, of course).
The tour was led by Sylvia, a hot chick from Montreal who's been running tours all over the place the last ten years - she arrived in Berlin three years ago and was giving tours of it a week later. Our tiny group set out and picked up people at another hostel and in a park until it was a group of about twenty, some Yanks, some Brits, a very gorgeous Frenchman, a couple from Senegal and a gaggle of blondes from Calgary, who managed to typify everybody's idea of the obnoxious American tourist. Ah, Alberta, doing us proud as usual. They were a few of the many people I encountered who were "doing Europe" in a few weeks, which of course means two days in each place, hence hostels and pubcrawls with fellow tourists, and very little else.
Anyway, Sylvia was not only cute but very insightful and an excellent tour guide, and had a definite twisted Canadian sense of humour, which made for a few odd jokes that were lost on everyone but me and may have seriously confused the Calgarians. At one point she actually referred to Goering as "everybody's favourite Nazi"; all she said about the Huguenot museum was that she had never actually seen anyone go into it.
We saw a great many of the sights-to-see, including the Holocaust Memorial, which is quite amazing, the Brandenburg gate, Checkpoint Charlie, a piece of the Wall, and a parking lot outside an apartment complex. This particular lot is situated on top of the former site of Hitler's bunkers where he and Ava Braun and the gang spent their final days. No sign , nothing. Just a parking lot. I think the idea was that to acknowledge it would be to glorify him in some way.
Berliners have put so much thought into these things; I read that there are over 200 memorials all over the city, some big, some small, some hardly noticeable unless you know where to look. In the square where the Nazi book burning took place, there is a tiny window in the ground: you look into it and see an underground library full of empty bookshelves. Across the way, Humboldt University, whose students helped Goebbels gather the books to be destroyed, holds a used book sale out front 365 days a year by way of an apology. It's taken the almost twenty years since reunification to decide what to do about the former East German parliament; after much heated debate, they are only now tearing it down, brick by brick. The Neue Wache Memorial is quite moving and very controversial. It's stark chamber containing only a statue of a grieving mother holding the body of her son. It's also the resting place of - here's the controversial part - both an unknown German soldier and a Holocaust victim, and is dedicated to all the victims of war.
It's no wonder Berliners aren't the smiliest lot. They're being reminded every single place they go and every day that they were complicit in something unspeakably terrible. I think it's wonderful how thoroughly their stance has been to not let themselves off the hook.
A very strange note: a company recently given a contract for a preservatory substance for the Holocaust memorial turned out to be the same company that manufactured Zyclon B, the death chamber gas. When this was discovered there was a huge uproar, and the company defended themselves by saying that first of all it wasn't the current proprietors' doing, and besides, what they had done was no worse than any factory that made anything during the war and contributed to the German economy at the time, thus fuelling the war effort and the holocaust. Basically equating making Zyclon B with manufacturing toothpaste. They eventually agreed to donate their product and the work for free.
You may be wondering how all this led to dancing until six a.m., but it turns out that a walking tour is the perfect place to meet crazy British people who want to take you out on the town, among others. At the end of the tour a gang of us, including Sylvia, ended up drinking on the Spree (Caiparinhas, which I've since discovered should be called Crapperinyas for what they do to you - I met a bartender last night who thought he was doing me a big favour by giving me a really large, really strong one at the end of the night and I've been cursing his name all day).
Anyway, I joined Sylvia and the Brits, and Jean-Philippe, aforemontioned Frenchman, who really is the kind of goodlooking that can make women take their clothes off by just looking at them too long, for dinner and drinks and then dancing all night at this beautiful, hopping club on the river called Watergate. I managed to party like it was 1989 (tee hee, Berlin joke, wall coming down, get it?), dancing with the city's best party animals to an amazing DJ.....and escape with my clothes still on, breaking Jean-Philippe's mystical gaze with my SuperCold Canadian power. Yeah! Wait......am I bragging about not sleeping with gorgeous French people? Dammit! I've fucked up this trip already!
Next night was the Jamie Lidell concert (Lidell is an awesome funky singer I learned of through the ex-squeeze - he's British but now lives in Berlin), at a beautiful old venue called Admiralspalast, with Johnny Greeneyes from Chicago, another dude I met on the tour. Jamie Lidell was fantastic and absolutely wildly insane on stage, and we had a great time, despite the minor shock of Greeneyes and I sharing our ages and discovering that what was maybe supposed to be a date was transpiring between a twenty-one year-old and a thirty-two year-old. I was shocked at his youth, considering his maturity; he was blown away that he'd just met the youngest looking, coolest and most unfathomably beautiful thirty-something IN THE WORLD. What luck.
And I snuck into my hostel at six in the morning again, knocked everything over and woke everyone up. The Germans tried to gore me with their bayonets.
I've been getting by with really crap language skills: my Deutsche when I arrived consisted of "Good morning/afternoon/evening. I'm sorry, I don't speak German. I would like a glass of wine." I've since added different variations on the wine thing, and about five different ways of saying "I want". That's right, travelling the world speaking like a five year old again. GIVE ME THIS! GIVE ME THAT! I WANT BOOZE! (Okay, so I had an unorthodox childhood, what can I say?)
I had trouble at first remembering which version of "the" corresponded with which version of "a/some", ie which was masculine and which was feminine. Until I figured out the trick that "eine", which is feminine, rhymes with "vagina". So yeah. "eine vagina" - that's the extent of The Skeptical Tourist's Practical Tips on Learning German. I also think that Eine Vagina is the perfect name for the heroine of Disney's upcoming sex ed animated feature. I will provide the voices of both her and her (also German) trusty post-op tranny sidekick, "Nicht Dick".
There are ticket machines on all the streets that say "Hier Parkschein Losen" on them. Which I know is just telling you to buy your parking ticket, but I like to think it means "Park here, loser."
And the word for "tour" is "fahrt", which obviously makes me giggle. There are all kinds of fahrts here, too. Big ones; small, intimate ones; long ones; short ones; loud and rowdy ones. Again with the five year-old business! I know, I know. But can I just tell you that I saw a sign in a park the other day that said "Bitte Nicht Futtern"? Do Not Feed the Animals? Or Please Don't Fart? You choose.
I'm off now. Every now and then I have to jump up from the keyboard, grab one of my many passports and break into a panicked run through the streets of Berlin, in honour of my hero, Jason Bourne. (Love you, Matty D. Wish you were here.)
And now, a confession. I've written a great chunk of this email not from Berlin, but from Paris. This is the first time I've had the time and the energy (no thanks to last night's caipirinhas, the big Parisian ones) to finish saying all I want to say about Berlin. And don't get me started on Paris. All I'll say for now is that I'm trying desperately hard to stay Skeptical. The only thing that sucks here is my choice to be inside, in an internet cafe, on a stunning and warm Paris springtime day. But goddammit, I had to stay somewhere that's close to a toilet.
A bientot, my faraway darlings,
Everybody's Favourite Sweet and Sour,
The Tourist
P.S. Post your comments, send your emails. It's always nice to know you're all not dead.
first i take my pants off.....then i take berlin.
the norton debacle
March 28th, 2008
I have a confession, and therefore an apology, to make:
I broke up the Stratford Festival Artistic Directorship.
Yes; despite what you may have heard and whatever overtures have been made to protect me and keep my name out of the media, I, Lisa Norton (a.k.a. The Skeptical Tourist), bear the sole responsibility for all this unrest and upheaval. Phew. I feel so much better. The guilt was killing me.
Here, in brief, is how it all went down. Some weeks ago, I had my first ever audition for Stratford. I had never so much as mailed a resume there before; the new triumvirate of Artistic Directors, however, signalled to me an infusion of hope and excitement to the tired old place. The Stratford Festival, I thought, might finally be ready for me.
I was to perform two monologues for and interview with new (now former) Artistic Director Don Shipley, and was excited to meet him. In I walked to the rehearsal hall high above Toronto's Canon Theatre, photo and CV in hand, hair done largely and elaborately, my best facial expressions only recently practiced in the mirror, to meet Don and Bonnie Green, the casting associate. "Hi Don," I said, "How're things?" He began to cry.
I mention this because, in retrospect, it was the first sign that something was wrong. It was, however, soon remedied, if only temporarily, by my audition. I gave such a dazzling display of acting virtuosity that Mr Shipley was immediately cheered, all worries forgotten. "WOW!" he exclaimed. "Jeez! GOSH! Oh my! Sarblllaphhhhrgat!" He momentarily lost all control and peed on the floor. Eventually recovering, he sat me down for a chat as Ms Green scrambled to find some paper towels and clean up the mess. "Honestly," said Don, "I have never seen anything so wonderful in all my life. If you could do that with a mere two contrasting pieces in four minutes or less.....Why, just imagine the possibilities! You, my dear, could change the world." I agreed and went on my way, thinking nothing of it. I expected contact from Stratford shortly.
It came a scant few days later in the form of a panicked phone call from Stratford General Director Antoni Cimolino.
"Lisa!" he said. "We don't know what to do! You're tearing this place apart!"
"Hey there, Tone," I told him, "Slow down. Take a breath. Drop and give me ten."
He did so, and then, as calmly as he could, informed me of the recent goings on at Stratford. I've pieced it together as best I can.
It seems that Don Shipley, as soon as I left the audition hall, immediately cancelled all other auditions for the day, and in fact, the entire week. "That's it," he told Bonnie. "That's all I need to see." They made instant haste back to Stratford, only stopping for a couple of Quarter Pounders and two Shamrock Shakes along the way and talking madly on their cell phones, arranging an emergency meeting of the Artistic Team and the General Director for the moment they got back to Stratford.
Their car squealed into the staff lot just as Des McAnuff's helicopter arrived from New York and Marti Maraden pulled up on her bicycle. They all made a run for Antoni Cimolino's office, pushing and shoving, Shipley madly waving my photo and resume in the air......and after getting stuck in the doorway for just a moment, they managed to get inside and sit down.
Don Shipley informed the group of what he had just witnessed. "We must have her!" he told them, "We must! I must!" I would, he decided on the spur of the moment, play Cleopatra in Caesar and Cleopatra in the 2009 season.
"But we're already doing that play in the 2008 season," Marti Maraden reminded him. "It's been cast."
"Are we?" said Des McAnuff. "That sounds like fun!"
"You're directing it", said Marti.
"Yay!" said Des.
"Who cares!" said Don. "We'll do it again! In fact, we'll repeat the entire 2008 season, only based around Lisa Norton. She'll make a fantastic Juliet! I'll direct her!"
"No," interjected Marti, "Surely I should direct her......that is, if she needs direction at all! I won't let you near her! After all - I knew her first!"
"I've never even heard of this Lisa Norton," said Des McAnuff, "But I sure like her headshot! Let's fill the lobby of the Festival Theatre with a permanent display of sculptures of her! She'll spend the whole season posing for me! I'll sing songs!"
"What are you talking about?" said Marti.
"LAAAAA!" said Des.
Bonnie Green discreetly snuck off with the remains of her Quarter Pounder with cheese.
What ensued was one of the ugliest fights over me since....well, it's so hard to compare really..... There have been some pretty nasty fights over me lo these many years. But it was up there. Each Artistic Director wanted me to his or herself entirely. None would concede that another might be allowed to direct me in a play, speak to me, or hold my hand while strolling along the Avon. Each wanted me as his personal muse at the newly christened Lisa Norton Shakespeare Festival of Canada (the name of which was the only talking point they could agree on).
Antoni Cimolino watched quietly for the most part, caressing his pet Siamese cat and sitting back in his high-backed leather chair. Then he stroked his newly grown goatee and reached for the big red button on his desk. Not the "eject" button. Not the "arm nuclear device" button. The other one.
As the carefully aimed taser guns retreated back into the walls, and the triumvirate of Artistic Directors lay writhing on the ground, Cimolino leaned forward and finally spoke. "The Norton," he said calmly, "Is MINE. I shall direct her. I shall speak to her. I will keep her in a box in my office, and let her out when I please. I will cover her with lanolin to make her skin soft and shiny and then I shall make her into a coat that I will wear to the prom. Now does ANYONE have a problem with that?"
"How dare you," managed Shipley.
"I'll never allow it," said Maraden.
"YAY!" said McAnuff.
"Ouzounians!" called Cimolino, and in marched his team of specialized security monkeys. (With wings.) "Remove Ms Maraden and Mr Shipley from my office. We will announce their joint resignation tomorrow. Muah ha ha."
But the two, weakened as they were by the taser attack, would not leave it at that.
"You will never have the Norton!" cried Maraden, throwing monkeys from her back and attacking Cimolino with sudden superhuman strength. Shipley, similarly fortified by rage (and love for me - not to mention the amazing properties of the McDonald's Shamrock Shake), made a run at him as well. They bruised him; they beat him; they tore off his new goatee. Des MacAnuff ate his cat, just for kicks. "You're on my side, Des!" cried Cimolino, shielding his head and his collection of poseable Cynthia Dale action figures as best he could. "Yippee!" said Des, and ran out to his helicopter and flew to England.
The phone call I received was made by Cimolino from under his desk during a temporary stand-off three days later. The Ouzounians had abandoned him and flown away to write an article, and the fight had continued, Shipley and Maraden alternating between ganging up on him and turning on one another to fight over me.
"We don't know what to do! You're tearing this place apart!"
"Hey there, Tone. Slow down. Take a breath. Drop and give me ten."
"They ate my cat!"
Anyway, Dear Reader, there was only one way to settle the thing. "Forget it," I told them on speaker phone, "Let it go. I can't stand to see you injure one another, not to mention flying monkeys, on my behalf. Besides....and you should have realized this....The Norton belongs to no man."
I wish I could say that solved all their problems. However, after another hour or so of kicking and biting, Mr Shipley and Ms Maraden left anyway, and have since become a bit of an annoyance to me with their constant stalking and attempted professional wooing. Mr Cimolino has acquired a new cat, is working on his goatee, and has instructed the Ouzounians to keep my name out of the press and go back to their usual routine of slagging hardworking theatre professionals and raving about the blueness of Nicole Kidman's eyes.
I, however, obviously felt that the truth must out. Again, my sincere apologies for all of this.....
and for the fact that The Lisa Norton Shakespeare Festival of Canada will have to remain but a lovely dream.
.....For now.
the practical artist
From TORONTO,
March 1st, 2008
It has been brought to my recent attention that Larry LaForet, the administrator (read: guy who gets shit done) at my esteemed alma mater, Toronto's James Brown Theatre School, has been advertising this humble page in the school's newsletter. Imagine my surprise on discovering that an entire generation of young actors is being exposed to the thoughts, dreams and wisdom contained herein. This, I thought, is surely an opportunity that must not be passed by! I must do all I can to help these young people! I must warn them of pitfalls! Prepare them for joys! Direct them away from jobs that they will beat me out for! Ignore that last bit! Above all, I must use many -MANY! - exclamation points!!!(!)
So here, excitedly sweating and shivery reader, is the first ever official edition of.....
THE SKEPTICAL TOURIST'S ADVICE TO YOUNG ACTORS.
First things first.
On AUDITIONS:
It really can't be said enough: just be yourself. For instance, if you wake up the morning of a big audition wearing sweatpants and a bra.....Well, that's you, isn't it? And if it's good enough for you, it should be good enough for them. The last thing a director wants is one more cookie-cutter theatre school grad wearing pants and a shirt. I mean, please. Booooo-ring.
The Tourist's personal, much-honed, never-fail patented three secrets to landing theatre jobs:
1. Big Hair.
2. Loud voice.
3. Lots of facial expressions and hand gestures.
For film auditions, best to get as close to the camera as possible. About an inch or two will do. And again, speak as loudly as you can, and make exaggerated facial expressions - you don't want to lose a part because they missed something or because your choices were unclear.
The night before a voice audition, be sure to drink a lot of bourbon and smoke a pack or two of cigarettes. Suck some cock if possible. The scratchy sound is "in". Trust me. And if you don't get the job, hey, at least you had some fun preparing.
When auditioning/working for a woman, be sure to compliment her on how clever and articulate she is for a lady director. She needs and will appreciate the encouragement; use it unsparingly. In the case of a non-white director.....oh, wait. That never happens. Although, it must be said, the performing arts is right up there as one of Canada's most ethnically diverse employment sectors, coming only after:
Accountancy and business services
Advertising, marketing and PR
Banking, investment and insurance
Construction
Education
Engineering
Environmental, food chain and rural
Fashion and textile
Food and drink
Health
Hospitality
Human resources and recruitment
Information technology
Legal services
Local, regional and national government
Manufacturing
Oil, gas and petroleum
Property
Publishing
Retail
Science
Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
Social care
Sport and leisure
Tourism
Transport and logistics
So there you go. By the way, James Brown College does offer excellent courses in all of the above, in case you should happen to be interested. The motorcycle maintenance program has a particularly fine reputation, as does jewellery construction. Perhaps a double major?
On WORKSHOPS:
Throughout your wildly successful career, you will participate in many readings/workshops of new plays. Expect to be asked your candid opinion of the dialogue, character arcs, et cetera. I take this aspect of my work very seriously, and am always sure to present the author with pages of detailed notes and criticisms, harsh if necessary. It is of no help to anyone to be polite; if the play, in your valuable opinion, sucks, simply say, "This play sucks." And then walk out. It's direct, it's to the point, and the playwright will thank you later. At least I assume so. No one's thanked me yet....but it's just a matter of time.
On ACTING SHAKESPEARE:
Louder! More facial expressions! Bigger hair!
A general, but crucial note:
LIVE FAST! DIE YOUNG! (Hereafter referred to as LFDY)
Let's face it. Pretty soon your looks are going to fade and the parts will dry up. So you might as well enjoy life while you can. Besides, drugs are fun! Excessive drinking will impress your friends! And unprotected sex with strangers.....ROCKS! But you're in college, I don't need to tell you any of this. In fact, you could probably teach me a thing or two. To do so, contact me at your convenience.
On PLAY PRACTICE:
Here you are, fresh out of school, and you've landed your first gig. You are the youngest and least experienced person in the cast. Rehearsals begin this morning and you're terrified. Don't be, young and sexy reader! First of all, if you've been following the Golden Rule (see LFDY, above), the booze should have taken a bit of the edge off. Secondly, just look at it this way. You, of all people, are prepared for this process, freshly equipped with all the tools you need to get you through. For example, who in the rehearsal hall has the most recent experience whooshing around in a neutral mask being the wind? You do! Who is an expert at lying on the floor and moaning? Why, you again! Who knows the most stunning variety of trust and clapping games? You guessed it - YOU, you acting star you!
Speaking of trust and clapping games, don't hesitate to share these with your fellow professionals. Experienced performers, particularly much older ones who haven't had the benefit of recent theatre school training, will really appreciate what you have to give. Not only does taking, say, an hour of each rehearsal morning to teach trust exercises provide a forum for a true bonding experience amongst the cast, but your director is likely to be tangibly grateful and come to see you as an assistant director of sorts.
While on the topic of older actors, I should tell you that, yes, you can expect a share of ribbing about your youth. Costars will constantly squeal when they hear your age, pinch your cheeks or other parts of you, and remind you that they have socks that are not only older than you are, but have made more appearances on stage. This, however, is a situation that can be alleviated by use of another tried and true technique of mine. Think back. What did your dad always tell you about bullies? That's right: just bend over and take it quietly. But what did your grandpa tell you? If you let them get away with it the first time, it will never stop. Well, the same principle applies here. So, to set an unforgettable precedent, the first time someone refers to you as the "baby of the cast", immediately knee him right in the crotch. Then, to avoid awkwardness, explain that it's nothing personal and offer to teach him "the one where you clap your names across the circle". Better yet, offer help with that dialect he's obviously struggling with, or to tap his back during his vocal warmup. I took this approach with esteemed stage actor Jim Mezon, and we are the better friends for it.
on FILM:
How the fuck should I know? I mean, um.....
on FESTIVALS:
When you land your first season at one of the large theatre festivals, you will encounter the repertory system, working on two or three productions simultaneously. Take it from one with experience: one of the plays is bound to be lousy. Why waste your energy trying to make that one any good? Better to concentrate your efforts and talents (not to mention best facial expressions) on the play you like, and use the other one as a little break. Instead of preparing or warming up, get your knitting or decoupage done backstage - or better yet, ON stage. And why bother learning your lines when you can sneak a script on with you as a prop and simply read them aloud? As quickly as you can. Stage management will love you for this as you will be reliable, shave tens of minutes off a boring play, and can also prompt anyone else who forgets a line.
While on the topic of STAGE MANAGEMENT...... Many people are intimidated by their SM. This is silly. After all, the stage management, like all the rest of the support staff, is there to help you, the actor, at the front lines. Your stage manager will sometimes give you notes on your performance: while you may not actually take the notes, always smile politely and thank her; she is just trying to be a part of your important world. To make an assistant stage manager feel important, give her little tasks, such as fetching you coffee. These small gestures may seem insignificant, but believe me, they will add up, and your stage management team will never forget you.
This general approach also works well with designers (who by the way love, even need, to hear your every criticism of their work), technicians, production managers, publicists, and anyone else who works in your shadow.
Back to the rep system. Another aspect of this world is UNDERSTUDYING.
Don't forget that this is a collaborative experience. The role is as much yours as it is the actor's who is "playing" it; after all, you may need to go on at any moment. Ask questions of the other actor during rehearsals.....make sure you understand all of her choices.....offer help on bits she isn't getting right......try on her costumes from time to time to make sure they work for you. And if she seems tense on opening night, slip a little something in her water to help her relax. As they're always telling you in school, just be as generous as you can.
Above all, see the festival system as what it is: Summer Theatre Camp. And you know what that means: yet another great opportunity to....you guessed it, LIVE FAST DIE YOUNG! And at all costs (literally), don't leave your run there (or anywhere) with savings in the bank! Leave with an impressive wardrobe of expensive clothes and electronic gadgets that will comfort you through tough times to come!
Besides, everyone knows when you leave one gig, you get another one IMMEDIATELY! At least you will - if you're sure to follow all these valuable tips (and any more to follow) from.....
Your dearest friend,
The Skeptical Tourist
the craptical tourist
From TORONTO
January 21st, 2008
Dear friends who have an afternoon to kill,
SURE!
UHHH.....NOT SO MUCH.
In other thrilling Tourist News, Confused-yet-oddly-turned-on-by-Condi-in-the-bath Reader, I have found Lisa Norton 14.6! Or rather she has found me! Some of you will remember that back in an earlier post ("She is Risen", April 2007 http://skepticaltourist.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html) I wrote of my adventures reading about the other Lisa Nortons of the world, in particular one funny talented young blaguist who shared my name but seemed to have dropped off the face of the worldwide web. Well, both lo and behold, through the magic of F*@#Book (and people who have nothing better to do), the now 19 year-old Lisa has been informed of my existence and gotten in touch. Read her comments on She Is Risen and Touristmas Time (December). I actually teared up a little....and maybe not just because I was on my period and crying at the drop of a tampon. I also credit Lisa Norton the younger with exposing me to a new exciting demographic of hot young lesbiotic groupies. I'm sure that explains it...not that such glorious mysteries need be explained.
I think when you board one of those streetcars that's painted pink and covered with ads for Dirty Dancing (The Classic Story Now on Stage), you know, the ones that make all the macho TTC drivers feel like nancies, you should be greeted by dancing, singing members of the original cast. Bumping and grinding and slithering around the streetcar poles.
If you're not in the mood you can wait for the Amarula Cream car, on which they serve you shots and speak Swahili. Cheetahs prowl up and down and eat you if you don't pay the proper fare or talk too loudly on your cell phone. Incidentally....where do those dickheads get off calling Amarula Cream "The Spirit of Africa" anyway? Yeah, a fruity cream liqueur: that seems to embody the essence of a CONTINENT. Okay, now I'm pissed off. Mostly because no one is giving me free booze on the streetcar.
The Safeway in Regina has a sign at the deli counter proclaiming, "We will shave anything." Do you think they would have shaved my legs? I always wanted to plunk one hairy gam up on the counter, just to see.
If you look up "arts" in the yellow pages, you will find it between "artificial eyes" and "asbestos". I don't know what that means but I thought you should know.
When I was small I was a little obsessed with the yellow pages. It was, after all, the Internet of the eighties. I thought it especially bizarre and somewhat thrilling that anyone could just look up prostitutes and call them. Clowns....Dentists.....Escorts.....all in the same book! A book I was allowed to look at! In broad daylight! Ahh....the wonders of childhood.
Today, passing by College and Grace, I noticed a new restaurant called - wait for it - "I Feel Like Crepe". Oh, College West, how much lower can you sink? A little further west is the future site of the Little Italy Cube Lofts, starting at 400 grand for a loft sized 5x5. Inches, not feet. So you can conveniently hold your apartment in the palm of your hand.
Brilliant idea #468,972: The adults only Easter egg hunt. Have an Easter party with your friends (or maybe just the ones you hope to see naked) and stage a hunt, hiding drugs, porn and mini bottles of booze. Oh yeah, and chocolate (chicks dig it). Let the search (and the please-don't-tell-anyone-at-the-office-on-Monday party) begin! If anyone actually uncovers secret perverted things that you've stashed around your place and forgotten were there, you can play it cool and pretend they were part of the hunt. "You found it! Good for you! Yeah, I know, DISGUSTING, eh?!"
Speaking of disgusting (and I often am).....have you noticed that the tone of your dirty email spam is getting weirder and weirder? No, I am not responsible. But seriously - what's with all the kinky farm sluts? The horny grannies? I suppose at some point the spammers realized that folks could get ordinary porn anytime anywhere...so now they're really working hard to attract your attention. "Hey, I never thought I wanted to see circus performers get it on with one-legged goats...but now that you mention it....and hey, the link is right there in front of me....."
And here is the opposition leader drinking a milkshake.
Do you suppose anyone ever broke up with Beyonce on account of her body being too Bootylicious for him? "Sorry......It's not you.....I just don't think I'm ready for this jelly." I ask this because it's a problem I face time and time again.
Most anticipated film of the year:
Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. Wait! Maybe you didn't hear me. I said: Harold and Kumar ESCAPE from GUANTANAMO BAY!!! To further illustrate my point:
Very exciting! Or maybe that's just me....after all, I'm one of those people who would rather kiss Harold and Kumar than Brad Pitt.
Also looking forward to the new 3DU2 concert film...though I can't help wishing they'd brought back Smell-O-Vision for that one. What does Bono's sweat smell like? I'm fairly jumping up and down over Be Kind Rewind, an upcoming Michel Gondry flick starring Jack Black and my boyfriend Mos Def. From the Internet movie database: A man (Black) whose brain becomes magnetized unintentionally destroys every tape in his friend's video store. In order to satisfy the store's most loyal renter, an aging woman with signs of dementia, the two men set out to remake the lost films, which include Back to the Future, The Lion King, and Robocop. Not to mention Ghostbusters. Below is the super awesome trailer.......
Helpful Hint # 18.5: If one leaves a muffin, uncovered, in the same fridge as some smoked fish that is just past its due date, one may create.......a carrot-apple-smoked-trout muffin. This is not a good thing.
The odd image you see above is the "Live with Theatre" version of the city of Toronto's Live With Culture campaign. Clearly I've been going to the wrong plays. I want the ones with the men wrestling in their underwear. In fact, I want to be in those plays. I'll play the underwear.Life brand has a product called "invisible ladies' antiperspirant". Is that what all the invisible ladies use? I guess if you were running around being invisible, but then started sweating a lot, it could blow your cover. And that would suck.
When I was a kid, I thought that President's Choice Products were all of Ronald Reagan's favourite foods.
Great lyrics that make no sense #372:
From Michael Jackson's Beat It: "They'll kick you and they'll beat you and they'll tell you it's fair"..... I'm sorry - but who are these people?! And do they tell you it's fair as they're kicking you? Or do they just yell it as they're running away?
Most fantastic covertly homoerotic Hip hop lyric#1:
LL Cool J on Mama Said Knock You Out: "I'm gonna tie you up and let you understand/ that I'm not your average man/ when I got a jammy in my hand DAAAAAMN!!!!! Oooooohh!!".......and later: "And when I pull out my jammy get ready 'cause it might go Blaaaaw, how ya like me now?" and "Don't u nevah, evah, pull my lever/ Cuz I explode!/ And my nine is easy to load!/ I gotta thank God/ Cuz he gave me the strength to rock HARD!!" I don't know, LL, your body might be too bootylicious for us, babe.
By the way, boycott WestJet. WestJet bitches stole my hat.
Well, loyal and exhausted yet newly enlightened, Reader......You know, and I know, and Xtina and Mos know, that I could go all night. But some of those pearls of wisdom/pockets of nonsense will have to await another day. Remind me to tell you about the penis in the pint glass. When you're ready: first learn stand, then learn fly, Daniel-san.
Wax on, wax off,
The Tourist
P.S. Please to comment by clicking "comment" at the end of this post. It's sweet that you're all shy (or technologically challenged) and send me private emails instead, and I appreciate it, but you're also so damned funny.....I want the world to know. Come on, Snuffleupagus - I just want my other friends to see you, too.
touristmas time!
December 14th, 2007
"I KNOW! LET'S KILL THEM ALL!"I have watched my share of the old TV Christmas specials this year. I might even try for A Charlie Brown Christmas this time, even though, let's face it - EVERYTHING ABOUT CHARLIE BROWN IS TOTALLY BORING AND SUCKS MY ASS. Except the music, which I can listen to on CD anytime without subjecting myself to a half hour of that bald little wet blanket and his boring so-called friends. And his smart-ass dog.
" I KNOW. LET'S KILL OURSELVES."
Back to what I was presumably talking about.....
Another show I've decided I simply can't handle is the 1964 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I just get too upset. I mean, not only is everybody unfathomably mean to poor little Rudolph, just because he has a birth defect......but they're mean to everybody else, too! There's little Hermey (voiced by Canadian actor Paul Soles), the totally Jewish, totally gay North pole elf who just wants to be a dentist and gets treated like crap by the other elves (which is particularly distressing because they're elves, for Chrissake - aren't they supposed to be nice?)....... And then even Santa's kind of a prick. At one point the elf choir, who have been practising all year, want to sing him a song, and Mrs Claus practically has to beg him to sit down and listen and then he's all, like, yeah yeah whatever I've got things to do and while they sing he fidgets and acts like an asshole and then tells them their elf-singing sucks. So no wonder they're mean to Hermey: they're working under extreme pressure, for a jerky boss who doesn't appreciate them. Bet they don't even have benefits.At some point in this thing, Rudolph runs away and when his mom and his girlfriend Clarice want to help look for him they're told "No. A woman's place is at home. Stay here, bitches." Which always drives me nuts, because for one thing, they're not women...they're REINDEER! Anyway, they do sneak out to help look.....and they promptly land in trouble and need to be rescued. Because they're just girls after all. And don't even get me started on the Island of Misfit Toys! By the time Santa asks Rudolph to guide his sleigh tonight, I'm yelling at the television, "No! Don't do it! Fuck him!".....And when the reindeer suddenly let him join in all their reindeer games - well don't tell me you didn't secretly hate them and their shallow changeability when you were a kid, and cross your fingers that ol' Rudy would get his revenge one day and murder them all in their sleep.
So clearly that's one Christmas special I can't watch anymore. I'm getting upset just thinking about it. I need another swig of Nog and Brandy. Ahhh....mama loves her Christmas cheer.
One that's definitely worth the time is Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, another stop-animation classic (1970), about how Kris Kringle came to be, and notable for its weird scene in which the future Mrs Claus literally lets her hair down and does a musical number straight out of an acid trip, twirling around in the daisies and singing about free love. The animation in that sequence is insane. Also notable are a bad guy called Burgermeister Meisterburger and Keenan Wynn (of film noir and Dr Strangelove fame) as the winter wizard, who gets to utter the unlikely Christmas special line "Hey, I'm not such a loser after all!"
This flick also features a song by Claus (Mickey Rooney) called A Kiss is the Price you Pay, meaning that if all the miserable kids in Sombertown will just sit on his lap and kiss him, they'll get presents. Hmm. Don't know if that song would fly today. I mean, amazing enough that all the overly protective parents of today are still okay with telling their kids a stranger's going to be sneaking into the house while they're asleep - but aside from that don't talk to strangers, of course! Poor little fuckers must be so confused. Gifts, lap-sitting, night visits from one strange old man okay.....all other strangers bad.
OTHER CHEERY STUFF
Best Christmas movie of all time, of course: Die Hard.
I also really like Elf. And in Scrooged, Bill Murray does one of the best prat falls ever recorded on film. Highly worth it for that alone.
Best Christmas song? The Christmas Song ("chestnuts roasting on an open fire" etc.) Duh. I mean it's called The Christmas Song. And if you sing it with pauses in funny places you get to say things like:
Everybody knows a turkey.
...And some mistletoe helps to make the season bright.
Not to mention:
They know that Santa's on his way. He's loaded!
....Lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh.
I'm also partial to Baby it's Cold Outside. It makes me want to rub myself against things. See? Christmas can be fun in ways you never knew.
My favourite holiday image so far this year: About a month ago, went past the Eaton Centre Christmas windows on the streetcar when they had just been unveiled....and saw three grown men, strangers to one another, standing transfixed by a bunch of mechanical elves working in Santa's workshop. One Two Three: Awwwwwww.
My newly invented Christmas salad recipe: Baby spinach, pomegranate seeds, pecans, with a little olive oil and lemon juice as dressing. So festive in its red and green deliciousness that if you partake of too much food and drink at Christmas dinner and end up ill, you get to celebrate the colours all over again! YAY!
You will note that I keep talking about Christmas. I haven't mentioned Hannukah, or Kwanzaa or Winter Solstice or any of those other crazy chinky jew holidays.....'cause lets face it - I don't know shit about them, so I'm not gonna pretend that I do. The extent of my Hannukah knowledge comes from the fact that I was dating a Jewish boy last winter - and all I learned then was that all Jews are really really good at spinning dreidels and that if you keep one under your Christmas tree, it will keep them occupied for hours. I do plan to attend the Kensington Market Festival of Lights pagan solstice celebration (http://www.redpepperspectaclearts.org/) again this year, but that's just because they set a lot of shit on fire at the end. Seriously, it is the best event in Toronto all year - go if you can (December 21st, procession starts 6pm).
THE STUFF
