An amazing video that I found on You Tube and I remember watching this on TV live. Video near the bottom!
0:16 - Fat Freddie Flintoff says something to Yuvraj Singh to try and provoke him/lose his concentration.
0:22 - The umpire is telling Yuvraj to calm down and is slightly holding him back.
0.25 - Commentator David Lloyd says "I wouldn't bother Yuvraj if I were you."
0:30 - Yuvraj hits a six. He is angry.
1:05 - Commentator Ravi Shastri says "I think those few words from Flintoff just charged him up a bit."
A bit?
1:41 - Yuvraj hit a second six.
2:11 - Freddie Flintoff stands with his hands on his hips thinking "Shit. Why did I open my fat mouth?"
2:43 - Yuvraj hit a THIRD six. The guy is still pissed off.
3:19 - Stuart Broad (who was supposed to be Englands' 'new hope' at the time) looks very nervous
.
3:20 - Ravi Shastri: "Absolute Carnage." (Yuvraj isn't finished yet Ravi).
3:30 - Broad being Englands' new hope and all, decides to take evasive action and bowls around the wicket.
3:34 - It makes no difference. Yuvraj hits a FOURTH six. I remember standing up at this point.
3:57 - David Lloyd: "England are having a conference meeting."
4:07 - England have their conference meeting. Paul Collingwood and Broad have piss rolling down their legs
.
4:12 - Collingwood tells Broad "Anything. ANYTHING but a six."
4:15 - Broad looks genuinely bewildered. He is thinking "I don't know what the hell I should do."
4:18 - Broad realises piss rolling down his legs isn't going to help this situation.
4:28 - Broad rallies his troops. "I am going to ball an amazing delivery here! Piss or no piss!"
4:47 - Yuvraj hits a FIFTH six.
4:51 - Ravi Shashtri doesn't bother being professional or neutral. "YES!"
5:16 - Broad with a classic "Oh shit" pose. Right arm across chest and left arm up, hand to the mouth.
5:24 - Collingwood with the EXACT same pose!
5:50 - SIX SIXES. Yuvraj put it away. Never done before in T20 cricket.
In an interview done much later, he was asked what Fat Freddie Flintoff had actually said to him and according to Yuvraj, he had said "those were fucking ridiculous shots you played" (Yuvraj had hit Fat Fred for a couple of boundaries in the previous over). Yuvraj replied to him "Fuck you." Fat Fred then says "Excuse me?" to which Yuvraj replies "You heard what I said." Then Fat Fred says " I will cut your throat off."
Then Yuvraj says to him "Do you see this bat in my hand? I'm going to hit you with this bat."
India went on to win the match and the trophy.
Thursday, 12 December 2013
Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Getting to know a celebrity, working with them and then pissing them off in the space of a few weeks.
I guess this would be a great follow up to my last post. This is another thing that I hate about Drama/Acting.
Money.
People have to earn a living - Yes.
People want to be able to live in the best way possible - Yes.
People would want to easily be able to provide for their loved ones - Yes.
And the last one. People like money - Yes. Yes of course they do.
But do people really have to be total twats for money? No. But they are. Unfortunately they really are. And here is one example:-
Up until recently, I was voluntarily "teaching Drama" to 6-8 year olds voluntarily. I had to gain experience in Drama teaching for my college course and was struggling to find somewhere where I could do this. The two ladies whose "Drama" group it was were both idiots. One a primary school teacher who was about to have a baby, so I would be taking her place in teaching the children and the other a celebrity. At best, a B-list celebrity.
Neither knew anything about teaching Drama.
Neither knew anything about teaching Drama.
Oh of course, the school teacher knew about teaching and the one occasion she was in during the time I did this (about 7 weeks), the children were very well behaved. She knew how to control the class but the B-list celebrity didn't. She also knew NOTHING about teaching and even though she is an ex-TV star, she knew NOTHING about Drama. It was painfully obvious from my first observation on the class.
The price for the lessons to the children were ridiculous. It was in a beautiful building which had only just opened to the public and for the price of one hours' "lesson", it would be the price of just two of the kids and there were about 16 children in the class so they were making profit from 14 of the childrens' parents' money not including my travel fare which they paid for me. The ladies were coming out with A LOT of money for just one hours' "work". But why were the parents paying so much money for their kids to "learn" Drama in this particular class?
Because of the B-list celebrity. No other reason. Put a B-lists celebrities' name on something and it is bound to attract people. The B-list celebrity was struggling to find work. She is a bad actress. Why not make money from just her name?
Because of the B-list celebrity. No other reason. Put a B-lists celebrities' name on something and it is bound to attract people. The B-list celebrity was struggling to find work. She is a bad actress. Why not make money from just her name?
So apart from not knowing anything about Drama, what was the problem? Surely, they could LEARN and teach whatever it is they learnt?
Well, there were a lot of problems. The B-list celebrity couldn't control the class. She wouldn't/couldn't do anything if they would run about/shout/scream/cause havoc and chaos, which they would do for about fifteen minutes of every "lesson". She would have the bright idea of indulging them with biscuits and sugary drinks halfway through the class which would make them even more hyper. They would start behaving five minutes before their parents came to pick them up right at the end. I understand that they are children and will want to have fun which I am all up for. But just don't call it a Drama class.
But the main problem was that they weren't learning anything about Drama. And that really got to me. The B-list celebrity kept saying how Drama was helping them develop their confidence, but they were already insanely over confident. They had no discipline. When I tried to explain how important having discipline is i.e if they went for an audition or just a normal job interview, if they went in screaming and shouting they wouldn't get the part/job, the B-list celebrity didn't seem to understand. She also didn't seem to understand that it isn't a good idea to give a script to a child who can't read yet. She also said certain children in the group "could make it big because they had the look."
She also knew nothing about Drama-did I mention that?
The whole thing was very strange as I wasn't learning how to teach any Drama students. I was learning how to control a playgroup. And even with that I had to learn myself as the B-list celebrity was rubbish doing that too.
The worst part was at the end of every "lesson" where the parents would pay. The B-list celebrity would tell their parents how well their child was "developing their acting and Drama skills". She would feed the parents already delusional minds more of what they wanted to hear. All these parents, all these kids and the B-list celebrity ALL had VERY different lives to what I live. They were all VERY privileged and money was clearly no issue for the middle class lot who I am guessing probably earned more in three months than I do in a year. Money was no object for them to feel their delusional desires of developing their kids into famous stars. The children themselves probably growing up having their college tuition fees paid for, cars, houses and all the rest of it. Money was no issue. The money being unfairly earned by the B-list celebrity was an absolute sick joke.
She wasn't teaching them Drama. She was babysitting. This wasn't a Drama class. This was a play group.
I wrote an evaluation. She took it home and read it. She hated it. She said she didn't want me there anymore.
Now, for anyone who thinks my evaluation and reviews on the class were really cut-throat like this post is-it wasn't. She just couldn't handle the fact that she already knew that she couldn't teach and that she was totally pathetic and that she and her co-worker were only doing this for money and nothing else and it was almost as if I had to accept that or not be a part of it. I was so disappointed when she said I couldn't come there anymore but after thinking about it and after observing the classes, I am SO GLAD that I am not there anymore. To be a part of something that is so sick, delusional, fake and money grabbing as it was is pretty disturbing. I just wish that my evaluation and reviews WERE more cut-throat.
There were a few people who were really excited about me working with a celebrity (even though she is a B-list one) and as was I. But at the same time, I am more excited about doing my course and having the opportunity to teach REAL DRAMA to people in the future as my career not pretend I know things about acting when I really don't just to try and make money. Or as The B-list celebrity said "a business".
Unlike the B-list celebrity bitch, I am not fake. I am fucking real.
But the main problem was that they weren't learning anything about Drama. And that really got to me. The B-list celebrity kept saying how Drama was helping them develop their confidence, but they were already insanely over confident. They had no discipline. When I tried to explain how important having discipline is i.e if they went for an audition or just a normal job interview, if they went in screaming and shouting they wouldn't get the part/job, the B-list celebrity didn't seem to understand. She also didn't seem to understand that it isn't a good idea to give a script to a child who can't read yet. She also said certain children in the group "could make it big because they had the look."
She also knew nothing about Drama-did I mention that?
The whole thing was very strange as I wasn't learning how to teach any Drama students. I was learning how to control a playgroup. And even with that I had to learn myself as the B-list celebrity was rubbish doing that too.
The worst part was at the end of every "lesson" where the parents would pay. The B-list celebrity would tell their parents how well their child was "developing their acting and Drama skills". She would feed the parents already delusional minds more of what they wanted to hear. All these parents, all these kids and the B-list celebrity ALL had VERY different lives to what I live. They were all VERY privileged and money was clearly no issue for the middle class lot who I am guessing probably earned more in three months than I do in a year. Money was no object for them to feel their delusional desires of developing their kids into famous stars. The children themselves probably growing up having their college tuition fees paid for, cars, houses and all the rest of it. Money was no issue. The money being unfairly earned by the B-list celebrity was an absolute sick joke.
She wasn't teaching them Drama. She was babysitting. This wasn't a Drama class. This was a play group.
I wrote an evaluation. She took it home and read it. She hated it. She said she didn't want me there anymore.
Now, for anyone who thinks my evaluation and reviews on the class were really cut-throat like this post is-it wasn't. She just couldn't handle the fact that she already knew that she couldn't teach and that she was totally pathetic and that she and her co-worker were only doing this for money and nothing else and it was almost as if I had to accept that or not be a part of it. I was so disappointed when she said I couldn't come there anymore but after thinking about it and after observing the classes, I am SO GLAD that I am not there anymore. To be a part of something that is so sick, delusional, fake and money grabbing as it was is pretty disturbing. I just wish that my evaluation and reviews WERE more cut-throat.
There were a few people who were really excited about me working with a celebrity (even though she is a B-list one) and as was I. But at the same time, I am more excited about doing my course and having the opportunity to teach REAL DRAMA to people in the future as my career not pretend I know things about acting when I really don't just to try and make money. Or as The B-list celebrity said "a business".
Unlike the B-list celebrity bitch, I am not fake. I am fucking real.
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Acting and Drama
I wanted to write a post about the whole subject and my own personal experiences as I am rediscovering what it is.
I am training to become a Drama teacher/tutor.
First of all, Drama is EVERYTHING. Everything is Drama. That is the beauty of it. Everywhere you go and everything a person does is Drama. Sometimes people can fail to realise this. From going to the shop and buying a newspaper to watching a football game to taking a bus to work. Everything that happens in life can be a scene.
Life is a play and you are the actor. Only it isn't scripted. You make your own script.
Everything you learn in life can be put in Drama. Everything you learn from Drama can be put in life. That is why I love it.
http://muksblogaboutstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/music-acting-performance-and-people.html
I studied Drama for five years in college. And sometimes I well and truly hated it.
I hated the fact that every time I saw someone in a play or a scene, I always used to think I could do it better. Why would I get so big headed like that? Maybe I just needed to mature a bit.
I hated how a lot of actors, not just me but a lot I knew were just up their own backsides in general.
But most of all, I hated how a lot of the times it was never about acting the part but more like looking like you fit the part.
I'm not saying that happened at college because it didn't. I'm saying that in the real world especially for TV, it was more about how you looked and not about your actual acting skills that got you the part. You could have years of acting training and experience but if you didn't "look" the part, you wouldn't get the part. There are a ton of actors who have "made it" purely because of how they look. That is something that will never leave the TV world. It's just the way it is. But I want to change all that. It is the only profession (not including modelling) where it is more or less guaranteed that it is the way you look which affects whether or not you get the job. Imagine if a Doctor or a Scientist who didn't get a job because of the way they looked. It just doesn't happen. I really couldn't stand that thought. I didn't want to become or be a part of that.
There was an open audition for a certain TV show whilst I was at college. I didn't go to the audition myself but a lot of the Drama students did. Most of them returned without even saying a single word at the audition. The casting people were literally just looking at who was pretty. Even though it was and still is a popular TV show, it isn't about the acting and never has been. To me that is pretty disgraceful. It's one of the reasons why I don't watch too much TV. But I also don't go to the theatre anymore. No actual real reason why. Sometimes I just don't feel like I actually belong there. But sometimes that goes for everywhere I go anyway.
So what do I actually LIKE about Drama? This post isn't just going to be about me moaning about something again. I obviously MUST like something about Drama for me to want to train to be able to teach it.
Well what does it do? It helps you to get emotions out and flipping heck, I am one insanely emotional person. It helps you with confidence, it helps you to connect with things in your life and in your memories in different ways. It gives you a different perspective on things and on people. It can help you understand the psychology of people (how many times have I wrote on this blog and questioned why people do/say what they do etc!).
Nearly half a life time ago when I was 16, I opted to do Performing Arts in college. I originally wanted to do just Music but at the time, I was awful on the guitar so had to do a course where I would have to to Music, Drama and Dance (they called Dance "Movement" to make it sound cool) and I would have to pass two from these three subjects to go onto the next year where I could specialise in one subject and at the time I was hoping it would be Music but within the course of that year, I slowly changed my mind.
I remember everyone in the Drama class had to learn and perform a monologue. And I remember thinking "Wait a minute, a monologue?? Getting up in front of everyone by myself and performing whilst everybody stares and judges only me?? I can't do that!"
So I have no idea and still to this day have no idea what possessed me to ask my tutor this:-
"Can I write my own monologue?"
Long story short, I wrote it about bullying. I performed it countless of times as people wanted to see it so much. And then see it again. It became a big deal. Someone who saw it cried. People who I didn't know/hadn't met were hugging me. Strangely at the time the HND students were doing a bullying project too. The tutor saw it and wanted me to do it at the end of one of their performances and when that day came I was so nervous I must have gone to the toilet about 16,000 times. They did their performance and then everybody included the tutor started to get up and leave until the tutor remembered about me and bought everyone back into the theatre. I performed it again. It went well. Everyone talked about it more than what the HND students did. Some guy said he wanted me to perform it at The Edinburgh Festival which he could organise. Eventually telling me I would have to change it and take the word "Paki" out of it which I say in it three times. I refused to do that. Changing the monologue would take away what it actually was. The power of it. I couldn't do that.
I was only 16 years old and still going through the stages if you like. I didn't know much about Drama or much about life or anything. At the time 16 was young. Unlike now. It seems like kids/teenagers are much more older now at 16 then when they were back then.
That year I went onto be Eddie in a play called "Blood Brothers". The play was done in a Brechtian style and several characters were supposed to be played by different actors but I did the whole of Eddie apart from one scene. I passed my BTEC 1st with flying colours and opted to do Drama in the BTEC National which was a two year course. The first of those years being less than stellar. Most of the class in the main end of year show were props including me with a four line part. I learnt monologues but I wasn't good at performing them at all. For some reason, I was more insecure this year than the last.
But the second of those years, I learnt so many different techniques/styles from Stanislavski, Peter Brook and the Alexander technique-the latter I couldn't stand doing and eventually had to tell the tutors this.
I had to dress up as a woman for Commedia Del Arte. I think this was the tutors' way of punishing me as I was always late. I actually did it well. I had long hair at the time and people actually said I looked better as a woman than as a man. D'oh.
That year we were doing two plays. The first was The Crucible which we performed at Christmas time. Again I wasn't having a great year and had a part with about 6 lines. But the tutor told me to be an understudy for someone who at the time was ill and if he couldn't make it to rehearsals then I could have the part. It was a big part. The part of Reverend Hale.
By no means did I want the person who had this part be ill. Of course I didn't. But I had to think how well I could do this part. Obviously learn the lines and the character etc. I couldn't help but get a bot excited and there was one day when the tutor said that if the guy who had the part doesn't come in today, then I can have the part. And on that rehearsal I was stood behind the curtain and it was coming up to my first line and the guy hadn't turned up yet. I was just about to start my scene and my first line when...he comes in! It was the craziest timing ever. As unprofessional as it was, I gave him the script and just went home. I was so glad he was better. It was just the timing which wasn't the best! We talked about it for ages afterwards with the tutor and actually had a laugh about it. He played the part probably a lot better than I would have done anyway.
So for all of that year as well, I failed to deliver until the very last play. The tutor said that everyone would have to audition for the last play and based on how our auditions went, she would pick parts for us accordingly. The play was Cabaret. Now I HATED musicals. But at the same time I had to do something worthwhile this year. I wasn't a good singer and everyone had to do a song and a monologue for the audition. I think we had a month to prepare. I learnt a monologue and a song on guitar. When it came to the audition, I did the song first, messed up like crazy. I could have got a backing track and played that but I chose to play my guitar and played wrong, sang wrong and everything about the song was wrong. Then just as I was about to start my monologue, in the middle of the audition, I decided to not do the monologue I had learnt. I had to pull the big gun out. I had to use the ace in my sleeve. I did the bullying monologue.
The next day, the class sat in a circle whilst the tutor read the parts out. I was given the massive part of Herr Schultz. The rest of the class didn't seem happy. I could almost hear their thoughts saying, "why him?" "what has he done to deserve that?" etc etc etc. But this was my chance to really go for it. And go for it I did.
Like I said, I couldn't sing. I had to sing! But I couldn't. What do I do? They say practice makes perfect but I just couldn't imagine the thought of me SINGING in front of up to 200 people! I couldn't sing in front of one person. But I would have to otherwise I couldn't do the part. There was only one thing I could do to practice in front of an audience without them really judging me...karaoke.
So the three months or so leading up to the play, I would go to a karaoke place every week and sing as much as I could. Obviously this would be along with learning lines, getting to know the character. I learnt, practiced, rehearsed, over and over and over. I had done nothing worthwhile for two whole years and this play was going to be for three nights just like every other end of year show. I had three nights to not just prove to everyone but to also prove to myself that I could do this. Strangely and I am not sure why I used to do this, but in rehearsals, I would NEVER give 100%. In any rehearsal ever. I wanted to give that bit extra on actual performance nights. I had a few ideas of what I was going to do. I always saved that bit extra just to really try and blow peoples' minds!
So did I blow peoples' minds?
Not to sound as arrogant as hell but I sure did.
It was one of those times in life where I could look back and say, it was one of the best things I did. I felt like the whole audience was actually in the palm of my hand. On the last night there being 200 people!
I got asked for my autograph and again, people were again hugging me after the show. There was a massive sense of overwhelming achievement. I had proved to everyone that I COULD do it. I proved to MYSELF that I could do it.
After that academic year was over, I stayed another 2 years to do a HND course which was basically a university course. The idea was the people that were on that course could then go to university for just a year to top up their HND and get their degrees.
Again, this was like the BTEC national. The first year went to awful that I ended up leaving.
The tutor said that at the end of the year, we could do whatever we wanted for our last project. I had an idea of dressing up as Death and walking around the town centre. Just to see what reactions I got. One of the tutors loved my idea but the main tutor didn't. I came up with a lot of other ideas but they all seemed to get pushed to the side and so our end of year show was to dress up as women and walk around the college. This wasn't what I wanted to do but somehow ended up having to do this. This wasn't challenging, this wasn't anything. It was just about goofing around and getting a reaction. It was ridiculous. We weren't learning anything.
After leaving I realised it was a bit of a silly thing to do to just not have a qualification. I went back to the college and said that I wanted to complete the course and wanted back in. The tutor said it wasn't possible but I KNEW how much the tutor wanted me back on the course as much as he would not admit it. So we ended up having a chat that was almost two hours long. I said I wanted to be challenged. I wanted to do something that was ground breaking. Dressing up as women wasn't ground breaking to me. It was nothing. He took me back on the course.
The second year was a lot better. We were able to do a project individually on whatever it was that we wanted. About ANYTHING. I did a "performance" pointing out how people get caught up more with celebrity shit rather than what is important in life. People choose to miss the important things and choose to live a life gossiping and basically intentionally missing out on making the world a better place. It was epic.
Our end of year show was Marat/Sade. We didn't want to do just the play. We wanted to do something (as I said before) groundbreaking. So we came up with the idea of being a character within a character. For example, we were in character of someone who had some form of illness/disability who would THEN be a character from Marat/Sade. We were being 2 characters and everybody was on stage throughout the whole play. Of course, anyone that knew us like the people in college would know were weren't disabled but when we took the performance out, people didn't know this until after the end when we broke character. We got standing ovations and people were amazed. It was pretty fulfilling I must say.
During the whole second year, it was pretty good. When I did go to university, they said that I was too qualified. But they also said I would have to do the whole course. So it would be another three years of doing what we basically had done in the whole HND course only we would be with people who had never done Drama before. They wouldn't let me or any of the other HND students go onto the third year which they originally said that we could so all the students that had the HND didn't bother going through university.
These are just some of my personal experiences. Just some. I have written this because I am JUST getting back into Drama and I guess I wanted to remind myself of what I am doing. Why I am doing this and what I hope to achieve.
Today I did a 15 minute micro-teach session with my classmates. Each of us are training to be tutors and are all learning different subject. My micro-teaching session happened to go absolutely amazing. Almost perfect. I had it all planned out and had a lot of notes but when I started doing it, I felt natural and hardly looked at my notes.
It feels like I am slowly getting back to my roots. It's going to be hard work but I think it could be great.
I am training to become a Drama teacher/tutor.
First of all, Drama is EVERYTHING. Everything is Drama. That is the beauty of it. Everywhere you go and everything a person does is Drama. Sometimes people can fail to realise this. From going to the shop and buying a newspaper to watching a football game to taking a bus to work. Everything that happens in life can be a scene.
Life is a play and you are the actor. Only it isn't scripted. You make your own script.
Everything you learn in life can be put in Drama. Everything you learn from Drama can be put in life. That is why I love it.
http://muksblogaboutstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/music-acting-performance-and-people.html
I studied Drama for five years in college. And sometimes I well and truly hated it.
I hated the fact that every time I saw someone in a play or a scene, I always used to think I could do it better. Why would I get so big headed like that? Maybe I just needed to mature a bit.
I hated how a lot of actors, not just me but a lot I knew were just up their own backsides in general.
But most of all, I hated how a lot of the times it was never about acting the part but more like looking like you fit the part.
I'm not saying that happened at college because it didn't. I'm saying that in the real world especially for TV, it was more about how you looked and not about your actual acting skills that got you the part. You could have years of acting training and experience but if you didn't "look" the part, you wouldn't get the part. There are a ton of actors who have "made it" purely because of how they look. That is something that will never leave the TV world. It's just the way it is. But I want to change all that. It is the only profession (not including modelling) where it is more or less guaranteed that it is the way you look which affects whether or not you get the job. Imagine if a Doctor or a Scientist who didn't get a job because of the way they looked. It just doesn't happen. I really couldn't stand that thought. I didn't want to become or be a part of that.
There was an open audition for a certain TV show whilst I was at college. I didn't go to the audition myself but a lot of the Drama students did. Most of them returned without even saying a single word at the audition. The casting people were literally just looking at who was pretty. Even though it was and still is a popular TV show, it isn't about the acting and never has been. To me that is pretty disgraceful. It's one of the reasons why I don't watch too much TV. But I also don't go to the theatre anymore. No actual real reason why. Sometimes I just don't feel like I actually belong there. But sometimes that goes for everywhere I go anyway.
So what do I actually LIKE about Drama? This post isn't just going to be about me moaning about something again. I obviously MUST like something about Drama for me to want to train to be able to teach it.
Well what does it do? It helps you to get emotions out and flipping heck, I am one insanely emotional person. It helps you with confidence, it helps you to connect with things in your life and in your memories in different ways. It gives you a different perspective on things and on people. It can help you understand the psychology of people (how many times have I wrote on this blog and questioned why people do/say what they do etc!).
Nearly half a life time ago when I was 16, I opted to do Performing Arts in college. I originally wanted to do just Music but at the time, I was awful on the guitar so had to do a course where I would have to to Music, Drama and Dance (they called Dance "Movement" to make it sound cool) and I would have to pass two from these three subjects to go onto the next year where I could specialise in one subject and at the time I was hoping it would be Music but within the course of that year, I slowly changed my mind.
I remember everyone in the Drama class had to learn and perform a monologue. And I remember thinking "Wait a minute, a monologue?? Getting up in front of everyone by myself and performing whilst everybody stares and judges only me?? I can't do that!"
So I have no idea and still to this day have no idea what possessed me to ask my tutor this:-
"Can I write my own monologue?"
Long story short, I wrote it about bullying. I performed it countless of times as people wanted to see it so much. And then see it again. It became a big deal. Someone who saw it cried. People who I didn't know/hadn't met were hugging me. Strangely at the time the HND students were doing a bullying project too. The tutor saw it and wanted me to do it at the end of one of their performances and when that day came I was so nervous I must have gone to the toilet about 16,000 times. They did their performance and then everybody included the tutor started to get up and leave until the tutor remembered about me and bought everyone back into the theatre. I performed it again. It went well. Everyone talked about it more than what the HND students did. Some guy said he wanted me to perform it at The Edinburgh Festival which he could organise. Eventually telling me I would have to change it and take the word "Paki" out of it which I say in it three times. I refused to do that. Changing the monologue would take away what it actually was. The power of it. I couldn't do that.
I was only 16 years old and still going through the stages if you like. I didn't know much about Drama or much about life or anything. At the time 16 was young. Unlike now. It seems like kids/teenagers are much more older now at 16 then when they were back then.
That year I went onto be Eddie in a play called "Blood Brothers". The play was done in a Brechtian style and several characters were supposed to be played by different actors but I did the whole of Eddie apart from one scene. I passed my BTEC 1st with flying colours and opted to do Drama in the BTEC National which was a two year course. The first of those years being less than stellar. Most of the class in the main end of year show were props including me with a four line part. I learnt monologues but I wasn't good at performing them at all. For some reason, I was more insecure this year than the last.
But the second of those years, I learnt so many different techniques/styles from Stanislavski, Peter Brook and the Alexander technique-the latter I couldn't stand doing and eventually had to tell the tutors this.
I had to dress up as a woman for Commedia Del Arte. I think this was the tutors' way of punishing me as I was always late. I actually did it well. I had long hair at the time and people actually said I looked better as a woman than as a man. D'oh.
That year we were doing two plays. The first was The Crucible which we performed at Christmas time. Again I wasn't having a great year and had a part with about 6 lines. But the tutor told me to be an understudy for someone who at the time was ill and if he couldn't make it to rehearsals then I could have the part. It was a big part. The part of Reverend Hale.
By no means did I want the person who had this part be ill. Of course I didn't. But I had to think how well I could do this part. Obviously learn the lines and the character etc. I couldn't help but get a bot excited and there was one day when the tutor said that if the guy who had the part doesn't come in today, then I can have the part. And on that rehearsal I was stood behind the curtain and it was coming up to my first line and the guy hadn't turned up yet. I was just about to start my scene and my first line when...he comes in! It was the craziest timing ever. As unprofessional as it was, I gave him the script and just went home. I was so glad he was better. It was just the timing which wasn't the best! We talked about it for ages afterwards with the tutor and actually had a laugh about it. He played the part probably a lot better than I would have done anyway.
So for all of that year as well, I failed to deliver until the very last play. The tutor said that everyone would have to audition for the last play and based on how our auditions went, she would pick parts for us accordingly. The play was Cabaret. Now I HATED musicals. But at the same time I had to do something worthwhile this year. I wasn't a good singer and everyone had to do a song and a monologue for the audition. I think we had a month to prepare. I learnt a monologue and a song on guitar. When it came to the audition, I did the song first, messed up like crazy. I could have got a backing track and played that but I chose to play my guitar and played wrong, sang wrong and everything about the song was wrong. Then just as I was about to start my monologue, in the middle of the audition, I decided to not do the monologue I had learnt. I had to pull the big gun out. I had to use the ace in my sleeve. I did the bullying monologue.
The next day, the class sat in a circle whilst the tutor read the parts out. I was given the massive part of Herr Schultz. The rest of the class didn't seem happy. I could almost hear their thoughts saying, "why him?" "what has he done to deserve that?" etc etc etc. But this was my chance to really go for it. And go for it I did.
Like I said, I couldn't sing. I had to sing! But I couldn't. What do I do? They say practice makes perfect but I just couldn't imagine the thought of me SINGING in front of up to 200 people! I couldn't sing in front of one person. But I would have to otherwise I couldn't do the part. There was only one thing I could do to practice in front of an audience without them really judging me...karaoke.
So the three months or so leading up to the play, I would go to a karaoke place every week and sing as much as I could. Obviously this would be along with learning lines, getting to know the character. I learnt, practiced, rehearsed, over and over and over. I had done nothing worthwhile for two whole years and this play was going to be for three nights just like every other end of year show. I had three nights to not just prove to everyone but to also prove to myself that I could do this. Strangely and I am not sure why I used to do this, but in rehearsals, I would NEVER give 100%. In any rehearsal ever. I wanted to give that bit extra on actual performance nights. I had a few ideas of what I was going to do. I always saved that bit extra just to really try and blow peoples' minds!
So did I blow peoples' minds?
Not to sound as arrogant as hell but I sure did.
It was one of those times in life where I could look back and say, it was one of the best things I did. I felt like the whole audience was actually in the palm of my hand. On the last night there being 200 people!
I got asked for my autograph and again, people were again hugging me after the show. There was a massive sense of overwhelming achievement. I had proved to everyone that I COULD do it. I proved to MYSELF that I could do it.
After that academic year was over, I stayed another 2 years to do a HND course which was basically a university course. The idea was the people that were on that course could then go to university for just a year to top up their HND and get their degrees.
Again, this was like the BTEC national. The first year went to awful that I ended up leaving.
The tutor said that at the end of the year, we could do whatever we wanted for our last project. I had an idea of dressing up as Death and walking around the town centre. Just to see what reactions I got. One of the tutors loved my idea but the main tutor didn't. I came up with a lot of other ideas but they all seemed to get pushed to the side and so our end of year show was to dress up as women and walk around the college. This wasn't what I wanted to do but somehow ended up having to do this. This wasn't challenging, this wasn't anything. It was just about goofing around and getting a reaction. It was ridiculous. We weren't learning anything.
After leaving I realised it was a bit of a silly thing to do to just not have a qualification. I went back to the college and said that I wanted to complete the course and wanted back in. The tutor said it wasn't possible but I KNEW how much the tutor wanted me back on the course as much as he would not admit it. So we ended up having a chat that was almost two hours long. I said I wanted to be challenged. I wanted to do something that was ground breaking. Dressing up as women wasn't ground breaking to me. It was nothing. He took me back on the course.
The second year was a lot better. We were able to do a project individually on whatever it was that we wanted. About ANYTHING. I did a "performance" pointing out how people get caught up more with celebrity shit rather than what is important in life. People choose to miss the important things and choose to live a life gossiping and basically intentionally missing out on making the world a better place. It was epic.
Our end of year show was Marat/Sade. We didn't want to do just the play. We wanted to do something (as I said before) groundbreaking. So we came up with the idea of being a character within a character. For example, we were in character of someone who had some form of illness/disability who would THEN be a character from Marat/Sade. We were being 2 characters and everybody was on stage throughout the whole play. Of course, anyone that knew us like the people in college would know were weren't disabled but when we took the performance out, people didn't know this until after the end when we broke character. We got standing ovations and people were amazed. It was pretty fulfilling I must say.
During the whole second year, it was pretty good. When I did go to university, they said that I was too qualified. But they also said I would have to do the whole course. So it would be another three years of doing what we basically had done in the whole HND course only we would be with people who had never done Drama before. They wouldn't let me or any of the other HND students go onto the third year which they originally said that we could so all the students that had the HND didn't bother going through university.
These are just some of my personal experiences. Just some. I have written this because I am JUST getting back into Drama and I guess I wanted to remind myself of what I am doing. Why I am doing this and what I hope to achieve.
Today I did a 15 minute micro-teach session with my classmates. Each of us are training to be tutors and are all learning different subject. My micro-teaching session happened to go absolutely amazing. Almost perfect. I had it all planned out and had a lot of notes but when I started doing it, I felt natural and hardly looked at my notes.
It feels like I am slowly getting back to my roots. It's going to be hard work but I think it could be great.
Thursday, 24 October 2013
Best TV moment ever
I heard a couple of people talking about their favourite TV shows and their best moments. I decided to write a post and think about what mine was.
I don't actually watch too much TV. Anything I do watch is more in spurts. I love The Simpsons, it has to be the funniest show EVER and is loaded with so much subtext in it's writing it is unreal. I used to watch The Big Bang Theory now and again but it has gone awful with the cute blonde being so frigging annoying, the geeks are all studs now and the Indian guy comes out with jokes which the writers have written for him that I was saying in real life about ten years ago.
I used to like Heroes but it went absolutely crazy towards the latter stages as they had too many characters and they didn't know what to do with them. Homeland is pretty awesome as is Game Of Thrones. As I am writing this, I have just finished to where it is up to.
I just watch things online at 2am when I can't sleep.
There are that many TV shows. TOO MANY. With all the cable channels and things. Thousands. It is insane to think there are actors out there who are out of work when surely they could get a part somewhere. It is almost as if there are more TV shows than there are actors. Than there are people! I'm going too far I know.
I really don't think acting exists in movies anymore. Too many special effects, editing etc. That is not acting to me.
I did however watch and have watched two more times the whole series of Lost. Regular readers of my blog (if there are any regular readers) would know how much I loved/love this series. And I just wanted to do a lighthearted post again and I thought of coming up with the best TV moment. I didn't choose from any animation, or any films, I just wanted to pick one from a TV show where something I watched just made me go "woah, that was amazing." So I ended up picking the following two scenes from Lost. I couldn't pick one:-
This is from season 3 episode 10 and is titled "Tricia Tanaka is dead."
Hugo Reyes (Hurley) is shown in a flashback with his dad when he is younger. They are both working together to fix a car however it won't start. Hurelys' father tells him that good things will happen when you believe they will. Also that in this world, you have to make your own luck. His father leaves for Las Vegas and just before he leaves, he gives his son a chocolate bar. At first Hurley doesn't want it but his father insists and promises to return from Las Vegas soon. You hear the song "Shambala" by Three dog night being played.
The flashbacks continue throughout the episode. Hurleys' father never returned until after Hurley wins the lottery seventeen years later which pleased his mother but not Hurley himself. A lot of unfortunate things happen in Hurleys' life after he wins the lottery. People die and one of his chicken restaurants get hit by a meteorite are just a couple of unfortunate circumstances that happen. He believes winning the money was a curse and plans to rid the curse by going to Australia. Hurleys' father takes him to a tarot reader who says she can rid the curse however she is caught out by Hurley and then admits that his father paid her to say that. Hurley then begins packing to go to Australia and his father admits he did come back because he heard his son had won the lottery but also says that he will wait for Hurley until he comes back from Australia.
Charlie has been told that he is going to die soon. It seems that every time Desmond (who isn't in this scene) foresees Charlie about to die, he saves him but figures that Charlie is meant to die and nothing can change that no matter how much they try to change it. Hurley believes this and tells Charlie that he thinks that he brings bad luck. The dog Vincent then comes with a human arm in his mouth and leads Hurley to the camper van you are about to watch. Hurley then wants to fix the van and goes back to the beach searching for someone who might help him do it. Everybody ignores him apart from Jin who doesn't really speak English and gets roped into helping. Hurley finds a skeleton and beer in the van. He then bumps into Sawyer who agrees to help after finding out beer is available and also gets Charlie to help after telling him he can either mope around and wait for death or that they should make their own luck and face whatever is coming. Charlie gets a slap in the face from Hurley and then agrees to help. The car gets fixed, but needs a jump start.
The song "Shambala" is heard again with a beautiful composition from Michael Giacchino from 3:11.
"Victory or death." Can you change destiny? Are people cursed? If so, can you change that? Is everything you do in your own hands?
Absolute magic:-
Apologies in advance as this could get as confusing as my time travel post:-
http://muksblogaboutstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/time-travel.html
Apparently, the writers for this episode took twice the time they would normally do to write it to avoid the time travel paradox.
This is from season 4 episode 5 and is titled "The Constant." Many saying that it was the best episode of the whole series.
Desmond, Sayid and Lapidus are in a helicopter on the way to a freighter when they encounter some turbulence and then Desmond starts experiencing some strange sensations. His consciousness flashes back 8 years where he is serving with The British Armies' Royal Scots Regiment. After a few moments, his consciousness returns to the present day and he doesn't recognise anyone or even where he is. He has no memory of what has happened the past 8 years. The helicopter lands on the freighter and Desmond gets taken to the sick bay where they meet Minkowski who is strapped to a bed because the same thing is happening to him. Minkowski soon dies of a brain aneurysm
Sayid uses a radio to call the island where Daniel who is a physicist from the freighter asks Desmond what year he thinks it is. Desmond thinks it is 8 years from the present day and is panicking. Daniel understands and explains to Desmond that the next time his consciousness goes back 8 years he must go to Oxford university and find him and tell him what is going on.
Desmonds' flashbacks start happening more and 8 years ago he tracks down Daniel as it is in his subconsciousness to do so and after convincing Daniel that it was he who has told him to come here, Desmond gets shown how Daniel is working on a time machine whilst Desmond gives Daniel some co-ordinates and then Daniel uses those co-ordinates in a maze where a rat is comatose as like Desmond, he was exposed to electromagnetic energy. The rat awakes and then runs through maze which Daniel had just built and the rat hadn't been shown. Desmond then gets explained to him that like the rat, he is caught in a time warp. The rat has a brain aneurysm and dies as it's consciousness cannot take what is happening and Daniel tells Desmond this will happen to him UNLESS he finds a "constant"-someone or something who is present in both time periods who can be an anchor in Desmonds' mental stability. Desmond decides that Penny can be the constant but he has to track her down, find her and tell her everything. They had split up as Desmond believed that he had nothing to offer Penny and Penny is upset and doesn't want to see him but Desmond has to explain to her that eight years from now he will call her and she HAS to answer. He asks for her number-she clearly thinks it is absolutely ridiculous-imagine if someone told you they wouldn't call you until eight years later-but she ends up giving him her number. Cheesy towards the end but so unique and an absolute classic:-
I don't actually watch too much TV. Anything I do watch is more in spurts. I love The Simpsons, it has to be the funniest show EVER and is loaded with so much subtext in it's writing it is unreal. I used to watch The Big Bang Theory now and again but it has gone awful with the cute blonde being so frigging annoying, the geeks are all studs now and the Indian guy comes out with jokes which the writers have written for him that I was saying in real life about ten years ago.
I used to like Heroes but it went absolutely crazy towards the latter stages as they had too many characters and they didn't know what to do with them. Homeland is pretty awesome as is Game Of Thrones. As I am writing this, I have just finished to where it is up to.
I just watch things online at 2am when I can't sleep.
There are that many TV shows. TOO MANY. With all the cable channels and things. Thousands. It is insane to think there are actors out there who are out of work when surely they could get a part somewhere. It is almost as if there are more TV shows than there are actors. Than there are people! I'm going too far I know.
I really don't think acting exists in movies anymore. Too many special effects, editing etc. That is not acting to me.
I did however watch and have watched two more times the whole series of Lost. Regular readers of my blog (if there are any regular readers) would know how much I loved/love this series. And I just wanted to do a lighthearted post again and I thought of coming up with the best TV moment. I didn't choose from any animation, or any films, I just wanted to pick one from a TV show where something I watched just made me go "woah, that was amazing." So I ended up picking the following two scenes from Lost. I couldn't pick one:-
This is from season 3 episode 10 and is titled "Tricia Tanaka is dead."
Hugo Reyes (Hurley) is shown in a flashback with his dad when he is younger. They are both working together to fix a car however it won't start. Hurelys' father tells him that good things will happen when you believe they will. Also that in this world, you have to make your own luck. His father leaves for Las Vegas and just before he leaves, he gives his son a chocolate bar. At first Hurley doesn't want it but his father insists and promises to return from Las Vegas soon. You hear the song "Shambala" by Three dog night being played.
The flashbacks continue throughout the episode. Hurleys' father never returned until after Hurley wins the lottery seventeen years later which pleased his mother but not Hurley himself. A lot of unfortunate things happen in Hurleys' life after he wins the lottery. People die and one of his chicken restaurants get hit by a meteorite are just a couple of unfortunate circumstances that happen. He believes winning the money was a curse and plans to rid the curse by going to Australia. Hurleys' father takes him to a tarot reader who says she can rid the curse however she is caught out by Hurley and then admits that his father paid her to say that. Hurley then begins packing to go to Australia and his father admits he did come back because he heard his son had won the lottery but also says that he will wait for Hurley until he comes back from Australia.
Charlie has been told that he is going to die soon. It seems that every time Desmond (who isn't in this scene) foresees Charlie about to die, he saves him but figures that Charlie is meant to die and nothing can change that no matter how much they try to change it. Hurley believes this and tells Charlie that he thinks that he brings bad luck. The dog Vincent then comes with a human arm in his mouth and leads Hurley to the camper van you are about to watch. Hurley then wants to fix the van and goes back to the beach searching for someone who might help him do it. Everybody ignores him apart from Jin who doesn't really speak English and gets roped into helping. Hurley finds a skeleton and beer in the van. He then bumps into Sawyer who agrees to help after finding out beer is available and also gets Charlie to help after telling him he can either mope around and wait for death or that they should make their own luck and face whatever is coming. Charlie gets a slap in the face from Hurley and then agrees to help. The car gets fixed, but needs a jump start.
The song "Shambala" is heard again with a beautiful composition from Michael Giacchino from 3:11.
"Victory or death." Can you change destiny? Are people cursed? If so, can you change that? Is everything you do in your own hands?
Absolute magic:-
Apologies in advance as this could get as confusing as my time travel post:-
http://muksblogaboutstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/time-travel.html
Apparently, the writers for this episode took twice the time they would normally do to write it to avoid the time travel paradox.
This is from season 4 episode 5 and is titled "The Constant." Many saying that it was the best episode of the whole series.
Desmond, Sayid and Lapidus are in a helicopter on the way to a freighter when they encounter some turbulence and then Desmond starts experiencing some strange sensations. His consciousness flashes back 8 years where he is serving with The British Armies' Royal Scots Regiment. After a few moments, his consciousness returns to the present day and he doesn't recognise anyone or even where he is. He has no memory of what has happened the past 8 years. The helicopter lands on the freighter and Desmond gets taken to the sick bay where they meet Minkowski who is strapped to a bed because the same thing is happening to him. Minkowski soon dies of a brain aneurysm
Sayid uses a radio to call the island where Daniel who is a physicist from the freighter asks Desmond what year he thinks it is. Desmond thinks it is 8 years from the present day and is panicking. Daniel understands and explains to Desmond that the next time his consciousness goes back 8 years he must go to Oxford university and find him and tell him what is going on.
Desmonds' flashbacks start happening more and 8 years ago he tracks down Daniel as it is in his subconsciousness to do so and after convincing Daniel that it was he who has told him to come here, Desmond gets shown how Daniel is working on a time machine whilst Desmond gives Daniel some co-ordinates and then Daniel uses those co-ordinates in a maze where a rat is comatose as like Desmond, he was exposed to electromagnetic energy. The rat awakes and then runs through maze which Daniel had just built and the rat hadn't been shown. Desmond then gets explained to him that like the rat, he is caught in a time warp. The rat has a brain aneurysm and dies as it's consciousness cannot take what is happening and Daniel tells Desmond this will happen to him UNLESS he finds a "constant"-someone or something who is present in both time periods who can be an anchor in Desmonds' mental stability. Desmond decides that Penny can be the constant but he has to track her down, find her and tell her everything. They had split up as Desmond believed that he had nothing to offer Penny and Penny is upset and doesn't want to see him but Desmond has to explain to her that eight years from now he will call her and she HAS to answer. He asks for her number-she clearly thinks it is absolutely ridiculous-imagine if someone told you they wouldn't call you until eight years later-but she ends up giving him her number. Cheesy towards the end but so unique and an absolute classic:-
Tuesday, 22 October 2013
This could be a plot in an awful soap.
Cast of characters:-
The plot:-
After years and years of an unhappy marriage, the husband gets increasingly frustrated as he feels he isn't able to live a life due to the crazy wife. He always sneaks about when wanting to do something like binge eat or drink. This really starts to affect his health. The son sees all this and tries to stop it by telling his father and the crazy mother who pays no attention. His sister doesn't really get involved. She is too busy with her cat.
The father eventually had a stroke and a week later, passes away. The mother gets all the money from his bank account naturally but the father has a secret beneficiary for his children. He didn't want his crazy wife knowing about this beneficiary as he didn't want her to get her hands on it. It was only for the children. His wife has enough money-and the house.
The wife finds out about the beneficiary due to a mistake from the husbands' work. She gets a solicitor and after months of door slamming, yelling and cursing, she somehow eventually gets most of the money. She must have got a really good solicitor to go against the fathers' last wish which was written in paper.
The children are distraught. The daughter hates her mother even more and the son is in complete disbelief that a mother can do this to her children. Steal money that is rightfully theirs. As if they didn't have enough to go through. He also thinks that maybe the father ate and drank himself to death so the children could have this money as if he had retired before he passed away, there wouldn't be any money.
Sometimes when things happen in life, it all just seems so fucked up that it doesn't seem like it is real.
A 63 year old father of two who has worked hard his all life and with each passing year, gets more and more angrier and moodier.
The wife. A 58 year old crazy woman who never lets her husband do ANYTHING. A woman who never seems to want people to be happy. Has a lot of money. Is very conniving, devious and malicious.
A 37 year old daughter with a cold heart. Lives in her own house with a cat. Not much of a personality apart from a horrific nasty side. Hates the mother.
A 31 year old handsome man who is the son and has been unlucky in life. Had to reluctantly move back in with his parents. Doesn't really have much going for him at the moment. Has no money. But always tries to say and do the right thing.
The plot:-
After years and years of an unhappy marriage, the husband gets increasingly frustrated as he feels he isn't able to live a life due to the crazy wife. He always sneaks about when wanting to do something like binge eat or drink. This really starts to affect his health. The son sees all this and tries to stop it by telling his father and the crazy mother who pays no attention. His sister doesn't really get involved. She is too busy with her cat.
The father eventually had a stroke and a week later, passes away. The mother gets all the money from his bank account naturally but the father has a secret beneficiary for his children. He didn't want his crazy wife knowing about this beneficiary as he didn't want her to get her hands on it. It was only for the children. His wife has enough money-and the house.
The wife finds out about the beneficiary due to a mistake from the husbands' work. She gets a solicitor and after months of door slamming, yelling and cursing, she somehow eventually gets most of the money. She must have got a really good solicitor to go against the fathers' last wish which was written in paper.
The children are distraught. The daughter hates her mother even more and the son is in complete disbelief that a mother can do this to her children. Steal money that is rightfully theirs. As if they didn't have enough to go through. He also thinks that maybe the father ate and drank himself to death so the children could have this money as if he had retired before he passed away, there wouldn't be any money.
Sometimes when things happen in life, it all just seems so fucked up that it doesn't seem like it is real.
Sunday, 1 September 2013
Don't cheapen yourself. Don't cheapen great things.
I was browsing on You Tube the other day and they had a thing called "geek week" and on this particular day, a show I used to watch and love as a child was part of this "geek week". It was a show called Knightmare.
If you have never seen it, it is basically a team of 4 people and one of the team members (the dungeoneer) has to put on a helmet (the helmet of justice) where he/she can only see what is directly below them and the other 3 members of the team act as his/her guide through medieval environments with puzzles, obstacles and other characters that they may meet along the way. The dungeoneer would also have a knapsack in which throughout the quest, food must be placed in to "preserve their life force". The quest that they go through is all done by blue casting chroma key and virtual reality giving backgrounds and images like it would be in a computer game.
It sounds cheesy but it was absolutely incredible and at the time VERY scary. One amazing show that was one of the best things of many childrens' childhoods.
Unfortunately, this group of idiots, a couple of them who made me want to throw something hard at my computer screen but who for some reason are stupidly popular on You Tube (they literally just put videos of themselves up being fucking annoying) did a one-off Knightmare special. They were just pathetic, attention seeking jackasses. They were laughing and pissing about and generally making the show look shit. They were cheapening it and the only reason why they were chosen to go on there for this one-off special is because they were popular on You Tube and I guess the producers of Knightmare just wanted as many views as possible. Unfortunately, all the pathetic losers who are their followers, only commented on the actual people. Not the show. Many of the idiots probably don't even know/remember or weren't even born when the show was on TV. So the comments were things along the lines of "lol classic Dan" or "you look good in that shirt Phil" or something like "hey Dan, liked your other vid you put about about how much gel you put on your hair."
I am not even joking there.
The actual team were just frigging everything that is wrong with the internet. It made me wonder why the producers of Knightmare were so desperate for so many views? Why cheapen themselves like that?
Maria Sharapova wanted to change her name to Maria Sugarpova for The US Open.
She has a brand of sweets apparently under that name which she wanted to promote.
I've never really liked her anyway. This made me like her even less. She got injured before The US Open got underway. What a shame. But I don't understand why someone would do this? Change her name just for one tournament to promote sweets? Insanity. Would the commentators, the umpire, the interviewers have all had to call her "Sugarpova"?? She is a very good tennis player. But again, why cheapen yourself like that?
I could go on and on about giving examples of people cheapening themselves or cheapening great things. For some reason off the top of my head my college days came back to me and in particular a couple of things.
One was where in my HND Theatre Studies class, our last project of the first year was that as a group, we can put on ANY kind of performance we wanted. Obviously as an actor, this is really exciting as the possibilities are endless. I wanted to dress up as Death and walk through the town centre just to see what kind of reaction I would get. What would happen afterwards and what would the consequences would be? I was a Drama student, so I was pretty sure I wouldn't be put in prison. Even if I was, I would just touch people and then they would be dead. Anyway, one of the tutors said this was the best idea she had heard and was excited by it. Unfortunately the main tutor disagreed and wouldn't let me. And any ideas I did come up with to push some boundaries (I loved and still love pushing boundaries) were always shut down. It ended up me and the whole group dressing up as ladies and wandering around college and sometimes in a ladies' bathing suit. The men had to, the ladies did sod all and didn't have to dress up as men or in ladies' bathing suits. I think it was because one of the ladies had breasts so big, they would enter the room 15 minutes before the actual owner of them did.
Remember, this was a class full of potential acting geniuses doing something so frigging tacky that I didn't want to do or choose to do. At the time I felt like I was cheapening myself. I refused to do it after the first day and my argument was that we weren't pushing boundaries or doing anything that would make people think. We were just being pathetic and the whole thing was pointless (I had already had to dress up as a woman for Commedia Del Arte which is where pantomime originated from). I wasn't learning anything and so I left the course and didn't want to come back for the second year. I DID end up coming back after a few months after an hour long talk with the tutor about how I thought Drama should be taught.
The second thing was a band called Limp Bizkit who "sold out" after doing "commercial" songs just to make money. For some reason, the "alternative" scene were outraged that they chose to cheapen themselves. Personally for me, I always thought that they were a bunch of twats who had always played shit music so it had no effect on me whatsoever.
My whole point is a lot of people do cheapen themselves whether it be for attention, a few laughs, for money or for whatever. The best advice I can give is just to ignore those fuckers and be true to YOURself.
If you have never seen it, it is basically a team of 4 people and one of the team members (the dungeoneer) has to put on a helmet (the helmet of justice) where he/she can only see what is directly below them and the other 3 members of the team act as his/her guide through medieval environments with puzzles, obstacles and other characters that they may meet along the way. The dungeoneer would also have a knapsack in which throughout the quest, food must be placed in to "preserve their life force". The quest that they go through is all done by blue casting chroma key and virtual reality giving backgrounds and images like it would be in a computer game.
It sounds cheesy but it was absolutely incredible and at the time VERY scary. One amazing show that was one of the best things of many childrens' childhoods.
Unfortunately, this group of idiots, a couple of them who made me want to throw something hard at my computer screen but who for some reason are stupidly popular on You Tube (they literally just put videos of themselves up being fucking annoying) did a one-off Knightmare special. They were just pathetic, attention seeking jackasses. They were laughing and pissing about and generally making the show look shit. They were cheapening it and the only reason why they were chosen to go on there for this one-off special is because they were popular on You Tube and I guess the producers of Knightmare just wanted as many views as possible. Unfortunately, all the pathetic losers who are their followers, only commented on the actual people. Not the show. Many of the idiots probably don't even know/remember or weren't even born when the show was on TV. So the comments were things along the lines of "lol classic Dan" or "you look good in that shirt Phil" or something like "hey Dan, liked your other vid you put about about how much gel you put on your hair."
I am not even joking there.
The actual team were just frigging everything that is wrong with the internet. It made me wonder why the producers of Knightmare were so desperate for so many views? Why cheapen themselves like that?
Maria Sharapova wanted to change her name to Maria Sugarpova for The US Open.
She has a brand of sweets apparently under that name which she wanted to promote.
I've never really liked her anyway. This made me like her even less. She got injured before The US Open got underway. What a shame. But I don't understand why someone would do this? Change her name just for one tournament to promote sweets? Insanity. Would the commentators, the umpire, the interviewers have all had to call her "Sugarpova"?? She is a very good tennis player. But again, why cheapen yourself like that?
I could go on and on about giving examples of people cheapening themselves or cheapening great things. For some reason off the top of my head my college days came back to me and in particular a couple of things.
One was where in my HND Theatre Studies class, our last project of the first year was that as a group, we can put on ANY kind of performance we wanted. Obviously as an actor, this is really exciting as the possibilities are endless. I wanted to dress up as Death and walk through the town centre just to see what kind of reaction I would get. What would happen afterwards and what would the consequences would be? I was a Drama student, so I was pretty sure I wouldn't be put in prison. Even if I was, I would just touch people and then they would be dead. Anyway, one of the tutors said this was the best idea she had heard and was excited by it. Unfortunately the main tutor disagreed and wouldn't let me. And any ideas I did come up with to push some boundaries (I loved and still love pushing boundaries) were always shut down. It ended up me and the whole group dressing up as ladies and wandering around college and sometimes in a ladies' bathing suit. The men had to, the ladies did sod all and didn't have to dress up as men or in ladies' bathing suits. I think it was because one of the ladies had breasts so big, they would enter the room 15 minutes before the actual owner of them did.
Remember, this was a class full of potential acting geniuses doing something so frigging tacky that I didn't want to do or choose to do. At the time I felt like I was cheapening myself. I refused to do it after the first day and my argument was that we weren't pushing boundaries or doing anything that would make people think. We were just being pathetic and the whole thing was pointless (I had already had to dress up as a woman for Commedia Del Arte which is where pantomime originated from). I wasn't learning anything and so I left the course and didn't want to come back for the second year. I DID end up coming back after a few months after an hour long talk with the tutor about how I thought Drama should be taught.
The second thing was a band called Limp Bizkit who "sold out" after doing "commercial" songs just to make money. For some reason, the "alternative" scene were outraged that they chose to cheapen themselves. Personally for me, I always thought that they were a bunch of twats who had always played shit music so it had no effect on me whatsoever.
My whole point is a lot of people do cheapen themselves whether it be for attention, a few laughs, for money or for whatever. The best advice I can give is just to ignore those fuckers and be true to YOURself.
Monday, 26 August 2013
Happy birthday Dad
August 26th. It would have been my dads' 64th birthday today.
It is weird how it was only last year when a load of people were in a pub drinking on my dads' 63rd birthday.
Cardiff City beat Manchester City 3-2 yesterday (on the 25th). It made me happy. My dad would have been pissed off.
I am writing this just to try and point out how horrifically short life is.
It is impossible-or not a thing that people should do-which is to "live your life like each day is your last." That is ridiculous. You can't do that. But what you can do is live life as much and as fully as you can. Too many people just exist and don't really live life. I do it myself.
I can't really explain what to do. But you have to do what you want to do. Things are possible that you might not think or you might not even convince yourself to be possible-the easier thing to do is not to try. If you don't try you can't fail. People fall into doing this all the time.
But why not try?? Why not fail and then try again?? Why not just fucking go for anything you want to do?? Life is precious. Life can be amazing if you want it to be.
There is 22 hours and 7 minutes to go til this day is over and it is the 27th . I don't know why this is relevant, but I do want this day to be over. But I don't want it to be a day where nothing happens. Something has to happen. Everyday something should happen, that you make happen that makes your life better.
It is up to yourself to do that.
It is weird how it was only last year when a load of people were in a pub drinking on my dads' 63rd birthday.
Cardiff City beat Manchester City 3-2 yesterday (on the 25th). It made me happy. My dad would have been pissed off.
I am writing this just to try and point out how horrifically short life is.
It is impossible-or not a thing that people should do-which is to "live your life like each day is your last." That is ridiculous. You can't do that. But what you can do is live life as much and as fully as you can. Too many people just exist and don't really live life. I do it myself.
I can't really explain what to do. But you have to do what you want to do. Things are possible that you might not think or you might not even convince yourself to be possible-the easier thing to do is not to try. If you don't try you can't fail. People fall into doing this all the time.
But why not try?? Why not fail and then try again?? Why not just fucking go for anything you want to do?? Life is precious. Life can be amazing if you want it to be.
There is 22 hours and 7 minutes to go til this day is over and it is the 27th . I don't know why this is relevant, but I do want this day to be over. But I don't want it to be a day where nothing happens. Something has to happen. Everyday something should happen, that you make happen that makes your life better.
It is up to yourself to do that.
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