I hear that the cancellation of “Law and Order” is expected to have a serious impact on the NYC economy, especially for actors and the support crafts.
I used to have a subscription to a theater company in Philadelphia, and one of my pleasures was to see in each performance how many cast members had been on L&O. Always some, sometimes most.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be an actor. The vast majority of us watch movies and/or plays and/or live theater, and we’d miss it if all the actors disappeared. (We’d miss it if all the bad actors disappeared, let alone the good ones.) But it’s undeniable that the odds against making a living at it are great. So it helps a lot if you simply enjoy doing it for its own sake.
But most good actors at one time were bad actors (there are a few “naturals” who don’t need to learn anything, but they’re rare). The same thing goes for writers, painters (includes cartoonists), dancers, musicians. Some skills and tricks can be taught in schools, some cannot.
Chuck Jones (Roadrunner, Tom and Jerry, etc.) said in his autobiography that his father told him “Every artist has 100,000 bad drawings in him, and he has to get those out of the way before he can start doing good ones.”
Follow that dream! Bless the hacks and the wannabes, because without them we would never have greatness either.
British TV buys in a lot of soap operas from Australia, probably because
i) they’re cheap.
ii) Our TV companies have been criticised for indiscriminately buying too much American programming - now they’re exploiting a different part of the English-speaking world.
iii) They’ll buy anything as long as it’s in English and avoids the curse of being from a different country and culture (ie France) where the British coach potato might actually be challenged or worse, have to listen to a foreign language and read subtitles.
Australian soap opera is, basically, ill-acted ill-scripted mediocre bleeep with a cavalier attiude to continuity.
Australia only seens to have at most thirty active actors and actressses, so they’re in EVERYTHING. (emigration opportunity for Lucas? More heartbreak for Mona, CLV continues…)
But given the state of American TV - which from outside appears to consist of either works of genius or complete tosh, nothing in between is merely “mediocre” - would Lucas have to go that far?
Maybe even an acting job as one of those people pretending to be healed or converted on a TV evangelist’s show?
Somewhere out there is an acting job entirely suited for Lucas, but which will carry a sting that lacerates his soul and makes him wish for the good old days of the Reading Rabbit…
AgProv, I’ve long argued that countries other than the U.S. produce just as high a percentage of crappy entertainment as we do, it’s just that we tend only to import their good stuff so that’s all we know (whereas other countries seem delighted to import our garbage along with our gems). I don’t watch much TV these days, but my understanding is that there are plenty of middling shows mixed in with the unappreciated works of genius and the lowest-common-denominator smash hits, but they probably don’t get noticed overseas because they’re neither good enough nor popular enough to be marketable.
Lucas might well have better luck in London or Australia or someplace. Not knowing exactly what his voice sounds like, I can still imagine that he could get cast as a convincing American, Anglophone Canadian, Francophone Canadian, or even a Frenchman.
(As long as I’ve got your ear, I watched a DVD of “The Mighty Boosh”; I guess it was originally broadcast on BBC3, but do you know why they give all the prices for everything in euros? Is that just another level of being willfully perverse?)
It’s wilful perversity. I do have to grudgingly hand it to our politicians that they were astute enough to spot a bad deal and kept us out of the euro (so now it’s crashing and burning we Brits can grin and stay right out of it).
the Mighty Boosh actually started out as a strange and surrealistic radio comedy show in sound only. They say radio is the best TV: a finely crafted radio show gets your imagination to work filling in the pictures. Although when Boosh made the transition to TV, they didn’t make too bad a job of it!
(Incidentally, “Flight of the Conchords” also began on BBC Radio and then blossomed into a world-wide hit…)
Speaking of BBC3, it’s a fairly new TV channel, aimed at “youth”, and tending to broadcast a lot of comedy. Some of the output is utter, utter, unspeakable bleeep, but it is the British home of those two fine cartoon series “Family Guy” and “American Dad”
margueritem over 14 years ago
So soon you forget…
Sisyphos over 14 years ago
Idealistic, like many young would-be actors, who go on to fail at acting and eventually find a job of some more prosaic sort….
ladywolf17 over 14 years ago
An epic failure in the making! Why not just take some college courses and get a degree.
ejcapulet over 14 years ago
Another lousy actor. Oh geez! Get a real job!
pschearer Premium Member over 14 years ago
I hear that the cancellation of “Law and Order” is expected to have a serious impact on the NYC economy, especially for actors and the support crafts.
I used to have a subscription to a theater company in Philadelphia, and one of my pleasures was to see in each performance how many cast members had been on L&O. Always some, sometimes most.
The missing M. Smokey over 14 years ago
Find a woman who will keep you as a pet.
Ray_C over 14 years ago
Well said, M Smokey!
catmandew over 14 years ago
To quote the Firesign Theatre, “All work and no pay makes no Jack at all.”
fritzoid Premium Member over 14 years ago
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be an actor. The vast majority of us watch movies and/or plays and/or live theater, and we’d miss it if all the actors disappeared. (We’d miss it if all the bad actors disappeared, let alone the good ones.) But it’s undeniable that the odds against making a living at it are great. So it helps a lot if you simply enjoy doing it for its own sake.
But most good actors at one time were bad actors (there are a few “naturals” who don’t need to learn anything, but they’re rare). The same thing goes for writers, painters (includes cartoonists), dancers, musicians. Some skills and tricks can be taught in schools, some cannot.
Chuck Jones (Roadrunner, Tom and Jerry, etc.) said in his autobiography that his father told him “Every artist has 100,000 bad drawings in him, and he has to get those out of the way before he can start doing good ones.”
Follow that dream! Bless the hacks and the wannabes, because without them we would never have greatness either.
AgProv over 14 years ago
British TV buys in a lot of soap operas from Australia, probably because
i) they’re cheap. ii) Our TV companies have been criticised for indiscriminately buying too much American programming - now they’re exploiting a different part of the English-speaking world. iii) They’ll buy anything as long as it’s in English and avoids the curse of being from a different country and culture (ie France) where the British coach potato might actually be challenged or worse, have to listen to a foreign language and read subtitles.
Australian soap opera is, basically, ill-acted ill-scripted mediocre bleeep with a cavalier attiude to continuity.
Australia only seens to have at most thirty active actors and actressses, so they’re in EVERYTHING. (emigration opportunity for Lucas? More heartbreak for Mona, CLV continues…)
But given the state of American TV - which from outside appears to consist of either works of genius or complete tosh, nothing in between is merely “mediocre” - would Lucas have to go that far?
Maybe even an acting job as one of those people pretending to be healed or converted on a TV evangelist’s show?
Somewhere out there is an acting job entirely suited for Lucas, but which will carry a sting that lacerates his soul and makes him wish for the good old days of the Reading Rabbit…
fritzoid Premium Member over 14 years ago
AgProv, I’ve long argued that countries other than the U.S. produce just as high a percentage of crappy entertainment as we do, it’s just that we tend only to import their good stuff so that’s all we know (whereas other countries seem delighted to import our garbage along with our gems). I don’t watch much TV these days, but my understanding is that there are plenty of middling shows mixed in with the unappreciated works of genius and the lowest-common-denominator smash hits, but they probably don’t get noticed overseas because they’re neither good enough nor popular enough to be marketable.
Lucas might well have better luck in London or Australia or someplace. Not knowing exactly what his voice sounds like, I can still imagine that he could get cast as a convincing American, Anglophone Canadian, Francophone Canadian, or even a Frenchman.
(As long as I’ve got your ear, I watched a DVD of “The Mighty Boosh”; I guess it was originally broadcast on BBC3, but do you know why they give all the prices for everything in euros? Is that just another level of being willfully perverse?)
peachyanddanny over 14 years ago
Rentboy.
AgProv over 14 years ago
It’s wilful perversity. I do have to grudgingly hand it to our politicians that they were astute enough to spot a bad deal and kept us out of the euro (so now it’s crashing and burning we Brits can grin and stay right out of it).
the Mighty Boosh actually started out as a strange and surrealistic radio comedy show in sound only. They say radio is the best TV: a finely crafted radio show gets your imagination to work filling in the pictures. Although when Boosh made the transition to TV, they didn’t make too bad a job of it!
(Incidentally, “Flight of the Conchords” also began on BBC Radio and then blossomed into a world-wide hit…)
Speaking of BBC3, it’s a fairly new TV channel, aimed at “youth”, and tending to broadcast a lot of comedy. Some of the output is utter, utter, unspeakable bleeep, but it is the British home of those two fine cartoon series “Family Guy” and “American Dad”