I take a theater class two nights a week. All of the people in this class have taken an acting class already, however you wouldn’t believe this to be true of at least half the people in there. You have your standard A-B-C setup here, and this class has B-C. The C peeps, having taken 2 of the previous courses, are all good, and together. There are about 4 B peeps that have their shit together, myself included, and a random assortment of characters from a David Lynch film.
This one kid, maybe 19 years old, has what I believe to be a combination of ADHD and some kind of palsey. He’s asian, very skinny, has a huge head with oversized teeth that make getting words out nearly impossible. He slurs his speech constantly, and rarely listens to a thing you say. He is seriously in his own little world, and will always be the first person to volunteer to do an excersize. I could go on for days about this kid. He is a guaranteed belly laugh, every class.
In our last class, during break, I was approached by two of the C students, two girls, who each asked me if I would be willing to work on a scene with either of them. I’m not exagerating when I say that they begged me. Granted, it was not my talent alone that brought on this begging, but one can’t help but have a moderate ego boost when people want to work with you.
No, but seriously, this kid, he was telling me this one time that he wants to move out of his parents’ house and move in with his girlfriend*. I asked if he had a job. No. Ever had one? No. Money? Oh, he’ll get a job… At this point, I think he was wise to my plan. I asked why he couldn’t live with the folks, and it’s that they want him to be something he’s not. They each have a profession that they want him to take on, and he doesn’t want either. Supressing the “boo-fucking-hoo,” I told him that if I could live rent free and go to school full time, and all I’d have to deal with were two people giving me career advice, I would take it in a heartbeat. He went kinda silent after that.
Later he ate a King Size Butterfinger, all the while dropping crumbs all over himself whilst he believed nobody was watching him.
* I doubt the existence of such a person, of course, but give him the benefit of the doubt. God only knows what kind of a person she could be.
I love that quote.