Revelation in a $43 cup of Starbucks.

I just had a major revelation rise out of a $43 cup of Starbucks. Story:

I'm in Vegas this week, doing an Industrial show (or what we like to call Business Theater) for just a couple of days. We've been staying at the MGM Grand, and our show, for Country Financial, was an interesting little presentation on a huge conference center stage, woven through some long speeches being given by the top brass of this company. The greatest piece of Art? Absolutely not. But it's been a terrific gig. We've been paid well, got housed in a beautiful hotel in a fairly warm climate (while the East Coast was getting pounded by a huge snowstorm), got fed like Kings and Queens, and I even got to the gaming tables - and it looks like I'm actually going to leave Vegas 'up' about 100 bucks. Happy days!

So yesterday morning just before I checked out, I went downstairs for a $43 cup of Starbucks. Well the Starbucks cost $8 - (8 dollars for a cup of Starbucks drip and a scone! YIKES!), so where the other $35 come from? As I was stirring in some milk, I noticed that on the gaming floor not 10 steps away there was a five dollar Blackjack table with a nice, welcoming looking dealer standing behind it.   I sat, and I was the only one at the table – you can do this when it's 7 AM on a Wednesday, even in Vegas.

When you play Blackjack and it's just you and the dealer, it can be really fun. You can really play the game, and if your dealer is personable, you can strike up a conversation that can ramble nearly anywhere. My dealer's name was Audrey. And as she was casually hammering me with a very unfriendly shoe, the questions began: "What do you do for a living?" "I'm an Actor.". Usually, Actor gets some kind of reaction, but she barely blinked. Because this is Vegas, and she gets every kind of everything at her table. For a moment, I mused that in a certain way, she's a priest, and this is her confessional - but then I thought, no that's not right; she's a zookeeper, slinging cards and jokes at whatever kind of animal runs, flies or crawls by. "Could you break this for me please? " "Well I'm not strong enough to break it, but I'll definitely give you change." Bah-DUM-bum. 

She dealt me a 20 and then proceeded to deal herself 21 the hard way, and as my head sagged and she reached for my chips, another casual question: "What's your favorite thing you've ever done?"

Now as a person who makes their living as a Professional Actor I've easily been asked this question a thousand times. I usually have some kind of stock answer for it, and so I began my usual "Well, that's a really hard question, but..."

Revelation. BOOM.

And I realized that in that silly little industrial show, I had just as much fun in the moment, in the doing of it, in the performing of it, as I've ever had in any show I've ever done. Anywhere.

So who cares? Why does this matter? PROCESS. That's why. It is all about the doing of a thing, not where you are doing it. (As long as you're getting paid, of course - I mean I am a professional and all.) I've been on Broadway, on television, in film, I run my own series, and even in a conference venue at 7AM, I was having a fantastic time with fantastic people.

Perhaps getting hammered at Blackjack is a method for making that clear. (This is not a method that I would advise participating in frequently - but it is quite effective.) Thus: Are you enjoying what you're doing at the moment? If not, then you should probably find something else to do. Me, im going to keep finding every opportunity I can...  just to be in the show. Wherever it is. As long as it's paying.

Thank you Audrey. You took my money... but in the end, I owe you. 

On being naked (onstage).

Costume fitting. This one doesn't stay on that long.

You know, it's funny.

You get the audition, you get the job, you know the details, and you're just excited to do the work. But then you're in rehearsals dancing in your underwear in front of a mirror all day with 5 other guys, and then maybe they're trying a G-string on you during a costume fitting... and it hits you.

I'm doing The Full Monty. 

I wouldn't really call myself an exhibitionist. No, seriously; I've always been very outgoing, as many Actors are, but I wouldn't consider myself a candidate for a nudist colony. Not that I think that's a bad thing; once many years ago I spent a week camping at a private 'clothing optional' resort in Colorado, and once I got over the initial shock I had a terrific time. I would go hiking in a hat, PLENTY of sunscreen, and good shoes. That's it. Interestingly, as I was leaving and putting on clothes for the first time in a week, I found them to be terribly constricting. But on to the larger question (pun intended):

Is nudity onstage (and in film) always gratuitous? Or is it ever actually necessary? 

Um. What?

G-string / Thong / Buttfloss / call it what you will.

People have widely differing opinions. In my experience, Americans are far less comfortable with being or even watching 'in the altogether' than other cultures. One wonders if, to this day, we're still somewhat hamstrung by our puritanical ancestry. I would bet that most Americans find nudity gratuitous 98.9% of the time. Yet, if that is so, why is porn so popular in this country? 

Enough with generalities. On to particulars.

I find that in my present show, The Full Monty, nudity is absolutely necessary. The play is about 6 men who are out of work in Buffalo, who decide to become strippers to make some quick cash - but that's only the surface of the story. What we find over the course of the evening is that in a deeper sense the story is about facing one's truth / true self... as each of these characters in this play do, layer by layer. And it's the process of getting naked, of shedding layer after layer of preconceptions, prejudices and the like, that saves these characters. Getting down to their own truths, to what is really important, can only happen... if they get naked. 

So maybe we, as a culture, should drop trou more often.  What do you think?

Colorado. Naked.

Very excited to announce that I'll be spending the summer 'dropping trou' for Theatre Aspen as Harold in The Full Monty! 

Can't wait to head back to Colorado, the land where the beer flows like wine, where weed is legal, and cheetos are an endangered species.

Will I look better naked at 8000 feet?