Okay, okay... I'll Write a Book

Hi,
Calm Munro here, Acting Guide and Life Coach/Spirit Coach. You heard me.

Many students of mine have asked me over the years "Calm, why don't you write a book?" And I've always said to them, a novel is in me, I agree, it's just that I'm so busy being an industry professional. And then they say "No, not a novel, write an acting manual."

Good acting is like catching lightning in a bottle. Now, even modern science can't really explain lightning. Same goes for bottles actually. So trying to explain how to act would be difficult. The short answer is "Take my fuckin' scene study class, moron!" But after I'm finished with the tough love I'd be happy to furnish those that aren't able to take class with a derivative paperback doubling as a long advertisement for my coaching business.

In closing, keep your starry-eyes peeled for the latest and greatest way to spend $24.95 on how to make it as a Performing Arts professional. It's a great life. You don't have a boss, there's lots of sex and plenty of people worse off than you.

Drama hugs and meaningful chats,
Calm M.

New episodes of the Acting Class Web Series Wednesday afternoons!

http://www.youtube.com/user/ActingClassWebSeries

Everyone In Hollywood Started Out as an Actor

Hi,
Calm Munro here. Acting guide.

Let's get grounded... Some quick roll downs and a couple of tip-of-the-tongue-the-teeth-the-lips.

Okay, let's begin.

No one started out in showbiz wanting to be a casting director or an associate producer. No five year old says "I wanna be a grip when I get older". Everyone starts out wanting to be an actor. Everyone wants the limelight, wants to be feted and wants to get stuff for free. I've gotten stuff for free before. I got a gift bag at the Television premiere of the MOW "Atomic Train". It was awesome.

But being an actor is the hardest thing to do. That's why many turn to their plan B: production assistant, location manager, surgeon. Way easier than being an actor. It's kinda like being an astronaut. And not just one that's on standby. One that's actually gone into space.

So the next time you meet an actor give yourself lower status and then congratulate them on sticking in there.

All you actors out there... Stay strong! The world needs a hero more than ever...
Besides, NYC fire fighters are getting kinda old.

Drama hugs,
Calm Munro

A new episode of The Acting Class every Wednesday afternoon:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ActingClassWebSeries

Follow us on Twitter: @Acting_Class

Find Acting Class on Facebook

Fuck it. It's Hopeless

Imagine interviewing for jobs three, four times a week. That's auditioning. Now imagine not getting those job interviews. That's being an actor. No wonder we smoke/cry so much. This job is a goddamn struggle.

But struggling is struggling, isn't it? Relativism is a bitch man. So we have to buck up and try not resort to Background Performing to pay the rent. Anything is better than being an extra. Seriously, medical testing is better. I once took fifty-three needles to my armpits in a deodorant study over an eighteen hour period. easiest $800 I ever made. Boom.

Background performers get paid $20 an hour! And they call themselves performers?! They're furniture!... Okay, okay, I gotta calm down. I gotta stop smoking so much. I gotta stop dating so many of my students.

Fuck it.

Calm Munro, Acting Guide

Two new episode of The Acting Class are up. Click below.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ActingClassWebSeries#p/a/u/1/L7cHrEqqo70

The Acting Class - It's Not Just for Actors

A class is a class I say. When you're learning you're doing two things: you're learning and you're not elsewhere NOT learning. That's like generating an income and saving money at the same time. A thing that actors cannot do well.

Everybody can benefit by an acting class. What dentist wouldn't improve with a little Contact Improv Jam? What traffic cop wouldn't be happier after some "animal" work? Whobody in their right minds wouldn't like to spend a couple hours out of their minds?

It's Pretend Land! It's fun! It's loose clothing, no inhibitions and a whole lot of massage trains. In between we smoke cigarettes and after we drink booze.

There, The Acting Class demystified.

Namaste Awhile and some big ol' Drama Hugs,
Calm Munro, Acting Guide

A New Episode Every Wednesday. Click below!

http://www.youtube.com/user/ActingClassWebSeries

You Gotta Be Gay to Be Good

Hi,
Calm here with another instalment of I'm-gonna-tell-you-how-to-live-your-life-even-though-I'm-not-entirely-happy-with-mine.

In acting you have to be able to embrace the weird, the foreign, the awesome. And by awesome I do not mean the "teenage awesome", I mean the spiritual one.

Let's start with the big one: GAY. I use that one as a shorthand for all that terrifies people. The terrifying is exactly what we tackle day in and day out at The Acting Class. We play pretend and we play it to win. We pretend to be old, racist, French, gay, straight, the opposite sex, a beaten wife, a cuckolded husband. All this risk taking means we have to keep class sacred. Because if someone were to come in halfway through class they'd think we lost our marbles.

When all we lost was our inhibition. And in that maybe we've got a little closer to the truth.

Teenagers are not the truth. They might look good. And you may want to have sex with them (until they start talking) but they're not the real thing. Good acting is the real thing. Good acting is the opposite of teens. No matter how gay it might feel.

Open perineums, warm hearts, can't lose,
Calm

A new episode of The Acting Class every Wednesday. Click below and subscribe to our YouTube Channel.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ActingClassWebSeries

Actors Without Borders

A warm welcome from me, Calm Munro, Acting Guide. Today's post is about Egypt and how to solve the problems therein.

What if there was a group of dedicated master craftspeople who could bring rich, grounded entertainment anywhere in the world? What if this group could mobilize within 72 hours? What if all Egypt needs is some g-darn Durang, Mamet, Kushner?

What the world needs now is "Actors Without Borders" - an elite team of performance artistes who can bring much needed reflection slash levity to your war-torn, your upheaved, your revolutionary.

Actors are low maintenance. All we need is a curtain to make an entrance through and a green room to do our vocal warm-ups in. Don't need guns. Nor tear gas. Or dictators. Take that military regimes. And guess what else? Actors bring people together not break them apart.

To our brothers and sisters living the real drama in Cairo we promise to honour your struggle through performance-based interpretation.

World Wide Drama Hugs,
Calm

Watch the fourth episode of The Acting Class here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ActingClassWebSeries

We are the Backbone of Showbiz

Hi, I"m Calm Munro, acting guide, and I want to take you behind the curtain. Not many of you know the inner workings of showbiz but let me boil it down for you: Actors are the backbone of pretty much everything. Without us directors wouldn't have anyone to push around, producers wouldn't have anyone to have sex with and then blacklist and writers would just be poets.

What makes actors so exceptional is mostly what makes America exceptional: they believe they are. Actors keep telling themselves they are worthy as a way to survive the constant rejection piled on by others.

One time I was asked what kept me going? I told them it was the classics. Shakespeare, Mamet, Durang... Neil Simon. In the dark times I fall back and luxuriate in the canon. And it doth not fail me. There's one other thing that keeps me going and that is the knowledge that all those writers, producers and directors are really just failed actors. As a thespian if you can persevere you've done most of your job. Now add going to the gym and calling your agent and that's a pretty full day right there.

So the next time you see an actor, congratulate them on being stronger than they think they are.
Merde,
Calm

Click here to watch The Acting Class Web Series. A new episode every Wednesday afternoon:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ActingClassWebSeries