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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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:

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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

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Taking an Acting Class = Peace on Earth

If everyone took an acting class there would be less war. How can you be aggressive to your fellow man/woman if you're in touch with your feelings centre? If GW Bush was in a scene study class or maybe taking a weekly Contact Improv Jam he would have been grounded and he wouldn't have allowed Richard Dreyfus to convince him to lie to the world. Acting class is like a good therapy session but you don't sit in a comfy chair. You lie around in loose clothing with your shoes off. People make fun of acting exercises but pretending to be sizzling bacon is a lot more effective than you think.

War takes a lot of preparation and money. All just to kill each other. Why not spend just 1% of the defence budget on Nationalized Acting Classes and see where it goes? I think we'd be a lot happier. And we'd be having a lot more sex. Let's face it, actors like taking their clothes off.

Plenty reasons to take class not the least of which is Peace on Earth.

Namaste awhile,
Calm Munro

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Actors Save Lives

Early in my career I felt inferior to dentists and school principals and other such reputable vocations. I thought acting was an easy way out. You could go for breakfast with your friends a lot. You could cry a lot. You could be bad in relationships and drink too much. And you can. But that's not all.

What I've learned is acting is just as noble a career as a social worker or a prime minister. We may not save lives like a heart surgeon but we do save people. Indirectly we save hearts and minds and souls through bridging the horrifying gap that is the human experience. We make people laugh, we make people feel. We illicit a response. Does a heart surgeon do that? Fuck no. He doesn't give a damn about your funny bone. He only cares that he gets his God Complex on. How noble is that?

Actors are noble. That's why we should drink for free and be immune to check stops and taxes.

Namaste awhile,
Calm Munro

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Awards Shows Are Important

People make fun of the Golden Globes but really there is nothing more important than an opportunity to raise up a few above the rest of us. It reminds us that, yes, this is a popularity contest.

Being popular means people like you. And when someone likes you it means others will like you and that equals an eventual self-worth. Actors want you to like them. That's why we do this. Why else would we continue to claw our way to the middle? The money? The artistic satisfaction? No. We do it because we are afraid of being alone. Isn't that why everyone strives to succeed? A lawyer, a dentist, a teacher. We do these jobs not because we want to do jobs but because we want other people to accept us, to find worth in us. Otherwise we'd be homeless. And we just go around peeing in public and using the computers at the library.

So next time you meet an actor at a party don't ask them what they've been up to lately unless you know for sure they've been working. Just tell them they look good. And tell them you watch awards shows. And that you hope to see them on one someday.

Acting is Feeling Out Loud

Everybody hurts. Most times. An actor's job is to hurt more and to do it in public. By showing people that feeling feelings is something we can do without recrimination we grow as humans. Humans being. That's what an actor must be. Just like a Trout in a river. Ready, lithe, alert. A vigilant actor is ready at the drop of a hat to practice her craft. If an actor witnesses a car accident and someone is thrown through the window and is decapitated then that actor's job is to cry. But not only that. She must also clock these feelings so she can recreate them later. Acting is recreating feelings to make the audience believe you're clever. To hurt is human. To do it so other people like you is acting.

- Calm Munro, Acting Guide

Just as Important as Nuclear Doctors... Seriously

Hi,
I'm Calm Munro and I'm an acting guide based in Brollywood (Vancouver). I teach a weekly scene study class to the future stars of stage and screen (and voice-overs and motion capture). I believe that good acting can make a difference. In these topsy-turvy times we need heartfelt performances more than ever.

In my class I try to keep things light and fun yet grounded and earthy and I'll do the same here with this blog. Every week I'll report from the front lines of drama. So relax your paraneum and Namaste awhile.
-Calm
"Acting is Feeling out loud"

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