JavaJennifer

Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy co-wrote this movie, the second in the Mockmentary trilogy that includes A Mighty Wind and Best In Show.   The premise behind Waiting for Guffman is that of a self-involved, so off Broadway actor that it may as well be Cleveland directing a show in small-town Missouri.  Corky St. Claire invites a well-known theater critic (Guffman) to laud his rudimentary production.   Obviously Guffman is a no-show.  It’s one of my favorite movies of all time because the cast is so earnest  they don’t know how awful they are.

I keep waiting for the Mockumentary film crew to show up for one-on-one interviews with our cast and crew.  By this time tomorrow night, I’ll have one of the 3 performances behind me and it looks as though (gasp) people are going to come to this crazy thing.  That may be because unknown to me, the director put an ad in the local newspaper (NOT the Washington Post, thank GOD) advertising the show and also notified Arlington County because the show is of some historic importance as the last time it was performed anywhere was here in Arlington fifty years ago.  Saturday night’s performance is being filmed and will later be shown at the Arlington County Public Library.

Next year we’re going to take it to Sundance.

I go back and forth between being proud of the work we’ve done and thoroughly mortified which is why I didn’t give any of my friends or family enough information to be able to find it.  It’s one thing to sing and dance in high-school where embarrassment is just part of growing up. It’s another thing to put it all out there when you’re pushing forty, pushing 215lbs.  And while I’ll put it out there on this blog all day long, there are some things that I can’t fully share with anyone.  I don’t know why that is.. because really, I’m no better writer than I am an actor.

It has been a great experience with a lot of laughs.  One of the guys, this thin black dude, late 40′s told me tonight that white men don’t know what to do with my “womanliness”, the implication being that he has mad skills.   Thanks?  I think?

That my last few weeks of rehearsals has coincided with having reconnected with the first boy who  kissed me http://javajennifer.com/2009/01/24/buy-the-ticket-take-the-ride/  is a kind of sweet irony as that kiss- and I remember ever detail- happened when we were both in a school play. 

There is something about theater, about manufacturing emotions on cue that bring people artificially together.  Once the play (or movie) is over, the actors find out just that: it was all an act.  This I think explains most Hollywood Hook-Ups; it feels real in the moment and you’ll swear that you’ve never felt that way about anyone before.  But after the press junket, the red-carpet premiere, the covers on People and US Weekly and the DVD release (Directors Cut), you’re left with two people who have little, if anything in common.

The False Aunti and I know this from an actor that she dated pre her marriage to the False Uncle, pre the sweet girl who is LizBeth.  Stinky was an actor.  We thought he loved us.  We thought he was a good guy.  Turnd out, he was a better actor than we all gave him credit for when we suffered through the 80′s dinner theater in Kansas City at Tiffany’s Attic and Waldo Astoria.

Never date an actor.  I can add that to my list which includes not dating 410, 240, 301 or 571, not dating over the American Legion Bridge and not dating anyone who thinks the Olive Garden has great Itailian food.  Oh and not dating a Republican.

Tags: Acting, Theater

This entry was posted by javajennifer on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 11:12 pm and is filed under Blog Blend, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.