Well, dear readers, they’re called headshots. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, actors’ photos are called headshots. So, when did it come to pass that actors’ photos are not shots of their heads, which is what headshots always were? I wonder when it became hip or in to do waist up shots? I wonder when the focal point of an actor’s photo became the actor’s chest. Because yesterday, when judging the singing contest at The Federal that is what I saw. The judges were presented with headshots of all the contestants and not a one of them was – a headshot. So, instead of having my eye got to the actor’s face it went to their shirt. Brilliant. Whatever show business twit caused this change is a real four-star idiot. The best and most compelling headshots have the eyes just above center. When a headshot is done that way, your eye goes directly to where it should go and you take in the entire face. Now we get these chest shots or shots with the actor way off center – it’s perplexing to me. And then there was the singing contest. Some real talented performers on view. Their “challenge” for this week was to choose a song that they could never sing in a show, i.e. a girl singing a guy song or vice versa. It does put the performers in an odd place, but some of the choices were fun and interesting. I don’t really talk much at these things – just small stuff about interpretation and presentation. I don’t use the catch phrases that most use and that were used fairly consistently yesterday – “journey” “own the song” “connected” – just not a fan of actor babble. My fellow judges spoke well, even if we all disagreed at one time or another. The event lasted from noon to three. I do have to go back to judge the final event, from which the winner will be chosen. I’m looking forward to that one because I think the singers will get to play to their strengths, which is fun.
After that, I went to the mail place, as I hadn’t been there in three days. There were three packages for me, two of which weren’t that interesting. The third was a book by a junior high schoolmate of mine named Robert Liebenau. Those who’ve read the Kritzer books know I was bullied and tormented in school, especially by one cretin. And I wrote of a fellow who protected me and how much that meant to me. The real life person was Mr. Liebenau. I ran into him at a gathering several years ago and I thanked him for doing that and told him I owed him big. I sent him the Kritzer books and he loved them. He read all my others and enjoyed them, too. Last year, he sent me an e-mail telling me that my books had inspired him to write his own, a book about his family coming to America. And today I got the book, which I’m very much looking forward to reading. The entire introduction is about me and it was very touching to me to read it.
Then I moseyed on over to the Catalina Bar and Grill and we did our sound check. There apparently had been some miscommunication and we didn’t have a proper sound person. The club guy got it to sound decent but I wasn’t thrilled with it. Thankfully, the bass player called a friend of his who is a sound person, he was free, and he got to the club in time for us to do a proper sound check, so all was well. I wasn’t that thrilled with the food at this club (I had a salmon pasta that was just oke), and the room is very peculiar to me and has no feeling of intimacy, which, for me, is key for a cabaret room no matter what the size. Also, during the show, very loud clanging and clattering of dishes in the back near the kitchen.
For a show that didn’t exist a week ago, the evening ran very smoothly and the singer did an excellent job. She had a lyric flub right away, said the line I gave her just in case that happened, got a big laugh, went back and began the flubbed verse again and she handled it just as she should. But when that happened again on the third song then it became problematic because she got nervous and antsy and that always makes the audience nervous and antsy, and what she fumfered on was unfortunately really problematic, in that it obscured the joke between the two numbers involved and the lyric she flubbed was on a song that everyone knows. But on she went and everything after that, save for some patter that got a bit messy and therefore not giving the musical director his cue line, went really well. I had placed a number strategically that I knew would bring the house down if she really committed to it and aced it. I gave her a very specific direction the day before and she really “got” it and took it to heart, and the number was exactly right and stopped the show cold. Everything after that was fine, save for too much water drinking (a singer crutch if ever there was one). The pacing was good, the singing was excellent and the response was great. So, now we begin to create a real act. We’ll keep several things from this, which she will now really commit to memory so that they’re second nature to her, and then we’ll choose some new material to fill out the stuff that won’t be making the cut for our next version. And we will not book that version until it’s ready, rehearsed, and she’s got it in her bones. All in all, it was pretty impressive.
I knew several people in attendance, so that’s always fun. I hung out for a while after the show, and then came home. I had quite a few e-mails to answer, some packaging to look at, and that was that. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, the singer and I have a post mortem lunch at eleven-thirty at CPK, so I can have my 600-calorie salmon. After that, the rest of the day will be proofing the book, hopefully picking up packages, banking, and proofing. I may even try to watch a motion picture or three.
Tomorrow is our first Kritzerland rehearsal, and the rest of the week is meetings and meals and more rehearsals. We’re already thinking ahead for the March show and have cast the three women already and we’re waiting on whether the two guys we want are available. So, we’re moving right along on that.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a post mortem lunch, proof, hopefully pick up some packages, bank, proof, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What was the first live concert you ever saw? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall continue to ponder what ever happened to headshots.