Cracked Actor…

Hey Theatre Fans…

Oh my gosh the past few days have just been…. words cant even….bleugh…

I use the title ‘Cracked Actor‘ for two reasons….

Firstly the 1974 documentary ‘Cracked Actor’ about David Bowie was repeated on Wednesday night and I just have to tip my cap to the guy. There is very little I wouldn’t give or do to have been in the audience of one of his ‘Ziggy Stardust‘ or ‘Aladdin Sane‘ concerts. The atmosphere looked electric and I was getting goosebumps just watching it on television all these years later. If I look critically at  Bowies career hes is far from one of the best singers  but I would go as far as to say he is the best performer there has ever been. Not just because of the entertainment value but the man really became each and every character he chose to embody, sometimes even if it led to the deterioration of his mental and emotional well being. And to top it all off, he survived! Determination, strength of mind or maybe just blind luck means that he is still alive and producing music, even if it is a faint shadow of the anthems he is famous for. He is untouchable as a performing artist although this ‘alter-ego’ style has influenced modern artists such as Lady Gaga who attempted to portray herself as her own (imaginary) boyfriend ‘Joe Calderone’.  I have a lot of respect for Gaga and genuinely hope she stays strong during the hard times shes experiencing at the moment but if were going to objectively compare the creation of ‘Ziggy’ to the creation of ‘Joe’- the latter was a halfhearted publicity stunt which in the end failed to capture the public’s attention for very long. She should really just stick to stealing Bowies make-up tips as that is something she pulls off beautifully. For anyone who missed ‘Cracked Actor’ I’m sure it is on BBC-i player by now but the full documentary can also be found on YouTube. Its really great viewing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnIBBkgkO5o

The second reason I’ve used the title cracked actor is that on Tuesday night tragedy struck. Me, being the idiot that I am, decided after a few ciders it would be fun to… to be honest I don’t know what I was doing…wrestling, yoga, interpretative dance its anyone’s guess really.. Whatever the activity it led to me chipping my front teeth. Full on v shape chip. Breaking my teeth , like the majority of performers, has always been a ridiculously big fear of mine.

Well at this point the drama queen in me took over and I started have an emotional tantrum like a 4 year old as I had convinced myself that nothing could be done to stop me looking like a Jeremy Kyle reject. So I felt quite sheepish the next day when after a sleepless night of tears and hyperventilation it took the dentist less than an hour to make it look as if nothing had happened… So I am no longer a cracked actor! Hurrah!

So I have concluded from this, performing is a craft but dentistry- dentistry is an art!

Heres a picture of me back to my normal goofy, gap-toothed- but not cracked- grin 🙂

Off to Glasgow now to see ‘April In Paris‘ at the Tron Theatre- will let you all know how it is.

Love…L.P. xx