Making it

Almost every Friday night for the the past 4 months, Melanie and I have been going to watch Manic Thunder, a local improv group perform off the cuff comedy based on audience suggestions. It all started because my friend Rachel wanted to get together with me when she was in Yakima the first weekend of June. Her friend Tim is in the improv group that does a show every Friday and we decided to go see it. I liked what I saw well enough to tell my friend Melanie about it and the rest is history.
Sometimes I see Aarron , one of the players in the improv show working when I do product demonstrations at Fred Myers. Seeing him onstage performing on Fridays and offstage working on Saturdays reminded me of an episode of The Simpsons. In the episode, Lisa goes to a performing arts camp for a week, falls in love with everything and decides she wants to be an artist. So she escapes to the city where she finds out that her instructors share an apartment and work at a sandwich shop to pay the bills.
It made me wonder what it takes to make it an artist. I have worked backstage, danced, acted and sang on stage. But like Aarron, I am also at Fred Myers working so I have money in my pocket.
According to an article on wetfeet.com, "very few succeed financially (the notion of the 'starving artist' is well founded)."
So what does it take to "make it" as an artist? The wetfeet article says "only those with determination, talent, discipline, and luck manage to find careers in the performing arts in which they can support themselves ."
But money aside, I think as long as you get to do what you're passionate about, then you have "made it." After watchng Manic Thunder perform ,I can honestly say passion for what they do is one thing they bring to every performance.

Always on display

One day in class ,my teacher shared a conversation he had with his dentist . While making small talk, the dentist asked what my teacher did for a living. My teacher said he teaches grammar .
After that, the dentist told my teacher about the time a fairly attractive girl came in for an interview to be a front desk receptionist.
The dentist said the interview was over when she began a sentence with "me and my sister" instead of my sister and I. Why was it over? Wherever my teacher goes to get his teeth cleaned wants someone at the front desk who knows how to speak proper English. My teacher shared this story with us as a reminder that we are always on display.
At first I thought, that's not really fair. After all, we're all human and make mistakes like that sometimes. If beginning a sentence with "my sister and me" was the only mistake someone makes at a job interview, should it really cost them a job? It also made me wonder , are we really always on display?
When I think of being on display, I think of those manequins at the mall wearing the latest clothes for shoppers to buy, or the animals at the zoo. I don't like the thought of being on display like that because I know I'm not perfect.
I know I tend to oversleep, drink more soda than I should, and sometimes say the wrong thing. I can be lazy , self centered, immature and I'm sure my friends and family can name more of my imperfections. As icing on the cake, as much as I love entertaining people , I don't want to have to be "on" all the time, although I know what my teacher said is true. But maybe being on display isn't about being "on" all the time; maybe it's about just showing the world what one has to offer.