The Mastiff wrote: ↑Sat Dec 26, 2020 5:33 pm
Jim, you reveal a little of your life here and there. Most actors I know are pretty skilled at the subjects needed to pull off the things you describe. I have/had a few actors and singers in the family and it always surprised me not only how much they can change the way others see and hear them as well as stuff like turning their charisma off and on which from my perspective was mostly used schmoozing others some of whom seemed to want to just be around them at times. :o
Joe, I would be lying if I said that my acting, at its best, was ever anything more than fair. And that’s being generous. I was never really happy with my acting ability. By ‘acting’, I mean acting from a script. An actor has to get into the character/situation and ‘feel that the fictional situation is real.’ I was usually too much in my own head. Most others didn’t see any problems with it. Even one well-known agent whom I auditioned in front of at an agent showcase said my audition was “not bad; not great, but not bad.” Note: This agent has no inhibitions against telling an actor if she thinks their audition sucks, to their face, and in front of everybody else in the room.
But I was never happy with my own acting; every time our acting class would view the video playbacks of our acting on a big screen at the end of class, I would cringe in my seat. Plus, I have kind of a low voice, and once in a while my S’s sound like SH’s (something I hadn’t noticed before acting and watching all the playbacks).
I’m MUCH better at manipulating the impressions I give off to others in real life. :)
Back on topic, I stayed out of trouble pretty well, but regretfully, there were a few stupid, avoidable fights I got into in my 20s. Only a few. Not counting the one I got into with a psychotic training partner I mentioned several posts back, which happened in my early 30s. They had been avoidable, but I chose not to avoid those particular ones. Luckily, things went my way. But I would do things differently now.
I will point out there is a big difference between “getting into fights” (meaning avoidable ‘mutual combat’ ego contests) and legitimate self-defense situations. In January 1985, at age 21, during my first week living in Taiwan, some gangsters attempted to kidnap me. One man mistook me for a Singaporean, and even said, “Hey, Singapore! I’m talking to you, Singapore!” in Mandarin when addressing me. Then two other men rushed up behind me to my right. I fought off all three of them; it took about 15 or 20 seconds of hard fighting, then someone whistled at them, and they jumped into a big, black car that had been waiting for them.
Everything happened quickly. I never said a word. No amount of talking would have gotten me out of that situation. And I couldn’t have outrun them; there were three of them and one of me. Those are only some of the big differences between a “fight” and a predatory criminal attack. Luckily, no weapons were involved. But weapons or not, they weren’t getting me into that car. I got the impression they were used to just overpowering their victims, and hadn’t expected me to fight back so hard. But they were fighting to snatch a victim; I was fighting for my life. About 20 minutes afterwards, back at the place I was staying, I got a mild case of “the shakes,” the only time I’ve ever experienced that.
Months later, I was reading a Taiwanese English-language newspaper, and an article mentioned that Triad (Chinese organized crime) organizations in Taiwan had been targeting university students from Singapore (known to be from rich families) and demanding ransom. Then they killed the hostages anyway, even if the ransom was paid. So I had literally saved my own life that time. I left Taiwan at age 29, but nothing like that ever happened to me again.
I mention this because many people, especially many martial artists and sport combat athletes, seem to confuse getting into ‘mutual combat’ fights, and sudden situations involving predatory criminal attacks, when it comes to self-defense situations.
Jim
