The Bold Acting Podcast

27. How To Be A Person — A Second IntentionThe kids were dressed-up. The parents were sweaty. 14 was graduating from his tiny middle school — population 58 students — at 1:30PM on a Wednesday in June. The ceremony was held in the gym at Shirley Street P.S. in the Portuguese neighbourhood of Brockton Village.Beside the school is 75 St. Clarens. The very first house we lived in all those years ago when we moved as a young family to Toronto. Coming back here triggers feelings of nostalgia and memories of that house: a wall-hanging of large lips made of hair, no A/C in our first Ontario summer (35 degrees/84% humidity), doors that wouldn’t close, creaky steps to wake your three month-old at nap time. And worse of all, the oppressive sound of other people’s children screaming during lunch break. Four students got up and sang a song accompanied by a tentative guitar that ended with the refrain, “Maybe I’m the problem” sung over and over again. Wow. And on their graduation day. A cry for help? Or one last shot over the bow. You adults have not done your job. Then two of the students singing held up a cue card each that read “Sing Along”. And so the sweaty parents sheepishly joined in. Now we were the problem. A second intention. Touché. We the quarry, unwitting then embarrassed. None could argue their complicity.The principal deployed the requisite effusiveness, gratitudes and the expected quote from MLK. A prodigy played the theme from Dawson’s Creek. Generation X looked up from their withered haunches. A town of prairie dogs smelling something coming in on the breeze.Big forehead. What was his name? James? Michelle Williams. What a career.The kids came up one-by-one to receive their certificates.-A young woman struggling in her mother’s platforms.-Raoul Julia shook hands like he was royalty. Expert in Myrmecology apparently.-A stylish 2020’s version of Susie Myerson with cane, mask and po’boy.-A charming rogue in an officer’s coat and an el bandito taped to his upper lip.-My sweet, sweet 14 with his big brain in his pressed shirt and a mouth full of metal.Live performance isn’t so much about whether it’s good or bad. It’s how you’re affected. The sound of other people’s children on this day was nothing short of thrilling.It was still 35 degrees on this day, our last day in Brockton Village. We were meant to mingle and eat cake but like father, the son wanted to go as quickly as possible. We rode our bikes to an ice cream shop on Dundas and toasted his commencement. Onto the Design School at Western Technical-Commercial School in September. A school the size of an airport with a student population of 1200. Good luck my dear.Have expectation. Prepare to be enlightened. Allez!Goodbye. Give that rare person in your life a gift commensurate with your feelings for them. The How To Be a Person Newsletter I snot only short, it has nothing to do with taxes, doomscrolling or comparing yourself to others fake lives on instagram. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit boldacting.substack.com/subscribe

Everybody knows the polls look terrible for Justin. Everyone knows Pierre Poillievre will be our next Prime Minister. But there are three things that Justy Trews could do differently that would afford him a more elegant exit.By virtue of Pierre’s runaway popularity I find myself hoping the lengthy run-up to the next election is just enough rope for the Calgarian. And by the way, he IS a Calgarian so the Anglos trying to pronounce Poillievre’s name Frencherly can stop. Thanks. You’re fooling no one. I can’t stand being in accordance with popular sentiment however the evidence is overwhelming. Watch for Pierre to enjoy a landslide victory come next Spring.The Top Three Things Justin Can Do so he Loses with Grace1. Distance yourself from Jagmeet SinghIt’s over. And the NDP are always the bridesmaids. Go out on your own Justin. Start swinging for the fences. It’s Hail Mary time. Do something radical! (That doesn’t mean you should start wearing capes again.)2. Get a GirlfriendHalle Berry is single. So talented, so beautiful. Also has three kids.3. Learn How to Talk.What is with the hushed drama-voice? Justin, you’re not narrating a nature documentary. You’re not David Attenborough sneaking-up on an Ibex giving birth. What’s with all the stilted and breathy emotion? No one is buying it.Check out this cringe-worthy Christmas video for example:One YouTube comment said “Only Trudeau would manage to turn a Christmas message into a lecture.”How does he do it? He still wants to be an actor, that’s how. But when we add a thick layer of mustard to our communications we lead the witness. Audiences don’t need to be told how to feel. The less editorializing the better. Politicians are the worst at this. Leave room for the audience. When we’re watching a performance we don’t want it handed to us on a silver platter. We want to be a part of the alchemy. Prime Minister, the minute you quit acting is the minute people will stop rolling their eyes at you. Tighten the cap on your bottle of effervescence. Watch the great performances. Take your cues from Frances McDormand, Gene Hackman or Michael Stuhlbarg. They don’t spell it out for you, they don’t hammer you on the head with it. Put thine eyebrows down, Justin. We get it. You’re a feeler. And put the cape down too. Dress-up time starts again summer 2025.BOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit boldacting.substack.com/subscribe

Born in 1970 in Lviv, Ukraine Dmitry Chepovetsky’s family moved to Regina when he was a baby.He began acting in high school before attending theatre school at Ryerson now known as Toronto Metro University.Chepovetsky is best known for his recurring role on ReGenesis as Bob Melnikov, the show’s lead biochemist and a person with autism. The role garnered him two Gemini Award nominations for best actor in a dramatic series once in 2005 and once in 2007.Chepovetsky has also played Nikola Tesla in CBC’s long-running Murdoch Mysteries. Picasso in Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile but these days you can find him as Bo on Kurt Smeaton’s Children Ruin Everything on CTV.I got a chance to speak to him on Victoria Day 2024 at my house in Toronto.BOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit boldacting.substack.com/subscribe

Thanks to my paid readers. I appreciate you more than you know. I brag about you in social settings. You don’t have to pay for this but you do. The future looks brighter with you in my corner. If you like this newsletter consider upgrading to paid. Doing so gives you license to complain to me about spelling misteakes, grammatical errors, etc. Consider becoming a paid subscriber. Apples to OrangesI recently spent an hour on instagram and deleted the app once again from my phone. I would quit the phone altogether if there weren’t such a thing as podcasts and audio books.Am I doing this right? What of this grind? Is this a good way to spend what’s left of my short, little life?Dr. Saras Sarasvathy, professor of business at the University of Virginia speaks about effectual entrepreneurship, specifically Affordable Loss. Break down costs: How much will it cost you to start a new venture? 80-90% of start-up costs are human capital. The way to do it is to convince people to help you for deferred payment.Predicting the future is difficult. Figure out what you are willing to lose rather than what you expect to make. Forget profit projections. Try stuff on the cheap if possible. Call this your business school. You can learn so much by the doing without going into student debt.“Cultivate opportunities that have a low failure cost that generate more options for the future.”Sarasvathy cites Richard Branson starting an airline with planes leased from Boeing instead of buying his own. He didn’t seek investors, didn’t give away his company to venture capital. He kept costs low. James Dyson built his cyclonic vacuum prototype 5,127 times in a shed and lived on bank loans for more than 15 years. Don’t buy an office before you have to. Don’t get a partner before absolutely necessary.Be kind to yourself. Remember that when you have to do it all on your own it’ll take longer but you’ll learn more.The first Dysons were made from cardboard. You can fail in business. You can’t fail when you’re making art (Even Chris Gaines sold two million records). Bad art is still art. You try something then you evaluate it. You have to listen back to that song or podcast. You have to re-read the thing you wrote. And not with love in your heart but with the cold, sober eye of the editor or critic. Ask yourself, did I fully get what was inside my head out into the world? Could I make it better?SatisfactionismIs it not strange that perfectionism is a word but satisfactionism is not? There is a line somewhere between the two, between making something great and beating it to death. When is a child fully whelped?Apple launches their products before they’re ready and then comes out with fixes.Google beta-tests projects, gets feedback, quits things (Google Glass, Google Plus, Google Trips, etc.)I left home at 18 then came back at 19, then left home again at 21 and then came back at 26. This went on a couple more times. Anyway, my parents were (are) incredibly generous.With my latest venture (a new podcast with personal finance expert Preet Banarjee) we are excited to pair complementary skillsets. Preet likes to dot the ’i’s and cross all the ’t’s. My preference for a premature birth means that together we’re hoping his mature chocolate and my juvenile peanut butter might add up to just right.Analogies have never been my strong suit.Comparing my Navel orange to someone else’s Granny Smith is just par for the course. The trick is to not be too hard on yourself. Sticking your neck out there is exhausting. Here’s hoping that equals a better sleep tonight.A ream of newsletters means no one is looking for another. If you find How to be a Person a worthwhile read then please share it. Find me on insta: @jasonbrydenofcanadaYoutube.com/jasonbrydenboldacting.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit boldacting.substack.com/subscribe

"What I Learned ..." is one of three different streams of podcasts you’ll find under the hospices of The Bold Acting Podcast. The other two are the Bold Interview (upcoming talks include Eric Peterson) and this newsletter. Find all the episodes wherever the podcasts are for you. Friday, May 3rd, 2024Advice from a stand-up doesn’t seem so wrong. British comic Jimmy Carr had a boring life, he didn’t want it anymore so he stopped working for Shell Oil and started doing stand-up instead.Now he has an interesting life.What is your path? If you want to be a doctor the path is clear. But what if you wanted to be a comic or an actor? The path is less clear. It might take longer. There might be crashes along the way. There might be detours. Some people take the scenic route and then get lost altogether.What road are you on now? Bumpy or boring? Heading in the right direction or have you thrown the map out the window. Who is in the car with you? Are they helpful? Are they good navigators? Or are they complainey backseat drivers?Jimmy Carr loves a good crisis. Crisis has a bad name. Crisis needs some crisis management. Crisis is just change. We should look forward to it because change is the only guarantee.True education is not what to think but how to think. What nobody teaches you at university is how to be a person (my words). Why do you do, Jimmy asks? Not what but why do you do the thing you do? Do you know?Ever wondered why trust-fund kids are such fuck-ups? They don’t have any purpose. That and nobody likes a white person with dreadlocks.Find your purpose and then pursue it. That’s how you do it according to Jimmy Carr. But Jimmy is a millionaire with a career and possible name recognition. I don’t think he’s saying do as Jimmy does and you’ll be happy. He’s saying he changed everything and he’s just an average bloke. It’s not easy but it’s not rocket science either.I’m saying, me, JB, I’m saying make art. Big, small, doesn’t matter. Make the art. Remember why you wanted to perform in the first place. Go back to that feeling. Don’t wait, don’t ask for permission, start small and for God’s sake don’t think about it too much. Just paint. Or Tell jokes. Or act. Do it with others. And I guess I’m saying this, all of this, every time, because I want to hear it. I just get scared or complacent or tired or overwhelmed.Why am I so adamant the world needs more artists? Because if a million people begin bucking the trend towards the bottom-line within a capitalist society we might think about consumption less. I think we’ll fill those holes in our souls with creativity and community instead of stuff and likes. I think others will see us doing it and they’ll want in. What if we stopped doing so much? What if we made stuff without expectation?I’m just talking about art. Whatever that means to you. For me it’s performance. I was wired up for it. And when I’m not doing it, it’s a much more boring life.That’s how I talk into cell phones. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit boldacting.substack.com/subscribe

14 and 11 (almost 12) are keeping their cards close to their chest. I am always asking them if they’re masturbating yet in an attempt to normalize it. I am beginning to think I have failed. You know when someone talks so much you can’t hear them anymore? I think that has happened.I haven’t used porn since September 2022. I wasn’t hooked on it but I did rely on it and I wanted to have my house in order before my children came of age.I miss it. So convenient. Not like a miss cigarettes. Now those things are addictive. But we already knew that.A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) demonstrated that the same genes subserving addiction craving are also associated with salt craving, a natural instinct. In other words, addiction is disordered wanting at a very basic, cellular level.(Dr. Donald Hilton, Culture Reframed, March 13th, 2024).A couple summers ago I bought my children an online sexual health course to bolster the education they weren’t getting here in regressive Ford Nation. (Read about it in this charming piece called Canada Province Cancels New Sex Ed Curriculum After Protests from the BBC.) 14 and 11 didn’t like the course. They said the jokes were terrible. I watched a little and thought their review was overly kind. The jokes were unspeakably bad. I almost wrote the organization for a refund.Both of their phones are dumb. Just a phone, text and Spotify on them. And the laptops are on safe-search, which probably doesn’t do much. Abstinence doesn’t work. I should provide them with an alternative. So I’m scouring vintage shops and Facebook Marketplace looking for old porn mags.I mean, she’s wearing a Christmas tree. Not exactly XXX. Growing up we had a porno bush. It was a rhododendron tree on the west side of the West Van Ice Arena. It always had porn in it. We called it the Porno Bush.We also had a vodka stump. But anyway …I am hoping that old-timey soft core porn is a good idea. Better than them not hearing anything I say. Definitely an improvement over the things they can see online. Besides, there’s interviews with Kurt Vonnegut and Maya Angelou. Plus, all that great advertising.Zig When Others ZagExploring the opposite can unleash a lot of potential. If you’re at least not doing the same thing everyone else is doing you’ll separate yourself from the pack. You’re not being afraid. And fear impacts judgement so you’re making less mistakes. You’re thinking for yourself (I tell myself). Rather than wringing my hands and telling my kids porn will ruin your future sex-life I am recognizing the lay of the land and I am showing them another path forward.Other People’s ParentsThe value of my children being with adults that aren’t me or their mother is also underrated. The importance of having friends isn’t just for companionship, it’s for their companion’s parents and caregivers too. Other adults who have lived a life and learned something from it. And whose voice they can still hear.In 1994 I got my first email address. In 1995 my cousin built me my first website. Fatlamb.com. (So old it predates the wayback machine.) In 1997 Ontario got a new sexual health curriculum. And that is still the same one that is taught to our children today because Dougy Fresh didn’t want to piss-off the religious. So our kids aren’t being taught by other people’s parents how dangerous the internet can be.I’m going to do other things to encourage healthy habits for my two male children. I’m going to buy them beer. I’m going to suggest they can party at mine. I’ll help them procure fake IDs. They can have their own Uber accounts. Whatever it takes so they aren’t in their rooms staring at TikTok.I just hope they don’t come home with cigarettes. I’d be hard-pressed to say no.BOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit boldacting.substack.com/subscribe

Steven Pressfield is a cheerleader. And we need more of those in this world. There are too many naysayers out there and inside our heads. We don’t need someone else telling us we’re getting it wrong. What serves me as a teacher? To position myself as rarefied? To conflate experience with wisdom? To profess my way as being the only way?In separating myself from the pack, I want to remain a student and a cheerleader. We didn't get into this mess because we've been making too much art. We've been focusing on the wrong things.It's time to play.“Some things are too important to take seriously.” - Oscar WildeBOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.If you like the Bold Acting Podcast talk it up at your next dinner or book club. Word-of-Mouth is the best form of advertising. If you don’t like it maybe just keep that to yourself.Rating and reviewing the thing is also greatly appreciated. It goes a long way to spreading the word.To get in touch email me at: jasonbryden@gmail.comOr on Instagram @jasonbrydenofcanadaThe song used in this podcast is called Sure and it was made by Braak which is electronic and cinematic music made by Øyvind Strand Endal from Norway.Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/braak/sureLicense code: AVTXANAUYZXHSHB0 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit boldacting.substack.com/subscribe

Gabrielle Zevin wrote in her novel Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.“The alternative to appropriation is a world in which artists only reference their own cultures … Where white European people only make art about white European people, with only white European references in it. A world where everyone is blind and deaf to any culture or experience not their own.”The slogan Nothing about us, without us was first used in 1505 as a political motto that helped form and establish constitutional legislation in the Kingdom of Poland. It was also used in pre-WWII when the Munich Agreement was signed between Nazi Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy effectively giving good chunk of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland to Hitler. Guess who wasn’t there? Czechoslovakia. Thanks a lot Neville Chamberlain.In the 1990s the term was popularized by South African and then American disability activists. In 2004 the UN used the phrase as the theme for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Which is every year on December 3rd.A beautiful map showing Nazi settlements in Czechia. Ahhh, settlements. Rarely a sign of geo-political good. For a long time I was an at-par actor with some comedy chops. Coupled with my look meant I got all the commercials. It was a wonderful life. Until it ended. Now the thing that helped me get work (the colour of my skin) is no longer in demand as it once was.How to respond to my little struggle? In front of friends, my family and most of all my children my response might more readily take on a philosophical approach than if I were alone.“What other people think of me is none of my business.”“I’ll just have to become so good they can’t not hire me.”“It was a good run. Now it is time to work harder.”The flame of my anger diminishes under the cooling influence of witnesses.But what of my white, male children? They never had a good run. Maybe they won’t be actors and so it won’t matter so much?I was used to a life and now I must get used to another. But if I make stuff with too many white people I might be accused of a thing. And if I make stuff without white people I will be accused of another. And if I make stuff about my people versus other people or vice versa I am still walking in a minefield.Malcolm Gladwell said on Talk Easy:You can’t just have stories about Black people written by Black people. You can’t just have stories about white people written by white people. You can’t limit the human imagination. Sometimes the most interesting perspectives on one group come from someone who is not of that group. Their perspective does not have to be congruent with the thing they are describing.He also said Hollywood got themselves into this mess by having all the stories told by white guys for the last 100 years or so. (I do find it interesting that the majority of those “white guys” were Jewish but that’s another newsletter I think.)So what is helpful? Joining the brigades of the angry that have weaponized the word woke? Woke, from what I can tell isn’t a bad thing if it just means you’re awake to the struggle of others. I want everyone to have a fair shake. If that is wokeness then that is I.If I did embrace my angry-guy potential I certainly would not be alone. But the quality of the witness (aka the choir) would not necessarily foster growth or learning in me. Preaching to the choir no longer satisfies.I would rather be on my bike and afraid for my life than in my car and be angry. So for the most part I stay out of my car. This is my self-imposed binary. I saw a dad with a stroller the other day in a crosswalk try to punch a car that was passing too closely to his mewling charge. I used to be that dad (I used my foot though).Art is there to push boundaries. Which boundaries? My boundaries? Yours? I don’t know.What I do know is that art will happen no matter what. And if you join in the making of it eventually, with practice, you’ll worry less about the moving targets of public opinion.The great art comes from when you’re open and relaxed. You don’t want to clutch your stick too tightly. Or be worried about hurting someone else’s feelings. There are a lot of feelings out there.One day, many years from now, after much hand-wringing and blood shed, the living will look back and shake their heads at us. We always do.We chip away, we stay fluid, we write nothing in wet cement. If I err on the side of love and listening, add a dash of my powerful charm/humour offensive, my intentions will be clear.Remember that scene in This Is 40 where Debbie and Pete are fighting? And Debbie, exasperated, says “Cancel my 40th birthday party I’m not in the mood.” And Pete says “No way, I’ve already booked the caterers and I’m not calling everyone back when in two days you change your mind.” We are Debbie. We’re riding a pendulum. It’s hard not to overcorrect. It’s hard to find the bullseye.Journalist Saathnam Sanghera author of Empireland (a great read) talks about how the British Empire is still important today even though it’s dead. Even though the ersatz American Empire is in its death throws and taking all the oxygen. What England colonized between the 17th and the 20th centuries informs how we speak, the food we eat, where some of our money comes from, what’s in our museums, our immigration rules and historical, religious and governmental policies.We can’t not be affected by other cultures. The aim is to do it while giving credit instead of just stealing everything.Change is the one thing you can count on. And that’s hard. But that is also where the art is. Lucky for us we are in a golden age of adversity. Make art first. Ask questions later. And for god’s sake don’t end up a Czechoslovakia.I’m going to ask you just one favour, if you like reading this thing then sign up your entire contacts list to it, would ya? Just kidding, that would be cheating. Okay, how about just five of your friends. Share this post with them and suggest to them they might like to read it on a weekly basis.Thanks so much.For more information go to https://boldacting.com.Find my podcast The Bold Acting Podcast wherever the podcasts are.The song used in this podcast is called Sure and it was made by Braak which is electronic and cinematic music made by Øyvind Strand Endal from Norway.Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/braak/sureLicense code: AVTXANAUYZXHSHB0 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit boldacting.substack.com/subscribe