I am often asked why I write what I write about
these days.

It's simple really. I love actors.

From my very first memories of the old movie palaces,
with their ornately carpeted lobbies, wide staircases
leading to the balcony, and, of course the smell of
freshly popped corn – I have been smitten with those
people up there on the screen.

As a child, I slowly came to realize that they – the
people I watched in the dark, on the edge of my seat,
with one hand fishing for the last Jujube – were
called actors and that they were just pretending to
be cowboys and pirates.

Then, as I entered my ninth or tenth year, I learned
that actors were being paid to tell those stories I
craved to see every Saturday morning. Well, when I
discovered that acting was a job that paid money, I
became interested – nay, obsessed – in becoming an
actor myself. It was my dream for a couple of dozen
years.

My dream didn't work out.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I have done some acting for
money in my time … in fact I made a few `big bucks'
– but I'm not really an actor. (Anyone who has seen
me perform will testify, under oath, to that fact.)

Of course, I love show business, so my lack of acting
ability caused me to settle - and join the ranks of
writer/producer/director/whatevers.

However, during my five plus decades of being an
'interested party,' I've gotten to know a lot of
actors. Now, as with all jobs, you meet a lot of
different kinds of people at work – joyful, grumpy,
overwhelmed, serious, feckless, cynical, ambitious,
satisfied worker bees and prima donnas. But it's
the commonality in actors' personalities that I
love.

In other words, I have reasons for feeling the way I
do, about my fellow thespians.

To start, every actor must face (and deal with) a lot
more rejection in a typical year than most people will
ever have to handle in their entire lives. This daily
'fact of life' tends to imbue a person with more than
the normal supply of human empathy. Which is probably
why actors really care about the feelings and problems
of other people.

In fact, those concerns are generally at the forefront
of most actors' thoughts. "Did they like it? Did they
have a good time? Did we touch them?" - are the common
themes in most after-the-show conversations between the
players. (Along with, "I didn't get it." "I have to get
a job." and, "Such and such show stinks on ice." After
all, we're only human.)

Then there is the persistence ...

It's apparently a law of nature that actors will keep
trying long after most ordinary human beings would have
given up or given in.

You can see that dogged determination in the years of
classes most actors continue to attend, in a concerted
effort to get better at their craft. The fact that it
is the craft of pretending to be someone or something
you are not - makes the years of devotion to it, even
more revealing.

And there's another excellent trait that actors possess:
Revealing. The willingness (and ability) to reveal some
ugly (or at least not very nice) side of themselves –
and therefore humanity – in order to tell the story
truly, tells us a lot about actors. Most actors do it
without much concern for how we may think of them, or
feel about them, after the show is over.

To quote a writer (who was also an actor), "The play's
the thing."

When you add up the rejection, the years it may take to
become regularly employed, the selflessness to risk the
regard of other human beings in order to 'entertain' or
tell a story – that we are often called 'egotistical'
or 'full of themselves' is one of the more ironic
misconceptions at large today.

Most actors are quite the opposite.

I can speak with some authority on this matter. I have
known a score of actors who have become world famous.
They all have one thing in common (something that every
actor who "makes it" probably goes through): The shock
of success. I use the word 'shock' with good purpose
– and every successful actor will know what I mean.

Because, no matter what the public (and some unsuccessful
actors) may believe about egos, divas and "star-tripping"
- most entertainers are literally thrown for a loop when
their efforts suddenly result in fame. Believe me, fame,
like rejection, is something most actors are unprepared
for - and like rejection, fame must be 'handled.'

Some do it well ... others not so much.

But, for me, it's that most actors are unprepared for
fame that reveals the truth about the fragile egos of
those who pursue it. Most actors go after success with
an eager innocence that is heart rending – little
knowing that the resulting fame is not much more fun
than the daily rejection they must face to achieve
that success.

Those are just a few of the reasons I love actors -
and I haven't even mentioned their almost supra-human
curiosity, their dedication to the craft, their grace
in both victory and defeat (whether real or not), and
the many facets of the human condition they reveal to
those of us who lead mostly secure and unremarkable
lives.

That's why I love actors.

And why I will continue to call myself an actor. Not
because I'm particularly good at it, or truly belong
in that proud fraternity - but because of the company
I get to keep ... in my imagination - on the edge of
my seat - blindly searching for that last Jujube.

* * * *

Bob is an actor, writer, director, producer and
show-runner on such hits as Full House, Benson,
The Love Boat and others.

He's also the author of You Must Act! The Virtual Acting
Career Course - Nail It! Delivering The Hypnotic Audition
- and Headshot Secrets Revealed - How to Get A Headshot
That Gets You Called In.

He's been a regular columnist for NowCasting.com,
ActorsLife.com, and many other sites. He's also a
featured speaker at AFI, SAG Conservatory, Equity
Library Theatre, UCLA, USC, Actors Creative Network,
Film Industry Network, Women In Film, and many more.

You can subscribe to Bob's free newsletter that is
especially designed for actors - Show Biz How-To ...

... by going here:

http://www.showbizhowto.com

Or by visiting his blog - The Show Biz Blog

http://www.theshowbizblog.com

You can check out his acting career courses at the
following sites:

http://www.youmustact.com

http://www.hypnoticaudition.com

http://www.headshotsecrets.com

http://www.showbizhowto.com/action.html

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