Influenzas...brand ambassadors..."ask your doctor"...and my "favorite", Chief Brand Officers! *gags*
When the business of America is no longer even business, but just plain lying to each other about products, is it any wonder that a guy who lies about his wealth and non-racism can then steal the White House (after lying about winning)?
Trade schools. Unions. Let's make America *make* again.
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I dated an actor once, never again. Now I may find myself interacting with one pretending to be a product brand ambassador. Sigh.
6
@Steve. I know him. He did the same thing to me. I said I really wasn't impressed and wouldn't be inclined to be pixelated over product branding. We did have a nice bottle of champagne and caviar though. His brother owns part of Petrossian.
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@Steve, recalling a very old joke about two actors making love. [Actually, it was told with a much less subtle word for making love.] One of them says to the other "You know, that was really good, but let me show you how you could do it even better."
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I was in a Broadway play once. I was understudy for Evita. She got sick I got sick the audience most defiantly got sick. Good times! Went to Monkey Bar for drinks later. Laughed the whole thing off.
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@Marjorie Summons, these are great. it's like you're doing stand-up only sitting down! Are they supposed to be Patti LuPone?
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@Marjorie Summons. regarding "I was understudy for Evita."
Times change even for unknown comedian-hopefuls. This bit got me such upset posts in 2013 as if I soiled the internet, why was I parodying a parody and stuff - and these days, with where Randy Rainbow and even parodies on the Tonys have gone, it seems so tame!
Patti visits Forbidden Bway with Mandy ready to be angry at Gerard, but they find it's good publicity! ("Junior High" to Evita's "Rainbow High")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NHwKWrvqlk
you can tell when a writer is writing, you can tell when a dancer is dancing, you can tell when a ditch digger is digging, and you can tell when a surgeon is operating, but how can you tell when an actor is acting?
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@k. francis - regarding "how can you tell when an actor is acting?" I think Mueller had figured it out, since he referred to things being done by bad Russian actors. Maybe they'll ask him at the hearing of you write your Congressman.
(I want to sneak in and toast "And one for Mueller!" every time he makes a good point, maybe as a drinking game.)
5
I was a struggling actor once. I studied at HB studios and had red wine at a cafe after. Several red wines. I met John Reilly Whatshisname there once, we had a contre tempo he didn't really like my scarf and it was a vintage Lee Radizwell. He read Truman Capote together, apparently he was studying for a role. Wouldn't know. Lost touch years ago.
3
Actors working as brand ambassadors have been around for decades; I started working various gigs back in the early 2000s when I graduated drama school. While those jobs can pay well, they notoriously skew towards the very young and attractive in specific, conventional ways; after turning thirty I couldn't get hired. Not exactly an insurance policy for anyone's future.
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I remember lovely young women at the January new car trade shows at the DC convention center decades ago.
5
I haven't even been a waiter but I just want to assure any 45 year old waiters out there that it's fine. A 45 year old might be a waiter for the exact same reasons as a 30 year. And a 20 year old might well say "you don't want to be a waiter when you're 30".
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What if these companies were taxed fairly and to the point that they don't have excess millions to pour into faux-art designed to sell stuff?
What if those tax dollars went towards public theaters that employ actors full-time w/ benefits and provide high quality, free or low cost productions for the public to enjoy?
could be cool...
45
I remember the people way back in the 1970s openly working the line standing at TKTS, often with discount vouchers that if people were hoping for specific shows, they could go right to the theater and get the same deal. There was one person who worked the line mainly for a mature subject musical ("Oh Calcutta") who looked like the twin of our very popular math teacher Rabbi Morris; but he sometimes also knew about some other shows, which we guessed must also have paid him a little something. There was one particular day when a lot of us, in separate groups, happened to have been at TKTS at various times for the same matinee - and somehow about 20 of us saw each other at "The Shadow Box," and all of us were there because "Rabbi Morris said it was the shoo-in for the Pulitzer." (And it later won it.)
Clearly, "Rabbi Morris" knew how to pique the interests of 16 and 17 year old groups at TKTS, who certainly were not going to go see "Oh Calcutta," his primary two-fer brand ambassador job! It looked like the box office knew which line-person handed out the flyers that were used, and one assumes they may have been somehow credited as salespeople based on how many actual sales they sparked.
6
Check out "Bathtubs Over Broadway" on Netflix. It tells the story of how big corporations used to mount their own musicals for sales meetings (literally, people singing about copiers). It was great steady work for actors and composers.
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@Max Terrifically entertaining documentary!
2
@Max_Uh, those were called Industrials and some really well know actors/performers appeared in them.
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@Patou
Uh I think that's what i said
4
Nothing says an emotional "real-life interaction" more than dealing with an actor playing a role.
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@Jonathan Hutter, LOL, remembering the line "Sincerity - once you can fake that, you got it made."
9
It may be more organized, but these kinds of gigs were around 30 years ago.
6
Funny. These jobs used to be called trade shows. As an actor in Chicago they were our bread and butter.
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