Entitlement, Endurance, and Enjoying Morons
Nappoholics Anonymous is a weekly column featuring twelve random thoughts by actor Tony Nappo. Some are funny, some are poignant, some bother him, and some make him weep from sadness while others make him weep for joy. Here are his thoughts: unfiltered, uncensored, and only occasionally unsafe for work.
1. Top 5 Bryan Adams Songs for Racists
5. Straight from the Heart of Dixie
4. Have You Ever Really Really Really Ever Loved a Wuhan*
3. (Everything I Do) I Do It for You People
2. One White Love Affair
1. Summer of 69 Sensitivity Training Workshops
*Hadley Kay’s contribution
2. Meme of the Week:
3. Sometimes I really really really enjoy watching fucking morons try to be clever on social media. They’re kinda cute. Like watching fawns trying to walk for the first time.
4. I saw an ad for an Advanced Cold Read class and my first thought was “It’s a cold fucking read”—which means the first time you have ever read something—“The only way it could be advanced is if they’re going to teach me how to read something that hasn’t been written yet!”
5. Perspective of the Week 1:
6. Memorial of the Week:
7. Had an awesome coaching/teaching session last week with one of my students who is pretty new to it all. I know a lot of you teach and will get this—those fucking break through moments when you finally find the right way of communicating to your student in a way that works FOR THEM (because that’s all that counts) and the pennies begin to drop. It’s like watching a baby get up on their legs and begin to walk. These moments are where the satisfaction of teaching live. It’s fucking magical because it sets off a loop of pride and joy, as your student gets caught up in your excitement as their teacher, and they begin to believe in their abilities on another level as well. Confidence in their craft grows for them personally, as well as confidence in your relationship. It builds momentum, you just keep reaching for more. And it is particularly rewarding with newcomers.
Nobody ever “taught” Brando most of the stuff that made him great. Sure, he was at The Studio and he had great teachers, but he was always going to find it one way or another, to whatever degree.
I really enjoy working with established actors as well, but it’s a different feeling. It’s more of a collaboration with an already skilled actor than teaching, per se‚ where you may suggest a tweak here or a different tactic there. You are making minor adjustments with the experienced actor, rather than teaching them.
But I just know that that was a good day for me as a teacher and a banner day for my student. And that’s enough of an accomplishment during these shit days to make me feel like I actually contributed something to another human being and to the world, as I begin to settle into devoting the rest of my day to distractions or pleasures that will only serve my own wants and needs (and possibly someone else’s—ya never know).
8. Guest Post of the Week:
9. Artist of the Week:
…is Amy Rutherford. Amy is one the best actors in Toronto, hands down. I’ve wanted to work with her on something for years. Her turn as Blanche Dubois at Soulpepper last season was one of the finest performances that I have seen in my entire time in theatre. This painting caught my eye on my phone’s newsfeed. I thought it was a photograph at first—it really captures that sense of snow being in the air and clouding the shot almost like a filter, and it has that faded quality that old photographs can sometime have—and was kind of shocked to read that it was Amy who had made it, because I had no idea she painted. But then I remembered it was Amy Rutherford, and that nothing that she does that requires any kind of artistic talent at all should ever surprise anyone, really.
Amy’s words:
“I have always painted. As a theatre actor, it is so satisfying to make something that you can actually see. I usually use a ton of colour, but I was recently inspired by black-and-white photographs of Shackleton’s expedition on his ship The Endurance in 1914. The crew were locked in ice for two years and 22 days. As they were in the Antarctic, many of those months were spent in total darkness. In order to keep their morale up, they put on shows for each other and played games. This image is of the crew playing soccer. Five months before being rescued, the ship was swallowed by the ice and they had to live in tents. They went through hell, but unbelievably, all 28 men survived. I plan to make more paintings inspired by these images. I find their story of survival a powerful metaphor for the ups and downs in life and, in a smaller way, for the isolation we are experiencing during the COVID lockdown. The painting is called Game of Endurance.”
10. Perspective of the Week 2:
11. Had a brief conversation with Bea Campbell last week and she brought up a very good point, which hadn’t occurred to me. One of the largest appeals of attending theatre for the audience has always been the element of escape. Escaping their lives in general and their personal problems of the day, as well as those of the world, for a couple of hours. If theatres begin to re-open while there is still a lot of emphasis on social distancing, wearing masks, not touching surfaces without needing to immediately wash or disinfect hands, and just generally needing to be super aware of their surroundings and exercise extreme caution DURING THE SHOW, that will only serve to remind them of the biggest problem on the planet. The idea of them being able to fully invest and escape into another world—to forget where they are and be transported, allowing themselves to be taken on a journey is likely to be next to impossible—rendering the whole exercise pointless to a very, very large degree.
12. Mom-ouflage:
Sarah Rotering has become an overnight hero to women across the globe who have been forced to quarantine with their husbands and children, and just want to not be found for an occasional moment or two. The Mom-ouflage Dress/Couch Combo has completely changed the self-isolation game.
Tony Nappo
Tony is Italian, he’s from Scarborough, he’s an actor, he’s a father, he’s a really good house painter, and he doesn’t believe that most things matter, ultimately, at all.
LEARN MORE
Paintings, Pornos, and Broken Countries
Every single fucking time there is a mass shooting, we all give the speeches, and we all share the memes (to each other, who are all mostly already in agreement), but nothing changes.
Gottfried, Strays, and Easter Eggs
Dogs rarely have a hidden agenda when they meet people or other dogs: they're either wagging that shit or they aren’t.
Slapping People, ACTRA Meetings, and Dog Shit
At one point, I was sleeping with so many actresses that they used to just hold ACTRA meetings in my bedroom.
Birthdays, Cranes, and Judd Apatow
If the Freedom Convoy has answered one question for every Canadian, I think it's this: whatever happened to that dumb kid in my class?
Scorsese, Dentists, and Dying Alone
If waving a Fuck Trudeau flag is a legit way to get a meeting with him, I’m gonna start waving my Fuck Scorsese flag wherever I go and keep my fingers crossed.
Truckers, Porndle, and Bad Boys
In these newly woke times in the entertainment industry, it’s slightly amazing to me that nobody has protested the fact that Denzel Washington isn’t actually Scottish yet.
Paintings, Pornos, and Broken Countries
Every single fucking time there is a mass shooting, we all give the speeches, and we all share the memes (to each other, who are all mostly already in agreement), but nothing changes.
Gottfried, Strays, and Easter Eggs
Dogs rarely have a hidden agenda when they meet people or other dogs: they're either wagging that shit or they aren’t.
Slapping People, ACTRA Meetings, and Dog Shit
At one point, I was sleeping with so many actresses that they used to just hold ACTRA meetings in my bedroom.
Birthdays, Cranes, and Judd Apatow
If the Freedom Convoy has answered one question for every Canadian, I think it's this: whatever happened to that dumb kid in my class?
Scorsese, Dentists, and Dying Alone
If waving a Fuck Trudeau flag is a legit way to get a meeting with him, I’m gonna start waving my Fuck Scorsese flag wherever I go and keep my fingers crossed.
Truckers, Porndle, and Bad Boys
In these newly woke times in the entertainment industry, it’s slightly amazing to me that nobody has protested the fact that Denzel Washington isn’t actually Scottish yet.
Comments