How Does the Online Idea Party Work?
You have a dream or a wish, and an obstacle to getting there. (If you don’t think you know your wish, work through my kick-starter and read this post. To learn why you must put logic aside to find your dream, read the following.)
The online Idea Party is here to help you – and the other fellow party goers – with your wishes and obstacles.
Voices from Success Teams and Idea Parties:
Having a team to report to and hearing what everybody did each week is very exciting. It’s kept me moving all year. In the past I made some good starts on my own, but found, every time, when the energy ran out, I ran out. Now it doesn’t run out.
Jade G.
Children’s Playroom Therapist, New York Hospital
I would do a painting a year, a sketch a year. If it was only me I know I would never do it. Having to tell you makes all the difference. It’s crazy why I didn’t do this years ago, it’s so easy all of a sudden.
Caroline R. Personnel Executive, Macy’s Dept Store
Post Your Wish and Your Obstacle Here!
And help your team mates out when you can. Use the Reply link to help, the form below the comments to add your own Wish and Obstacle.
(Your first comment below has to be approved, so it may not display instantly depending on the time of the day. Once your email address is approved you can post instantly. If you want your own profile photo to show up beside your comments, instead of the cute little design, upload your photo on Gravatar.com and give them an hour or so to make it happen.)
My dream is to have a main part in a professional (union) movie or TV show! Maybe a soap opera?
I live in Canada. I am getting smaller roles which is amazing! I want to take it to the next level. 🙂
Dear Julie,
I’m sitting here totally enraged. Not because of you at all, but because of my hideous, nasty plastic hunk of junk, my demonically possessed computer, who (not which, but who!) just completely cannibalized my comments to you, regarding advancing a film career. It was one of my typically long pieces, and was meant to be a helpful illustration about how two movie actors, one whom I have known personally and the other whom I have only known about, have developed their careers. I have sat here for more than an hour, working this up, and then the blasted computer cannibalized all of it
I am just barely starting to recover from a major Nasty Virus that has morphed into bronchitis, and was threatening, two days ago to morph into something worse and land me in the hospital, and so I can’t sit here and do the whole thing over again. I’m not strong enough. And right now, I’m so furious that I’m about ready to throw the blasted computer out the window without opening the window first. But I won’t.
Let me Try To summarize what just got cannibalized.
I have known one Hollywood actor personally, and the other, have only known about. Both started out flat broke. The one I’ve known started only with the dream of becoming a Hollywood actor, and, being broke, hitchhiked his way from Minnesota to Hollywood, where he got himself a job working in a greasy spoon kitchen, cooking up endless amounts of chili. And somehow, he dug up the contact information for several of the studios, so he started calling the producers. And kept calling. And kept calling. Every 20 minutes, he’d call. Until one of the producers was losing his mind and yelling, “Hire that kid, willya!?? He’s driving me nuts!”
That’s not the recommended way to launch yourself into the film industry. But that’s what he did. You’re already beyond that. You have already got smaller roles, which is more than a good start.
My friend started as an extra, and then got bit parts–the kind of thing where an extra gets one line to say. And he built it from there by constantly going to casting calls and by auditioning for parts. He was a Native American, and in those days, there were a lot of TV Westerns, shows like Rawhide, Wagon Train, and Broken Arrow. He got hired as a technical advisor to insure that the Native American things on these shows were depicted correctly. He did a fair amount of stunt work, and was cast in movie and TV roles. He was cast in Native American and Non-native roles. In the movie, The Robe, about the Passion of Christ, he was cast as one of the three Roman soldiers who were gambling for Christ’s robe at the foot of the cross.
My friend built a steadily advancing acting career out of hard work, recognition for his work and his talent, and by a combination of good luck, extreme persistence, and prayer. He built himself an acting career for several years in Hollywood, until it was time for him to turn his attention to other endeavors. It was after that, when he was fully engaged in fulfilling another aspect of his life, when I met him.
So that’s one example that I’ve been able to retrieve from this cannibalistic computer. He did things by lots of casting calls and responding to lots of auditions, and by building things in a steady upward way.
The other example, which I hope to cite before this nasty, demonically possessed machine eats it again, is an actor whom I have known about but not known personally. He, too, when he started his career, was flat broke, and had been pumping gas and trying to sell ink pens for a living, believe it or not. He was about to be evicted from his apartment for not paying the rent. He was advised by someone with some connections to a young actor, to go talk to him about acting. The ink pen salesman was very dubious, but went to the meeting anyway. He had never considered acting. The young actor encouraged him, and set him up for an audition. He went to the audition and the result was that he landed his first acting role, A Nightmare on Elm Street. The ink pen salesman was suddenly catapulted into the world of acting. This was the launch of the acting career of Johnny Depp, the infamous pirate whom people either seem to love or hate.
His acting career didn’t seem to grow steadily and carefully like my friend’s did. It seemed to more or less catapult along. After “Nightmare,” he landed the role of “21 Jump Street,” which suddenly catapulted him into becoming a teenage heart throb. He held the role for 4 years, but he hated it, and tried to do everything to get fired from it, which didn’t work. In an interview, he said, “I don’t want to play this Leading Man stuff. If I have to do that, I might as well go back to pumping gas!” He wanted to be a character actor instead, “and the weirder the character the better,”: he said.
That experience and decision began to determine the course of the rest of his film career. He found out that film director Tim Burton was looking for an actor to play Edward Scissorhands. And so Johnny arranged to meet him. That meeting resulted in Johnny being cast for the role, and it began a long collaboration with Tim Burton, resulting in more character actor roles for Johnny. He was establishing himself as a character actor, although for a long time, the movies weren’t big box office hits.
And then came Pirates of the Caribbean, the Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003. The script was written in the typical Hollywood manner for a pirate film–the handsome pirate goes through all sorts of dangers and trials, and romantically gets the girl in the end. Johnny would have none of it. He totally re-invented the staggering, drunken, finger-wiggling character, in dangly beads and dreadlocks, who was slurring his words. Studio execs were horrified. “He’s ruining the movie! He’s slurring his words! Are we going to have to put subtitles?” But, somehow, he didn’t get fired, the production moved ahead, and when it was screened, the public loved it and ate it up. Johnny was catapulted again, from character actor into international stardom. “First I am a character actor, and then I become a pirate, and suddenly I can buy a private island,” he said. He did a lot of improv in the Pirates movies, and in some of them, even re-wrote parts of the script. They grew with all the creativity he put into them, and into the character, and the movies became blockbusters.
So that is the career of Johnny Depp as I know of it–hard times, running from being typecast as the Leading Man, into characters–
“the weirder the better,” beginning with Edward Scissorhands, and then refusing to play the typical pirate role, but totally re-inventing the looks and the role of Captain Jack Sparrow. A friend of mine thinks he was playing himself. Who knows?
These two examples, I hope, show how two very determined people have made careers for themselves in the film industry. It was hard, hard work, very extreme persistence, in Johnny’s case, sticking unwaveringly to his core values about not being typecast as a handsome Leading Man, and a long and fruitful collaboration with the movie director, Tim Burton. In my friend’s case, extreme persistence, and constantly answering casting calls and auditions, and expanding into technical directorship, and going on acting in Native and Non-Native roles, in movies and in TV.
So, a combination of factors. I hope these examples are helpful, about how these two actors developed their acting careers. Johnny’s seems to be more a series of leaps and bounds and my friend’s, more carefully orchestrated. It is a combination of good luck, talent, being recognized for talent, very hard work, connections (very important), and continuing to try and reach for the next thing, and prayer.
I would advise against getting into soap opera. It’s a good way to get typecast and stuck, and soap operas have never been considered really great entertainment. So reach for as high as the next thing is, for you. You already are launched, which is very good. You don’t have to be on the street, selling ink pens for a living!
Well, I’m glad this blasted machine hasn’t cannibalized everything this time. I yelled at it plenty. I do hope the examples of how these two people’s careers have helped.
OMG so great. I completely understand. I grew up in LA and won an award with George Lucas. He now has 4 billion $ and I don’t. But I am teaching filmmakers, actors and other creatives how to get funding. Thanks to Barbara Sher!
Hi everyone!
Marry ann and all others, it’s a great thing the way you’re sharing your experiences. Thanks.
Could you please share about your worldview and philosophy of life that makes you help your fellows as such, please?
Dear Paul,
This could be a Big Question, and I have never been known for succinctness, but basically, I’m a Métis Elder, a person of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous background, who basically walks what we call the Good Red Road. Some tribes in the Southwest call it the Beauty Way Path, or the Corn Pollen Path.
A long time ago, many millenia ago, the Creator and the Holy Beings gave the people the Original Instructions, mandates for living life in a good way, in harmony and balance, and for peace.
One of my Medicine teachers said once that there are as many cultural differences between the various tribes as there are between Swedes and Turks–that is, both of these groups are Caucasians, and that’s where the cultural similarity starts and stops. And then he said, “In spite of these cultural differences, there are some basic principles which all the people hold very close and dear to their hearts, always. And then, he began to name them. These turned out to be the very things that my half-Indian gramma and mom brought me up on. I guess you’d say that’s the worldview. They are parts of the Original Instructions
Nowadays, and since 1987, I’ve been doing various speaking engagements and am more or less constantly educating those who are willing to listen, about the Tree of Life and the Dead Limb.
My mentor and medicine chief once said, “You’ll see a time, in your lives, when there will be a dead limb breaking off the Tree of Life. The important thing is to remember, then, is that there is still a Tree of Life.”
The time of the Dead Limb is now. We’re in it.
So what is this Tree of Life?
Garden–Plant and grow at least some of your own food.
Forests, Mountains, Lakes, Rivers, Deserts, Beaches, Oceans
Family
Deep Friendships
Good Books
Learning More
Talking about Interesting Things
Making Music
Right Livelihood (that which you’re naturally good at, love doing, and lose track of time when you’re doing it because it’s fun), and hopefully get paid sufficiently to not be broke and struggling;
Storytelling as an art form
Dancing
Listening
Investing excitement and passion in every waking moment of life.
That’s the Tree of Life
Your own food sufficiency, all there is to the beauties of nature, and being actively engaged in creative pursuits of things like making music and simple dance moves that any kid or person can do–we’re not talking ballroom dancing or the tango, polkas, schottisches, the hambo, or any fancy stuff here. Sometimes it’s just moving in a circle. But, the principle is to be actively engaged in expression, and not just sitting around watching someone else do it. Lifetime learning, and always being helpful to others. Putting passions to work on a daily basis That’s the Tree of Life. And it’s reasonably short, sweet, and straightforward.
The Distractions is a much longer list of all of the Not-So-Sweet aspects of the dominant society, ranging from junk food to gambling and other addictions, and the hours and hours of time spent shopping for stuff, new and used, and more hours and hours of screen time, and obligatory visits to relatives. Much time and real life wasted on artificial entertainment of all sorts and video games. The junky, noisy, flashy, dominant culture. The distractions.
Until fairly recently, the Original Instructions were never written down. They were just carried very closely in people’s hearts and followed and lived by for millenia. A few years ago, Manitonquat, a ceremonial chief of the Wampanoag People, wrote a book entitled the Original Instructions. He picked out twelve of them:
Respect for all life–we are all related and connected to every other life form.
The Circle–we are all equal to every other life form on the Great Wheel of Life
Gratitude
Awareness–(Your energy goes where your attention flows, so put attention on building the good world you want, and not upon the Dead Limb.)
Humor
Honesty and integrity at all times.
Humility, not boasting and bragging
Generosity–the Give Away
Hospitality
Wisdom
Courage: The Warrior Code: Stand up for Peace
Beauty
Gramma’s and Mom’s list of Principles was longer, and is 24 items long. These were drilled into me, growing up, and heavily enforced. Too long of a list to replicate here.
My core values, which go on for 7 sheets of paper, on both sides of the page, includes always being helpful, unfolding God-given potential by unfolding talents, and helping others to do that too; knowing that whatever inspirations and Visions we get are for The People, not just for us. Cooperation, compassion and joy instead of selfishness, intolerance, violence and rage that leads to killing.
We are at a time now of the Breaking Off of the Dead Limb. We have come to a time when, like an organism that starts out as a one-celled organism, is dividing. In one of the divisions, are those who believe in competition, selfishness, maneuvering and manipulation to gain one’s own ends at any expense, including sacrificing the lives of others, massive investment in high tech, and using up of the Earth’s resources to fuel and fire whatever they need to fuel and fire, with settlement beyond Earth and outer space warfare to “protect” whatever needs to be “protected.” In the other division, you find cooperation, sharing, “unity, harmony, peaceful togetherness, people prospering together, a deep and abiding love for and connection with all living things, and this includes helping others to become whole with al talents engaged, building and encouraging self reliance and the healing of the spirit. ” This last is a quote from my Mission Statement, which encompasses the foregoing 7 sheets of paper. It encompasses the deep spiritual knowledge of indigenous people, for for us, everything is spiritual, and spirituality flows out and informs all the rest of life.
I have become a psychotherapist and a life coach with these principles in mind.
Philosophy of life? That’s simple:
I pledge Allegiance
To the Earth
And to the Life which She
Supports.
One Planet
Under God
With Equality
And Peace
for All.
There is One Earth
And We are
Her Citizens
I hope that answers you.
Dear Mary ann, thank you so much. Am in my twenties and planning to study psychotherapy. It’s a great kindness to try to help others by sharing your experience.
Do you have any other platform where I can find your advice privately? Please!