If I could pick how I would be remembered in Korea, I would
want it to be for those Friday and Saturday nights in Anyang, working the room
and my magic at Happidus.
My friend Jeff Sinclair once did a comedy show there on a
Saturday night and asked me if I could help him out by inviting some of my
local friends to the bar. When I arrived
shortly after midnight, I had missed the show, but the place was packed with
people I knew.
Groups of people came up to me and said hello, asking me
where I was and why I had been late to the event I had invited everybody
to. I went from table to table, talking
it up, and having a great time.
There was a period in history where I pretty much knew
everyone at that bar and I was a very welcomed guest. My favourite memories were the customary
sing-a-longs we used to do with Sweet Caroline, by Neil Diamond, and Piano Man,
by Billy Joel.
Unfortunately, this does not paint an accurate picture of my
time in Korea, but only one small part.
The truth is that I have a really big problem with anger
management, and this, above everything else, is the legacy I have left behind.
As a kid I used to throw temper tantrums when I would lose a
game or not get my way. In grade three,
after losing a game of dodge ball to a kid in grade one, I gave him a really
hard shove from behind that put him on the ground.
At the University of Manitoba I was a very promising student
in the theatre department. I was on the
board of directors and directed a very successful lunch bahg written by David
Annandale. I followed this up by acting
in the lead role of another successful show.
I was rewarded for this hard work by being named director of
Krapp’s Last Tape, for Beckettfest 2001.
Kelly Stifora cast me as the lead in Fat Men In Skirts. George Toles brought Guy Maddin to see it and
I got to overhear their conversation during the intermission in the
washroom. Maddin was saying to Toles
that he thought in the second act, the father would become the good guy.
When I bumped into George the next day at his office I didn’t
have to ask him what he thought of the show (I never used to do this anyway –
it’s the easiest way to get someone to lie to you) when he started telling me.
He said Guy thought I was the kind of actor who could really
carry a movie.
But then, all of my hard work was undone because of my anger.
I was verbally abusive towards my co-star Tracy Penner. During the previous school year I had
directed Tracy in my lunch bahg and somewhere along the way I developed a
really big crush on her. When I found
out she was going out with a friend of mine I turned into a kicking, screaming
and yelling four year old brat.
My behaviour at times during this production was very
shameful and I lost a lot of really good friends because of it, and deservedly
so.
Through it all I had such incredible support from the head
of the department, Chris Johnson. I
would not have graduated without it.
A year earlier I had lost my temper on Chris because he hadn’t
cast me in Twelfth Night, and once again I turned into an angry child and
ripped up posters on campus.
A year later, when Margaret Groome didn’t cast me in a
Shakespeare I did it again, and once again, Chris Johnson tried to get me help
and was on my side.
I shit all over this by giving Margaret Groome a ripped up
copy of Hamlet. I left an angry message on her machine and campus security was
called.
That was pretty much the end of my acting career, even though
I took it up again a few years later, studying
with Onalee Ames. I ended up getting kicked out of there after
being given multiple chances to clean up my act. Once again my poor anger management was the
main culprit.
After getting kicked out of acting classes I decided to move
to Korea and teach English. The first
nine months went off without a snag and I didn’t lose my temper once, unless
you count the time I got really mad at my former boss for selling the school I
was working at without telling me. I
found out when I showed up for work, asked why she wasn’t there, and then got
told.
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