May 13, 2023 • 35 mins
Joe Norman Shaw was born in Anderson, Indiana, in 1957 to Norman and Mary Shaw. In 1966 he moved to Elgin, Illinois, and began acting at Kimball Jr. High School. In 1972 the family moved to the east end of Toronto (Scarborough), where Joe continued to act in plays, perform dramatic monologues and was active on the wrestling team at West Hill Collegiate Institute. After graduating from the Drama Department, University of Guelph, in 1981, Joe moved back to Toronto to pursue his career. His early work was in the theater and included an apprenticeship at The Shaw Festival (1985)and two seasons with the Stratford Festival ('87-'90). While in Toronto Joe appeared in numerous productions of new and innovative plays such as "The Dressing Gown" (Buddies in Bad Times),"As Is" (Toronto Free Theatre), "Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love" (Crows Theatre)and the Fringe Festival hit, "I Slept with Tony Trouble: The Confessions of a Hollywood Hustler"- which later toured to London and the Edinburgh Festival. In 1991 he moved to Vancouver, where he began to work more extensively in film and TV, and began to teach acting and directing for the stage. His directorial debut was "The Zoo Story" for the Vancouver Fringe. In 1994 he moved to Calgary, where he continues to work as an actor on stage ("Twelve Angry Men", Vertigo Theatre) and in film and TV projects, primarily shot in Alberta. He is also Co-Founder/Director of Company of Rogues Actors Studio and Rogueswest (Vancouver), as well as Artistic Director of Rogues Theatre. Joe holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Calgary where he has worked as an instructor. He is also the Director of Drama at St. Mary's University and for 15 years was an Instructor for the Department of Theatre at Mount Royal University,Calgary.
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Episode Transcript
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Usually it's the person who is lesstalented that feels they have to pump themselves
up. The people that are trulygood, No, they're good and they
don't have to brag about it.I think that humility humility with confidence,
because humility means I still can continueto learn. So every time you pick
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up a scrap, you go,oh, I haven't played this part.
I have to start from scratch asif I'm a beginner and breathe life into
this. Talent Talk is sponsored byCompany of Rogues Actors Studio, New York
style training for actors at all stagesof their journey. With our part time
classes and full time masterclass program,Rogues provides a unique post secondary option under
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the guidance of working professionals, mentoringand developing professional film and theater artists.
Since nineteen ninety three, Calgary's longestrunning independent studio offers practical, hands on
classes in a positive, supportive environment. Check us out at co rogues dot
com. Company of Rogues passionate aboutthe art of everybody. I'm Gary McClain
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and you're watching Talent Talk. Thanksfor tuning in. If you haven't done
so already, please do go tothe Talent Talk YouTube channel. Subscribe today.
As always, the supports appreciated.Also a reminder that this and previous
episodes are available on podcast medium suchas Spotify, iHeartRadio, Google Podcast,
Apple Podcasts, just to name afew. If you like a full list
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of work can actually listen to theshow. Check out the description details of
this and previous episodes. Now Ineed to give a quick shout out to
our sponsors this year, which isgreat. Thank you everybody. First it
would be Company of Row. Wealso have six Degrees whose booth we're actually
in today, so thank you forthose guys, Workflow Film who is actually
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operating the cameras today, so thankyou for that. We also have heard
of one media counting Coup, IndigenousFilm Academy, and finally Actor Alberta.
So thanks for everyone for your supportthis year. It's amazing. So I
can't thank you guys enough. Nowtoday's guest. He is actually an actor
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and film instructor. Actually I shouldn'tsay film instructor. He teaches theater and
film. He's worked on the stageacross Canada and internationally, as well as
many film intilversion projects. He isthe co founder and co director of the
company of Rogues Actors Studio here inCalgary and Rogue West in Vancouver. He
has an MFA in Directing from theUC and an Honors BA for Acting and
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Directing from the University of Guelph.He is well respected and a pillar of
the film community and theater scene herein Calgary. So please please joined me
in welcoming Joe Norman shot to theshow. Hey, how's it going today?
Good? How about you? Nottoo bad? Too bad? Thanks
excellent. Thanks for joining us todayfor one thing, I appreciate that for
sure. Happy to be here.Now you've been acting for a while,
(03:16):
Maybe you can tell us a littlebit of how that all began. Yeah,
I mean I went through a universitydrama program back in the late seventies
and I that was in the Universityof Guelph, and I ended up in
Toronto, which was the most it'sa prolific theater community at that time,
because I think a lot of actorsin Canada we hadn't quite found the film
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and TV market yet. So Istarted out in the theater in Toronto in
the eighties, which was a reallyvibrant and exciting time. Lots of great
companies doing interesting new works. Workedat Stratford and Shaw Festival. So that's
where I got my start, andyou know, over time ended up moving
west to Vancouver, and somehow Iended up in Calgary, I don't know,
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but and during that time I startedto do a lot more film and
TV work and started to teach anddirect a lot of shows with young actors.
And so it's been about forty yearsnow that I've been doing this sets.
But it's been an interesting but funjourney. So when you went to
Vancouver, was your whole focus thereyou wanted to get into the film or
Yeah, I mean I was.I was a working actor from eighty one
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on. That's all I've really donewas acting and now teach as well.
So well I was. I wasstanding in the gym at the y in
Toronto and a friend of mine cameup and said, what are you doing?
What are you doing here? Isaid, what do you mean?
I'm working out. He's like,you should be in Vancouver. I go
why he goes, because there's alot of film and TV work going on
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there, and I think you dowell. And I'm like, hmm,
interesting. I supposed to go visitmy sister who lives in Maui in February.
This was in the wintertime, andthe plane stops in Vancouver on the
way back. Maybe I'll check itout, and I did. I got
an agent and like a day,I was auditioning at the CBC a couple
of days later, and life justunfolded from there. So I guess it
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was, you know, being divinelyguided in some way or other. Right,
So did you actually make it backeast or did you just stay in
Vancouver once you came back, Well, I had to go back and move
my stuff and I had to comeback and do a play I was in.
I was involved with a fairly importantproduction called Unidentified Human Remains in the
True Nature of Love Brad Fraser,who's an admutant playwright. It's a fairly
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provocative play and when we did itin Toronto in the nineteen ninety with the
late Brent Carver and a wonderful cast, it kind of took Toronto by storm
and we ended up taking to theNational Arts Center in Montreal. And then
when I was in Vancouver, it'slike, oh, do you want to
come to Mexico City. We're takingthis to Mexico City. So I got
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an opportunity to have a pretty couldride out of that show. And then
I came back to Vancouver and Iwas there for a few years. Ended
up. I was married and mypartner and who was an actor and co
founder of Company of Rogues, ChristianHurt, We came here because she played
the lead female role in the LonesomeDove series. Oh okay, and we
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came here and I was like,I like the sunshine. It's beautiful here,
and I don't know here. Weare like it's been thirty years and
I'm still here and never never dreamedit. But I you know, I
feel really fortunate because I got todo a lot of unexpectedly. I mean
I did a fair bet of theaterhere, but even more film and television
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projects. It was just like onewould expect I would need to be in
Vancouver or Toronto to do the amountof work I was fortunate to do.
But yeah, Albert has been reallygood to me that way. So I'm
pretty blessed. And when it comesto Company of Rogues or Rogue West,
which came first, Yeah, andI have to say we've actually closed Rogues
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well just recently. Christians moved backto Calgary here she was running it out
there. She's taking a little hiatus. But yeah. We started a studio
in Vancouver as Company of Rogues innineteen ninety three, and then when we
moved here, we opened we workedfor some other people. There was a
little place called the Alberta Center forActing Studies in ninety four ninety five with
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Leslie Swan who was the casting directorfor Lonesome Dove at the time, worked
for her, and then in ninetysix we opened Company of Rogues here in
a space that the Art Ranch,which was a theater company, had had
uncovered in seventeenth alf and took itover for like five hundred bucks a month,
and then we started the studio hereand started with twelve students and then
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it just went gangbusters, you know. So it's been you know, it's
going on thirty years almost that we'vethat we've had Company of Rogues. So
it's had as roots there, butit had longevity here. Rogues West was
for maybe eight years in Vancouver.Okay, all right, Um, and
what would you say your class sizesare like nowadays? Uh? Well,
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we we try to keep them,you know, relatively intimate. So uh
and what we've gotten from the uhthe whole uh COVID thing was cohorting.
So if I have sixteen people inan advanced film class, let's say,
for instance, I'll do two cohorts, and so we'll have a group of
eight for you know, a coupleof hours and then another group of eight
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for a couple of hours, sothat I can I can actually give people
more time and attention. That wayless people in the room, which for
a lot of reasons is valuable andum And so generally our classes run from
you know, fourteen to sixteen people. Okay, and how many different classes
do you actually have or you know, workshops or worldly case might be.
I say, given time, weprobably have about one hundred students study.
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But I mean we have a varietyof things. You know. Obviously I
have like three camera classes. Wehave a few scene study classes, which
are you know, acting classes withouta camera, and mister technique voice movement.
So it's a full full range ofof there's nothing extraneous in there.
We feel like what we offer isuh, it's going to be valuable to
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any actor, whether they're working infilm or theater. We try to give
a good equal blend in terms oftraining actors because you want to you want
to maximize your opportunities as an actor. It's all good if you love acting.
You know, it's on the stageor you're on set. It's it's
a lot of fun. And Ithink that, you know, a good
actors should be able to move backand forth between mediums if they if they
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choose to right And in the beginning, like what was your motivation to actually
create the school, like did youjust feel there was a need for it
locally or well, initially when wewere in Vancouver where we started at Stan
and I were on our honeymoon onthe Oregon coast and this is where we
came, this is where we gotthe name. So as a few people
have heard the story before, butwe would walk the beach and talk about
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what we would create together. Maybeit would be a film company or theater
company, or an acting studie orsome version of all that. And we
went into a little pub there andshe went to use the facilities and I'm
looking up at the beer list andI'm like rogue beer, m company of
rogues. I don't know. Ihad this idea of like a collaborative group
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of individuals. You know, asopposed to something solo like we think of
rogue, but a company of rogue, so everyone's uniqueness would kind of shine
through. And she came back andI threw the name out and she goes,
I love it. And two monthslater we started the studio there in
Vancouver and a little space that ACTRAhad, a little space that nobody was
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using. They rented it to uscheap and we started teaching some classes out
of there. We started with twelvestudents and we probably had forty we had.
We wrapped it up when we camehere to do which she came here
to do Lonesome Dove. Right.Well, I definitely had a different story
in my head of how the namecame to creation. I was kind of
going back to the D and Dthing, going, Okay, you know,
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rogues are always stealthy, and youknow, I just had this vision
in my head that you guys hadthis whole story around the Rogue name,
not just a beer beer. Youknow, you go, you know,
you do a show or shoot andr whatever, you gotta go for beer
after, right, So it's kindof appropriate that, Yeah, it totally
works, totally works, absolutely,that's awesome. So you said, Rogue
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West has kind of shut down rightnow. Is there is there a plan
of me bring it back. What'skind of happened is my my daughter,
Sophie Hurt. She's uh, shetaught at the Rogues West and she's kind
of taken taken the actors we wereworking with there, and is doing her
own thing, separating from mom anddad doing because it's the family business,
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right But she's like, I thinkI want to do it on my own
now. So that's that's fine.So we you know, we send our
students out there to her. She'sa great teacher and a lovely actor.
She's she's done really well for herself, done a few series and some great
movie work out there, and sono, there's no plan beyond that.
That's that's fine. The studio hereis a vibrant and busy place, and
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so we're really happy with with whatwe got here. And I don't know,
I always thought that maybe one dayI would end up moving back to
Vancouver just for the you know,my later years. But for whatever reason,
I've this place has kind of grownon me and I don't necessarily see
myself moving now. So her feetare firmly planted and and rogues will live
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on as long as as I guessI can still get to the studio fair
enough. That's That's the one thingI kind of find interesting is you know,
you've got this school here, andit's definitely well respected within the community
here for sure. You know,everybody I talked to it's like, oh,
have you got to you know,company of Rogues? Have you taken?
Those classes are great? Blah blahblah. But Calgary is such a
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small market in comparison to say,Vancouver, so I was kind of wondering,
Wow, you know, it justseems almost odd to me that we
have that here. Yeah, whenthe market is so small, I think
it's great, Don't get me wrong, it just yeah, I thought there
would be a better market for itin Vancouver because it's just such a higher
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volume of actors, if you will. Yeah, I think people thought we
were crazy when we opened our doors, but it took off. And here's
here's the reason why it works.First of all, a lot of the
actors who want to have professional careers, I mean some of them stay here,
but a lot of them do goto the coast, and we're well
known out there, so people oh, you you're in Calgary. Must have
changed a company of roads. Andso I have a lot of actors out
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there who were having really nice careers, and some of them go to Toronto.
Few might go south, but mostlythe coasts. It's the most natural
movement. Now. Calgary is avery unique place this way, because if
we were having the studio in Vancouver, you would only have people at the
studio who wanted to have a careeras actors. Here we have those definitely,
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because that's what we're mostly doing astraining people for the profession. But
we also have a lot of peoplewho come because they love to act.
They're doing amateur shows or they're makingtheir own films. It's very and it's
very grassroots, and they have youknow, they may have regular jobs,
but the acting is their passion.It's it's an important part of their life.
But they're still living kind of anormal life with a family and all
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that sort of thing. And soit's really unique that way here. You
wouldn't have that in Vancouver or Toronto. It's a very different kind of a
community. I agree. I definitelyfall into that category of yeah, I
saw the day job, but youknow, this is more my passion.
I'd like to get it a littlefurther than just a passion. But you
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know, at least you have that. Yeah, like you said, you
have that available for folks like myselfto be able to kind of do that.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, becauseyou know, besides Company of Roads,
I also run the drama program atSaint Mary's University, and a lot
of those kids they're there for aliberal arts education, and there might be
one or two that are and they'repretty good student actors. We get over
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the three or four years of theirstudy there, but they're going to go
off and be teachers or lawyers orother things. And so the skills that
they use through the drama program andbeing in plays and being on stage,
and communication skills in public speaking andspeaking authentically, empathy and compassion, collaboration,
all those things, all those softskills, they can take those into
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other parts of life. So it'sit's the same with the studio. Some
people who come for the profession andthose who may do the acting as the
part thing, time thing, butthey may also use those skills in other
areas of their life. Which iswhy I think everybody should should be involved
in drama and acting as some capacityor other, because it's just really enriching
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to them as as people on apersonal level as well. You know what,
I can totally attest to that becauseprior to me getting involved into the
film community, essentially my job isconsistent of just sitting in front of computer,
not a lot of interaction with thepeople around me. Right, so
you become very introverted, if youwill. Right, you just keep to
yourself, you don't say much,and then when you do have to go
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in front of somebody and say presentin a meeting, you don't have the
skill set. You're just sitting theregonna right. You get that. Whereas
when once I started getting into thefilm side, and then you know,
doing the auditions and forcing myself togo into those scenarios where I'm very uncomfortable,
Well after a while you're just like, Okay, well that's a big
deal. Now you got your ownshow right now here we are today,
right, So yeah, I cantotally attest to that that it does help
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with that. That's self confidence,if you will. Has there been a
well known name that you can thinkof that's gone through your school and is
now like making it big in theindustry. I wouldn't say we have any
stars. No, we have peoplein the community who work a lot.
You know, Jared Blake works alot here locally, It's done a lot
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of stuff, and we have alot of people out on the coast.
Teddy Rogers has been doing a lotof work out there. Uh, Sasha
Hayden, Stacy Harrison who's also taughtfor us. But they're they're working actors.
They're people who are making their livingin the industry and doing quite well.
But you know, it's Canada.So I mean, I've been doing
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this for forty years and probably mostpeople watching this never heard of me.
So it's it's hard to you know, become a star in that regard in
Canada. But you can have agood career as a as a working actor.
So how how much time do youactually dedicate to teaching in comparison to
acting, Like, are you ableto kind of balance that outer? Uh?
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Yeah, it's been different over thejourney that I've been on. I'd
say in the in the earlier yearswhen we started the studio, I was
I was most mostly acting and Itaught on the side. So I had
a very prolific time period where Iworked a lot as an actor, and
you know, things change with agea little bit. I had, I
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had more parts my forties and earlyfifties where it was really busy, and
it's it's slowed down, I'll behonest. But so without slowing down than
um. You know, I've justI've increased my amount of teaching to balance
it out. But I'm available.I'm available. UM. I just finished
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working on the film fault Line recently, and you know, I was able
to work on things like Damnation andDead Again and Tombstone and some of those
nice projects heart Land, UM,lots of things over the years, but
particularly with it's harder. It's harderto do plays like I used to do
a lot of theater m you know, like the last thing I did was
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Twelve Angry Men at Vertigo, whichwas a while ago. It just takes
more time away from the teaching andI've I really enjoy being a mentor and
working with emerging artist, But filmand TV stuff is easier to fit in.
You know, you have a fewdays here and there and you can
either move classes around or if youneed a sub you can do that.
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So there's no bar for me towork on film and TV projects with my
teaching it it would work out perfectlyright and funny enough, you actually mentioned
a lot of the shows that Ihad my list here to ask you about,
like Heartland, fault Line, TeamStone. I also have Supernatural and
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mcgiver on here. Going back,going back a little bit, but uh,
yeah, yeah, maybe you know, for somebody who's actually trying to
break into this industry, maybe youcould give a little bit of a general
pointer of what they should focus on, especially if they're brand new, Like
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should they focus on auditioning skills orjust taking an actual acting workshop, or
what should be that first focus thatsomebody should kind of look at. Yeah,
well, I mean I think noteverybody understands the importance of actor training.
When some people think it just kindof happens. But you know,
you think of a natural athlete,You go, hey, the guy's a
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natural athlete. Here's here's some skates, stick in a puck, and then
I'll go play hockey. But actorsneed to have a process, a way
of working. They need to havea methodology and some tools in their toolbox
so they can approach, you know, any kind of script or acting situations.
So obviously, yeah, I mean, I believe an actor training.
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I think it's important. I thinkit gives the actor an opportunity to play
all sorts of amazing roles that youmay not always get to play in the
real world, be it in youknow, working on a variety of film
scripts in front of the camera,or working without the camera, working on
whatever, Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams,all that great material that actors, you
know, really feeds their soul.So first of all, get some training,
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and then simultaneously connect with people inthe community. Get out and see
if you can work on independent filmprojects, audition for plays, audition for
everything. You can meet people,get together with your friends, work on
scripts, like feed your passion,and do as much as you can,
particularly in the beginning, just toexpand your experience base, to feed your
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hunger for your art form, todevelop yourself, expand your range. And
the more you develop yourself, you'regoing to be somebody who people are going
to want to work with. Andthat's simultaneous. So you're going to develop,
you know, I never really likethe term like schmoozing whatever. It's
like, you want to meet peoplein the community and become you know,
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partners. We work together. SoI encourage actors to kind of make those
relationship, build those relationships in thecommunity. You know, if it's helping
out on people's sets, who areyou know, making their own films,
even if it's like as a productionassistant or whatever, you're meeting other like
minded artists who are up and coming. And also along with developing your skills,
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making those connections, getting a senseof what it's like to be on
set or to be on stage andand you're you're, you're away, you're
you're starting your journey and then oneday you go, wow, it's been
forty years. How that happened?Right? And I said this on numerous
episodes of the show where I feel, especially in Alberta, that we are
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really good for that kind of communityof you know, being able to work
with people you've never met on thedifferent sets in any capacity, right,
holding the boom, mic, whateverthe case might be. But just building
up that network, right, becausethat's how you're gonna get more work as
long as you're you don't have thatego. Now, that's that's I guess
a bit of another question, becausesometimes actors do get that bit of an
(23:11):
ego that they're yeah, the bestout there, which you kind of have
to have a little bit of thatattitude if you want to try and um,
I don't know, get get thework you want. I guess you
can almost have to have that attitudelike, yeah, I'm the best of
this. I need you know,I can just walk into that room and
get the job. You're not gonnawalk in and going around. I don't
know. This might not be mybest opportunity right so, but my question
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to you is, um, doyou have any advice for how to curb
that? Yeah, you know,I think that a lot of the best
actors I've worked with, and youknow, famous people, they tend to
be sometimes the most humble. They'renot humble in the way that you would
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kind of like, oh they havethey have a quiet confidence in themselves and
like, I've worked hard at whatI do and I know what I'm doing,
but I don't I don't have toflaunt it. I don't. Usually
it's the person who is less talentedthe feels they have to pump themselves up.
The people that are truly good knowthey're good and they don't have to
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brag about it. I think thathumility, humility with confidence, because humility
means I still can continue to learn. So every time you pick up a
script, you go, oh,I haven't played this part. I have
to start from scratch as if I'ma beginner and breathe life into this.
If I assume that I already knowhow to play it, it doesn't allow
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me to explore the role and maybethe depth and complexity that I would if
I have an open mind an openheart to kind of go in there and
really explore the all of the dimensionsof that role. So I hate to
see it when precious, particularly peoplethat I've trained, get a little bit
(25:02):
big for their bridges. I mean, the reality of an acting career is
one day you could be playing areally great part on set and for film,
and then the next day you're outof work, or maybe you're doing
a workshop production of a play somewherefor you know, little or no money,
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because you just got to keep goingbecause it's what you do. And
so I mean, I've had It'sfunny because you mentioned some of those shows
on there, like the MCGUI forthe Supernatural, and those are interesting to
do. But I had five weeksin Austria shooting Crazy Canucks for a CTV
TV movie, which was way moreprofound in my work, or shooting the
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CBC mini series Everest, which weshot here mostly in the Rockies for a
few weeks with a great bunch ofguys, and we had a blast doing
that. But most people go,what, Yeah, never heard of that,
yeah, or even a season atLunchbox Theater. I did a season
at Lunchbox Theater with a lot ofgreat local actors. David Lorrainey, Christian
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Guttus, who I think's affiliated withsix degrees here was a member of a
little resident company that we had whenwe did We did all the shows that
season, and every day we wereout there on stage practicing our craft,
mostly doing a lot of comedy,and you can't learn comedy very well unless
you're in front of a live audience. You develop your timing when you've got
a live audience there, and soyou know you're doing that one week and
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the next week you're flying to Austria. So it's I think if you just
love what you do and respect thepeople you work with, respect your fellow
actors, your crew, all thepeople that support you, and allow yourself
to be grateful for the fact thatyou have these opportunities and grateful for the
(26:53):
people who support you. You know, this was one of the things I
always tell that, you know,say thank you, please, and thank
you to the hair and makeup people, the wardrobe people, all the people
who are assisting you on your journey, because without them, you wouldn't have
a journey. You wouldn't have ajourney. Yeah. No, I completely
agree with that. So we've gota few minutes left. I'm just gonna
(27:17):
ask a couple more questions and thenwe'll kind of wrap things up. One
of the other questions I kind ofhad is what would you say is an
actor's biggest roadblock in their progression potentially? And you can say themselves, because
I think that's probably the truth wellthemselves and their attitude. I mean,
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I think going back to what Iwas talking about, like the humility and
the willingness to learn and to growwith everything you do. The what gets
in your way of that is blockingthat willingness to learn and to grow because
keeping keeping the humility and saying ohyou need some help with that, sure,
(28:00):
I'll help out, and you meetsome people, you work on a
different project. All of those differentkinds of things keeps you open and alive,
and keeps you moving forward, keepsyour creative creativity flowing. I think
that, you know, if youshut yourself down, you know, like
oh I'm too good for that orwhatever. I mean. Not that an
actor can't be selective with roles theychoose, particularly in their leader in their
(28:23):
career, when they've built up agood repertory of roles. But keeping an
open mind and being willing to bea you know what's what's a saying?
Yeah, every every man as ourstudent or or and our teacher, like
they we're always learning from each other. Women too, But we're always learning
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from each other and teaching each other, and we have to keep an open
mind. And I as a teacher, I learned from my students all the
time, watching them do different things, and and I have to adjust,
you know, when I'm redirecting somethingbased on what they're doing. But sometimes
they come up with some really amazingthing. I never thought of that.
(29:07):
So I think the willingness to continueto grow will keep you from getting stuck.
Yeah, well, I tend toagree, especially in a market like
Calgary where it is you don't havemuch weegal room if you will to you
know, not have that humility.I guess there's not a kind of opportunity
here, so you know, Yeah, and you can have humility with confidence.
(29:30):
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean that'sone of the things as you to
be able to step onto a set. I mean, because let's face it,
when we when we were doing inperson auditions, which we haven't been
doing for a while, and youwalk into that the callback situation with the
director and producers. Yeah, there'syour performance, but there's the confidence that
you bring into the room. Andwhen you do know your craft and you
(29:52):
you know how to approach your workand you can walk in with a quiet
confidence there and but that humility relaxesyou. You're just glad to be there.
You're meeting some new people. Hi, I'm not trying to show off.
I'm not trying to push myself onyou. I'm here to work with
you and show you what I cando. And I always found that that
open doors for people because they,oh, you'll be easy to work with.
(30:17):
I I liked your work, butI also enjoyed having you in the
room, like you're a person Ican direct and collaborate and work with.
So yeah, absolutely, And youactually brought up an interesting point as well,
with the you know in the roomversus you know, we're just doing
it in our living rooms now,right, Yeah, I'm kind of curious
what your opinion is on that,whether you think will eventually get back to
(30:38):
in room or if you think thisis the way it's going to be,
and is there a better advantage inone versus the other. Well, I
mean, I mean I'm kind ofold school in most things anyways. I
mean I would like to see itget back to that, because I think
(31:00):
walking into the room and meeting theproducer and directors and having a you know,
a face to face is really excitingand important, and so I think
there are new and upcoming actors who'venever even had that experience. So there's
advantage and disadvantages. Obviously, withyou know, doing yourself tapes, you
(31:22):
have control over that and then youcan send it in, but you have
no control over if it gets seenor not, or if they're they just
fast forward through you when you're inthe room. You're in the room.
So and then you know, doinga callback, say on Zoom, which
has as technological challenges as I've beenthrough. I think meeting people on zoom
(31:45):
isn't exactly the same as meeting themin person. So but it's expedient,
it's it's cheap. They can beanywhere and see actors from anywhere, and
so the expediency of it is probablywhat's making that happen. Will it go
back, It's hard to say.I mean, I would think, but
that's just me again that people wouldget tired of looking at tapes jess tapes
(32:09):
and would like want to be inthe room after a while, like okay,
you know, let's just book asession and bring some people in and
be with people. But that hasn'thappened yet. I mean there's still I
mean, my daughter out in Vancouver, there's been a couple of auditions she
had where she went in person recently, and a few people have talked about
(32:30):
some things that they've done here morewith you know, like a sat film
or something like that, where theybrought them in the rooms. But it's
fun, it's fun to be inthe room, and so I you know,
I missed that. I know someactors say they prefer the self tape
because they can control it more,but yeah, I agree with that.
(32:52):
I actually kind of missed the inperson right now, already. Yeah,
I know, I've had a coupleof callbacks on Zoom as well, and
like you said, technical difficulties,but I also found that once here,
like if you haven't done one fora really long time, where you've just
done say, you know, fiftydifferent self tapes but never had any callbacks
(33:13):
or feedback, and then all ofa sudden you have to do one.
Well, I was like doing myvery first audition the very first time.
I was just like I was sonervous and I was like, oh my
god, what am I gonna dothis? Okay, and you're talking to
somebody like yeah, I just feelit's also just yeah, just that personal
connection, right, this is alot better in person, not over zoom.
And yeah, I mean if youhad done those fifty auditions in person,
(33:37):
you would be on your game,right, agreed. Yeah, I
mean I think I know for myselfbecause I do teach a lot, Like
I wished I could go to class. You know, I have one fellow
does a lot of work in town, and he's been in my Advanced Film
class or eight years. Because Igotta come and work out every week.
He comes and he works out becausethen when he does auditions he feels like
he's on his game, right.I'm like, man, I want to
(34:00):
do that. But yeah, sothere is a there's a different kind of
dynamic in the room when you're faceto face with people and you get to
feel each other's essence of personalities andto find out whether you can kind of
work together or not, or evenseeing you know, like coming to see
(34:22):
Rondo Fasaki, who is always lovelyto audition for, and like, hey,
Ronda, and there's a nice senseof community and oh, there's all
the same guys that I always auditionedagainst in the room. Hey guys,
how's it going right? You know, you feel like you're you feel like
you're part of something rather than beingsequestered at home kind of doing your own
thing. Right. Yeah, notefair enough. On that note, I
(34:44):
think we'll kind of wrap things upbecause I think we're at a time.
However, I want to thank youfor coming on the show, and I
do want to just mention of thefolks that might be watching that check out
the description details of this episode fora link to the Company of Rogue's website.
Check it out, and there's alot of great courses on there and
things like that. So check thatout again. Thank you so much Joe
(35:05):
for being on the show and sharingyour knowledge everything else. Yeah, thanks
for having me. It was alot of fun.
Usually it's the person who is lesstalented that feels they have to pump themselves
up. The people that are trulygood, No, they're good and they
don't have to brag about it.I think that humility humility with confidence,
because humility means I still can continueto learn. So every time you pick
(00:20):
up a scrap, you go,oh, I haven't played this part.
I have to start from scratch asif I'm a beginner and breathe life into
this. Talent Talk is sponsored byCompany of Rogues Actors Studio, New York
style training for actors at all stagesof their journey. With our part time
classes and full time masterclass program,Rogues provides a unique post secondary option under
(00:42):
the guidance of working professionals, mentoringand developing professional film and theater artists.
Since nineteen ninety three, Calgary's longestrunning independent studio offers practical, hands on
classes in a positive, supportive environment. Check us out at co rogues dot
com. Company of Rogues passionate aboutthe art of everybody. I'm Gary McClain
(01:26):
and you're watching Talent Talk. Thanksfor tuning in. If you haven't done
so already, please do go tothe Talent Talk YouTube channel. Subscribe today.
As always, the supports appreciated.Also a reminder that this and previous
episodes are available on podcast medium suchas Spotify, iHeartRadio, Google Podcast,
Apple Podcasts, just to name afew. If you like a full list
(01:47):
of work can actually listen to theshow. Check out the description details of
this and previous episodes. Now Ineed to give a quick shout out to
our sponsors this year, which isgreat. Thank you everybody. First it
would be Company of Row. Wealso have six Degrees whose booth we're actually
in today, so thank you forthose guys, Workflow Film who is actually
(02:07):
operating the cameras today, so thankyou for that. We also have heard
of one media counting Coup, IndigenousFilm Academy, and finally Actor Alberta.
So thanks for everyone for your supportthis year. It's amazing. So I
can't thank you guys enough. Nowtoday's guest. He is actually an actor
(02:30):
and film instructor. Actually I shouldn'tsay film instructor. He teaches theater and
film. He's worked on the stageacross Canada and internationally, as well as
many film intilversion projects. He isthe co founder and co director of the
company of Rogues Actors Studio here inCalgary and Rogue West in Vancouver. He
has an MFA in Directing from theUC and an Honors BA for Acting and
(02:52):
Directing from the University of Guelph.He is well respected and a pillar of
the film community and theater scene herein Calgary. So please please joined me
in welcoming Joe Norman shot to theshow. Hey, how's it going today?
Good? How about you? Nottoo bad? Too bad? Thanks
excellent. Thanks for joining us todayfor one thing, I appreciate that for
sure. Happy to be here.Now you've been acting for a while,
(03:16):
Maybe you can tell us a littlebit of how that all began. Yeah,
I mean I went through a universitydrama program back in the late seventies
and I that was in the Universityof Guelph, and I ended up in
Toronto, which was the most it'sa prolific theater community at that time,
because I think a lot of actorsin Canada we hadn't quite found the film
(03:39):
and TV market yet. So Istarted out in the theater in Toronto in
the eighties, which was a reallyvibrant and exciting time. Lots of great
companies doing interesting new works. Workedat Stratford and Shaw Festival. So that's
where I got my start, andyou know, over time ended up moving
west to Vancouver, and somehow Iended up in Calgary, I don't know,
(04:02):
but and during that time I startedto do a lot more film and
TV work and started to teach anddirect a lot of shows with young actors.
And so it's been about forty yearsnow that I've been doing this sets.
But it's been an interesting but funjourney. So when you went to
Vancouver, was your whole focus thereyou wanted to get into the film or
Yeah, I mean I was.I was a working actor from eighty one
(04:25):
on. That's all I've really donewas acting and now teach as well.
So well I was. I wasstanding in the gym at the y in
Toronto and a friend of mine cameup and said, what are you doing?
What are you doing here? Isaid, what do you mean?
I'm working out. He's like,you should be in Vancouver. I go
why he goes, because there's alot of film and TV work going on
(04:45):
there, and I think you dowell. And I'm like, hmm,
interesting. I supposed to go visitmy sister who lives in Maui in February.
This was in the wintertime, andthe plane stops in Vancouver on the
way back. Maybe I'll check itout, and I did. I got
an agent and like a day,I was auditioning at the CBC a couple
of days later, and life justunfolded from there. So I guess it
(05:11):
was, you know, being divinelyguided in some way or other. Right,
So did you actually make it backeast or did you just stay in
Vancouver once you came back, Well, I had to go back and move
my stuff and I had to comeback and do a play I was in.
I was involved with a fairly importantproduction called Unidentified Human Remains in the
True Nature of Love Brad Fraser,who's an admutant playwright. It's a fairly
(05:35):
provocative play and when we did itin Toronto in the nineteen ninety with the
late Brent Carver and a wonderful cast, it kind of took Toronto by storm
and we ended up taking to theNational Arts Center in Montreal. And then
when I was in Vancouver, it'slike, oh, do you want to
come to Mexico City. We're takingthis to Mexico City. So I got
(05:56):
an opportunity to have a pretty couldride out of that show. And then
I came back to Vancouver and Iwas there for a few years. Ended
up. I was married and mypartner and who was an actor and co
founder of Company of Rogues, ChristianHurt, We came here because she played
the lead female role in the LonesomeDove series. Oh okay, and we
(06:18):
came here and I was like,I like the sunshine. It's beautiful here,
and I don't know here. Weare like it's been thirty years and
I'm still here and never never dreamedit. But I you know, I
feel really fortunate because I got todo a lot of unexpectedly. I mean
I did a fair bet of theaterhere, but even more film and television
(06:39):
projects. It was just like onewould expect I would need to be in
Vancouver or Toronto to do the amountof work I was fortunate to do.
But yeah, Albert has been reallygood to me that way. So I'm
pretty blessed. And when it comesto Company of Rogues or Rogue West,
which came first, Yeah, andI have to say we've actually closed Rogues
(07:00):
well just recently. Christians moved backto Calgary here she was running it out
there. She's taking a little hiatus. But yeah. We started a studio
in Vancouver as Company of Rogues innineteen ninety three, and then when we
moved here, we opened we workedfor some other people. There was a
little place called the Alberta Center forActing Studies in ninety four ninety five with
(07:26):
Leslie Swan who was the casting directorfor Lonesome Dove at the time, worked
for her, and then in ninetysix we opened Company of Rogues here in
a space that the Art Ranch,which was a theater company, had had
uncovered in seventeenth alf and took itover for like five hundred bucks a month,
and then we started the studio hereand started with twelve students and then
(07:49):
it just went gangbusters, you know. So it's been you know, it's
going on thirty years almost that we'vethat we've had Company of Rogues. So
it's had as roots there, butit had longevity here. Rogues West was
for maybe eight years in Vancouver.Okay, all right, Um, and
what would you say your class sizesare like nowadays? Uh? Well,
(08:16):
we we try to keep them,you know, relatively intimate. So uh
and what we've gotten from the uhthe whole uh COVID thing was cohorting.
So if I have sixteen people inan advanced film class, let's say,
for instance, I'll do two cohorts, and so we'll have a group of
eight for you know, a coupleof hours and then another group of eight
(08:39):
for a couple of hours, sothat I can I can actually give people
more time and attention. That wayless people in the room, which for
a lot of reasons is valuable andum And so generally our classes run from
you know, fourteen to sixteen people. Okay, and how many different classes
do you actually have or you know, workshops or worldly case might be.
I say, given time, weprobably have about one hundred students study.
(09:01):
But I mean we have a varietyof things. You know. Obviously I
have like three camera classes. Wehave a few scene study classes, which
are you know, acting classes withouta camera, and mister technique voice movement.
So it's a full full range ofof there's nothing extraneous in there.
We feel like what we offer isuh, it's going to be valuable to
(09:22):
any actor, whether they're working infilm or theater. We try to give
a good equal blend in terms oftraining actors because you want to you want
to maximize your opportunities as an actor. It's all good if you love acting.
You know, it's on the stageor you're on set. It's it's
a lot of fun. And Ithink that, you know, a good
actors should be able to move backand forth between mediums if they if they
(09:46):
choose to right And in the beginning, like what was your motivation to actually
create the school, like did youjust feel there was a need for it
locally or well, initially when wewere in Vancouver where we started at Stan
and I were on our honeymoon onthe Oregon coast and this is where we
came, this is where we gotthe name. So as a few people
have heard the story before, butwe would walk the beach and talk about
(10:11):
what we would create together. Maybeit would be a film company or theater
company, or an acting studie orsome version of all that. And we
went into a little pub there andshe went to use the facilities and I'm
looking up at the beer list andI'm like rogue beer, m company of
rogues. I don't know. Ihad this idea of like a collaborative group
(10:35):
of individuals. You know, asopposed to something solo like we think of
rogue, but a company of rogue, so everyone's uniqueness would kind of shine
through. And she came back andI threw the name out and she goes,
I love it. And two monthslater we started the studio there in
Vancouver and a little space that ACTRAhad, a little space that nobody was
(10:56):
using. They rented it to uscheap and we started teaching some classes out
of there. We started with twelvestudents and we probably had forty we had.
We wrapped it up when we camehere to do which she came here
to do Lonesome Dove. Right.Well, I definitely had a different story
in my head of how the namecame to creation. I was kind of
going back to the D and Dthing, going, Okay, you know,
(11:20):
rogues are always stealthy, and youknow, I just had this vision
in my head that you guys hadthis whole story around the Rogue name,
not just a beer beer. Youknow, you go, you know,
you do a show or shoot andr whatever, you gotta go for beer
after, right, So it's kindof appropriate that, Yeah, it totally
works, totally works, absolutely,that's awesome. So you said, Rogue
(11:43):
West has kind of shut down rightnow. Is there is there a plan
of me bring it back. What'skind of happened is my my daughter,
Sophie Hurt. She's uh, shetaught at the Rogues West and she's kind
of taken taken the actors we wereworking with there, and is doing her
own thing, separating from mom anddad doing because it's the family business,
(12:05):
right But she's like, I thinkI want to do it on my own
now. So that's that's fine.So we you know, we send our
students out there to her. She'sa great teacher and a lovely actor.
She's she's done really well for herself, done a few series and some great
movie work out there, and sono, there's no plan beyond that.
That's that's fine. The studio hereis a vibrant and busy place, and
(12:28):
so we're really happy with with whatwe got here. And I don't know,
I always thought that maybe one dayI would end up moving back to
Vancouver just for the you know,my later years. But for whatever reason,
I've this place has kind of grownon me and I don't necessarily see
myself moving now. So her feetare firmly planted and and rogues will live
(12:50):
on as long as as I guessI can still get to the studio fair
enough. That's That's the one thingI kind of find interesting is you know,
you've got this school here, andit's definitely well respected within the community
here for sure. You know,everybody I talked to it's like, oh,
have you got to you know,company of Rogues? Have you taken?
Those classes are great? Blah blahblah. But Calgary is such a
(13:11):
small market in comparison to say,Vancouver, so I was kind of wondering,
Wow, you know, it justseems almost odd to me that we
have that here. Yeah, whenthe market is so small, I think
it's great, Don't get me wrong, it just yeah, I thought there
would be a better market for itin Vancouver because it's just such a higher
(13:33):
volume of actors, if you will. Yeah, I think people thought we
were crazy when we opened our doors, but it took off. And here's
here's the reason why it works.First of all, a lot of the
actors who want to have professional careers, I mean some of them stay here,
but a lot of them do goto the coast, and we're well
known out there, so people oh, you you're in Calgary. Must have
changed a company of roads. Andso I have a lot of actors out
(13:56):
there who were having really nice careers, and some of them go to Toronto.
Few might go south, but mostlythe coasts. It's the most natural
movement. Now. Calgary is avery unique place this way, because if
we were having the studio in Vancouver, you would only have people at the
studio who wanted to have a careeras actors. Here we have those definitely,
(14:18):
because that's what we're mostly doing astraining people for the profession. But
we also have a lot of peoplewho come because they love to act.
They're doing amateur shows or they're makingtheir own films. It's very and it's
very grassroots, and they have youknow, they may have regular jobs,
but the acting is their passion.It's it's an important part of their life.
But they're still living kind of anormal life with a family and all
(14:39):
that sort of thing. And soit's really unique that way here. You
wouldn't have that in Vancouver or Toronto. It's a very different kind of a
community. I agree. I definitelyfall into that category of yeah, I
saw the day job, but youknow, this is more my passion.
I'd like to get it a littlefurther than just a passion. But you
(15:00):
know, at least you have that. Yeah, like you said, you
have that available for folks like myselfto be able to kind of do that.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, becauseyou know, besides Company of Roads,
I also run the drama program atSaint Mary's University, and a lot
of those kids they're there for aliberal arts education, and there might be
one or two that are and they'repretty good student actors. We get over
(15:22):
the three or four years of theirstudy there, but they're going to go
off and be teachers or lawyers orother things. And so the skills that
they use through the drama program andbeing in plays and being on stage,
and communication skills in public speaking andspeaking authentically, empathy and compassion, collaboration,
all those things, all those softskills, they can take those into
(15:45):
other parts of life. So it'sit's the same with the studio. Some
people who come for the profession andthose who may do the acting as the
part thing, time thing, butthey may also use those skills in other
areas of their life. Which iswhy I think everybody should should be involved
in drama and acting as some capacityor other, because it's just really enriching
(16:06):
to them as as people on apersonal level as well. You know what,
I can totally attest to that becauseprior to me getting involved into the
film community, essentially my job isconsistent of just sitting in front of computer,
not a lot of interaction with thepeople around me. Right, so
you become very introverted, if youwill. Right, you just keep to
yourself, you don't say much,and then when you do have to go
(16:30):
in front of somebody and say presentin a meeting, you don't have the
skill set. You're just sitting theregonna right. You get that. Whereas
when once I started getting into thefilm side, and then you know,
doing the auditions and forcing myself togo into those scenarios where I'm very uncomfortable,
Well after a while you're just like, Okay, well that's a big
deal. Now you got your ownshow right now here we are today,
right, So yeah, I cantotally attest to that that it does help
(16:53):
with that. That's self confidence,if you will. Has there been a
well known name that you can thinkof that's gone through your school and is
now like making it big in theindustry. I wouldn't say we have any
stars. No, we have peoplein the community who work a lot.
You know, Jared Blake works alot here locally, It's done a lot
(17:14):
of stuff, and we have alot of people out on the coast.
Teddy Rogers has been doing a lotof work out there. Uh, Sasha
Hayden, Stacy Harrison who's also taughtfor us. But they're they're working actors.
They're people who are making their livingin the industry and doing quite well.
But you know, it's Canada.So I mean, I've been doing
(17:37):
this for forty years and probably mostpeople watching this never heard of me.
So it's it's hard to you know, become a star in that regard in
Canada. But you can have agood career as a as a working actor.
So how how much time do youactually dedicate to teaching in comparison to
acting, Like, are you ableto kind of balance that outer? Uh?
(18:00):
Yeah, it's been different over thejourney that I've been on. I'd
say in the in the earlier yearswhen we started the studio, I was
I was most mostly acting and Itaught on the side. So I had
a very prolific time period where Iworked a lot as an actor, and
you know, things change with agea little bit. I had, I
(18:23):
had more parts my forties and earlyfifties where it was really busy, and
it's it's slowed down, I'll behonest. But so without slowing down than
um. You know, I've justI've increased my amount of teaching to balance
it out. But I'm available.I'm available. UM. I just finished
(18:44):
working on the film fault Line recently, and you know, I was able
to work on things like Damnation andDead Again and Tombstone and some of those
nice projects heart Land, UM,lots of things over the years, but
particularly with it's harder. It's harderto do plays like I used to do
a lot of theater m you know, like the last thing I did was
(19:06):
Twelve Angry Men at Vertigo, whichwas a while ago. It just takes
more time away from the teaching andI've I really enjoy being a mentor and
working with emerging artist, But filmand TV stuff is easier to fit in.
You know, you have a fewdays here and there and you can
either move classes around or if youneed a sub you can do that.
(19:26):
So there's no bar for me towork on film and TV projects with my
teaching it it would work out perfectlyright and funny enough, you actually mentioned
a lot of the shows that Ihad my list here to ask you about,
like Heartland, fault Line, TeamStone. I also have Supernatural and
(19:47):
mcgiver on here. Going back,going back a little bit, but uh,
yeah, yeah, maybe you know, for somebody who's actually trying to
break into this industry, maybe youcould give a little bit of a general
pointer of what they should focus on, especially if they're brand new, Like
(20:08):
should they focus on auditioning skills orjust taking an actual acting workshop, or
what should be that first focus thatsomebody should kind of look at. Yeah,
well, I mean I think noteverybody understands the importance of actor training.
When some people think it just kindof happens. But you know,
you think of a natural athlete,You go, hey, the guy's a
(20:30):
natural athlete. Here's here's some skates, stick in a puck, and then
I'll go play hockey. But actorsneed to have a process, a way
of working. They need to havea methodology and some tools in their toolbox
so they can approach, you know, any kind of script or acting situations.
So obviously, yeah, I mean, I believe an actor training.
(20:52):
I think it's important. I thinkit gives the actor an opportunity to play
all sorts of amazing roles that youmay not always get to play in the
real world, be it in youknow, working on a variety of film
scripts in front of the camera,or working without the camera, working on
whatever, Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams,all that great material that actors, you
know, really feeds their soul.So first of all, get some training,
(21:15):
and then simultaneously connect with people inthe community. Get out and see
if you can work on independent filmprojects, audition for plays, audition for
everything. You can meet people,get together with your friends, work on
scripts, like feed your passion,and do as much as you can,
particularly in the beginning, just toexpand your experience base, to feed your
(21:37):
hunger for your art form, todevelop yourself, expand your range. And
the more you develop yourself, you'regoing to be somebody who people are going
to want to work with. Andthat's simultaneous. So you're going to develop,
you know, I never really likethe term like schmoozing whatever. It's
like, you want to meet peoplein the community and become you know,
(22:00):
partners. We work together. SoI encourage actors to kind of make those
relationship, build those relationships in thecommunity. You know, if it's helping
out on people's sets, who areyou know, making their own films,
even if it's like as a productionassistant or whatever, you're meeting other like
minded artists who are up and coming. And also along with developing your skills,
(22:26):
making those connections, getting a senseof what it's like to be on
set or to be on stage andand you're you're, you're away, you're
you're starting your journey and then oneday you go, wow, it's been
forty years. How that happened?Right? And I said this on numerous
episodes of the show where I feel, especially in Alberta, that we are
(22:48):
really good for that kind of communityof you know, being able to work
with people you've never met on thedifferent sets in any capacity, right,
holding the boom, mic, whateverthe case might be. But just building
up that network, right, becausethat's how you're gonna get more work as
long as you're you don't have thatego. Now, that's that's I guess
a bit of another question, becausesometimes actors do get that bit of an
(23:11):
ego that they're yeah, the bestout there, which you kind of have
to have a little bit of thatattitude if you want to try and um,
I don't know, get get thework you want. I guess you
can almost have to have that attitudelike, yeah, I'm the best of
this. I need you know,I can just walk into that room and
get the job. You're not gonnawalk in and going around. I don't
know. This might not be mybest opportunity right so, but my question
(23:34):
to you is, um, doyou have any advice for how to curb
that? Yeah, you know,I think that a lot of the best
actors I've worked with, and youknow, famous people, they tend to
be sometimes the most humble. They'renot humble in the way that you would
(23:55):
kind of like, oh they havethey have a quiet confidence in themselves and
like, I've worked hard at whatI do and I know what I'm doing,
but I don't I don't have toflaunt it. I don't. Usually
it's the person who is less talentedthe feels they have to pump themselves up.
The people that are truly good knowthey're good and they don't have to
(24:17):
brag about it. I think thathumility, humility with confidence, because humility
means I still can continue to learn. So every time you pick up a
script, you go, oh,I haven't played this part. I have
to start from scratch as if I'ma beginner and breathe life into this.
If I assume that I already knowhow to play it, it doesn't allow
(24:38):
me to explore the role and maybethe depth and complexity that I would if
I have an open mind an openheart to kind of go in there and
really explore the all of the dimensionsof that role. So I hate to
see it when precious, particularly peoplethat I've trained, get a little bit
(25:02):
big for their bridges. I mean, the reality of an acting career is
one day you could be playing areally great part on set and for film,
and then the next day you're outof work, or maybe you're doing
a workshop production of a play somewherefor you know, little or no money,
(25:22):
because you just got to keep goingbecause it's what you do. And
so I mean, I've had It'sfunny because you mentioned some of those shows
on there, like the MCGUI forthe Supernatural, and those are interesting to
do. But I had five weeksin Austria shooting Crazy Canucks for a CTV
TV movie, which was way moreprofound in my work, or shooting the
(25:47):
CBC mini series Everest, which weshot here mostly in the Rockies for a
few weeks with a great bunch ofguys, and we had a blast doing
that. But most people go,what, Yeah, never heard of that,
yeah, or even a season atLunchbox Theater. I did a season
at Lunchbox Theater with a lot ofgreat local actors. David Lorrainey, Christian
(26:10):
Guttus, who I think's affiliated withsix degrees here was a member of a
little resident company that we had whenwe did We did all the shows that
season, and every day we wereout there on stage practicing our craft,
mostly doing a lot of comedy,and you can't learn comedy very well unless
you're in front of a live audience. You develop your timing when you've got
a live audience there, and soyou know you're doing that one week and
(26:32):
the next week you're flying to Austria. So it's I think if you just
love what you do and respect thepeople you work with, respect your fellow
actors, your crew, all thepeople that support you, and allow yourself
to be grateful for the fact thatyou have these opportunities and grateful for the
(26:53):
people who support you. You know, this was one of the things I
always tell that, you know,say thank you, please, and thank
you to the hair and makeup people, the wardrobe people, all the people
who are assisting you on your journey, because without them, you wouldn't have
a journey. You wouldn't have ajourney. Yeah. No, I completely
agree with that. So we've gota few minutes left. I'm just gonna
(27:17):
ask a couple more questions and thenwe'll kind of wrap things up. One
of the other questions I kind ofhad is what would you say is an
actor's biggest roadblock in their progression potentially? And you can say themselves, because
I think that's probably the truth wellthemselves and their attitude. I mean,
(27:37):
I think going back to what Iwas talking about, like the humility and
the willingness to learn and to growwith everything you do. The what gets
in your way of that is blockingthat willingness to learn and to grow because
keeping keeping the humility and saying ohyou need some help with that, sure,
(28:00):
I'll help out, and you meetsome people, you work on a
different project. All of those differentkinds of things keeps you open and alive,
and keeps you moving forward, keepsyour creative creativity flowing. I think
that, you know, if youshut yourself down, you know, like
oh I'm too good for that orwhatever. I mean. Not that an
actor can't be selective with roles theychoose, particularly in their leader in their
(28:23):
career, when they've built up agood repertory of roles. But keeping an
open mind and being willing to bea you know what's what's a saying?
Yeah, every every man as ourstudent or or and our teacher, like
they we're always learning from each other. Women too, But we're always learning
(28:45):
from each other and teaching each other, and we have to keep an open
mind. And I as a teacher, I learned from my students all the
time, watching them do different things, and and I have to adjust,
you know, when I'm redirecting somethingbased on what they're doing. But sometimes
they come up with some really amazingthing. I never thought of that.
(29:07):
So I think the willingness to continueto grow will keep you from getting stuck.
Yeah, well, I tend toagree, especially in a market like
Calgary where it is you don't havemuch weegal room if you will to you
know, not have that humility.I guess there's not a kind of opportunity
here, so you know, Yeah, and you can have humility with confidence.
(29:30):
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean that'sone of the things as you to
be able to step onto a set. I mean, because let's face it,
when we when we were doing inperson auditions, which we haven't been
doing for a while, and youwalk into that the callback situation with the
director and producers. Yeah, there'syour performance, but there's the confidence that
you bring into the room. Andwhen you do know your craft and you
(29:52):
you know how to approach your workand you can walk in with a quiet
confidence there and but that humility relaxesyou. You're just glad to be there.
You're meeting some new people. Hi, I'm not trying to show off.
I'm not trying to push myself onyou. I'm here to work with
you and show you what I cando. And I always found that that
open doors for people because they,oh, you'll be easy to work with.
(30:17):
I I liked your work, butI also enjoyed having you in the
room, like you're a person Ican direct and collaborate and work with.
So yeah, absolutely, And youactually brought up an interesting point as well,
with the you know in the roomversus you know, we're just doing
it in our living rooms now,right, Yeah, I'm kind of curious
what your opinion is on that,whether you think will eventually get back to
(30:38):
in room or if you think thisis the way it's going to be,
and is there a better advantage inone versus the other. Well, I
mean, I mean I'm kind ofold school in most things anyways. I
mean I would like to see itget back to that, because I think
(31:00):
walking into the room and meeting theproducer and directors and having a you know,
a face to face is really excitingand important, and so I think
there are new and upcoming actors who'venever even had that experience. So there's
advantage and disadvantages. Obviously, withyou know, doing yourself tapes, you
(31:22):
have control over that and then youcan send it in, but you have
no control over if it gets seenor not, or if they're they just
fast forward through you when you're inthe room. You're in the room.
So and then you know, doinga callback, say on Zoom, which
has as technological challenges as I've beenthrough. I think meeting people on zoom
(31:45):
isn't exactly the same as meeting themin person. So but it's expedient,
it's it's cheap. They can beanywhere and see actors from anywhere, and
so the expediency of it is probablywhat's making that happen. Will it go
back, It's hard to say.I mean, I would think, but
that's just me again that people wouldget tired of looking at tapes jess tapes
(32:09):
and would like want to be inthe room after a while, like okay,
you know, let's just book asession and bring some people in and
be with people. But that hasn'thappened yet. I mean there's still I
mean, my daughter out in Vancouver, there's been a couple of auditions she
had where she went in person recently, and a few people have talked about
(32:30):
some things that they've done here morewith you know, like a sat film
or something like that, where theybrought them in the rooms. But it's
fun, it's fun to be inthe room, and so I you know,
I missed that. I know someactors say they prefer the self tape
because they can control it more,but yeah, I agree with that.
(32:52):
I actually kind of missed the inperson right now, already. Yeah,
I know, I've had a coupleof callbacks on Zoom as well, and
like you said, technical difficulties,but I also found that once here,
like if you haven't done one fora really long time, where you've just
done say, you know, fiftydifferent self tapes but never had any callbacks
(33:13):
or feedback, and then all ofa sudden you have to do one.
Well, I was like doing myvery first audition the very first time.
I was just like I was sonervous and I was like, oh my
god, what am I gonna dothis? Okay, and you're talking to
somebody like yeah, I just feelit's also just yeah, just that personal
connection, right, this is alot better in person, not over zoom.
And yeah, I mean if youhad done those fifty auditions in person,
(33:37):
you would be on your game,right, agreed. Yeah, I
mean I think I know for myselfbecause I do teach a lot, Like
I wished I could go to class. You know, I have one fellow
does a lot of work in town, and he's been in my Advanced Film
class or eight years. Because Igotta come and work out every week.
He comes and he works out becausethen when he does auditions he feels like
he's on his game, right.I'm like, man, I want to
(34:00):
do that. But yeah, sothere is a there's a different kind of
dynamic in the room when you're faceto face with people and you get to
feel each other's essence of personalities andto find out whether you can kind of
work together or not, or evenseeing you know, like coming to see
(34:22):
Rondo Fasaki, who is always lovelyto audition for, and like, hey,
Ronda, and there's a nice senseof community and oh, there's all
the same guys that I always auditionedagainst in the room. Hey guys,
how's it going right? You know, you feel like you're you feel like
you're part of something rather than beingsequestered at home kind of doing your own
thing. Right. Yeah, notefair enough. On that note, I
(34:44):
think we'll kind of wrap things upbecause I think we're at a time.
However, I want to thank youfor coming on the show, and I
do want to just mention of thefolks that might be watching that check out
the description details of this episode fora link to the Company of Rogue's website.
Check it out, and there's alot of great courses on there and
things like that. So check thatout again. Thank you so much Joe
(35:05):
for being on the show and sharingyour knowledge everything else. Yeah, thanks
for having me. It was alot of fun.
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