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Friday, February 01, 2008

My acting skills rock


So, even though I can't do a lot of theater stuff during the school year because, it turns out, law school is kinda time-consuming, I have discovered my new favorite way to practice acting:

Avoiding street peddlers

Peddlers vary from homeless folks looking for money to people passing out flyers, but what I really want to address are the Greenpeace kids, and those like them.

If you live/work/have to be in downtown Boston, or I guess any city, you know exactly who I am talking about. The kids in the windbreakers with a binder under their arms. Their speech varies from "Want to help save the world today?" to more personal things like "I know you don't want to kill a puppy today" to the random "Almond Joy, Almond Joy!" (yelled at me because I was walking with an Almond Joy in my hands. I'm not sure what they want (money, signatures?) but I don't bother to find out. In fact, they've stopped bugging me, and why? Because I hold imaginary conversations on my cell phone so they won't feel bad about interrupting my "conversation."

It's not the cleverest of ideas, but it's not bad. I've had lots of great conversations with myself. From song lyrics, to practicing lines, to practicing fake laughter, to confirming fake reservations, I can have a whole imaginary life going on and no one is the wiser. You have to be quick though, and be ready to spot them. I wish I had a picture, so you could be on the lookout too, but I don't. Just look ahead and when you see the crowds avoiding someone, it's probably time to whip out your phone and try to calm down Britney Spears, or accuse your boyfriend of cheating, or make sure your flight to Paris leaves at 7 and not 8.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey pretending to talk on your cell phone also works great in the mall when those annoying people want to squirt lotion in your hand or ask you a question about your hair. Great minds think alike! :)