Are we going to be around this town? And let what I've been saying come true? Get off of me, I can get up if you want to understand me I can get up if you really want to help me I can get up, but in Jesus' name, I'm gonna get up If you get off of me, I can get up if you want to understand me I can get up if you really want to help me I can get up, but in Jesus' name, I'm gonna get up The people who are talking to me Are we going to be around this town? And let what I've been saying come true? Good for nothing, baby I'm a figure Just a boy who's strong My shit is a jigger Now we gonna stand for that Oh, yes, I really will decide I'm your brother As you stand in your glory I hope you're mine And I'll tell the whole story Part of your system I know you think you've come a long way I know you think you've come a long way As I walk the street To see the world You can see my hands ain't shaking And my legs ain't triggering I turn the coin, keep it for trash Look up at the street sign I said, said, Julian Look back down and make eye contact with my brother And now I'm feeling like I'm standing somewhere I shouldn't be He looks around a thousand of his friends That raised their crackpipes to the lips And his lips are rotating sweetly Telling me, yeah, I'm getting high I'm feeling good Darker Than Blue by Willis and Shantae A positive life ministry Welcome to the Qumran Report May the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit Be upon you and upon your family My name is Melvin Ishmael Johnson Coming at you live from Skid Row Studios I'll call in numbers 800-893-9562 You can listen to us live or download our show And any past show By googling in Qumran Report Now this week on the Qumran Report We will talk about actors on acting With some L.A. actors And I'm delighted to have with us in the studio Robert Clemens Jeff Manabat Lamar Usher Kenneth Cooper And Jackie Marriott Welcome to the Qumran Report Thank you Now I would like to start off our show By reading briefly from each of the Qumran Report For your bios And then we jump right into our discussion We'll start off with Robert Robert Clemens was raised in Hartford, Connecticut And seasoned in New York City Robert was in the Robey original production of The Emperor's Last Performance And the award-winning trilogy For the Love of Freedom He was a regular on The Guiding Light And has acted in many theatrical productions Including Bronzeville, Fences, West Memphis Mojo, The Tempest, Henry IV, and Dugan With James Gandolfini Among many others I don't watch Soprano, huh? And Jeff Manabat He writes and performs internationally With the award-winning a cappella comedy quartet The Kinsey Six With whom he has recorded The satirical concert film I Wanna Be a Republican The documentary Almost famous Several YouTube music videos And five albums I Wanna Be a Republican Old Vey in a Manger 666 Each hit and I An Electrical Dysfunction Electile Dysfunction Thank you This year marks the group's 20th anniversary And they celebrate That day And they celebrate That milestone By touring with their a cappella musical America's Next Top Bachelor Housewives Celebrity Hoarders Makeover Star Gone Wild Inspired in part by the group's own experience With reality TV Okay, Lamar Usher Is a Belizean American Born and raised in Los Angeles, California He found his love for performing arts In the elementary school dancing And programs Interest in acting Started in high school He began studying theater and acting In the spring of 2010 At Los Angeles Southwest College With Professor Al Colwatt Colwatt Colwatt In the summer of 2012 He joined the Towns Creek Theater Now Lamar is a transfer student Majoring in theater At the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts Focusing on light design and acting Kenny Cooper was born in Seattle, Washington But spent most of his life in Maryland He's a former real estate research analyst Who has appeared on NBC The Office CW BET's The Game General Hospital And numerous commercials Including Circuit City McDonald's And King for Children And the Chicago Some of his favorite theatrical critics Are Richard III Shakespeare Theatre Company And Miss Everest Boys Hard bargain players He is also a member of the Towns Creek Theater Kenny has trained with DC's Vera J. Katz Katz Katz And the Upright Citizen Brigade And was 2012 ABFF Star Project Finalist Jackie Mariette Is currently as a member Actor, producer Advisory Board Liaison And 5K Walk Chair Of LA's premier African American Theater Company The Towns Creek Theater Jackie is also a member Of SAG-AFTRA And is half of the comedy Sketch team The Deuces Wild Duo In which she co-writes and co-produce. Jack is original from North Carolina and has been involved in theatrical performance for 30 plus years with various traditional theater groups which promotes non-traditional casting and was development vehicle for original works and has trained with Tony Award winner Trazana Beverly. Favorite performers including Aria in The Tempest, Pat in The Story, Roots and Raisin in The Sun, and Lifeboy in The Chariarchy. Welcome to the Qumran Report. All of these great actors. Okay, let's start, jump right off into, I'd like to start off with Robin and go around. Can you tell us, how did you first get involved with acting? Well, I started in college at a school up in upstate New York and they had a theater in the round which is very unusual and very informative as far as learning your skills in the theater because you're a theater. You have to learn where your focus is, where you are on stage at all times and where the audience is and they're all around you. So you have to hone in your skill level as far as that's concerned. But at that time, I never thought of becoming an actor. And when I left, I worked for IBM. I worked for IBM for 10 years. And not thinking about theater at the time, but being in New York City, I would go to all the plays that were happening. There was a theater called the New Federal Theater. And I just went to see all their plays. They were free at the time. And that's when I joined the theater workshop. They also had a theater workshop. I joined the theater workshop where I met Leevee Lee Simon who wrote the Haitian trilogy that was at the Robey Theater Company. So I met quite a few actors there. Was he acting or directing or writing? He was acting there. He hadn't started directing or writing until actually, I think it was the year before Robey did the trilogy. And he got a fellowship to Iowa State or the University of Iowa to become a playwright. And that's where he wrote the trilogy, up in Iowa. And luckily, looking at the backstage one day, I saw that Robey Theater Company was doing a play by Leevee Lee Simon and I had lost touch with him. I didn't know he was in Iowa. So I contacted Ben Guillory. And he gave me his address and his telephone number and I contacted him. And that's when I joined or got regularly involved with the Robey Theater Company. You was out here then or in New York? I was in LA at that time. And Robey Theater Company wasn't doing any productions at that time. They were just doing readings, which was big in New York. And so it was big out here. They would have readings and have 200 people come out. Mm-hmm. And so that's where I got involved with them, just coming to their readings. And then once I, my first play with them was the Haitian, first Haitian piece, Toussaint Louverture. Okay, we're gonna come back around. Jel, how did you get involved in acting? I got into acting actually through music. When I was younger, I did a lot of church choirs and school musicals and in high school I did the same thing. And in college, I was part of an acapella group and that was most of my concentration was in singing. And my interest in theater came out of that. So when I was doing acapella and musical theater, then acting became something that I started to like more and more. And I originally thought that I would have a career in only singing. And there was this other thing where you can actually sing and speak and have stories. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do this. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. This is great. And to be able to do that was thrilling to me. And I wanted to do that for the rest of my life. And I started taking more classes and getting invested in this kind of lifestyle of doing performances. And I started doing that more and more in the Bay Area. Then I moved down to L.A. here seven years ago. And I started getting into it here as well. How about your contact with the road beater? First time you come in contact. The first time was a couple years ago when they mounted the premiere of a play called Bronzeville, which is about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. And I played one of the leads. In the play, his character's family and, in fact, his entire neighborhood in Little Tokyo is interned. But he decides to rebel against the government and stays behind. And I was lucky enough to be able to play that. In the original production, in a couple of the readings, and also in the revival that was done up in Manzanar, where the Japanese Americans were interned. Or some of the Japanese Americans were interned. And also when it was revived last year. And then I also saw you in the reading that I hope being due with Vanessa Bell Calloway. Remember the name of that? Oh, yes. We did a reading just a couple months ago. I don't remember. I don't remember the name of the play. But it was about artificial intelligence. And it was a very interesting exploration of how artificial intelligence will eventually... It seems like it's going to come true. And here we have a character, the character that I played, to reveal that he is a cyborg who was created in order to have the memories and personality of another person downloaded into him. So this other person is a billionaire who is in his 70s dying. And he uses his genes to create this other entity. And it explores issues of identity. Like when we have an artificial intelligence created with our genetic material, is that a person or is it just a vessel for our memories? And I loved being able to explore those ideas in that reading. Interestingly. Lamar, how did you get off into acting? Well, I've always been a performer, but I didn't start acting until junior year high school. There was a short film project I was asked to be a part of. Instantly fell in love with the whole process of acting, directing, filming, editing, etc. And once we presented that project for the school, my English professor who studied theater for 20 plus years, I had no idea she studied theater. But she approached me and she said, Lamar, you got something special. You should follow up with this. And so, you know, so I graduated high school and I decided to major in theater. Went to Southwest, took a theater course with Al Colward. Was one of the best experiences I've had. And he got my contact information, asked me to come back and be a part of a show. And I performed and I was, I was the antagonist in the show. And after the show, this woman came up to me and she said, and then she raised up her hand asking for a high five at the same time. So that was, that was a time where I said, you know what? I think this is something I should really stick with. And I've been acting ever since. Okay. So, but two years after that, I did a fundraiser for Town Street. Okay. And then I did. I did the fundraiser. And then a week after that, they asked me to audition to be a part of the company and I auditioned and now I'm with Town Street. Okay. Kenny, how did you get off into acting? Um, uh, I've been acting all my life. That's the answer. No, no, I haven't though. Um, actually, uh, I started, uh, I did theater as a kid. I did just because my sister was in it and not like I had to do, she was my older sister, so I had to follow her. Um, I think in Charlotte's Web, I was a pig, uh, not in the major. Then in high school, senior year, I took drama and, uh, did a couple of plays, but I was really into sports. Went to college. Um, I actually wanted to be on the radio, so that's how I kind of got into it. And I was on the radio and, uh, that's how I started. And after college, I moved to Chicago because my sister was in film school at Columbia and I saw her making films and stuff and I was kind of like, you know what? I want to do this. I want to do this. So I went back to DC, Maryland, where I'm from. Um, and, uh, I was like, you know, let me try to get into anything I could do to act. And I started jumping in, uh, short films with Howard university and stuff like that. And I watched the films and I sucked. So, so pretty much, uh, I was like, you know, I had to get some training. So I started training at the Woolly Mammoth Theater. Uh, I started training with, uh, Vera J. Katz, who was the head of theater at Howard university for like 30 some odd years, uh, trained Debbie Allen, Phylicia Rashad. Everybody that came through Howard pretty much knows that name. And, uh, and she really gave me a lot of inspiration. She gave me the confidence to keep going and, and, and stuff. So made the leap to move out here. And, uh, uh, that's, it's pretty much, I feel like I'm still new to it though. I've still been doing it. So it's always been, it's nothing I've ever been, I would say comfortable with, but it's something that I know that's, that's comfortable for me. How did you come in contact with the Townes Creek? Uh, I first heard about them when they did Cool Negroes about four years ago in 2010. And then, um, I actually auditioned the same time for them. That's how I met Lamar at the audition. Yeah. And, uh, just been with them ever since and kind of like, uh, jumped full. Soon as I joined, I jumped full steam ahead into the Town Street and started producing, uh, stage readings. The first thing I produced after like being there two months was, uh, the Johnson Chronicles, Johnson Chronicles by Peter J. Harris, which is like the male version of the vagina monologues. And, uh, and so just been jumping in. It's been giving me opportunity because I didn't study theater in college. So Town Street's kind of been like my theater. I did my theater degree. So, okay. Jackie, how about you? How did you get off into acting? Well, hi. I, you know, I grew up on a farm in North Carolina and there wasn't much to do but create characters. And that's what I did. I spent a lot of time recording shows and then, you know, playing them in the mirror. And of course in church, I grew up on a Baptist church. My father was a deacon in the Baptist church. And so we had a lot of school plays. And I always liked the costumes. I always liked the costumes. And I always liked becoming someone different. So it was the characters that I kind of drew me to it. And I, and I like, the one thing I liked about acting was becoming someone different and nobody know it. You know, I kind of got a thrill out of that. And so I ended up going to college and high school. And in college I had done a play, did a play called The Children's Hour, and which I was supposed to play a little girl, but I was at that time very well developed and the director. And I came out on stage. I was on stage with a nightgown and, you know, I just kind of inexperienced, you know. Okay. And he said, you know, you can't come out like that. I just, you know, the realism of what I was doing, he made me connect with that. He was a great teacher and made me see that, you know, developing characters are all about starting from within and researching and that kind of thing. And so I really got into morphing in different characters. That was the one thing that intrigued me about acting. And so I ended up doing a lot of it in high school. A lot of it in college. A lot of dancing also in college. And I have never turned back since. I truly enjoy the whole spectacle of it in terms of, you know, I guess, you know, being able to connect to characters and make someone believe that. Now, how did you come out to Los Angeles and how did you get involved with the Towns Creek? I, you know, I came out to Los Angeles at the time I lived in New York for about two years. I stayed with Trezana Beverly. Trezana Beverly, I met her. She's an award winning actress. She's a great actress. She was on Broadway and I had met her through Playmakers in Chapel Hill. And it was a workshop. It was an American classical theater workshop. And she asked me to, you know, come to New York and kind of hang out with her. And when I did, she ended up moving, going on tour. And I rented her apartment, sublet her apartment for a while. And so I went to the theater festival in Winston-Salem and ran into Bill Duke. I'll never forget that. I'll never forget that because he had a party next door to my suite. And a friend of mine knew him and he was like, hey, I got an introduction to Bill Duke. You know, I'm like, really? He's next door. And by that time, you know, I was doing a lot of theater. You know, I thought I had my stuff together and I was like, yeah, I'm ready to meet Bill Duke. And so I met him and I told him I was thinking about coming to L.A. and if I came, would he give me an audition? He goes, sure, I would. And I was like, oh. I was like, oh, I'm going to go. I'm going to go. But I'm living in New York now. He was like, ah, so you can't come to L.A. So when I got here, it's been six years now since I've been here. I moved here because he pretty much told me, along with a lot of other I met Cedric the Entertainer and Dale Hughley. And they were like, if you're going to do this. And because by then I was doing a lot of probably 15 years of theater in North Carolina, very regional commercials, very local. And I'm like, if you want to, you know, explore and expand, you're going to have to move to a bigger city. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. To take the next step. And so and that was the reason why I came here. When I came here, I ended up taking a workshop with Bill Duke and reminding him of the story that he told me at that time. I think he had a production company at that time and he just left Howard. But when I got here, he was doing his own thing. So. It didn't work out. And in Town Street, I went to a 10-minute play festival and it was so funny. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. First of all, I've been to a lot of theater in L.A., and I'm thinking when I came here, North Carolina probably has the best theater in the world. And I come here, and I didn't see a lot of good theater when I first got here until I went to Town Street. Really, I went to Town Street, and I saw this 10-minute play festival, and every single one of those stories were funny, and it was very well-rounded. And so I knew, I said, you know what, somebody's reading these plays. Somebody's actually screening these, and they're looking for product and quality, and that's how I ended up auditioning for them. Because a friend of mine, Barika, who also was with a theater company that I was with before coming to Town Street, told me about Town Street. And when I just saw a couple of their plays, I was hooked. Okay. And so I wanted to audition. That's what I want to talk about next. What is your process for auditioning? Let's start with you, Rob. Well, process is don't think too much about it. Because if you place too much importance on it, then you're tight, and you're not yourself. So you have to almost give it a I don't give a fuck attitude and screw them if they don't pick me because I'm supposed to be having this job. So if they don't want me, it's their misfortune. So. I try to go into it with that kind of attitude. But if you don't audition that much, then you then tend to push things because you want that part. And because I haven't had an audition for a couple of weeks or so, so I want to nail this one. So you press. So that's tough unless you audition on a regular basis. So I don't really have a process. I just be as proficient. I'm just as proficient with the lines that they provide to you and to be off book and ready to go. Do you also like to use a lot of your material or the material that they give you to work? Well, it depends. Mostly most theater you're using either your material, but TV and film, you're going to be using their stuff because they want to see how you react with you with their material. So there's no choice in that matter. Okay. Yeah. What's your process for audition? It depends on the project. If the theater audition, it's usually, as you said, either material that you have prepared for them or material that they give to you. And of course, be ready, be well rested and just go in there knowing what you're doing. Some commercial auditions, I know that no matter how much you prepare, you don't know what to expect in the room. They can be asking you just to. Just to talk. And so, you know, be alert, be ready to say something positive and be ready to look like you want to work. I think in general, just be ready and not necessarily care that you're going to do, that you're going to get it. Just do well at the audition and then throw it away. Because you don't know what the process is for. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's not just for them actually accepting you. They can like you a lot, but, you know, the producers can just be thinking, oh, he's too short or he's not right for the part. Just go in there. If they called you, they wanted something about, they liked something about you, so do the best you can. Mm-hmm. And then throw it away. Mm-hmm. I know some actors who go into an audition and they hate life afterwards. They, oh, I did the worst thing. I just didn't like it. Mm-hmm. You don't know that. Mm-hmm. I've been, I was cast in the commercial that I thought I bombed in. It was something that I'd never thought I would be cast in. And then I called a friend and thought, no, this is horrible. I chose the wrong thing. It got really devastating for me. And then eventually I was cast in it. I'm like, how on earth did that happen? So I think my, if there's any takeaway from the auditions that I've done. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's, it's that just, just be ready. Do as good a job as you can do and then throw it away. Because a lot of those things are out of your control. Yeah. You don't know what they decide to do and they don't know a lot of cases until they see the people next or in front of you or back of you. So those things you can't control, you just have to go and do your thing and then leave and say, hey, that's it. Okay. Lamar, what's your process when you're, for you? Well, when I go into auditions. I, first of all, I just have a lot of confidence and I go in there with the mindset of I'm going to kill it. And that's pretty much it. I mean, I just bring myself to the audition. I'm still fresh on the scene. I haven't done too many auditions, but yeah, I just feel like if I just go in there with just the confidence and mindset that I'm going to rock the house. I mean, that's all I could really do. You know, at the end of the day, they going to pick who they going to pick. And so as long as I just show myself. Yeah. You know, the good side. I think I'm good. So that's my process. Okay. How much you give? Yeah, I would say ditto to everything that they've said so far. Also, like, I guess it's our job as actors not to like, it's not about booking the part. It's about going in the room, doing the best possibly that you can do and making fans while you're in the room. Because it might not be this role, but you might be auditioning for it to come back into the room to audition for the next project. Because if that casting director likes you, if that director who's watching the film likes you, you might not be right. You might be too tall to be matched up with the counterpart, the lady that's going to play your wife. You know, it doesn't matter. It could be something stupid. You'd be the greatest actor in the world and still not get the part. So like, it's not about you. It's just about going in there, doing your best and putting your best foot forward and making a fan while you're in the room. And that's the mindset that I come in. And I just literally, I had a funny audition story today where I said the dumbest thing in the world in a commercial audition. Where I said I pretty much didn't know the product in front of everybody. It was a callback too. And like there was a breath that just went out the room and then everybody died laughing. So I don't know. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. You know, that happens sometimes, you know? So everyone's not going to be great. You just got to laugh about it and go on to the next one. So yeah. You were talking about learning lines earlier. And for me, you know, and sometimes when auditions, especially television and film, you don't have time. You don't have time to, what I like to do is be able to emotionally connect, get the emotional content of what's going on. And then it's much easier for the lines to come once I do that. That's a process I do with theater is like once I find out the emotional content of what's being said and a little bit about the character, it all clicks and things start to come out and their responses, how they say things, you know, the mannerisms and all that come in terms of memorizing lines. So I think that's a process. You know, you focus on writer's intent, but when you're in like an audition situation where you're given a cold read and it's one line, you got to say it, you just got to say it. You got to make a choice. And usually I take the biggest choices that I can bring and bring that big choice and make that choice as opposed to kind of stand in the middle. I make the biggest choices I can. I have a quick story about one audition that I had. What was the guy's name? So Salt-N-Pepa. Yeah. He was a kid in play. Well, not kid, but play. And Mr. Martin, I think his name was. Well, I auditioned for him in North Carolina and he was impressed, number one, that I had a headshot and a resume. He goes, you're the first person who's come in here with both. And I was kind of, it was kind of strange to me. He said, no, really, you're the first person who's had their professional tools in place. And so he asked me to do a monologue, which I did, and then I got a call back in Atlanta and he wanted me to sing a gospel song. I'm like, it's a good song. I was like, yeah, I know. Jazz, I know. Gospel, not too good with. But I was like, hey, you know, I'm going to give it a try. I'm going to sing. I think I sang Van Morrison's Moon Dance when I sang, which is totally not gospel. But then I was like, you know what? They don't know that I can dance too. Let me just show them I can dance. So I'm dancing and singing and talking and . I was so embarrassed because I couldn't go anywhere. I mean, because I was so excited and I added all this movement that they didn't even ask for. And so and that's I learned that, you know, sometimes you just hold back. Don't get everything. Don't give them too much. Yeah, don't give them too much. You don't have to, you know. And so that was a I really I messed up the whole acting thing by trying to show them that I could dance and too. So, OK, that's what we're going to go into now. I want to know about your process for learning lines. But let me play a clip from an interview I did with an actor. OK. David McKnight, who was in the play Chitney that was just performed at the Pasadena Playhouse last year. Yes. I don't think he has David. What is your process for learning lines? Oh, boy, that's a good one. That's a good question. You know, I go to the bottom line and say by rote, you know, and that is by doing the best that you can by any way, any means necessary. Repetition, repetition. Repetition. Absolutely. By rote. But also what it depends on is the individual. Some actors, individuals have photographic memories. Some actors, individuals don't have they have a semi photographic memory. Some actors, individuals, and they have talent, but they don't have good memory skills. So depending upon what your level is, depends upon what you're going to have to do in order to learn those lines. Now, if you have a good memory, you're going to have a good memory. You're going to have a good memory. Now, if you have a photographic memory, they come to you as a snap. But if you recognize the fact, well, I'm a slow learner, it takes me a while, then that means you got to woodshed. You got to start early and dig deep. You know what I mean? And you do it by every means necessary. You could, you know, say them over and over and over and over and over day and night and morning, noon and night. You can write them down, take them, write it in pencil over and over and over. Because when you take a pencil and write something down, it does enhance your memory a little bit more than just speaking it out. With a pencil. With a pencil in your hand, you just write those lines out. And you try to do it from memory. First, you can do it by just looking at the script and then writing it out verbatim as you're reading it from the script. And there's something about that hand, the pencil in your hand, mind, pencil, contact and writing will keep, will dig it a little bit deeper into your memory. You do that, then you can put it on tape. You put it on tape and you can listen to it over and over and over. Then like a lot of my actor friends and myself, what we do. We go to the park. We go out by the ocean or something. We get out there and speak out those lines. You know what I'm talking about. Speak those lines over and over and over. You can whisper those lines. You sing those lines. You do everything you can take. When I was starting out as an actor, one of the things that I enjoyed doing, what I would take, try to find every aspect of how I could do, perform my lines. I sing my lines. I laugh my lines. I get angry with all my lines, everything. I'm angry. I do every line in it. I laugh at every line. I sing every line. I clown every line. I do everything because, let me share this with you, and I do coach actors. One of the things that we do as actors, our bodies are our instrument. Every aspect of our body is our instrument. If you're a piano player, your piano is your instrument. If you're a horn player, your horn is your instrument. But see, our bodies are our instrument. So that means it's our ears, our eyes, our voice. The voice. The voice. The voice. You know, our energy, everything. You know, our mannerisms, movements, and everything else. So we have to train that instrument, and we have to work with that instrument. And so you take that instrument and put it in any, all kinds of technique and environments that you can in order to be able to use it when the time is necessary. But getting back to remembering those lines, you just do it over and over and over and over and over until you got it. And so, Robert, let's go over to your process, learning lines and your comments on what he was talking about. Well, everything he says is true, but everybody has a different way of doing it. I've noticed that I could be listening to the radio and an old Temptation song comes on that I haven't heard in 20, 30 years, but I know every word in that, from that song. So it is repetition. It's about repetition. It's about repetition and listening and reading. You have to, one thing we learned at Roby is read, read, read. Every day you read your lines, and not just your lines, read the whole play. And so you get to know the play and especially your lines, but it's about repetition. Do you try to get off the script during rehearsal, before rehearsal? Well, I... My process is that I try to ease into them, because you learn the character as you go along in your interaction with the other actors. So for me, I like to learn the lines as I'm learning the play and my interaction with the other actors, and that helps me to learn the lines. And blocking, of course, helps tremendously in learning your lines, where you say things, where you're going to be when you say this particular line. And that helps me to learn the lines. And that helps tremendously in what line's coming up next. Okay. Jim, what's your process? Well, I'm very envious of the actors who have photographic memory. I think that's such a very helpful thing to have, like just pages and pages of dialogue. I know some people who can just look at it twice and suddenly they can say everything. For me, unfortunately, I'm one of those actors who have to go by rote, and I usually like to start at the end of a scene and go backwards and memorize. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a really good way to start, is to memorize it that way. So at least if I don't know all the words, at least I know where I'm ending up, so I know kind of where, the direction of the scene. I need to do a lot of things by rote, and I'm lucky to have an identical twin brother who's also an actor, and we'll help each other with our lines. He lives in New York City, so we'll do it over the phone or over Skype, over GChat. But it also depends on the project. I know one of my friends, he's a director. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. and not knowing the lines so that I can be more, so that I can listen better and not concentrate on what my own thing is. And I think what you're saying is right, Robert, about learning the play and learning other people's lines because if you're just concentrating on yourself, then it becomes a very self-centered experience. You're not listening. But if you know the play and you're paying attention to other people's lines, then you're really actively being in the moment. And not knowing other people's lines, then how can you listen to them? And I have to say, listening is so very important that that's one of the hardest things for actors to do is to listen. Yeah. And that's one thing you really have to really push for is to listen. And then that helps you so much in learning what's coming next. Yeah, I think listening is very important. It helps you. I think for me, in memorizing lines, it's essential, exactly. If I'm hearing someone say something, then I can remember my next line because I'm reacting to what I just heard. So that actually helps the memorization process. If I'm learning that line, oh, that's in my mind, I heard that, that means I'm going to say the next thing. Okay, beautiful. That has a lot to do with concentration too when you're talking about listening. Oh, definitely. Most people don't listen. You know people don't listen to you. I mean, when you're talking with your friends and stuff, they don't listen to you. It's like, did you just hear what I just said? Because they don't. People don't usually listen. Period. Okay. Lamar, what's your advice? Learning lines. It's really a mixture of what these two guys just said. And depending on the project, like if my family's going to, if I know my family's going to see what I'm doing, I don't have a lot of privacy within my home. So don't laugh, but this is what I do. I lock myself in the bathroom and I look at the screen, and I look at the screen, and I look in the mirror, and I go line by line, and I just repeat it. And I look at myself in the mirror and just repeat it. And I'll just go down each line and I'll just repeat it, you know? And it goes with reading the script as well so you can understand the play, understand the importance of each line and how to say it and et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, depending on the project, yeah, I lock myself in the bathroom. And do you also learn during the rehearsal process too? Oh, most definitely. Because it helps with everything. When you see what else the other actors bring to the table, it helps you tremendously. So yeah, I really do like learning while rehearsing. So yeah. Okay, Kenny. I'm going to sound so much like a jerk. I'm one of those people that have that semi-photographic memory. Like I never, like lines, I never worry about it. Like I'm, and during rehearsals, I'll just, by doing it a couple of times, rehearsing it after the third, fourth rehearsal, even though I don't know it, like just to, like I don't think I do, I actually do. Like, you know, you know what I'm saying? And something that somebody told me, I don't know if it's a lie, but somebody told me something early when I first started acting. They said, if you read something seven times, then it's in your memory forever. But you just have to, it's also, it's all about recalling it after that. So it's in there. So if you have the confidence that if you read the script from top to bottom seven times, it's in there. So, if you have the confidence that it's in there and just go and you don't worry about it, then it's going to come out because most of the time recalling, it's the block is, you're getting scared or you're getting flustered. Like you think you're, you're worried about it. So it's harder for you to recall it. So if you're more relaxed and just worried about the character, enjoying rehearsal and, you know, just going on that ride with everybody, the lines are going to come. The lines are, their lines are going to be there. Like, you know, so yeah, that's, that's, that's. You need to, you need to, you need to bottle that because if that's true, you need to put it on somewhere and market it because that's something. Yeah. Yeah. Great stuff. How about you, Jackie? Definitely, you know, same, rehearsing is definitely, for me, I like the process of rehearsing because you make all these new discoveries and how you deliver lines and all that's important too, you know, and again, emotional content, if you're involved in the scene and that kind of thing and knowing who you are, who you are, knowing the play, you know, what character you play in the play always helps in memorizing the lines but I, I have to kind of hear it too. I have people that I go to that I talk with and I get lines back, feedback from because otherwise it's like, in my head and I'm reading someone else's part, I'm reading my part, it doesn't allow me to breathe. So that's why the rehearsal process is so fun to me is because the people that I'm working with are there and, and you're allowed to mess up and you're allowed to, to, to start all over again and sometimes the blocking helps me and sometimes that, you know, we're talking about the round. I did the cherry orchard in the round and I would come into this and I would go, oh God, where am I, where am I, where am I supposed to be because you connect the words to where you're located sometimes and sometimes that might change and if that does, that'll mess you up. Okay. That can mess you up. Beautiful. Look, let's take a, a little short break for our community. Community calendar. Tina, I want to come back and talk a little about the business of acting and making a living as an actor. This is the community calendar for upcoming events. Tuesday, June the 3rd, 2014 at 7 p.m. Drama stage Coonrod presents a performance of If the Shoe Fits. These are voices from solitary confinement. The play is written by Andy Griggs and Melvin Ishmael Johnson. In this performance, you will hear the stories of those who have been held in state-sanctioned torture. This is a free event, free parking. Refreshments will be served. The location of the event is the Vortex, 2341 East Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, 921. The Vortex is also located at the corner of Olympic and Santa Fe. For more information, please contact Drama Stage 1 at yahoo.com or 213-479-1764. If you have a community event that you would like announced on our show, send the information to Drama Stage 1 at yahoo.com Attention, Earlene Anthony. The call-in number for the show is 800-893-9562. Now, back to our host. Okay, thank you, Miss Earlene Anthony. We're back in our studio with our in-studio guests, Robert Clemens, Jeff Manabag, Lamar, Ursia, Kenny Cooper, and Jackie Marriott. Okay, let's talk a little about the business of acting. How important is the unions for acting, like SAGs, out here in L.A.? Well, I'm currently not in SAG, although I'm eligible. I've done some SAG work, and I'm a must-join, which means I cannot do any more SAG work without joining. So, in certain parts, that's essential. The other unions, equity, there's not that much equity theater out here, so I don't know how many people are in equity because there's not that many equity pieces to be done. SAG, you have to be in if you want to continue to do films and stuff. You have to be in if you want to continue to do films and stuff like that. And AFTRA for doing TV. So, that's essential. But... How about agents and managers? How important is that? I feel... For actors out here. I just recently got my SAG card, SAG after card, and it was something that was a goal of mine because I was tired of working and not getting paid when I should get... You know, if you're somewhere all day long, even if you're doing extra work, you don't want to walk away with 80 bucks. After 12, 13 hours worth of work, it just... Something about that just drove me crazy. So, you know, of course, the opportunities open up in there, but, you know, I haven't gotten more work as a result of it, but I do know when I do work, you know, I'll get, you know... I'm a part of a union, and I think being a part of a union is good. It provides you benefits. I think... And I've been here, like I said, for six years. I got an agent in my fourth year in a grocery store, a commercial agent. Through someone else. So networking, you know, you're going to get that later on about what's L.A. in terms of the challenges for actors, but networking is a huge part of it, and I think an agent would be useful for me. It would be useful for me because I come from somewhere else, and because I don't know a lot of industry people, and, you know, there have been people here that have been here for 15, 20, 30 years, and they have these great relationships. So it's still a lot to do with who you know. Right. And I think agents help to get you in the door in some places. Jeff? I'm not a member of SAG-AFTRA, but I think that it is important to be part of a union. I'm in a different position than a lot of actors here in L.A. in that I work full-time with my a cappella group, so I'm actually traveling a lot, and I find... I make... I make my living doing performance work outside of Los Angeles, but if I were here more, then I think it would be one of my goals to be part of the union. I think it is important, and I think you miss out on the benefits and protections of the union. Mm-hmm. Okay. Kenny, Lamar, in terms of you think you need agents? What are your thoughts on that? Twofold. I'll answer both because I actually am... I'm in SAG-AFTRA. I have been for seven years. I actually... And one of the... I did the weird thing, which I didn't think was weird. I became eligible back on the East Coast, and I joined right before I moved out here. And for me, I booked a national commercial. I shot it the day before I was supposed to leave, and I was able to live off that commercial for... I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. A year and a half. Mm-hmm. So, like, for me, it made my dreams come true. Just joining the union and not having a big pool in D.C. got me into the door for this audition and was able to make money. So making a living, it's by far made my... I just started to substitute teach as a side job, and it's the first job I've had other than acting in six, seven years because I was in the union. There's so much stuff you can do standing in on a show where you can make a living. You can do all these hustling and bustling things that pay you enough to live off of, and joining the union was the reason for that. Well, let me ask you this. What's the biggest challenge? I know it's a lot of competition out here for actors because it seems like they come from all over the world coming out here in Los Angeles. What's the biggest challenge for actors out here? I think one... I don't know if it's the biggest challenge, but one of the bigger challenges is keeping the... the creative spirit alive after being here for many years. I know some actors who burn out after a couple months or just a couple years, and I think being able to keep that creative spirit alive for the longevity of your career, if you're going to stick with it, love it and keep at it. There's a lot of people who come here and leave quickly, and that is a challenge. Do you love this career or not? And it's... You'll save a lot of money, a lot of time if you can answer that question early. Yeah. And stay as... You're right. If you stay creative and focused on the work as opposed... Because LA's a very saturated town. It has a lot of actors. You know, it's tons and tons and tons of actors. But if you want to work, you know, you have to create your own work. You know, you have to create. You have to write. You have to learn how to write. You have to learn how to create your own stuff because you... I remember Bill Duke telling me this. He's like, you're just, you know, a part of a cattle. You go up, you know, you're an actor and you're... You're a part of a cattle. So, you know, what distinguishes you from the rest of the cattle, you know? Okay. Look, we're winding down with a few minutes. We'll take about maybe 40 seconds each and give us some closing comments and contact information. You can even include some of the little projects you're working on if you can. Okay. Well, I try to position myself because it is who you know and all of that stuff. And I have a couple of stuff stories that relate to that. I was in a... I got cast in a film by Carl Payne who was on... Originally on the Cosby show, he played Cockroach. He played the son's best friend. And now he was with Martin and played Cole on Martin. And he was directing his first short. And Anthony Anderson was the star of this little movie. And I got cast as his employer, a West Indian employer at a car wash. And Carl Payne... So I was in the right spot at the right time. But it turned out that Carl Payne was doing something really not correct. And he contacted the car wash owner and he said, and unbeknownst to everybody that it was owned by a husband and wife and he didn't tell the wife. And the wife came in and shut down the show. And then chased him around North Hollywood trying to get money because Carl Payne wasn't going to pay him at that point in time. So I could have had a nice 10-minute show with Anthony Anderson before he became Anthony Anderson. So... Mm-hmm. So... We got a little time but your contact information? If people want to know more about my group, The Kinsey Six, you can find us on the web at www.kinsey6.com K-I-N-S-E-Y-S-I-C-K-S Also on our Facebook page, facebook.com slash kinsey6. Mm-hmm. Your contact information for those... Facebook, Lamar Usher, Twitter, at Lamar Usher. Real simple. Yep. And I'm... On Twitter, Kenny Cooper Axe, A-C-T-S and also kennycooperaxe.com Jackie Marriott on Facebook and the deuceswildduo.com And Robert Tate and Clements on... Sorry. Go ahead. Robert Tate and Clements on Facebook. Okay. Can I squeeze in a quick promo? Yeah. Go ahead. Town Street Theater is having a 5K walk on June 28th at Kenneth Hahn Park. It's going to be a blast. We'll have performances, food, drinks, celebrity warm-ups, all that good. And this Sunday, the 18th, at Burton Chase Park in Marina Del Rey. Beautiful park. We're going to have a reading of A Justice Served. Mm-hmm. More info at www.townstreet.org. Okay. Thank you. Now, thank you for tuning in to the Coombran Report. It's my guest here. We could do another hour talking about this subject. Thank you for tuning in to the Coombran Report and from your host, Melvin E. Ishmael Johnson. May the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit be upon you and your family. I leave you with the song that opened the show, Darker Than Blue by Willis and Shante. Darker than blue Are we going to be around this town And let what I said come true Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad But in Jesus' name, I'm gonna get up The people who are talking to me Are we gonna make around this town And let whatever we say come true Good for nothing, they all figure Just a boyish rope that should fit your jigger Now we gonna stand for that Oh, is that really what we say? I'm your brother As you stand in your glory I hope you don't mind, yeah If I tell a whole story Part of your system I know you think you've come a long way I know you think you've come a long way As I walk the streets, it's getting cold You can see my hands ain't shaking And my legs ain't triggering I turn the corner and keep looking trash Look up at the street sign, it says San Julian Look back down and make eye contact with his brother And now I'm feeling I'm standing somewhere I shouldn't be He looks around, a thousand of his friends Have raised their crackpots to the lips I'm listening simultaneously Telling me, yeah, I'm getting high I'm feeling good Listen to Skid Row Studios anytime, anywhere With the Skid Row app on your smartphone Skid Row Studios Real radio on the internet