I Know Shit!

Due to an incredibly hectic audition/casting today, Claudia was swamped and needed someone to fill in for her class tonight. After failing to find a suitable replacement, I was asked to do the seemingly absurd: "Hey! Why don't you teach the class?"

Exsqueeze me?

So I had a brief itty bitty moment where I held my breath and a variety of excuses came tumbling out: I can't teach, I wouldn't know where to begin (answer: class outline); They don't want to see me, they want a professional (answer: duh, you are a professional - oh right!); Why me? (answer: why not?); How the heck am I suppose to fill up three hours of class time? (answer: introductions/annecdotes/slating/resumes/scenes/more annecdotes/and if in doubt, bring up the artistic situation, or lack thereof, in Ottawa - a whole semestre could be filled on that topic alone)

Those brackets were the actual answers I was giving myself to my pathetic excuses. I started feeling better, excited even. I gleefully excused myself from the audtion situation to go "prep" (ie. put labels on video tapes) And you know what? My class rocked! I realized that I know stuff, way more stuff than I ever gave myself credit for and I didn't even need to bring up the situation with the arts in Ottawa.

The enthusiam in the class was contagious. All these fresh-faced wannabee professionals with their eagerness to learn, to absorb everything, and to work. And they laughed at my jokes! I was pumped.

At the end, I asked a few what they thought of class before telling my assistant how this "wasn't bad for my first class." A few students overheard me.

"Really?" they said. "I could have sworn you'd be doing this forever."

I feel so proud right now.