Zurich Deliberations, Continued (Patreon)

Good morning, dear patrons! This week you can expect your morning instalments to be arriving Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. XO - ess

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<< Watched it>> came the WhatsApp ping! from Dorothee, the agent in Europe who has been trying to sell my acts to different circuses and cabarets. <<Have loads to say about it. Will do that later tonight.>>

Dear patrons, I tried desperately to be patient this week. I really did. I let the hours tick by in my day until it was late, late at night in Central Europe. No further messages from Dorothee came.

Meanwhile, Frank and Peter – my film & TV agents – were pressing me for firm information about Zurich:

<<Do you know when you’re going yet?>> they messaged me. <<UBISOFT is asking for more studio dates at the end of September. Are we able to give them more info yet?>>

As a sidebar story to explore another time, I had been auditioning for motion-capture work on a code-named video game project for literally the last 2 years (they kept shelving it, then re-auditioning, then re-shelving it, then re-auditioning people, and on and on…) when –in what has to be one of the most surprising outcomes of an auditioning process so far in my very young film/TV career– somehow that turned into them contracting me for a lead voiceover role on the game. (WHAT?!).

Have I ever done voiceover work? No.
Do I have any vocal training? Absolutely not.
Will I fake anything ‘til I make it? YOU BETCHA.
And – will this unexpected voiceover gig help get me out of the red on the not-insignificant investment it took to get ‘Le Numéro Barbette’ off the ground in such a short amount of time? ALSO YES.  

In the way these things often end up playing out, however, UBISOFT had initially requested eight 2-hour voiceover sessions in the month of September. Because Dorothee had told me ages ago that rehearsals in Zurich would start September 25th, I had instructed Frank & Peter to tell UBISOFT they could have as much of me as they wanted in September, so long as our work concluded before September 23rd (gotta factor in travel days). UBISOFT came back begging for more date options, up to and including early October.  

 <<Sorry guys,>> I wrote them. <<Still no firm answer from Dorothee or Zurich. We can’t release any more dates for UBISOFT yet.>>

I opened my chat back up with Dorothee, tapping out a brief message to explain the situation to her. I finished with, <<I don’t expect you to have answers for me right now, but the sooner you can give me a sense of whether you think the cabaret might want me or not,  the better, so I can have Peter and Frank tell the video game company a hard “no” for their pushed date request, or accommodate them (if Zurich doesn’t want me)>>

<<We’ll have an answer in the next two days!>> she replied brightly.
But she offered no further comments on the act.

I waited one more entire day and then gently poked her with a, <<Of the ‘loads’ you have to say about the act, I hope they’re good things!>>

That finally did the trick.
An audio message came in as I was leaving the gym after some handstand training. I sat down on a bench in the shade and listened:

<<Sorry I didn’t answer yet, I was busy all day – busy with office work and some things that spontaneously had to be decided and organized; and I was with the people from Tu Si Que Vales in Munster, and then I drove home, and then tomorrow I will be with them in Bonn, and then drive home – so yeah, I’m all over the place instead of -- Home -- …>>

There was a brief clatter and some muffled swearing as (it sounded like) she dropped her phone to the floor of the car and searched around for it again.

<<I loved the act,>> she continued, sounding slightly out of breath. <<And the costumes, and the disguising at the end and all – I loved it very much. Very, very nice. Very, very touching. Very good – story.

<<I’m just afraid for something like Gregory [Zurich producer] it has to be shorter. I think – explaining the story and everything – I don’t think for the show he is doing, anybody would be interested in that. Anybody wants to hear that story. They just wanna have an act.

<<This needs the right spot. I was thinking – do you know the show Paradis Latin, in Paris? Um – that is where I could mention, that would be a good spot. And some others.

<<But in this form that you’re presenting it, you’re performing it, presenting it, it will not fit everywhere. And it shouldn’t fit everywhere, you know what I mean? It should not. It should be – it should have a certain spot in a certain show, and it should be your spot. So that’s the first thing I wanted to say; but I’ll get back to you more, later. Now I have to drive an hour.” >>

I sat on that bench quietly for a while.

* * * * * [ to be continued ]