The Bold Acting Podcast

On this evening the Emergency Ward at St. Joseph’s hospital in west Toronto did not disappoint. A woman that looked like Leonid Brezhnev (mostly in the eyebrows and weight class) triaged at window number 3.

There’s blood coming out of my pee pee, Leonid said.

At window number 4 a Mexican man said “I can’t close my eyes.”

At window number 2 an Indian man was missing a third of the skin from his face. He glistened red like a licked Chupa Chups.

When you’re out in the world you see stuff, the way people behave, ways you might never cotton-on to yourself. Ways of walking and talking. The way a Breshnev walks in her flip-flops and socks with the toes cut out no matter what the weather ‘cause her feet are so swollen. The hurrying meth addict, the assuredness that comes along with some mental illness. The care the doctor takes when we finally do see her.

You have to study humans if you want to play them.

If you like the Bold Acting Podcast talk it up at your next dinner or book club. Word-of-Mouth is the best form of advertising. If you don’t like it maybe just keep that to yourself.

Rating and reviewing the thing is also greatly appreciated. It goes a long way to spreading the word.

To get in touch email me at:  [email protected] on Instagram  @jasonbrydenofcanada

The song used in this podcast is called Sure and it was made by Braak which is electronic and cinematic music made by Øyvind Strand Endal from Norway.

I also borrowed “Chinatown” from the greatest rock band in the world, Toronto’s own, Do Make Say Think. Sorry guys. I just love it so much. I’ll pay you for it when I start making money. Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/braak/sureLicense code: AVTXANAUYZXHSHB0

Thanks for listening. I wouldn’t do it without you.

Jason Bryden in Toronto

The Bold Acting Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Today on the flodflast:

* The Dalai Lama is boring.

* The aged watch theatre like Mexicans watch film.

* Tim Ferriss needs my help.

And …

* Jetlagged. A full dose of zopiclone in response. What a treat. Normally I make a script of thirty pills last me approximately nine months. That way it’s not another thing I’m hooked-on (Right now the running tally is wet gin martinis, short fiction, nasal spray, Henley shirts and gilgeori toast (the greatest breakfast sandwich on Earth.) So a whole pill really gets the job done. I used to be hooked on these things. I was up to two every night during the throws of divorce. Now I might take a half once a week. In my twenties I need 2.5 Atavan to survive the hour-long flight from Vancouver to Calgary where I was going to school. I’m a low-level addict but a high-level self-mediator from way back.

If you like the Bold Acting Podcast talk it up at your next dinner or book club. Word-of-Mouth is the best form of advertising. If you don’t like it maybe just keep that to yourself.

Rating and reviewing the thing is also greatly appreciated. It goes a long way to spreading the word.

To get in touch email me at:  [email protected] on Instagram  @jasonbrydenofcanada

The song used in this podcast is called Sure and it was made by Braak which is electronic and cinematic music made by Øyvind Strand Endal from Norway.Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/braak/sureLicense code: AVTXANAUYZXHSHB0

And I also used “Chinatown” by the greatest rock band in the world Do Make Say Think.

Thanks for listening. I wouldn’t do it without you.

Jason Bryden in Toronto

boldacting.com/classes

The Bold Acting Podcast is reflections on performance and how it relates to life. What fuels a creativity, what we covered in acting classes and how a modicum of self-awareness goes a long way towards being a person.

Thank you for listening to The Bold Acting podcast. This episode is free. Feel free to share it.

"What is beautiful is seized.” I read this in a Lorrie Moore story. I think it might mean beauty is momentary, what is noticed, a cell of film, a picture, a Fuqua freeze-frame, the moment your child possesses a Grecian ideal before adolescence bears its biological truths. A beginning, youth, a fresh snowfall; before, before time sullies. A spring of promise and excitement: the pink azalea that lashes out in surprised radiance for five minutes before it returns to being just a bush.

google Lorrie Moore and I see a recent photo of the 60-something year old author and teacher. But lower down on the page there is a picture of another woman with a cresting wave for a haircut and a ten-gallon smile. She is a Texan and her name is Laurie Moore-Moore. Of course she’s from Texas. Moore-Moore. The human imagination is alive and well.

If you like the Bold Acting Podcast talk it up at your next dinner or book club. Word-of-Mouth is the best form of advertising. If you don’t like it maybe just keep that to yourself. Nobody likes a whiner.

Rating and reviewing the thing is also greatly appreciated. It goes a long way to spreading the word.

To get in touch email me at:  [email protected] on Instagram  @jasonbrydenofcanada

The song used in this podcast is called Sure and it was made by Braak which is electronic and cinematic music made by Øyvind Strand Endal from Norway.Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/braak/sureLicense code: AVTXANAUYZXHSHB0

Thanks for listening. I wouldn’t do it without you.

Jason Bryden in Toronto

No one ever told me the nicest thing you can do for you is to serve others. There is the altruism, the charity, the moral high-ground of it all but really the real reason it’s such a good thing to do is that it must be the most selfish move around. Because you are no longer thinking about you. And that right there is a type of freedom.

If you like the Bold Acting Podcast talk it up at your next dinner or book club. Word-of-Mouth is the best form of advertising. If you don’t like it maybe just keep that to yourself.

Thank you for reading The Bold Acting Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Rating and reviewing the thing on your podcast app is also greatly appreciated. It goes a long way to spreading the word.

To get in touch email me at:  [email protected] on Instagram  @jasonbrydenofcanada

Find this week’s advisors:

Lenard Stanga @lenardstangaaaaa on instagram

Kurt Evans on Facebook

The song used in this podcast is called Sure and it was made by Braak which is electronic and cinematic music made by Øyvind Strand Endal from Norway.Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/braak/sureLicense code: AVTXANAUYZXHSHB0

I also used “Chinatown” by the greatest band in the world Do Make Say Think without permission. I just love it so much. Sorry.

Thanks for listening. I wouldn’t do it without you.

Jason Bryden in Toronto

You’re always allowed to start again. It’s one of our great strengths. Author Sebastian Barry says something like no matter what you have left behind, no matter how you’ve lived or not lived, whether you’re young, middle-aged or old, is that you can always start again.

It takes a bit of larceny. There’s a taste of bile in the back corners of your mouth. That is shame. Spit it out.

The courage of actors to go out there and be human in public is a very inspiring thing. Their courage just to remember all those lines. To be all those messy things that normal people tend to hide from others. Maybe we should. Maybe the way people act in a play is not the way we should be living. And yet we require these stories for something intrinsic.

To know ourselves.

To not feel alone.

Inspiration.

Ideation.

A release.

A communal experience.

To go outside of the home and to enter the front of another house. Darkened on purpose, dusty often, you gain admittance, you’re allowed to sit there but not much else. Practice your listening. Bring cough drops. Pre-order intermission wine. Wear diapers.

If you like the Bold Acting Podcast talk it up at your next dinner or book club. Word-of-Mouth is the best form of advertising. If you don’t like it maybe just keep that to yourself.

Rating and reviewing the thing is also greatly appreciated. It goes a long way to spreading the word.

To get in touch email me at:  [email protected] on Instagram  @jasonbrydenofcanada

The song used in this podcast is called Sure and it was made by Braak which is electronic and cinematic music made by Øyvind Strand Endal from Norway.Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/braak/sureLicense code: AVTXANAUYZXHSHB0

Thanks for listening. I wouldn’t do it without you.

Jason Bryden in Toronto

The rat race to me is that special place within the middle class where you’ve made just enough money that they will loan you so much more money that you can live above your means. I think this is where the saying They’ll sell you just enough rope to hang yourself with” comes from.

I’ve been keeping up with my neighbours. For the last ten years I’ve been living in Roncesvalles. A neighbourhood that I could afford when we first moved here from Vancouver because relative to Vancouver it was affordable. Things have changed. I must change.

Change is hard.

For me the hard part was replacing old habits with new ones. Implementing austerity measures, selling my house and building a new business while parenting is a lot. However, the upside is a lot too.

Listen in to find out more.

Advice today comes from @lylestgoddard and @snap.shot.shake . Find them on instagram. They’re both old friends and very creative people. True artists both.

If you like the Bold Acting Podcast talk it up at your next dinner or book club. Word-of-Mouth is the best form of advertising. If you don’t like it maybe just keep that to yourself.

Rating and reviewing the thing is also greatly appreciated. It goes a long way to spreading the word.

To get in touch email me at:  [email protected] on Instagram  @jasonbrydenofcanada

The song used in this podcast is called Sure and it was made by Braak which is electronic and cinematic music made by Øyvind Strand Endal from Norway.Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/braak/sureLicense code: AVTXANAUYZXHSHB0

Thanks for listening. I wouldn’t do it without you.

Jason Bryden in Toronto

I’m 51. If all goes well I’ll have 25-30 good summers left. How many do you have left? Are you acting accordingly? Are you taking big risks? Are you batting for the fences?

This week I talk about public versus private moments, style versus preference, the end of summer and just … the end.

Then we have advice from industry experts Andrew Deiters of Groundglass Casting, Ian James Corlett, voice actor located in LA and James Sullivan, filmmaker and actor from Vancouver.

If you like the Bold Acting Podcast talk it up at your next dinner or book club. Word-of-Mouth is the best form of advertising. If you don’t like it maybe just keep that to yourself.

Rating and reviewing the thing is also greatly appreciated. It goes a long way to spreading the word.

To get in touch email me at:  [email protected] on Instagram  @jasonbrydenofcanada

The song used in this podcast is called Sure and it was made by Braak which is electronic and cinematic music made by Øyvind Strand Endal from Norway.Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/braak/sureLicense code: AVTXANAUYZXHSHB0

Thanks for listening. I wouldn’t do it without you.

Jason Bryden in Toronto

When I think back at what an idiot I was in my twenties, thirties and forties I immediately think What will you think of your 2023 self when you are in your 70s? It’s a horrible thought. That I’ll still be a disappointment. And that when I’m in my 70s I’ll only be, statistically, ten years away from being in my grave.

Yes, I plan on being buried in a grave. Laid out. With a large bust of me on top. And maybe I’ll have a large bust too. I mean, I am a fan. My epitaph will say something like “Without my children and my friends that would have been a real slog.”

No, “Without my children and my friends and gin that would have been a real slog.”

Advice on this episode is brought to you by:

@rebeccanorthan

@dylan.rhymer

@elizabethdavidson9

If you like the Bold Acting Podcast talk it up at your next dinner or book club. Word-of-Mouth is the best form of advertising. If you don’t like it maybe just keep that to yourself.

Rating and reviewing the thing is also greatly appreciated. It goes a long way to spreading the word.

To get in touch email me at:  [email protected] on Instagram  @jasonbrydenofcanada

The song used in this podcast is called Sure and it was made by Braak which is electronic and cinematic music made by Øyvind Strand Endal from Norway.Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/braak/sureLicense code: AVTXANAUYZXHSHB0

Thanks for listening. I wouldn’t do it without you.

Jason Bryden in Toronto

Oh to have the energy I had when I was 25.

You’ll never again have the strength you have in your twenties. Trust me. I know. Your job now is not to achieve work/life balance. Forget all of your expectations of others. You’re owed nothing. Your job is to work harder than everyone else. Quit taking breaks. Stop talking about how you’re exhausted. Apart from real mental illness you have no excuses. Put your nose to the grindstone then get a glass of water and go to bed early. Every day, every day, every day.

Ted Turner said via that great documentary about Arnold “Early to bed, early to rise, work real hard and advertise.” This is all the advice you need. And by you I mean me. And I know I’ve said this before but it bares repeating. Mostly because I forget stuff but also because people don’t read/listen to each and every expert missive I put out into the world. It shocks me too that some would pass over even one of these pearls.

If you like the Bold Acting Podcast talk it up at your next dinner or book club. Word-of-Mouth is the best form of advertising. If you don’t like it maybe just keep that to yourself.

Rating and reviewing the thing is also greatly appreciated. It goes a long way to spreading the word.

To get in touch email me at:  [email protected] on Instagram  @jasonbrydenofcanada

The song used in this podcast is called “Chinatown” by my favourite band in the world Toronto’s own Do Make Say Think.

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” — Nick Tosches

Wisdom comes from failure for the most part. A regret, adversity, a challenge. You don’t learn much from wins. Regrets are a real shortcut to learning. If you have no regrets you’ll make the same mistake twice at least. Not having regrets is like not learning from your history.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

I’ve been asking seasoned pros to send me advice in the form of voice memos. Here are three.

The first is Johnny Shaw an actor from Vancouver who has been in the industry for more than 25 years. We got to know each other at a fetish club. But that’s another podcast.

- The second is from Michael Teigen. An actor I met more than twenty years ago at Vancouver TheatreSports. I’ve spoken about him before on my other podcast To My Glorious Self. It’s the ep. It’s Take a Village to Raise an Adult.

- The third piece of advice comes from Denise Jones. Actor, comic, producer, improviser. I met her at TheatreSports as well a million years ago. Denise is a powerhouse. She knows that the new making it is making stuff.

- Make art. It’ll save you. Don’t worry about anything else. Get a job. Shut up. Stop complaining. You’re owed nothing. Make art with people you love. That’s the reason for being and the recipe for happiness.

Bold Podcast Notes

If you like the Bold Acting Podcast talk it up at your next dinner or book club. Word-of-Mouth is the best form of advertising. If you don’t like it maybe just keep that to yourself.

Rating and reviewing the thing is also greatly appreciated. It goes a long way to spreading the word.

To get in touch email me at:  [email protected] on Instagram  @jasonbrydenofcanada

The song used in this podcast is called Sure and it was made by Braak which is electronic and cinematic music made by Øyvind Strand Endal from Norway.Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/braak/sureLicense code: AVTXANAUYZXHSHB0

Thanks for listening. I wouldn’t do it without you.

Jason Bryden in Toronto