“You make it look so easy.” “Could you tell us another piece of trivia?” “Eyes were bigger than your stomach, eh?” “What should I invest in?” “But you dance so beautifully!” “You have a mind like Aristotle’s, only funnier” “Please, just ONE more song!” “Your eyes…I can’t describe them precisely, but have you ever beenContinue reading “Things No One Has Ever Said To Me”
Author Archives: Jack Canfora
Nothing is Nice (In a Good Way)
Trigger Warning: this post has no content. Not literally, obviously. I mean, the very words “this post has no content” proves that there IS content. I mean, there’s nothing in this post in terms of, well, anything. It’s a blank canvass, minus the blankness and the canvass. This piece is pure Zen, but without theContinue reading “Nothing is Nice (In a Good Way)”
What’s The Point?
By Jack Canfora This evening, I will have a (virtual) table read of a new play of mine. I think it has promise, but for me, and I think I’m not alone in this among playwrights, until I hear it out loud, I can’t be sure. Reading it is different from hearing. Unlike, say, novelsContinue reading “What’s The Point?”
Parenting: The Little I’ve Learned in Over 20 Years
In my younger and (seemingly) more vulnerable years as a parent, I had assumed that taking care of a child through their infancy and youth would be the most demanding part of parenting. I certainly expected some bumps in adolescence and in between, but I felt confident there would reach a point at which IContinue reading “Parenting: The Little I’ve Learned in Over 20 Years”
George Washington: Freedom Hater
George Washington mandated his troops get small pox inoculations (he was initially hesitant, as he was afraid it would signal weakness to the British then realized the pros vastly outweighed the cons), when its efficacy wasn’t exactly peer reviewed. He didn’t tolerate the insipid line of thinking that confuses freedom with utter self-absorption. If youContinue reading “George Washington: Freedom Hater”
Who Wants Hear Me Pontificate About Monologues?*
OF COURSE YOU DO, FRANKLY, WHO COULD RESIST SUCH A GREAT TEASER? The good news: this will be a short post. The bad news: I’ll be acting as if I know something. And I think it’s only fair to reming everyone of the late, great William Goldman wrote, “Nobody knows anything.” So, that said, letContinue reading “Who Wants Hear Me Pontificate About Monologues?*”
E Pluribus Screw ‘Em
By Jack Canfora “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the … E Pluribus Screw ‘Em
A Sudden Glory:Thoughts On Humor
Like anything else humans are or do, humor is equally equipped to salve or savage, to poison or purify, to nurse wounds or grudges. But please, rest assured I will in no way attempt to explain the nature of comedy, or what makes something “funny.”
ONE OF THE MANY REASONS I’M NOT INVITED TO A LOT OF PARTIES
“HOW HARD IT IS TO BE SIMPLE!” – VINCENT VAN GOGH, IN A LETTER TO HIS BROTHER, THEO I start with this quote not merely to lend my post an unearned credibility by associating it with the sentiments of a genius, but because I find it an amazingly true insight into creativity and, ugh, I’llContinue reading “ONE OF THE MANY REASONS I’M NOT INVITED TO A LOT OF PARTIES”
Some Cliched Advice About Avoiding Cliches
Back in the waning days of the Coolidge Administration, I was but a young lad training to be a Shakespearean actor in London. We were taught by a man who presented himself in a way that suggested God decided to see just exactly how brilliantly quirky, quirkily brilliant and eccentrically, quintessentially ENGLISH a theater artistContinue reading “Some Cliched Advice About Avoiding Cliches”