Day 200: “Dirty Joan Baez”

Day 200.  The actor’s joke in Hollywood is when they ask if you can do something, you say yes!  I’ve never adhered to that personally.  If I can’t ice skate, I’m not going to audition for an ice skater.  Well, my manager called me tonight and said, “I have an audition for you.”  “Great!”   “It’s straight to producers for the Showtime series Shameless.”  “Even better! Love that show,” I said.   “You’ll be playing a dirty Joan Baez…whatever that means…singing to a group of kids with cancer.”  “Cool.  I’m in.”  And then the rest of the story came out, “Well, I kinda missed something important in the breakdown.  You also need to play the guitar.  In fact, it reads MUST play guitar as well as sing.”  Well, two out of three ain’t bad!  We talked it out and I said, “well, I can do the Joan Baez thing and I’m a really good singer but I’ve never played the guitar before in my life.”  “Can you learn to play one song?”  “I have no idea.  I guess I can try.”

Kumbaya Kelli

So, I proceed to dig out Uh-Mazing Romantic Partner’s guitar from the closet—he got it back when he was in high school and the only song he can “play” is A Horse With No Name.  We attempt to tune it up and to teach me a few chords.  I got a G chord down pretty fast but, ouch, is all I can say.  That shit hurts.  The fingers on my left hand are puffy and in pain after practicing for like 5 minutes.  Not a good sign.  I call my amazing guitar playing brother, Bill, in Missouri.  He gives me a few pointers and says go for the song Amazing Grace because there’s only three chords.

Long story short, I entertain the idea for a better part of two hours.  But, unless the producers of Shameless are okay with an actress who is a good singer faking her way through a few strums of a guitar while she sings, I’m not their dirty Joan Baez.  And that’s okay because, holy crunchy granola, this was a fun night!  I love unexpected phone calls, challenges, and settling into my truth.

Until tomorrow, create from what you have…the unexpected.

Kelli Joan Bennett is a filmmaker, actress, writer, entrepreneur, advocate for creative thinking and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Think Outside The Box Inside The Box Media.

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