“A lot of interesting doors are opened in this book, but none are closed, so it’s a little dissatisfying.
I do like the art style, but my one complaint is that the faces all look similar, so it can be difficult to tell who’s who when there are a lot of characters in a book, and it’s sometimes hard to tell who’s male and female, which isn’t a huge problem except that it would be helpful in telling such a large number of characters apart.
I took an acting class when I was a kid. Because it advertised as an acting/standup comedy/performance class. Now, I’d heard many a comedy album, especially Bill Cosby, so I was all set for my time at the mic.
Is it more tasteless to make a Bill Cosby joke, or to let that just blow by? Both options seem fairly tasteless. Maybe I’ll pass on the joke. This time…
The class turned out to be a bunch of kids learning a coordinated dance to that song that goes, “Splish splash I was takin’ a bath.” I don’t remember the dance, but I remember the song because they played it over and over and over to get us to try and get the dance moves down.
Finally, after about 3 of these sessions, I worked up the courage to ask the teacher (who was probably like a 17 year-old or something) when the comedy parts were coming. She said the last class would be an open mic, so we could do whatever we wanted. Which meant there were 5 or 6 more classes of splish splash before the comedy. Or maybe a million. I don’t know, because I left that day and never came back.
What comedy stylings would’ve come out? Who knows? I DO wish I had a recording of a stand up set I did when I was 8. What the fuck would an 8 year-old tell jokes about? My guess is something about Capri Sun straws or something. Either way, 20-30 years later, it’d be amazing.
But the bigger question: What if I missed my calling in musical theater? Maybe I could’ve splish splashed my way all the way to Broadway. The Big Appleway. Galaway, GrannySmithWay.
The only thing that prevented me from KILLING it on stage was a lack of rhythm, singing ability, dancing skill, acting ability, and the basic sense of what good and bad acting are, exactly.
I guess it’s the world that misses out. Sigh.”