This place is a racket, you play or go home

So last night I paid to audit an acting class. I'm not sure of the technical definition of "audit," but I think paying twenty bucks probably goes against it.

We sat in on a masterclass, and we were 2 of 22 auditors, which I did some quick math to determine that they made an easy $440 off of our butts just being in the seats...this town is a racket. Anyway.

The class was good. She seemed to really know what she was talking about and was good at pushing the actors, relentlessly in fact, which I appreciate. It's all scene study, so you work up scenes and then present them for the class. I think I'll start taking there, probably in May, as it's $275 for a month and you have to pay for anything you miss that isn't work related. This town is a racket.

Also...you have to buy her book. This town....

But. As negative as I am, it does seem like the kind of place I would like to study, and I think her name would be a good one to have on your resume, which you can put on there even before you make it into her masterclass. Because you don't start out there. Oh, no. After the 3 hour class, she "met with us," which consisted of her taking a cursory glance at our resumes and, in my case, and I think probably most others, saying "Introductory level. Monday nights okay?" I expected to be placed at the bottom, but it was still a bit of a blow to feel like my credits weren't even considered. Whatever. Small fish. Big pond. Swimming upstream. But I'll get up there, dammit.

Also, I hate name-dropping. It's so tacky. Xan pointed out that that is how she can sell herself, by listing the people she's worked with, and that perhaps she doesn't do that when there aren't auditors there. Maybe not. But it was pretty funny - she was saying how Eva Mendes only had three or four lines in the movie Training Day, but you remembered her in the movie because of the work they (they being she working with Mendes) did on her scene. I don't remember her from the movie. Xan does, but he pointed out that it was because she was naked.

I feel like a rat. And a guppie.