Month: September 2019

The first time I met Anne-Marie, she’d been sitting in her car outside a supermarket late one night, watching me as I sat in my car. Creepy right? On the surface, sure.

But, let’s add a little bit of context.

We had both arrived at a late-night shoot for a Woolworths ad. I didn’t know this at the time, but Anne-Marie and I shared the same agent. We also didn’t know this was going to be a long night involving the regular squeezing of fresh produce and ready grins to camera. The perfect setting for a new friendship, really.

Within moments of meeting, we fell quickly into a conversation that basically lasted all night. Once again, here was another human being I felt an instant connection with. We joked in Greek as we waited to be called to set like we’d shared a bedroom as sisters for years. We complained about the cold. The wee hours. We talked openly about our dreams, our loves. And I remember very clearly that, as we fell deeper into conversation about our Greekness, our art and our lives, I realised this chick was older than me – like a few hundred years at least. Her patience with life and the industry she’d embraced far outweighed my own. I’ve always loved that about her.

When Anne-Marie shares news on auditions that lead nowhere or roles she didn’t win, her eyes are still smiling. “It’s not time, yet.” She says, like she’s in direct contact with some kinda inner knowing we should all tap into when our goals seem a little too lofty.

“How do you know?” I ask her.

“I just do,” she replies. And I believe her.

I love it how kindred spirits find each other. It just took a little bit of faux stalking in a car park to bring Anne-Marie and I together.

 

 

When it comes to wonder and believing in a thousand things you can’t explain, there’s nothing quite like ‘up close magic.’ Which is why when the opportunity to meet and interview a real, live, honest-to-goodness, Illusionist, came up, I couldn’t let the opportunity disappear…

Yes. Perhaps I should warn you now.

I’m writing this blog after a full day of birthday celebrations. It’s nuts late so the temptation to pepper this blog with outrageous magic puns will be irresistible…

Now. Watch me pull a blog out of this sleepy state. (I told you.)

Jack Daniels arrived on-set looking like he already had magic in his DNA. We’re talking an unmistakable air of calm, a tailored jacket (secret pockets, optional) and a super neat goatee. Not that fastidious attention to facial fur should predicate an Illusionist’s ability to make stuff disappear or levitate. And there’s the obvious L word, right?

Well, Jack – in true illusionist style – surprised and defied expectations here because Legerdemain was his word. And he said it with such a delightful French twang too.

Now, I gotta tell ya. I’m no slouch in the vocab department. I’ve made my living out of knowing more than my fair share of unexpected adjectives, nouns and the like. But this word came out of thin air. It was my personal Abracadabra moment – like an Oprah a-ha moment, only with more consonants.

So what does it mean? Well, it refers to the ‘sleight of hand’ a magic man (or woman) has to be rather adept at if they’re going to convince an audience that those red balls really did just disappear before your very eyes…

Ah yes. Them red balls. They were round, foamy and squishy. Your average tricks of the trade. But those suckers, no matter how hard I squeezed them (Jack’s instructions, not my fetish), they still managed to miraculously multiply in my right hand.

But here’s the best part of my conversation with Jack. It wasn’t the balls, the card tricks or even the table that floated above the ground.

It was Jack’s magical attitude to the miracles that unfold in our world, every day, without question, to serve, delight and inspire us.

Basically, real magic. No legerdemain required.

 

Learn more about Jack Daniels over at Magic to Believe.

What I love the most about my show is how boundaries and preconceptions are detonated with every conversation I have. The impossibly beautiful, Sarah Jane Kelly is a case in point. 

She glides onto the set in an emerald green and flowing chiffon situation, blinged-up footwear and a fiery red mane… 

Old Hollywood glamour, quiet and subdued elegance, right? Well, yes… but then she opens her mouth and the sass, the verve and the sheer unapologetic energy she has when she speaks her truth is, undeniable. 

I first met SJ when she was my eldest son’s drama teacher at Sydney’s NIDA many years ago. My boy may have had more than a little bit of a crush on her at the time (!). Sorry, Dean – it’s Mama’s job to embarrass you. 

Fast forward to a few years later, and I bumped into SJ again at a Sydney theatre. We talked about acting, the trials, the tribulations, the bar work between gigs. Sarah Jane didn’t have stars in her eyes, but there was definitely fire there. I wanted to yell, ‘Get thee to a casting director in L.A, you’re gorgeous, you’re talented, they’ll love you. Won’t they?’

Yes. I’m a romantic about most things, I get it. But Sarah Jane wasn’t buying into my Hollywood version of Hollywood.

Her approach, pragmatic. Her dreams, not spun from fairy floss.

#LisForLuminous is not about rags to riches, or talent-spotting across a crowded (insert improbable location here). It’s  a real story about life on the edges of fame and fans when all you really want to do is live your purpose and – act.

In her own words, 

“You know what? Stuff it, I am an actor. I’m here and the world better get used to it.” 

I’m tellin’ ya, the woman’s got flaps the size of Oz. 

 

 

Divine intelligence has a lovely habit of putting the right people in your path at the right time. And this is how I met Cheryl Craig. Actually – it was less of a meeting and more of a discovery.

Picture this… it was three days before our next L shoot.

My crew was booked. Studio confirmed. Make up artist locked in. Hair and wardrobe organised. And when I say organised I mean, getting my anti-frizz shampoo ready and trawling through the sequinned section of my wardrobe (yes I have a section, no shame in my shine!).

But I digress.

So. I’m at my laptop. Last minute to-dos getting ticked off – when I can ignore the rabbit-hole of social media. And then I get an email from my one of my guest’s agents.

Sorry, but she has an acting gig out of town. Can’t make your show. Um. Now, what?

It’s ok. This is what guerrilla content producing is all about. The ‘glamour’ behind the scenes, relentless. Last minute hiccups, the norm. Within ten minutes I find our Cheryl on a talent website. She’s a gorgeous African American woman who just happens to sing with the Cafe of the Gate of Salvation choir. Jackpot. But will she say, yes? Just leap, Foundis. So I send her a message. One hour later we’re talking on the phone like we haven’t caught up in 100 years.

The episode you see with Cheryl is the first time we met in person. The chemistry was instant. The connection, natural. And there are so many platitudes I could write here about alignment and when a moment is destined blah, blah, blah… but I won’t because none of what I attempt to express will do my meeting with this gifted, heartful lady justice.

Suffice to say (who uses suffice anymore? Me – when I’m rushing to finish this blog for you!)…

All I will say is that, I’m so grateful Cheryl said yes when some random woman reached out to her out of the blue one day with the words…

“Will you tell your story on my show?”