I don’t really have much to write about this month. Acting is going fine. Life as a student, frankly, is easy. I have another few months at East 15 whereupon I’ll graduate with my MFA, and, hypothetically, a whole lot of skills and confidence to take into my life as an actor. I think I will graduate with those things.
I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts lately.
Slate published a list of the top 25 best podcasts of all time. I didn’t completely agree with their list, but I did take time to listen to the top 10 (I had heard many before). The winner was Marc Maron’s 2010 interview with Louis CK. They were old friends, so the interview was more like a two hour discussion. Louis was a recent star and Marc and he had sort of been on the outs for some time. The talk was at once an intimate repairing of a friendship, while also a recollection of the long path towards the people and artists they were then, at present.
As someone who plans to stay in this field, many details have stuck. Louis had a lot of horrible apartments. On a living situation in New York, he slept on a mattress on a floor in a closet of sorts, where, after spilling and shattering a glass of Tabasco, he just never, EVER, cleaned it. This for months. He just lived around it. Louis also spoke about spending ridiculous amounts of money on things like trumpets or cars, when all he really needed was to expunge anxiety. He spoke about his present success, about how with kids suddenly getting up to produce work was easier… or, well, not an option. He knew one way to bring home the bacon. And now the stakes for bringing it home were higher than himself. So he just did the work.
Right now I live in a corner outside a kitchen in a house with a few of my classmates. I don’t have a bedroom and I sleep on a floor. This is my permanent living situation. I don’t mind it. I like the floor. I’ll graduate with over 100,000 USD in student debt in May. This also doesn’t bother me. (Though it is not something I’ll immediately announce to any potential life partners). At present, I have a path and no literal circumstances are an affront to that fact. I consider this an accomplishment.
Latest posts by Matt Clark (see all)
- Matt: Things would be different the next time we were together, and we didn’t know when that would be - February 6, 2015
- Matt: Right now I live in a corner outside a kitchen in a house with a few of my classmates. Still, I have a path. - December 28, 2014
- Matt: My commitment grew to something formerly inconceivable, all only possible due to a cycle of caring and failing - December 5, 2014