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13 Aug 05 - 02:13 AM (#1541519) Subject: Lonely Amidst Applause From: GUEST Lonely Amidst Applause By Kirsten Anderberg (www.kirstenanderberg.com) Opening your life up to the public sets one up for at least two lives. There is the public person, that side that the public sees and then expands with their own imaginations, creating personal relationships, albeit one-sided ones, with public entities. Then there is the public personality's private life, that only those in closest proximity to the public person know about. Sometimes there is a third level that only the public person her/himself knows about. These levels of reality are more marked than in normal daily separation of environments, it seems, as the fame aspect follows you through all realms in a way that one's roles at normal work environments would not. Wavy Gravy is an example of this. When many people see him and say hi, they call him Wavy Gravy, not his "real" name, Hugh Romney. He lovingly accepts these greetings under his stage name. But it is more than a stage name, I would argue. "Mr. Gravy," as some reporters refer to him, is another part of Hugh Romney. I know several performers who perform as characters, such as "Reverend Chumleigh" and "Baby Gramps." But their mothers and lovers call them something else. Different levels of separation from your public character can exist as well. Reverend Chumleigh publicly refers to himself as "Michael" once he is transformed out of the Chumleigh stage character. Yet people still come up to him and call him "Chumleigh" while he is being "Michael." Baby Gramps, on the other hand, is always in character when in public, it seems. I know he has a name his wife and family call him, but no one I know knows his real name after 25+ years of personal and professional associations with him. He never oscillates between himself and his act in public, like Chumleigh and Michael do. To read the rest of this article, go to http://resist.ca/~kirstena/pagelonelyamidstapplause.html |
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13 Aug 05 - 12:33 PM (#1541825) Subject: RE: Lonely Amidst Applause From: Ebbie Not so different from what happens when Mudcatters get together. We call each other by our Mudcat names and by our real names interchangeably. Living is the business of being alone, when you get right down to it. No one can know you as you do nor can you know someone as they know themselves. That is true both in your most private moments and in the public face you present. And frankly, I think that is OK. I'm frequently alone, rarely lonely. I think the distinction is to be made in ourselves, by ourselves. |