Timothy Callahan

Characters are people too.

I love the fact I have Netflix and Netflix is now showing a lot of the stuff I used to watch as I was growing up. Over the course of a week I was able to cherry pick some of my favorite Star Trek Next Generation episodes, a few Buffy and Angle shows, and some Arrested Development. I'm eagerly waiting for them to get Deep Space Nine so I can watch those as well. TV was a huge part of forming my imagination, more so than books or movies, although they also played a huge roll, just as big as Television.

What I found interesting as I was watching Next Gen was just how much that show did influence me. Story structure, characters, situations, all the things that show did well I can see in my work today. The Arwen, my very own Star Ship series, can easily trace its roots back to Episodes like Best of Both worlds, Cause and Effect, and The Inner light. It's no coincidence I guess that those are my favorite episodes and, on some level, I wanted to re-write them in some way with my own characters. It wasn't really a conscience choice, it just sort of happened.

Another show that really influenced me, more as a young kid than a teenager, was Star Blazers or, if you were in Japan, Space battleship Yamato. I loved that show so much. I used to race home after school to watch it. I would then try to draw the episode and when I figured out I have no artistic ability I used to write stories about the show, using my own characters in place of the ones on TV. Of course, the stories I wrote were just mirroring the stories on the TV by that really was my first attempts to write a story, all because of that show.

One of the odd things that struck me at that early age were characters. I felt like I was giving people life! If I thought of a character and I wrote about that character I was sort of creating a new life form in my mind and that life form could only act if I let them act, could only do what I wanted them to do. As an 11 year old that was a pretty powerful concept and one that I held on to even as I was learning how to write and how to build story and structure. I would create a character and in my eye the person was alive, not just a figment of my imagination but a real, live being. Which is way I always feel bad when I kill someone in a story.

I also hate it when I just remove a character completely. To me I not only killed someone but he or she no longer existed! That's kind of dark.

In my one novel, Ida, I had to do that. I killed a character half way through the book for impact not realizing I would need him later in the story. I had created another character to take his place but as I wrote it I thought, "why did I just create this new guy when I had a perfectly good guy that I killed?" So, I went back and unkilled the guy and totally wrote out the new guy. I felt bad for the new guy so if I ever do a sequel maybe I'll give him a part. I also think the guy I killed was pretty happy to be alive again, especially since his death was kind of painful to begin with.

I also did that with another character in my Arwen books. I was going to kill him in book two but decided not to but then I killed him in book three for no good reason really. Come to think of it he should have died in the second story cause his death then would have meant more than his death in the third. Oh well, if I could do it over again I would but I can't so he lived to see another story. . .where he died.

When writers talk about how the characters tell them what to do most people who don't write have a hard time understanding that. I understand it. More than once my characters have told me what they want and what they want to do in a situation. I find it hard to get anything past my characters, if they need to act dumb for some sort of plot point to happen I have a hard time making them dumb and I feel I need to trick them into going for the plot point before going forward. Smart characters who act dumb really annoy me so I think it's more that I don't want someone to read my work and go, 'wow, that character is normally on the ball, how does she not know what's going to happen?'

That drives me nuts when I see it on a TV show or a movie. I'll give you an example of a show that I liked a lot but had a hard time watching because the characters acted way dumber than they were supposed to be.

One of the news shows I enjoyed, before it was canceled, was No Ordinary Family. In this show you had a bunch of really smart people. It was a show about people with super powers and how they adjusted to those powers. In fact, one kid had the powers of super-duper smartness.

In one of the episodes they meet a shape shifter who could make herself look like anyone in the family. Now, I can see that fooling people the first time and it made that episode kind of fun. Eventually they find out she's a shape shifter and beat her, she escapes and they hope they've seen the last of her, only they don't know if she'll be back or not.

A few episodes later she does return and does the same thing, taking the shape of family members to get information out of them. Now, as I'm watching that show I can't help but think, "boy, these guys are dumb. They know someone is out there after them who can look like any member of the family wouldn't it be smart to, oh I don't know, come up with code words to ask someone a question only they know when they first meet?"

That's just one example from one show, there are lots of other shows with lots of other examples I can think of. I personally think it takes a lot of imagination to come up with a way to fool your characters without them being dumb.

Like I learned in improv, play up to your characters intelligence, don't make him a dumb guy cause the audience can see right through that.

Meeting someone famous

I find my reactions to things very interesting. It's like my body and my mind are working on totally different plains of existence. Before a show I'd tell myself to relax, be calm, and, in my head, I am yet right before going on stage I start to sweat and shake and just get very tense and nervous. No matter how many time I take a deep breath, no matter how many time I tell myself to relax my body just will not respond to what my brain is telling it to do.

I get that way when I meet someone for the first time as well. I don't want to come across as dork or someone nervous but I know that's just how my body works. I've always been that way, which is why I always had a hard time meeting girls, or even talking to them. I've gotten better, I can now talk to a pretty girl without being too nervous, mostly because I've accepted the fact that I'm a dork and will always be a dork so that take the pressure off me being cool.

I wish I could control it, I've tried many time to control it, but I just can't. No matter how I feel I should feel my body is just going to react the way it wants to react, I have very limited control over it.

All this came into play Thursday night when I went to my first 301 improv class. I met an actor who's work I really enjoy, someone I've been watching for a while now, and someone who I really can't believe is also taking a 301 improv class on a Thursday night in Philadelphia. But, in order to respect his privacy I will not say who it is, just give vague hints and if you figure it out then good for you! You watch the same first year sitcom that I do!

First of all Thursday night didn't really start out well for me. Like most things it was because of food. I had forgotten to get myself some dinner when I went to lunch (I was going to buy a sandwich to save for later.) and I was really hungry when I parked my car near the theater. I went to a store which I thought had pre-made sandwiches but they didn't so I left. Went to another store with the same story. It's getting time for my class to start so I thought I'd just go without food but then I passed a café and got myself some coffee and a cinnamon bun so yeah, that was my dinner! And, I didn't eat it till the first break around 9.

So, I get to the theater with a coffee in one hand and a bun in the other. I see the teacher, Greg, standing there and I go over to say hi. I know Greg but it's been a while since I've seen him. He's talking to someone so I wait, then I look at the person he's talking to and pause. I say to myself, "damn, that guy looks like the actor who plays that character on that show I like." Then I shake my head and go, "naaaaahhh, what would he be doing here?"

Greg sees me and says hi, I say hi back and a few friends I knew from my other class show up and after a while we head up to the room. All the while I'm trying to get a better look at this guy cause really, he looks so much like that actor he could be his twin brother, maybe it is cause I still can't wrap my mind around what can be true.

We get to class and one of my improv friends sit next to me, next to him is the guy. My friend starts a conversation and asks his name, he tells him "Oh, I'm. . .(insert name here.)" he then asks, "what do you do?"

"I'm an actor."

My brain is still not believing what I'm hearing, he has the first name of the guy I think he is and he's an actor. I pull out my iPhone and jump on to IMDB to check to be sure that is the guy's first name and sure enough, it is. I still can't believe it, but my heart starts to beat faster and my face starts to flush and I think, "what the hell? Why is this happening?"

Then the class starts and we do some scenes. All the while I'm thinking, "this is not who I think it is, it can't be, I mean, why is he here?"

Now, don't get me wrong, the actor isn't a house hold name, he isn't someone who would might not even recognize on the street, but I do watch his show every week and I do enjoy it every week so to me he's bigger than I think most people think he is.

Finally we get a break and the class breaks up into small groups as we head to the bathroom and vending machines. I had to do it, I walked over to him and asked, "are you (insert name) from (insert one of my favorite shows?) " he looks at me and says, "Yes, I am."

Actually, I took that pretty well. I said, "Me and my girlfriend love you show, it's one of the best out there now and we watch it every week. She is totally going to freak when I tell her you're in my class."

He then starts having a conversation with me about improv and how he just wants to act silly for a night. So, the more I'm talking to him the more nervous I get, it was sort of a delayed reaction as my body finally caught up with my brain. I start talking and I can hear the tremble in my voice, I start to flush and I start to shake. I kept saying to myself, "Come on Callahan, keep it together." So, you see, once again my body and my brain just didn't synch up cause in my head I'm fine, yet my body is reacting in a way that I wished it wouldn't!

So, the break ends and we head up to learn more about the Harold and all the while I'm trying to settle myself down. I do, eventually, but it took a while. Damn, I hate my body sometimes!

The entire drive home I kept thinking to myself, "I can't wait to tell Debbie about this! She's going to freak!"

I get home and walk into the house, I say to her, "oh my god, you will not believe who's in my class!"

She looks at me dubiously, probably thinking it's an ex-girlfriend or something, and says, "who?"

I said, "(insert actors name)"

She said, "who?"

I said, "The guy who plays (insert character on that show we like.)"

And yeah, she freaked! She said, "oh my god! What's he doing in your stupid improv class!?"

I said, "I don't know! But he is! It's it so cool!"

So, the rest of the night we totally geeked out about it, which was fun.

Maybe my body was acting the way it was cause it too wanted to geek out like I did at home and I had to tell it not too, maybe my body is just rebelling cause really, deep inside, I totally want to be that spastic kid I was when I was 8 and I could get away with it. Can't do that as a 40 year old, unless it's in front of your girlfriend cause really, if you can't be spastic then when can you be?

Wet dog

There is an improv game called Wet Dog. It's pretty fun and it helps get rehearsals started in a good, positive way. Basically you shake your left hand and count down from 6 to 1, then you do your right hand, then your left foot, then your right foot, then you do it again only you count down from 5 to 1. Eventually you count down to 1 and bounce around like a spaz. (Most improv games involve you bouncing around like a spaz, which is why I like them.)

That really has nothing to do with this entry, I just couldn't help thinking about that game while Jeffery was shaking all the rain off his coat as he ran into my bedroom this morning after him and my girlfriend got caught in a downpour on his walk. Needless to say a very wet dog jumping on you shaking for it's worth is more than enough to wake you up and get you motivated to get out of bed, especially when said girlfriend, who is also soaked, throws you a towel and orders you to dry him off. Which is really hard to do cause he would not sit still! He was in full Jeffery play mode and once he goes there it's really hard to get him out of it.

******

I'm really kind of surprised no one has ever tried to impersonate me. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a famous person but I do sometimes have a strange cadence in my voice. I. . .tend to . . . stop talking. . .for a beat. . .before talking really fast or at normal speed. I do this because, when I was a teen, I used to say the word "right" or "like, um" before continuing to talk so a story would sound something like this:

"So, Debbie was walking Jeffery this morning, right, and um, it started to, like rain, right? So, she got, um, caught the rain, right, and like, um, her and Jeffery got wet, right? So Jeffery comes running into the room, right and, um, shakes all this water off onto me, right? Then, he, um, runs out and Debbie throws me a towel, right, to like, um, dry him off, right?"

I tried to get it under control and I found the best way was to notice when I would say right, or like, or um, and just pause because I read that we say things like, Um and like and right to allow our minds to catch up with our mouths. So, I pause to let my brain catch up then I start again.

It's still a work in progress, if I'm not thinking about it or I'm nervose I still throw a few um's and right's in there, sometimes silence just makes you look dumb, right?

****

Fightening night at the dog park

Scary night at the dog park last night. It was pretty normal until about five minutes before I planed on leaving. The park was packed (no pun. . well okay, it was a pun) with dogs, at one point we had about 7 running around playing cheerfully. Jeffery was his normal self, playing good with all the dogs and having a great time.

There was this little dog who was very playful and really wanted to mix it up with the bigger doggies. So, she runs up to Jeffery and they start to play. Now, I always try to stand close to Jeffery when he plays with a smaller dog, he's normally really good with them but sometimes he can get a bit rough so I watch him to be sure everything's okay.

Well, this little dog does something I can't stand. He grabbed Jeffery by his collar and started to pull. Right away I tried to get this dog off Jeffery, who at the time fell to the ground and started to roll, which he does when he plays, but this time it seemed different. I then noticed that the small dogs bottom teeth had somehow gotten tangled in Jeffery's collar, chocking Jeffery. By this time the owner had come over and she tried to pull her dog off, not realizing what had happened. To be honest I wasn't sure what was happening, I just knew the collar was too tight around Jeffery's neck and he was chocking. It was then that the owner noticed the teeth being tangled in the collar, it looked like the collar had actually twisted and tightened in the dogs mouth. The dog was trying to let go but couldn't and the collar was getting tighter.

I was really trying not to panic, my first thought was to cut the collar but I didn't have anything to cut it with. My second thought was to try and unbuckle it but it was too tight. While I'm thinking about this the dogs owner and myself are still trying to get the collar untangled from the dogs teeth.

Just then the other dogs owner managed to get it untangled and Jeffery bolted away as if he'd be shot. His tail shot between his legs and he somehow seemed smaller, his was looking around very scared, very wide eyed as if to say 'what the hell just happened?"

I ran up to him and checked him out. He was scared but otherwise okay. He gagged a bit, then laid on the ground for a few seconds, I guess to collect his thoughts. The dogs owner looked concerned and apologized. I said it was okay, no need, he was fine and it was an accident, no harm done.

I placed his leash on him and together we walked out, both a little shaken up by the ordeal.

By the end of the night he was back to his normal self, getting into things, playing rough with Kenseth, chewing his bones, so he's forgotten about the whole thing whereas I haven't.

On of my friends suggested I get a collar with a snappy thing (forget what they're called) so if that happens again all I need to do is unclick it. He had one of those at one point but I didn't like it too much, kind of hard to adjust and it always seems to get loose after a few days but, for our trips to the dog park I might just have to consider it. I never want something like that to happen again.

*****

Had my first improv show in a log time on Sunday. It was a good show and if I ever get a chance I'll post some clips. I want to upload them onto Youtube but youtube does some strange things to the files during compression and the quality of the video isn't that great to begin with. There's too much light in front, not enough in the back and everyone is kind of shinny. I'm still working on fixing that but it's kind of weird.

Anyway, the show was a blast. I haven't enjoyed working with a group of people like this since my first year with the Ninjas. We're talking about keeping it up, forming a real group, which is really kind of cool.