I am just starting to develop my character for this performance magic and have a few questions. Specifically, I am wondering about how established people developed their performance character. How closely does your character's likes, dislikes, moods, etc. mirror your own?

I have a couple of ideas on which I am currently working. One has to do with my traditional Inupiaq (Alaska Eskimo) heritage which would mirror traditional shaman techniques.

Any thoughts and/or insight would be greatly appreciated!

Peace,

Steve

Welcome, Steve. Go for the shaman character. I think that's great.

Steve

I play me, some things may be exaggerated a bit, but it is me (just a bit bigger).

Benefits, I can be myself and still be in character 24/7.
Drawbacks, everyone I met knows I different.

Tony

Tony,

LOL, yeah, so far, that's what I've done. I have studied with traditional healers, which is common knowledge in the village. But, like you, I have been thinking of making some changes to my performance, using my eccletic tastes and accentuating them.

In Inupiaq society, when you dance, you become, if even only briefly, a spirit, a raven, a whale, or a shaman =).

There are pros and cons to character work.

If you play someone you aren't, your imagination has free reign. However, if you play you, somewhat accented, you know the lay of the land. Each is easier than the other, in a way. But it's hard to describe what to do, without being able to watch you work.

The important thing, is that the audience perceive one person. It's less confusing to them, which is important, because you'll have many things in your show that should be self-evident. You don't want them asking questions, but accepting the reality you give them.

Difficult in either style, is getting your material to a point where it's automatic, you don't have to think about it. THEN, you can really play with the audience, which is what you're there for.

To quote from The Bigger Book of BOO! to be released next week.

"You have to pick a personality that you can really “live” with, because you have to become that person. As an example, very few people can dress all in black and play the role of an “occultist” without making people die laughing.
In my own case, T. Everett really is me! He drinks the same brand of Scotch and smokes the same cigarettes that I do, all the while trying to discover something new and just a bit unusual."

And actually Traveler is the same also, he just wears a different ring...but he's running around the world most of the time so Everett and I don't have to put up with him that much.

TEB3/Lary

My character is an extension of me.
Much of my character's biography is based on real life experiences and people I've met but exaggerated.
As an older guy I can also add some interesting fiction about my travels, experiences, etc.

My performing persona is actually a "tamed down" version of myself.

It better be!

As a 'non full-time' performer my character has a lot of my own personal traits and interests, but a difference career. This is just what has worked well for me. If you do go with a purely imaginative character, I believe that you need to practice that character regularly and really analyse if it's working, for it to be believable. I've seen too many performers who are only fooling themselves that they have a convincing and interesting character. Your audience should definately not 'think' you are acting, if you know what I mean.

Harlequin,

That is the direction I am heading, I think, for my "character." I'm already known as being fairly bizarre by nature, so I am thinking of extending that into the arcane.

I've been a stage actor before; however, the characters I played were completely different than my personality. I am confident that I could portray somebody else completely different, as I do plan on doing for a show around Halloween. But, I see a problem in developing something closer to home, so to speak, whether more or less (Philemon =p), than myself. The "danger" would be that I could become that character.

Or, at least, that is my thought on it. I was wondering if anybody else had an perceptions on this, which is why I started the thread =).

Thank you everyone so far for your help, definitely enlightening.

I use me, but I wear different hats. Literally. I've found a hat can make someone look at you completely differently. So I have a black felt fedora, an 'Indiana Jones' leather hat, a cowboy hat, a cheap straw hat w/bandana hatband, a white tropical hat (see my avatar), my Dad's old Railroad Agent's hat, and many different kinds of caps. I'll change up who I am just a little bit depending on which hat I wear, and people's expectations seem to change along with it.

Besides, hats are fun.

I am a bizarre person in general, so I just play off of who I already am. I tend to wear black shirts, but with shorts. I have quite a few piercings and tattoos, and am into Wicca and Santeria, so my bizarre magic fits right into to what people expect from me. I may leave people with the thought, he is ~very~ strange, but they will at least have (hopefully) been entertained and enlightened for a brief moment in time.

I just have fun being my normally strange self--works for me!
Scott

Good responses from everyone. I think it is somewhat natural for a person to think they need to become a different performing character since the real them is sooo boring in contrast (Philemon aside of course).

I think the answer depends on how accomplished at acting you are. Some people, like Alice Cooper, are nothing like their performing persona and yet switch it off to resume normal life. Cooper is probably the outstanding example of someone who left work at the stage door and resumed his couch potato, dacron-wearing lifestyle. Sir Anthony Hopkins is another accomplished actor who hasn't become any of his characters (Hannibal Lechter for example).

It can be a struggle to anticipate what can work as far as character until you actually test drive a few.