Dan Rodandan: Dan Rodandan is my name and changing lives. That's my game. Dan Rodandan here, everyone, on the Dan Rodandan Acting Coach Dan Rodandan Teaching Actors How to Act podcast, over the pod waves, the host with the mostest. My number is 917-214-8DAN. 917-214-8DAN. My dad said whenever you're leaving a message to someone, always say the number twice because sometimes phones don't, you know, they don't work.

Speaking of not getting work, I have not landed too many auditions lately. I had one, which I'll tell you about a little bit later. Difficult, uh, difficult to describe right now. But I'm still keeping it up. I'm doing monologues in the mirror in my home. I'm, uh, I'm, I'm doing, I'm pretty much anything that Russell Crowe's done I've memorized and I've said it to myself in the mirror. Uh, Christian Bale I've done. I've been, I'm working extensively lately on *Newsies* and all the little animals and, uh, and, uh, the gun one, what was that one. The one where you had the gun. The Christian Bale gun movie.

But today I'm going to teach you a very important lesson. A lesson about me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. Not singing, no, the meme. The art of the meme. Meme is, I don't know, a science word or a French word or a foreign, some sort of word that means something that's viral. And we're talking internet viral, but not necessarily malicious. Not like the HPV virus, which affects so many of us. Talking about things like the Harlem Shake.

Harlem Shake is a recent meme where one gentleman dances for a while, or a lady, I'm not being a sexist, but the Harlem Shake, one man or woman dances for a while, then they drop the beat, and then there are more than one dancing. For some reason that has made everybody very happy. Excited everybody. People are freaking out about it. Something to do with a dubstep or a Skrillex or... That's music these days. You can't say it's not music. You can try. Kids will get mad at you. That's music.

So I'm going to teach you how to make an effective meme. So you take something that everybody's doing, and then you do it. The Harlem Shake, right? This is my version of the Harlem Shake. I'm Dan Rodandan shaking. Look at them playing the music. And it's me, and I'm dancing, and I'm sort of wiggling. I'm getting my move, shaking my hips, trying to emulate sort of the lead singer of Tears for Fears, who I saw live at an Air Force base. Then the beat drops. And who do I have next to me? That's right. I have the Chaos Reigns fox from *Antichrist*. I have young Rocky Balboa. I have old Rocky Balboa. I have all five John McClanes. I have a guy in a doctor's outfit with no pants on, but his legs are made out of chair legs. I have a robot, not the kind you're thinking of, the other kind. I also have a fishbowl, and inside the fishbowl, I have a lot of young starlets and Jim Carrey, and he's making it kind of weird in there. He's going a little too far. And that happens for another 10 or so seconds, then it's over. And now we've done the Harlem Shake.

There are other memes out there. I mean, they had the Gangnam Style, and then other people were like, okay, we'll do the doctor version, or we'll do the lawyer version, or we'll do the, hey, this is what they do at this private school, this is how we are Gangnam Style. Uh, there are other, I mean, there are plenty of memes out there. There's Bad Luck Brian. This poor guy has a picture. There's Insanity Wolf, who gives decent advice. There's Dolan. Dolan Duck. Accually is Dolan. Something that speaks to me. Something about the childlike sexuality and violence of that duck and Gooby and his friends. These are all memes.

And to create your own effective meme, you have to do something that is very stupid. But contagious. Again, HPV. You have to do something that will catch on in a big way. Something that when you try to explain it to your friends they're like, get out of here. But then you show them, and they're like, alright, fine. But then their little brother sees it and he's like, what? This is the best. I'm super excited. Let the world shine down. I'm going to make my own meme. I'm going to do a meme about it. Me me me me me me me. Me, I can do it too. That's essentially what meme is. It's like me, me. It's me, the word me twice, because it's like even I can do it. And I do. And here it is. And everybody looks at it, and then they roll their eyes, but then they watch it, and they're like, alright, that's pretty good.

So I have these great ideas. You heard my Harlem Shake idea. I've got a, got some great ideas about the Budweiser frogs. Bud. Dan. Ro. Dan. Dan. They say my name instead of Budweiser. Sort of an advertisement for the podcast.

But enough about that. The thing that I'd like to talk to you today is the ongoing feud. Hatfield and McCoyed. Hatfield? Hatfield. Although my feel, my hat feelings were definitely hurt by this. The Hatfields and the McCoys. Myself being the Hatfields. And Giovanni Guzmales. I ought to call him Giovanni Guzmales. If you ask me. And you did. By downloading this.

He set me up, son of a bitch. I thought that I was going to finally break in. I thought that the blacklist had been lifted and that I was going to get to audition for another student film. I was very excited about it. I always emailed. They said, we like you. We like what you've done. We like your podcast. We think you're perfect for the role. Learned these lines. A lot of pages. I learned them all. I show up at the local library where they were holding the auditions. And there's a secretary there. I signed in. There were other names on the sign-in sheet. I walk in the room. Giovanni Guzmales and a few of his friends start pelting me with water balloons. And I use the term water balloons literally, liberally, not literally. Although, I mean, there's a large percentage of urine, which is literally water. They were water balloons full of urine and glitter and cinnamon. And I think their laughter stopped. It got pretty real in there. They left. A few minutes later, I left. Walked home because they would not let me on the bus. Which says a lot because of the people they do let on the bus.

And as I've said before, Giovanni, fuck you. If I get a car, I'm going to hit you with it. Not hard enough to kill you. I take that back. I'm sorry, Giovanni. I'm sorry I said that, Giovanni, but still, fuck you and fuck your mother.

While I'm apologizing, there's somebody else that I need to apologize to. I need to apologize to a caller I had recently. A young man with a speech impediment. And that wasn't kind. That wasn't a kind way to start my apology. The reason I bring it up is because I was very, very mean to a young man who called in. The reason I made fun of you so harshly is because I myself have a stutter. I admit it. If you listen to previous episodes, you'll hear me stuttering, stammering, saying the words, things like that. Oh, especially when I was ill. If you listen to podcasts where I was ill, I was stuttering the entire time. I was stammering. I was murmuring. I was mumbling. As an actor, I'm not proud of it. As a man, I'm not proud of it. And the fact that I took it out on you, this is a lot more about me than it says about you. And I admit that and I apologize. There, I said it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you have a stutter.

Let's take some more calls. Make your phone calls. Here we go. I answer phone calls, hopefully. All right, enough of the song. Let's hear a call.

(voicemail beep)

Jason Argerberg: Hi, Dan. Jason Argerberg here. I don't know if you remember me. We met three years ago at a subway. I was doing a documentary film at the time, really busy, but we talked a little bit. And, you know, I saw that you did this show. I've been listening, so I thought I would call in. I just got cast in a student film, really exciting, really good script, really good script. And, you know, I am the protagonist, so it's exciting. But there is a sex scene in the script, multiple women with the protagonist who I play. But I was wondering if you have any experience with anything like that. I myself am in, I think there's a French... Hey, Craig, Craig, what's the French word for when you've never slept with anyone? Craig it! Anyways, virgin, virgin, that's the word, sorry. So I just wondered if you, you know, I don't want to intrude on your personal life, but if you have any tips for scenes like that, I thought that'd be great. So good to hear from you. I love everything you're doing with the show. And, uh, yeah, yeah, so I, I hope to hear the next episode soon. Thanks.

Dan Rodandan: I don't remember, uh, uh, our particular interaction at the subway, but the important thing about your question, and, uh, the important thing about life is that when you do a sex scene, uh, you are having sex on camera. I'm sorry about that, that was a, is that a bit of mine coming back. Uh, sex on camera, having sex in front of a camera is not something that I've ever done, uh, as part of a film. I've never had a sex scene, a nude scene, uh, with sex or nudity with a, with a woman or a man of any kind. And, uh, however. However, I can say this, and I don't think I'm telling tales out of school. I have had a lot of sex on camera, whether it's my own camera or my own camera. And that's something you have to do to get yourself ready for a sex scene like this. That's why I do it. That's why I've done it. That's why I made love in front of the male gaze, which is the eye of the camera, especially according to feminist theories about film. Having men watch me while I have sex, I guess is the point. And I think that's really what your question's about. So if you want, you can come over here. Then I'll give you notes. Again, that number is 917-214-8DAN. If you want to set up a time and place, or I guess the time is any time, and the place is my place. Thank you, Jason.

(voicemail beep)

Donald H. Stewart: Hi, Dan. Donald H. Stewart. I was told to get in touch with you by a good friend of mine, Michael Markowski. And I basically was just saying to him that as far as my acting ability is concerned is that I just put myself in the situation of what the character is going through, and then I react as if I would as being that character. So it's all organic. I mean, I just basically react to what the other characters are doing to my character, and then I just basically, you know, just react to it as if it was real and normal. That's all I ever really do, even though I go through all these classes and courses and things like that. But what I would like to know about is the actual business side of things. You know, I'm breaking into independent films and I'm doing, you know, a lot of things to kind of hone my skills as far as in front of the camera is concerned. But when do you actually find the time to know that you're ready, that you're ready to go and get your agent and be able to sort of spread your wings? I mean? If you've been at it for a while and you feel confident and comfortable and you've been able to score a bunch of gigs just on your own, and then when the time comes to actually go out and become a professional, when does that moment actually come? Is it just a spirit of inspiration, or is it just something that you just feel? Or if you start too early, will it hurt you? Something like that. Thanks, Dan. Thanks for listening. Bye-bye. Oh, by the way, my name is Donald H. Stewart, S-T-E-W-A-R-D, and I'm an up-and-coming actor in the Phoenix, Arizona area.

Dan Rodandan: All right. Thank you. An up-and-coming actor in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Give me just a quick second here. I'm going to Google Arizona. These are some beautiful photographs. Those purple skies. Arizona, that sounds like a great place to be an up-and-coming actor. And those are two things that I always like to be. Up and, no, you get it.

So there's a lot of things that you said in that question that, that I, I really appreciate. Uh, the way you were talking about, uh, acting is, is, is reacting. Really you play a character, somebody, uh, does things to you, you behave as you would naturally, normally. I also want to address the question of when do you know that you're a professional. I would say that you, you know you're a professional the moment you're getting paid to do something that you hate. That's the moment you realize you're a professional. When somebody offers you a job and your instinct says, no, I don't want to do this. This is really dumb. Or this is going to be embarrassing for me. And they say, well, get that paper, *Paper Chase*. Here's a stack of paper for you. The moment you become a professional is when you do something for money and you go home and you ask yourself, was it worth it. That's when you're a professional. And whether the answer is yes or no, you can take comfort in the fact that you're a professional. And that means something. Got a lot to think about.

Dan Rodandan is very interested in thinking about things other than his life.