It’s been said that there are four stages to any artist’s career:
1. Who’s (insert your name here)?
2. Get me (you again)!
3. Let’s find a young (same guy).
4. Who’s (you know who)?
And while it seems unfair to the individual, our reality is that as one star fades, another inevitably brightens to take its place.
Therefore a necessity in every artist’s career is answering the question, “Is this the beginning of the downward spiral or is this the spiral itself?”.
Because those who read the signs correctly leave at the top of their game or transition into a respected and respectable later life, exiting the stage before their brightness is eclipsed.
For those eclipsed mar both their future and their legacy.
This week, we witnessed the sad exhibition of a truly talented star making a desperate grab for relevance, in the process not only offending a significant portion of his remaining fan base but giving some of the new blood a chance to overshadow him.
For a long time, Jim Carrey has been the funniest man in Hollywood and as a result a source of pride for Canadians.
By entering the acrimonious American gun debate, I’m sure Jim had the best intentions. But in a country with some of the dumbest gun laws on the planet and neither side willing to give an inch, having an impact would have required him to be at the top of his game, to be as sharp and quick as he’s ever been.
And that’s not how things played out.
What follows is not only the spiral itself but the combined eclipse as those with the edge Jim once had move in for the kill.
Those of us who’ve long enjoyed Carrey’s genius might take comfort in the laughs he’ll score next week with the release of “KickAss 2”. But for many, the image of a gun wielding Colonel Stars and Stripes will be the final hypocritical cherry atop a disastrous PR sundae.
The Spiral. Avoid it in your own life. And Enjoy Your Sunday…
1 comment:
You forgot one.
2a. Get me a (name) type.
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