Wanna know something else?
Acting is fake. What happens on movie and TV screens isn't real either.
And yet...
Those engaged in staging the latter always seem to dismiss and look down on those who wrestler for a living.
I've always wondered why.
Back in the mists of time, as both streams of entertainment evolved, they each trotted colorful wagons from town to town to find an audience and eke out an existence. Sometimes they even shared the bill and taught each other their skills.
What happened? If you ask me, one got respectable. The other -- not so much.
Today there are no government grants to train or develop wrestlers, nor to export the culture of wrestling or expand its markets around the world. There are no respected performance spaces built by patrons or responsible city councils. No festival circuits. No seemingly endless awards seasons.
And yet -- wrestlers endure. And prosper at levels that dwarf the money earned in Canada's currently super-heated film and television production centers.
Without ever needing a tax credit to keep them going.
One of my current projects involves wrestling. And this week I set out to find somebody who could train actors to wrestle --and maybe find a couple of wrestlers who could act.
The search took me to rougher parts of town and into worlds where a red carpet just means somebody bled pretty good.
There's a lot in that world that deserves respect. Here's a taste courtesy of filmmaker Tucker Bliss.
Enjoy Your Sunday...
Monster Factory from Tucker Bliss on Vimeo.
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