I spent most of this past weekend in a factory in Queens filming another Keith Snyder musical short film. I played Thug #2.

(There is so much I could write about the weekend and maybe someday I will. It's as if, for people in the arts, life, in all its drama love and intrigue, isn't enough. We have to put ourselves in extremely intense microcosmic circumstances to satisfy our emotional (we call it creative) needs.)

Thug #2 plays an additional 3 roles: Eve (of Adam and), Samson (& Delilah) and Lizzy Borden.

This is what I usually look like minus the throne.

Now, picture me in a dancebelt decorated with hot-glued leaves, a floor-length blond wig and big, round, dark-rimmed glasses. Sounds crazy, no? When I put on my leopard skin skirt and shoulder-length wig (and big, round glasses) for Samson, Greg, the choreographer, bit his lip to keep from laughing, I imagined, to prevent my feelings from being hurt. Lizzy Borden looked like, well, a prim and Protestant turn-of-the-century drag queen.

I pretty much know what I look like and have as good/bad a self-image as everybody else. So, that's why when I was on the cute little blue and green set for Adam and Eve, I didn't picture myself as Larry as Eve. I'm not sure that, now that I think of it, I pictured myself as anyone at all. All I thought about was that I had to slither and dance around Adam and seduce him. And that's what's funny and that's why I can't even think about it. In Samson, I was showing off my bulging biceps and trapezoids, not to mention my six-pack abs. Lizzy thirsted for familial blood.

When I was dressed as Thug #2, I looked in the mirror and thought of Truman Capote in "Murder By Death." But, I couldn't even think Truman Capote and be what I thought Thug #2 should be.

Mostly Fictional Flashback:

Keith: Larry, you know that Humphrey Bogart "I'm gonna kill you" smile?
Larry: Keith, I don't think Truman Capote would do that.
Keith: Ummmmmm.

Another (unrelated) Mostly Fictional Flashback:

Keith: Try a few versions of "Well..."
Larry: Well
Larry: Well...
Larry: Well?
Larry: Well...?
Larry: Keith, I think maybe "Well" doesn't work there. How about I use another word like it?
Keith: Sure. Try it.
Larry: Cistern...?
Keith: Let's go back to "Well..."

I guess I usually imagine myself as my ideal image of who I'm portraying. That is when I have time to think about it. In my everyday life I don't see me, per se, if I'm taking a moment to picture myself in the current situation (is that the beginning of schizophrenia?); I see a younger/older or more serious or more comedic or animated--whatever--version of myself.

When I was playing Lizzie Borden I didn't picture Lizzie Borden or
this woman. I was actually imagining myself as this woman.