Good and Crazy.

Living the life of an actor has been a life long dream of mine.  As a kid my brother and sister and I would stand on the hearth in the living and sing and perform for hours, often creating our own material which our children now take great pleasure in mocking and making fun of.  Now, I get to perform virtually every night in front of hundreds of people who have payed too much money to see a show called "Annie."  And I have 24 fellow cast members who take great joy in mocking and making fun of me on a regular basis.

It sounds like a dream come true.  And it is mostly.  But as with all things in life there are things about life as an actor that aren't so good and are even a little crazy.

Riding on a bus for hours on end can be fun if done once in a while.  Riding on a bus for hours on end as part of a job, well let's just say it is not my favorite part of being an actor.

Staying in a hotel can be fun if you are with your family on vacation.  Living in a hotel is just crazy!  Living in a hotel with two other grown men as roommates, will, lets just say it is an adventure.

Eating out is fun if you are with someone special or with family or friends.  Eating out every day, two or three times a day, is just crazy!

Spending time with people who share a common interest is always fun, especially when they are a little nutty like the people on this tour.  "Living" with people who share a common interest can just be crazy!

Working with the people that you "play" with and "playing" with the people that you work with is fun.  And can make you CRAZY!

Being away from home can be fun. Living away from home can make you crazy!

There are times on tour when things get so crazy I can only think about going home to a normal wife in a normal house in a normal town with a normal schedule.

And then there are moments like I had tonight after the show in the green room when the only crazy thing would be not being on tour.

My life is filled with great joy, great sorrow, and a tremendous amount of craziness.  It seems, as in all things, that there is no one way, no simple answer, no great pearl of wisdom at the end of the journey.  There is only the journey.  And as we approach the end of this tour of "Annie" I am reminded in many special and crazy ways, that even as this is ending, another great adventure is out there waiting for us to begin.