Vasily Kandinsky: Improvisation No. 30 (Cannons) (1913)

" … as if his audience was supposed to care."

It might be essential to remember that our incumbent is an actor. Actors train in and practice the art of deception. They pretend. They might become most skilled at pretending to be themselves, an identity that typically gets garbled in such practice. The others they become skilled at pretending to be are unavoidably incomplete, for nobody, however experienced, has ever managed to thoroughly portray somebody else. There are too many edges to consciously cover. To compensate, skilled actors amplify a few of the more prominent traits of the ones they portray, thereby accentuating some of their more recognizable aspects. They become identifiable by overplaying some characteristics. Voice impersonators tend to employ a few key phrases associated with the character they play. This produces a reinforcing association, whether or not their voice very accurately mimics their target's. John Wayne was apparently the only actor whose character employed the term "Pilgrim" in their dialogue.

Actors train in their trade by engaging in Improv. They improvise a character, employing all the standard techniques. They attempt to immerse themselves in projecting the persona. This includes physical and mental gyrations, which might project a more accurate sense of their character's presence. This deliberate distancing from themselves can prove disorienting. The stories of successful actors who manage to lose themselves in their craft seem as common as actors themselves. It might be the exception when one maintains congruence through repeated attempts to present oneself as somebody else. I learned a little about this when I was a singer/songwriter in my first career. There was a stage version of me, which I dared not try to live at home. At home, I had to be somebody else, for there, I was more a writer than a performer. The two personas were ultimately irreconcilable. I suppose my actual profession then was schizophrenic.

Our incumbent exhibits all of the usual qualities of anybody who employs Improv in their work. He doesn't seem to study the script as much as he pretends to be the character he imagines his office requires. After so much experience, I thought he would have mastered his performances. However, he still often comes across as a rank amateur, where only he and perhaps a few of his more loyal followers ever believe his characterizations. Most of the rest of us find his continuing inauthenticity alarming. We can see him coming from miles away. He obviously never trained in more than so-called reality TV performance. He commands no dramatic thrust. He seems confused. He reuses the same terms to describe whatever he's so obviously lying about. He would be especially easy for any actual actor to portray because he employs so few cues to project himself. He stands as almost a cardboard cut-out of himself, or somebody else. We have little idea who we're seeing before us, so we know for certain it's him standing there.

Repetition eventually resolves the incongruities. Inauthentic characterization can subsequently become the most accurate representation. Then, one becomes a parody of oneself or what one attempts to project. The truly inept continually demonstrate ineptness. They virtually never break character. Their audience can see what they strive to project while also observing what they never fail to ineptly embody. This dichotomy eventually no longer seems contradictory. It defines normalcy for him, he who always seems so unaware of his own presence. I suspect that we've never once seen what he intends to hide. It might be that he's even successfully hidden himself from himself. If the most successful actors become seamlessly schizophrenic, the less successful ones show up with seams prominently displayed. This guy was never capable of simply being himself. He was always actively pretending to be somebody else. We elected an impostor whose full-time job was to prevent himself from acknowledging who he was in there, as if his audience was supposed to care. We’re living with the consequences of his inept self-discoveries.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

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