This is an amalgamation of several of the previous principles (#1, 2, 8, etc.) that spell out your primary responsibility as a celebrity (fascinate and terrify your audience). Still, it’s worth stating on its own merits that in general, a famous person should never try to explain famous people behavior to ordinary people.
Ordinary people will think they want to see how much they resemble famous people, fundamentally. Remember: They are wrong, and you know what they want from you better than they do.
They’ll think they want you to open up and share about the tragedies in your life, but this will ultimately cause them to regard you with condescension and pity.
They’ll think they want you to tell them what makes you happy, but anything causing you to seem “down-to-earth” or normal (co-ordinary) will also ultimately make them regard you with condescension (the “I could have done that, and better” attitude so many modern artists encounter).
Here is an exemplary conversation from TV between an Ordinary Person and a Famous Person.
Note the different concerns each person expresses.
Famous Person: “They’re printing libel about me! Libel!”
Ordinary Person [looks at picture of Famous Person apparently walking out of a Starbucks with small, leashed dog, labeled “Normal”]: “Ugh. Normal – how dare they?”
Famous Person: “That’s what I’m saying! That’s character assassination! That’s not normal! It only looks like I’m walking out of a Starbucks when actually I’m doing the robot going backwards into a Starbucks. And I don’t even know whose dog that is! Yes, I steal dogs.”
Ordinary Person: “What is the problem?”
Famous Person: “I can’t be normal. If I’m normal, I’m boring. If I’m boring, I’m not a movie star. If I’m not a movie star, then I’m poor. And poor people can’t afford to pay back the 75 thousand in cash they owe Quincy Jones.”
Ordinary Person, sarcastically: “Looking at that guy is like looking into a mirror.”
This dialogue tells us several things. First, it lays out the concerns of a right-thinking Famous Person. Your concerns as a famous person should be similar to his, if not exactly the same (i.e., you may not owe Quincy Jones 75 grand).
Second, it portrays some of the supposed attitudes of Ordinary People: “normal” is good, there’s no problem with a Famous Person being labeled “normal,” and famous people are supposed to be just like Ordinary Person.
Unfortunately, also revealed in the last comment by Ordinary Person, which is sarcastic and condescending, is the ultimate effect of explaining to ordinary people even the most basic principles of fame.
Unless you are Jeff Goldblum, Woody Allen, or another Jewish man with a shtick that includes self-referentialism and self-aggrandizement/abhorrence, you should not explain even these most basic concepts to an ordinary person.
Examples of famous people who succeed at this principle: NASCAR racers (whose explanations are indecipherable to ordinary people), Tom Cruise (ditto), Jeff Goldblum and Woody Allen.
Examples of famous people who succeed in understanding MFHTDWF concepts, but fail at them by explaining them to ordinary people, but it’s okay because they’re fictional: Tracy Jordan
Examples of famous people who fail at this principle: Any famous person who has appeared on a talk show and said things that made sense (i.e., earned more than scattered applause on Oprah).
1 comment:
I KNEW I recognized that conversation. :)
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