The Bold Acting Podcast Reflections from Jason Bryden's More-than-just-an-Acting-Class class in Toronto.

Born in 1970 in Lviv, Ukraine Dmitry Chepovetsky’s family moved to Regina when he was a baby.
He began acting in high school before attending theatre school at Ryerson now known as Toronto Metro University.
Chepovetsky is best known for his recurring role on ReGenesis as Bob Melnikov, the show’s lead biochemist and a person with autism. The role garnered him two Gemini Award nominations for best actor in a dramatic series once in 2005 and once in 2007.
Chepovetsky has also played Nikola Tesla in CBC’s long-running Murdoch Mysteries. Picasso in Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile but these days you can find him as Bo on Kurt Smeaton’s Children Ruin Everything on CTV.
I got a chance to speak to him on Victoria Day 2024 at my house in Toronto.
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Eric Peterson is one of Canada’s most iconic actors. With a career that spans more than 50 years. Best known for his roles in Corner Gas, Street Legal and onstage as the WWI flying ace Billy Bishop in Billy Bishop goes to War which he co-created with writer and composer John Gray.
We talk about how at age 77 he doesn’t have any work lined-up. As well as what makes for great performance and what was his best year.
Peterson lives in Toronto with his wife Annie Kidder, sister to the late Margot Kidder.
He came over to my house and we talked at my dining room table.
You can listen to the Bold Acting Podcast (the Bold Interview, the What I Learned from Reading …, and How to be a Person Newsletter read aloud) wherever the podcasts are for you.
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At my house in West Toronto May 2024.


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Apples to Oranges
I recently spent an hour on instagram and deleted the app once again from my phone. I would quit the phone altogether if there weren’t such a thing as podcasts and audio books.
Am I doing this right? What of this grind? Is this a good way to spend what’s left of my short, little life?

Dr. Saras Sarasvathy, professor of business at the University of Virginia speaks about effectual entrepreneurship, specifically Affordable Loss. Break down costs: How much will it cost you to start a new venture? 80-90% of start-up costs are human capital. The way to do it is to convince people to help you for deferred payment.
Predicting the future is difficult. Figure out what you are willing to lose rather than what you expect to make. Forget profit projections. Try stuff on the cheap if possible. Call this your business school. You can learn so much by the doing without going into student debt.
“Cultivate opportunities that have a low failure cost that generate more options for the future.”

Sarasvathy cites Richard Branson starting an airline with planes leased from Boeing instead of buying his own. He didn’t seek investors, didn’t give away his company to venture capital. He kept costs low. James Dyson built his cyclonic vacuum prototype  5,127 times in a shed and lived on bank loans for more than 15 years. Don’t buy an office before you have to. Don’t get a partner before absolutely necessary.
Be kind to yourself. Remember that when you have to do it all on your own it’ll take longer but you’ll learn more.
The first Dysons were made from cardboard.

You can fail in business. You can’t fail when you’re making art (Even Chris Gaines sold two million records). Bad art is still art. You try something then you evaluate it. You have to listen back to that song or podcast. You have to re-read the thing you wrote. And not with love in your heart but with the cold, sober eye of the editor or critic. Ask yourself, did I fully get what was inside my head out into the world? Could I make it better?
Satisfactionism
Is it not strange that perfectionism is a word but satisfactionism is not? There is a line somewhere between the two, between making something great and beating it to death. When is a child fully whelped?
Apple launches their products before they’re ready and then comes out with fixes.
Google beta-tests projects, gets feedback, quits things (Google Glass, Google Plus, Google Trips, etc.)
I left home at 18 then came back at 19, then left home again at 21 and then came back at 26. This went on a couple more times. Anyway, my parents were (are) incredibly generous.
With my latest venture (a new podcast with personal finance expert Preet Banarjee) we are excited to pair complementary skillsets. Preet likes to dot the ’i’s and cross all the ’t’s. My preference for a premature birth means that together we’re hoping his mature chocolate and my juvenile peanut butter might add up to just right.
Analogies have never been my strong suit.
Comparing my Navel orange to someone else’s Granny Smith is just par for the course. The trick is to not be too hard on yourself. Sticking your neck out there is exhausting. Here’s hoping that equals a better sleep tonight.
A ream of newsletters means no one is looking for another. If you find How to be a Person a worthwhile read then please share it.
Find me on insta: @jasonbrydenofcanada
Youtube.com/jasonbryden
boldacting.com



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Getting advice from comedians is like getting advice from a funny person that has managed to survive one of the most difficult vocations around. I don’t have to tell you that comedians come out on stage, into what is historically a hostile environment their only weapons a mic and their words. Who better to give survival tips?
Jimmy Carr is a British stand-up comedian known for his offensive one-liners and deadpan delivery.
“I could have phoned in a showbiz book of 60,000 words, stuck a couple of pictures in, cash the cheque, great. But I didn’t want to shortchange anybody and in the end it became a labour of love.” - Jimmy Carr.
Carr turns out to be a huge fan of self-help books. He read lots when he was in his early 20s, trudging to his marketing job at Shell each day, dissatisfied with his life and longing for some excitement. “Self-help opened my eyes a little bit to the idea that the rules that affect our lives aren’t written. — The Guardian’s Tim Jones, September 2021.
I too love self-help books. I don’t care if they say the same thing over and over. I need the reminding. I’m not especially prone to joining cults so there’s no danger of me sending a charismatic all of my money.
I’ve taken 12 pages of notes and recorded them here but I can recommend this book as a great listen. I got it on Audible.
I hope you like it too.
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This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit boldacting.substack.com/subscribe

"What I Learned ..." is one of three different streams of podcasts you’ll find under the hospices of The Bold Acting Podcast. The other two are the Bold Interview (upcoming talks include Eric Peterson) and this newsletter. Find all the episodes wherever the podcasts are for you.
Friday, May 3rd, 2024
Advice from a stand-up doesn’t seem so wrong. British comic Jimmy Carr had a boring life, he didn’t want it anymore so he stopped working for Shell Oil and started doing stand-up instead.
Now he has an interesting life.
What is your path? If you want to be a doctor the path is clear. But what if you wanted to be a comic or an actor? The path is less clear. It might take longer. There might be crashes along the way. There might be detours. Some people take the scenic route and then get lost altogether.
What road are you on now? Bumpy or boring? Heading in the right direction or have you thrown the map out the window. Who is in the car with you? Are they helpful? Are they good navigators? Or are they complainey backseat drivers?
Jimmy Carr loves a good crisis. Crisis has a bad name. Crisis needs some crisis management. Crisis is just change. We should look forward to it because change is the only guarantee.
True education is not what to think but how to think. What nobody teaches you at university is how to be a person (my words). Why do you do, Jimmy asks? Not what but why do you do the thing you do? Do you know?
Ever wondered why trust-fund kids are such fuck-ups? They don’t have any purpose. That and nobody likes a white person with dreadlocks.
Find your purpose and then pursue it. That’s how you do it according to Jimmy Carr. But Jimmy is a millionaire with a career and possible name recognition. I don’t think he’s saying do as Jimmy does and you’ll be happy. He’s saying he changed everything and he’s just an average bloke. It’s not easy but it’s not rocket science either.
I’m saying, me, JB, I’m saying make art. Big, small, doesn’t matter. Make the art. Remember why you wanted to perform in the first place. Go back to that feeling. Don’t wait, don’t ask for permission, start small and for God’s sake don’t think about it too much. Just paint. Or Tell jokes. Or act. Do it with others. And I guess I’m saying this, all of this, every time, because I want to hear it. I just get scared or complacent or tired or overwhelmed.
Why am I so adamant the world needs more artists? Because if a million people begin bucking the trend  towards the bottom-line within a capitalist society we might think about consumption less. I think we’ll fill those holes in our souls with creativity and community instead of stuff and likes. I think others will see us doing it and they’ll want in. What if we stopped doing so much? What if we made stuff without expectation?
I’m just talking about art. Whatever that means to you. For me it’s performance. I was wired up for it. And when I’m not doing it, it’s a much more boring life.
That’s how I talk into cell phones.


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Thank you to the paying customers, you golden few that have upgraded to paid. I really appreciate you. Do you pay for other newsletters? If so what makes it worth it? I’ve included a poll here for paid subscribers. I’d love to know what you think and how I can make BOLD better.
This is an excerpt from my upcoming book: Be Bold ‘Cause You’re Going to Die. (When it comes out you have only one choice: buy in bulk. I have your email address. I’ll know if you only buy one. I’m dying okay? So you better heed me.)
In Ian MacEwan’s novel Amsterdam one man takes his terminally ill frenemy to progressive Amsterdam to have him euthanized.
In the Denis Arcand film The Barbarian Invasions Remy, the cancer-ridden protagonist retreats to the countryside with his friends before getting Marie-Josée Croze to inject him with heroin until he is dead.
In The Last Doctor a man in chronic pain sits in his SRO hoping for Death but he has no friends or family to help him. Until a rebellious MAID doctor (Medical Assistance in Dying) comes along and saves his death.
Everyone wants to know how to have a good life. This should include a good death.
I think the answer is: Swing for the fences ‘cause life is short. Swing every day. Don’t get angry with yourself if you strikeout. Home-run hitters strike out a lot. Just keep aiming for that fence.
This book is really just a post-it note to myself. Keep trying stuff, Jason. Don’t go and get a job. You weren’t meant for that and besides, you’d be a terrible employee.
I have died 52 years. That’s 52 years I’ll never see again. Those 52 years are gone. What have I done with them? Enter: Rampant Rationalization. No, no J.B. you’ve done a lot, I hear you say. You’ve helped whelp two functioning children. You’ve managed to maintain a much leveraged position within the lower-middle class. You haven’t killed the cat yet.
These are true facts and it would add up to accomplishment but for the relativism (everyone around me has also not killed their cat) that reminds me the real yardstick is elsewhere.
In Margaret Drabble’s short story The Merry Widow a woman goes on a vacation her domineering husband had planned. He had done her the immeasurable kindness of dying prior to take-off. At her B&B she sees an old man cutting the grass next door with a scythe and thinks it must be Death calling for her. But it turns out to be Father Time. Death shows up as a skeleton. This was “only Time, Time friendly, Time continuing, Time healing… And when he had finished cutting the grass he had gone harmlessly away, leaving her in possession of herself, of her place, of her life.”
She breathed deeply. The sap began to flow. She felt it flow in her veins.   
All at once the stakes are high and there’s no need to worry. Worrying doesn’t help but it does hurt. I want to be mindful of my impending doom so I can prioritize. Sometimes I can do it. Sometimes not.
Places I’ve Succeeded in Prioritizing in the Face of Death:
- I don’t reply to emails or texts if I don’t have to. I just delete them. I don’t care anymore. If you message me and I don’t reply it is not because I think you’re a terrible person. It’s just because I’m busy walking with death.
- I don’t hang-out with people I don’t like. I used to do it regularly. I’ve wasted a lot of other people’s time over the years being nice. Niceness is a waste of a life.
- I try not to spend a minute on shyness. I try to talk to strangers but being rather introverted I find it stressful. Nothing ever happens to scaredy-cats sitting in the corner.
- I don’t get in my car unless completely unavoidable. I’d rather be scared for my life on my bike than angry and behind the wheel.
- I don’t go to sporting events unless it’s soccer. (A seventh inning stretch? Are you joking? That should be the end of the bloody game!)
- I am a solitary man. This means I don’t have to maintain a romantic relationship with a woman. Thi