Damian Thompson

I Survived Theatre School

Intro: swiping left on the poor man's John Travolta, wilderness therapy for the 1%, Ashton Kutcher.
Let Me Run This By You: the thing that you're most afraid of is probably not what's gonna getcha.
Interview: We talk to actor Damian Thompson about immigrating from Jamaica, the University of Evansville, the Florida Theatre Conference, stuttering, PAVAC, North Carolina School of the Arts, asking for what you want, how letters of recommendation aren't always what they seem, gatekeeping, theatre school with no acting classes, Pericles, zoom theatre.
FULL TRANSCRIPT (UNEDITED):
1 (8s):
I'm Jen Bosworth Ramirez,

2 (10s):
And I'm Gina Pulice.

1 (11s):
We went to theater school together. We survived it, but we didn't quite understand it.

2 (15s):
20

3 (16s):
Years later, we're digging deep talking to our guests about their experiences and trying to make sense of

1 (20s):
It all. We survive theater school and you will too. Are we famous yet In Chicago or New York? You can just get crazy, but anyway, go ahead. Go ahead, go ahead.

2 (38s):
No, no, no. So now that the poor man's John Travolta has purchased Twitter for $44 billion, will you be deleting your account?

1 (52s):
Yes. I'm getting off only because I, I, I actually, I just, I mean, I think that he is a, he's in many ways a genius. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna fault him on that. There's, there's, but I don't trust what's gonna happen. Like I just don't wanna be a part of the great unraveling in that way. I don't know. It'll probably unravel then come back together and unravel before it finally goes in one direction or the other. Yeah. I'm gonna also, let's be honest, I'm gonna probably use this as an excuse to get off because nobody fucking retweets my shit anyway, so I'm just gonna use it as an excuse.

2 (1m 30s):
Yeah, yeah.

1 (1m 31s):
It just not working for me. I'm not Twitter famous. Nobody gives a fuck. So I'm gonna just shut it down and then maybe TikTok will be our new thing. Right?

2 (1m 40s):
There you go. By the way, 44 billion, I was like trying to, you know how humans really can't conceive of big numbers, and so I'm always trying to find these ways of like making it, you know, somewhat understandable. And it turns out this, a lot of people do this and, and I read an article about how, Oh, by the way, I used to, I realized apropo of this, I was relying on Twitter 100% for my news. Like I had stopped, I, I used to start with the New York Times and then go to Twitter, and then I stopped starting with the New York Times. I would, I would only go to it if there was a link to it in Twitter.

2 (2m 20s):
And so today I start, I did the times again. And, you know, there's a lot of bad things going on that I really didn't know about because I hadn't been, you know, I really hadn't been paying attention to the news, but, okay, so he, for ostensibly speaking, you could end world hunger with 6 billion. You could end United States houselessness with 20 billion and this is 44 billion. Now, when they say these things, like you could end it, I always think like, yeah, but really how? Right. That doesn't seem right because

1 (2m 59s):
They're, they're still, well, there's like, Right, And also you need, you need, you need systems put in place. It's not, but what, with the resources, I think it is important to know like that's how much resources financially it would cost, and it then it would take a whole fuck ton of work. But I do think it's interesting to, and also who comes up with these figures, That's hilarious to me. There's some person being like, You could end Jen, Jen Bosworth Ramirez as problems with, you know, $150. You know, like that kind of a thing. But, Well,

2 (3m 27s):
I think, I think in the case of the thing I was reading, it was like organization, non-governmental organizations who, their mission is to end world hunger or their

1 (3m 38s):
Mission. So they do. Yeah. My guess is the New York Times is really checking their shit out. So Yeah, of course. And they're talking to nonprofits that, that this is their mission, so they know these numbers. Okay. That is crazy as fuck. And he spent 44 billion,

2 (3m 53s):
He spent 44 billion. And that's the other thing about it, it is starting to seem like these, you know, mega billionaires are just kind of bored and looking for something novel. I mean, you know, him and Bezos are trying, trying to outspace each other and, and it's just like, there's no, you know, it's, it's the thing of like, there's no, there's nothing left to vanquish, so let's just, you know, come up with new things. And I think, you know, I wonder if any of them would be interested in like, having a perspective change. Like what if they had to live without a house for some period of time? What if they had to, you know, like, is there a way that we could mandate just sort of the experience of not being them?

1 (4m 43s):
What, Okay, what you're, what you're talking about is like a mix of like outward Bound meets tough love and like prisoner for a day, like reality show for billionaires. And I am also wilderness therapy. They need

2 (4m 57s):
Wilderness therapy.

1 (4m 58s):
Yeah. Well, I'm convinced that like, if you trapped me in an elevator with them for an hour, they might have a perspective change. Only because, or anyone, anyone that's not in their circle. It could be any, Well, it couldn't really be anyone. Cause like, can you imagine them getting trapped with like, I don't, I don't know my weird neighbor, that would not be good. But like, someone who is psychologically minded like that actually cares about the universe and stuff. If they were, if we, I always think of this, I don't know why, but like, let's say Osama Bin Laden was still alive and then he got trapped in an elevator with me and neither of us had weapons, right?

1 (5m 38s):
We just have our minds and our mouths and our hearts and all our bodies. Could we come to, could we change, Could anyone change anyone being trapped in the elevator for a couple hours? I don't know. But it would be interesting to find out. So this is along those same lines, like you put Elon Musk in the woods, but they have to have either a therapist or some kind of guide because left to their own devices, they're gonna fucking try to colonize the woods, right? They're gonna be like, ah, we could, you know, So they need a guide. Who would be their guide? Gina?

2 (6m 12s):
I think it should be you, frankly. No, I think the woods

1 (6m 15s):
Like, I'd be like's,

2 (6m 17s):
Maybe not in the woods. By the way, how long do you think it would take Osama Bin Laden to acknowledge your presence since you are

1 (6m 24s):
A woman? Oh, that's great. Together in an elevator. That is a really good, that is a really good question. Would he just pretend I wasn't there? And I would dance around? I mean,

2 (6m 36s):
I kind of think he would just pretend that you weren't there. Like, like

1 (6m 39s):
Well, that would even give more impetus to get in his space. I would be like, Oh, this is a game now. So then I would try to be like, you know what I would do? Cause I'm a people pleaser. I'd be like, I love your hair. Like, I would be like, Tell me how you got your hair to look. So whatever

2 (6m 56s):
Matter. Matter,

1 (6m 57s):
Right? Or like, I think you have great bone structure. Like I would just come up with the most because that's who I am. So it would either or he would just strangle me that that could be, he could just strike me.

2 (7m 11s):
That's possibility too. ...