Last night was a very important one for us amateur thesps here on the sunny Isle – the County Press Amateur Theatre Awards. Now these awards are highly coveted, contentious (they are the choice of one man) and if you are in the right frame of mind, a bloody good laugh. Last night was no exception and I attended with my most excellent friends Mr S and Mrs G who were nominated for an award but didn’t win – that being the travesty of the night! Apart from the impressing your peers bit, it’s a great evening for catching up with people you haven’t seen for ages, bitching about the nominees, having a drink or six and planning for next year. The odd thing about last night was that there was very little preening, not so much me, me, me as there has been in previous years and apart from one speech in which a young man declared that he deserved his award ‘ because I put the most work in’ (which drew much laughter from the audience) there wasn’t the all pervading sense of self importance that sometimes overshadows these events. There is a school of thought that says that perhaps one has to be a tad self important to get up on the stage to begin with, but the jury is still out on that one.
This got me thinking about self importance and what a really quite cringe makingly awful thing it is in reality. Having been brought up in a family that was firmly entrenched in tv and film as a profession and eventually marrying a film technician, I am no stranger to ‘famous’ people being part of the conversation and have met a few along the way. However, with the exception of my Mother, who on occasion can be a bit luvvieish, they never made a big deal of what they did. In fact, my husband positively played it down. So maybe that is why when I read a piece recently bemoaning self importance it made me snort with derision (I’ve always wanted to use that phrase). This particular person spends his whole time both in conversation and in print telling his ‘fans’ (that’s what he calls them) how popular he is, who he has been to lunch / dinner with and how he has been responsible for elevating the careers of many (did talent not come into it then?). I have observed him first hand littering his conversation with dropped names and stories in which he is feted and praised and in the end it all became rather boring. The funny thing is though, he just doesn’t see it in himself and I found it rather sad that his whole life is taken up with trying to be impressive. I suppose, amongst our peers, we all want to be seen as being important to a degree, but I think that the trick is knowing where to stop. We all love a gossip and a story and unless you’ve had a thrill bypass, meeting someone well known is exciting, but not in EVERY conversation please. A little humility is a far more attractive thing.
It could be said that this blogging thing could have the self important label attached and I know, because I’ve been told, that there are those out there who really don’t understand why people would want to write about themselves and understand even less why others would want to read it. For me it’s the cathartic thing, getting my thoughts out of my head and onto here. I don’t expect anyone to read it, I don’t expect everyone to understand or agree with my views and I don’t expect praise for it. It’s a useful tool to straighten my head out sometimes and if there are those out there who find it amusing, annoying or whatever then that’s fine with me. I had a great evening last night with friends, banter and not a hint of self importance..and that’s exactly how it should be.
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