Is it an insult to be called a "ham"?
Tue, 28 Apr 2009, 06:05 pmPffft24 posts in thread
Is it an insult to be called a "ham"?
Tue, 28 Apr 2009, 06:05 pmAm I over reacting? I've just completed a season of comedy/thriller "Tip Toe Through the Tombstones". I'm under no illusion that the play is anything but pure entertainment, the characters are one dimentional and were portrayed as such. We had full houses every night and lots of fantastic audience reaction and feedback.
I've read 2 reviews by the same author. One was featured on this website (not sure if you can view it under reviews but it's called "ham_4_t"). The other mention of the play was in the Garrick Theatre newsletter. In both reviews he called the cast "hams". Some of his comments were very personal and 2 cast members were extremely insulted by them, however I'm not going into that. My beef (pun intended) lays with the fact that he called us "ham actors". Examples of his work are:
"it had a cast of the hammiest actors every to grace the boards"
"the overwhelming smell of pork in the air"
"excessive ham acting on stage"
"clearly put into perspective what it truly means to be a ham"
Two online dictionary definitions for "ham actor" are:
"An incompetent actor who over plays and is incapable of subtility. An over-actor"
"An unskilled actor"
Of course, he's entitled to his opinion and all reviews are subjective but why try to mask the fact that he hated the play and the acting by writing "I loved it".
So, my question is.... is it an insult to be called a ham actor. I certainly feel insulted. Would you?
humour doesn't always work in the written form
Wed, 29 Apr 2009, 06:52 pmI'm disappointed that I did not get a chance to see Tiptoe, but I must say Labrug's review really made me want to go! Much the same as Johnny Grim's thread "Where at thou Devil's advocate and Walter Plunger" not long ago...
I actually thought that Labrug must have been involved in the show & a humourous "review" was his way of promoting the show. I must say I did wonder a little at some of the comments but I thought it was all in good fun, & in keeping with what I thought the show was about. Shame if it did offend anyone; I guess that humour doesn't always work in the written form...
There are a lot of derogatory terms that get reclaimed by the people they were originally meant to insult... for example, I might be quite happy to call MYSELF a ham (and I do), but YOU calling me a ham might be quite another thing!
food for thought...