Theatre Australia

your portal for australian theatre

Is it an insult to be called a "ham"?

Tue, 28 Apr 2009, 06:05 pm
Pffft24 posts in thread
Am 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?

If you can't handle the heat..

Thu, 30 Apr 2009, 12:56 pm
Don't get up on stage.... period. Christ, if you get offended by that critique by misinterpretation which Jeff has had the decency to clarify was not meant to offend, but meant as tongue in cheek, you must have a severely thin skin....and a serious tumour in your humour. If all you want is sycophantic "you were wonderful" comments ask your family and friends, they will always comply....otherwise find another hobby. Ive been on the receiving end of some particularly scathing reviews that were nothing short of vitriolic, and shrug it off...at the end of the day I ask if I am happy with what I did and if the answer is yes, I get on with it, so someone wrote something about my performance I didnt like, BIG DEAL! We aren't movie stars on 6 figure salaries, so get over yourself. So...in answer to your question "Am I over reacting?" YES!YOU ARE! Seriously.... Toughen up Princess!

Thread (24 posts)

← Back to Green Room Gossip