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?
I think you've got the wrong idea
Thu, 30 Apr 2009, 04:55 pmRobert, Robert, Robert, now I think you are over reacting. I certainly didn't ask Jeff to remove his post and when he kindly offered to I said there was no need at all. Jeff has emailed and apologised if he caused offence, something I didn't expect but that shows the high calibre of person he must be.
Of course it wasn't an award winning show, I'm well aware of that and said so in my first blog and of course we put outselves up there for people to pass judgement (PS the reasons you outline are EXACTLY the reasons I don't ask family and friends to see the show - I HATE all that crap after the show when they feel they have to tell you the show was wonderful. I absolutely loathe it. I act for my own enjoyment.
Robert, I merely asked the question who else would have thought it was an insult. That's all. Things seem to have blown out of proportion. I spose that's the risk you run when you blog.