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BEHIND EVERY GREAT MAN THERE\'S A GREAT WOMAN. AND BEHIND EVERY GREAT SMOKING BUNNY IN A BLACK SUIT THERE\'S JIM FLETCHER. JIM FLETCHER IS AN ACCOMPLISHED THEATER JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES, THOUGH PRIMARILY AN ACTOR. I SOUGHT OUT THIS INTERVIEW BECAUSE OF COMBAT THEATER: FLETCHER\'S MAD, CRAZY, 24-HOUR EXERCISE IN CREATIVITY AND SLEEP DEPRIVATION THAT ALLOWS WRITERS, ACTORS, AND DIRECTORS TO JUST PLAIN HAVE FUN. LEARN WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT HOW HE STARTED, WHERE HE\'S BEEN, AND THE PLUSES OF WORKING THEATER IN MILWAUKEE.
Vinnie Baggadonuts: I’d like this interview to be about what you want it to be about. So, obviously, talk about Combat Theater, but also get into exactly what it is that you do.
Jim Fletcher: Well, I’m mostly an actor. It’s what I primarily do and how I make my living, for the most part. I went to undergrad and grad school, then moved out to Los Angeles for a couple of years, between the years of 1996 and 1998.
VB: What were you doing out there?
JF: Trying to break into movies and that kind of stuff.
VB: Any secret film appearances you have that you don’t really like to tell people about?
Both: (laugh)
JF: Well, there’s this movie that just came out-- Heebie Jeebies-- which is actually a local movie. I think my favorite review of it was: \"It’s a crap tornado.\"
Both: (laugh)
JF: And I think someone else called it the worst movie ever made. I got cut out of it, but I do appear in the credits as an \"actor not seen in the film\", so that holds a special place in my heart.
Both: (laugh)
JF: I was doing the audition thing out there and wound up getting involved with a really talented group of actors. But the theater out there is awful. I mean, it’s amazingly bad. So whenever I see someone from here [Milwaukee] with some theater training under their belt go out there, it gives me some hope that theater out there will get better. You know how they say that 90% of all actors are unemployed at any given time? That doesn’t include trained actors. It’s one of those silly professions where you do one play or commercial and suddenly you’re an actor. So yeah, all those people are unemployed. But how many of them actually had any training? That’s what I found out, out there. Most of the people out there haven’t had any training at all. If they get something it’s mostly because of their looks.
VB: When did you first realize you wanted to get into the actual art of acting?
JF: Do you remember something called Battle Of The Network Stars?
VB: Yeah.
JF: I always wanted to be on that show. Whatever team I was rooting for, there was always some moron screwing up the paddle race or whatever. I always thought, \"If only I could be on Battle Of The Network Stars, my team would win!\"
Both: (laugh)
JF: I think, like a lot of young people, I just wanted to get on a TV show. Eventually, though, I went to undergrad at LaCrosse [Wisconsin]. There were these two great professors there who loved theater. They could have been teaching anywhere they wanted in the United States, but here they were in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. They just really gave me a respect and a love for theater. So I guess it started there.
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