Showing posts with label #InstantInspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #InstantInspiration. Show all posts

Friday, May 23, 2014

Gaynor Young #InstantInspiration

Thank you Gaynor Young! Thank you for the joy of your blog "'Ear 'Ear"and the incredible gift of sharing your journey with the digital world. I stumbled across it as I searched through many entertainment, theatre or arts blogs and I am so profoundly happy that I did. It was the perfect thing at the perfect moment.

As artists, we so often fall victim to our own self-doubt, criticism and cynicism. We allow our 'artistic' selves to run away with endless questions, musings and often hopeless convictions about the industry or our careers.
And then you get to read a post (The Loved One!) by someone who many years after a tragic and horrific accident in a theatre and two cochlear implants later, for the first time was able to listen, really listen to a performance by the wonderful South African vocal artist PJ Powers, ... and tears begin to well up.
You read the post called Pardon! on forgiveness for those who held responsibility for this tragedy and cannot stop the gentle tears from spilling over.

Gaynor, your story is such a well known tale among theatre folk and your name synonymous with theatre safety and tragedy. BUT what people don't bother thinking about is what came after, how many challenges you must have faced and conquered since then, how you have turned that event into a pivotal moment of change and motivation in your life and how you manage to inspire so many by what you continue to accomplish day by day.

I can not wait to delve deeper into the depths of your blog and somehow get a hold of your book 'My Plunge to Fame'.

Thank you for reminding me that life is a gift, that every day is a gift and that every obstacle we face is a gift... to be more, to do more and to live more.

For #InstantInspiration go and read or follow Gaynor's blog 'Ear 'Ear and follow her on twitter at @earearblog.

Much inspired love,

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The extraordinary Jo Galloway #InstantInspiration

Social media can often times be a destructive source of envy, but at the same it can become a huge source of inspiration and motivation. I find the latter so true whenever I discover a new blog post, Facebook post or tweet by the formidable and 'formerly based in SA' Jo Galloway.

I've been keeping a keen eye on Jo via all the social platforms since she left for LA some time ago and I just become more and more in awe of her, her tenacious spirit, her unfailing commitment and her phenomenal talent taking her to new heights.

Before Jo left for the States, she was already a well established heavy weight and someone to be reckoned with within the South African entertainment industry. Jo is known for her television work on "Intersextions" and "Sketch U Later", which she also co-wrote on. Some of her Musical Theatre credits include lead performances in The Full Monty, Cats and Hairspray. Jo has twice been nominated; first for an FNB award as Best Newcomer, and later also a Naledi Award nomination for Best Actress. Some of her straight theatre, comedy and original titles include "Look Back In Anger", "Boeing-Boeing", "Perfect Wedding", "Dick & I", "Happily Ever Laughter" and "The Fugard Fest of Comedy".

On top of which she has racked up a long list of Voice Over clients with her crazy skills for accents and ease with hard sell or soft sell approaches. 

Jo has some hysterical comedy sketches view-able on her social platforms or YouTube, definitely check out the Twilight spoof and Movie spoof clips - cracks me up I tell ya!

Now in the US, she lives in LA and is working her way steadily into the torrid waters of the Hollywood scene, and making people sit up and take notice.

She already has some great achievements and titles under her belt such as Hope after Hope and The Dark Tapes feature films as well as tv spots for Xoom.com. She has done great voice work and characters for Disney titles like Might Med and ANTfarm and is running her own international voice studio from home. She has managed to not only become a SAG member (crucial in the US) but is being managed by the Bohemia Group AND has signed with a highly acclaimed agent in LA, Ideal Talent Agency.
(Check out her full and very impressive resume on IMdB Pro or her website, details below)

Let me tell you, none of these things get handed to you on a silver platter. It takes courage, money, persistence, real hard work and a lot of talent and determination.
If you're thinking of making the move to the US as an actor, go and follow her blog for hysterical and incredibly informative accounts of her own experiences and lessons learned along the way.
Blog Reel to Real by Jo Galloway 

SO, if you need some serious inspiration; something that'll make you feel like you need to get off your butt and go places, take action and make things happen - then go and follow Jo....

Website Jo Galloway

Facebook Page Jo Galloway
Twitter @JoGalloway7
YouTube Jo Galloway
IMDb Page Jo Galloway

Thanks for inspiring me Jo, HIGHER!

Chat soon peeps,