Actor, voice artist, and playwright Lance Lewman spent years fighting his stage fright, until the night he stood backstage waiting for his nerves to show up and realized they were the engine all along.
Lance grew up in Maryland believing Pete the Pirate lived in his basement. The pirate was his father, Baltimore TV personality Lary Lewman. In this conversation, Lance talks about the drama teacher who cast him on a hunch, sending 150 resumes to New York casting offices and hearing nothing, the advice his father gave him when he wondered if he was good enough, and a voiceover career that includes more than 500 National Geographic programs.
We also talk about Brilliance, Lance's musical about actress Frances Farmer, which began as a song he and Kristan King wrote in 1983 and kept in an envelope marked "musical" for more than thirty years. We get into Farmer's involuntary commitment, why her mother shouldn't be played as a monster, Lance's next musical about Florence Mills, and what a voice is for once you've learned to trust it.
One question to carry: What have you put in the envelope, and what would it take to open it again?
(00:00) Intro
(01:00) Pete the Pirate lives in our basement
(07:00) The part that changed his life
(21:00) 150 resumes and "They don't even know you're there"
(32:00) The nerves were the engine
(39:00) The envelope marked "musical"
(42:00) Frances Farmer and Brilliance
(1:00:00) What a voice is for
(1:06:00) Every move you make matters
Brilliance: https://www.musicalbrilliance.com
Magnetic Selecting, James's new book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HJTTJP4B
Dark Night Alchemy on Substack: https://jamesoneilllcpc.substack.com/
Work with James: https://tidycal.com/1vwkqy3/15-minute-meeting
jamesoneillguide.com
May you be well
