mid-Feb 2013

"Show business is dog-eat-dog. It's worse than dog-eat-dog. It's dog-doesn't-return-other-dog's-phone-calls. Which reminds me. I should check my answering service." - Woody Allen said it and now I've stolen it as the title of my new revamped BLOG.

Lots of action since last last time. First of all, I've learned to love Twitter (@kerryshale). It took many months to get it, like it ... and even love it. What a wonderful way to waste time. Thank you, Internet Gods for introducing me to ridiculous delights like: http://www.youtube.com/user/BadLipReading

I've been reviewing all manner of books, films, theatre and exhibitions for Radio 4's Saturday Review and am currently prepping for my live appearance on BBC2's The Review Show on 1st March. Blogging and Tweeting are fun ways of avoiding my work, so as soon as this is published it's back down to the comfy sofa for a few more chapters of this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Give-Me-Everything-You-Have/dp/0374219079/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

This blogging stuff is hard for a freelance actor. I tend to forget a job, good bad or indifferent, as soon as I finish it. You gotta keep moving forward, like Woody's proverbial shark, or you die. Looking back on the last few weeks, the highlights were:

a couple of nights working on this terrific new British film, Hello Carter:
http://www.sainou.com/kerry-shale-films-hello-carter/

recording a BBC Book of the Week, Far From The Tree:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2013/09/far-from-the-tree.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2013/09/far-from-the-tree.html

I was interviewed for a BBC Radio 4 feature about the difficulties in making a film version of John Kennedy Toole's nutty and never equalled cult novel A Confederacy of Dunces. I also read some extracts from the book. The programme is called The Curse of Confederacy and goes out on 11 March at 11 am. C of D was my first adaptation job. My solo version of the novel ran 2 and a half hours and damn near killed me. It was worth it.

My acting agent has just rung with an audition, so must finish...