Not that it would qualify anyway, apart from saying the word 'No!' in a preposterous, mercifully brief, live breakfast TV skit 'starring' famous British cheese-ball radio DJ, Tony Blackburn, I have never in my life acted until this year. Even then, as the video above illustrates, I hardly turned in an epic performance upon my proper debut, but bearing in mind the point of the video that doesn't really matter.
As a volunteer for the Canadian Cancer Society, I was saddened to be part of the organizing committee responsible for reluctantly deciding that 2017's Relay for Life be the last one to be held in Nanaimo. Rapidly declining participant registration and plummeting year-on-year fundraising totals forced our collective hands, so from 2018 we will look at new initiatives and fresh ideas for campaigns. So, this year we are hurling everything we've got at making the very last Relay for Life in our community as good and successful as it can be, especially in terms of promotion. For my part, this has included calling on my insanely talented filmmaking friend, Raymond Knight, to see if he would be up for making a short film for us to help promote the event. With cancer affecting his family at this time, he jumped right onboard.
The resultant clip is pretty upbeat and fun, and we had a blast making it. The real star is 11-year-old Dexter Komen - at just five-and-a-half weeks old the youngest person ever to be diagnosed with the rare and aggressive rhabdomyosarcoma. He's a wonderful lad, and if the Nanaimo Relay for Life has such a thing as a poster boy, Dexter is he.
Over the course of a morning, directed by Raymond - who was ably assisted by his volunteer crew of extras - Dexter and I hammed it up at the Hub City Cinema Society in Downtown Nanaimo, fumbling our lines and corpsing repeatedly. Then, with filming done, after much skilful editing and a separate voiceover session for me, the resultant film was launched in April. I have to say I absolutely love it, as do Dexter and his lovely mom, Sonia, so we're all delighted with the end product.
To date, although it's only received just over 70 views on YouTube, it's been watched over 7,000 times via the Nanaimo Relay for Life Facebook page. That's just great, and the more people that watch it, the more likely it is that some of them will want to participate in the final Nanaimo Relay for Life. If so, job done.
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