Duncan Sarkies: Hmmm. I am told that as a performer I am the guy that doesn't look like he wants to do it... the guy who looks awkward offstage; then apparently I get on and find that I enjoy it. I seem to attract laughs from the way I deliver things when I am not intending them. I guess I suffer from accidental nuances, and people seem to like them. When I was still at school, I liked reading what I wrote to the class, and nothing has changed, I guess. So lets say, primarily a writer, with a strange enthusiasm for performance.
BMS: Your work spans quite a range of forms, from poetry to stories to screenplays... what do you feel most at home with, or is the diversity itself part of the strategy?
DS: Strategy? I suppose you could call it a strategy, but I would say its more me listening to my body. I get bored easily. I got bored with writing plays, so turned to film. Having written a film I didn't want to do another in a hurry so I wrote a book of short stories. Then a film again. What next? A short film. I would like to write and direct a puppet show. I fantasize sometimes about working at a supermarket, but I think I am too chicken to be in the real world. I can see my future in front of me - I am on a one-way ticket to being out of touch with the real world. In danger of disappearing up my own comfort zones. How to change this is obvious, but it's easier to change someone else's life than your own, and I got a wait-and-see-type atitude going on at the moment.
I will say this though - most people who's company I appreciate are (1) creative in some capacity, and (2) have more than one string to their bow. I have a friend who is a comedian/ animator/musician. Another who is a comedian/painter. An actor/musician. A producer/porn actor. A writer/documentary maker. I have a friend who is an actor and is also extremely fat. I admire these two outlets of his personality.
The great pity is that I'm not good at everything. I should have been a rock and roll star, a famous lover and a brilliant inventor, but alas, no prizes there.
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