Welcome to the Season 3 premiere of 7 Minute Stories! In this episode, Aaron tests the limits of how far he will go for fame…
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Story created & performed by: Aaron Calafato
Senior Audio Engineer: Ken Wendt
Additional vocals: Cori Birce
Art: Pete Whitehead
Music: thomas j. duke
7MSS3E1Takeyourshirtoff - powered by Happy Scribe
Hey, what's up? This is Anthony from Ohio shouting out 7 Minute Stories. I've been listening to this podcast since day 1. The first episode was called the Cruise. I believe it launched on May 29 to 2018. Ever since that episode, I've been hooked on it.
Week after week, I come back, and I know that that's for so many of you guys that are listening to this podcast. I highly recommend it to everyone and anyone. All it's going to take is one or two episodes and you're going to quickly add it to your top favorite podcast. Enjoy.
You're listening to 7 Minute Stories with Aaron Calafato. This is season 3. If you want to connect with us or grab some merch, visit us at 7minutetories.com. That's the number 7 minuteutestories.com. This episode, take your shirt off.
Man, it feels good to be back. So what would you compromise in order to achieve a dream? You got something that you really want right around the bend, right around the corner, and the shortest way to get there—you're at a crossroads—the shortest way to get there is to compromise something about yourself about your own standards, morals, beliefs, whatever. If you're an artist compromising the art, like selling out, you sold out your art just for fame and forging. Look at you. That's the judgment that comes out.
Now there's a longer road, usually, and that means non-compromise. But it makes sometimes that road even longer, and it looks like it's so far away to that crossroads is really difficult because you see the thing right in front of you. If you just do this thing, if you just compromised this one little thing about what you set out to do and things that you said, I'd never do that, but there it is, there's the thing you really want.
We've all, many of us have faced that crossroads, have been there. Now, I'd like to think, for me, most of my choices in pursuit of my dream in pursuit of my art have been noble, or at least I've tried to make them that way.
I've been critical of other people, especially other artists. Now, what's that saying? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone?
Well, let me tell you a little story about me. It's early 2000, like 2002, I think. I'm a sophomore going into my sophomore year in college and I'm in Washington, DC interning. I've told multiple stories about this time, and there's going to be more because it was such an interesting time period. It was only about three months, three or four months over the summer, and going into the next semester. But I was in Washington, DC and I was 19 years old, and it was the first time I was really free as an adult.
I lived with my uncle. He's amazing. I spend time with my cousins. But during the week, during the work week, I was by myself, I got to do whatever I wanted to do. I had my own car. I would just go out and explore and go around Washington, DC, and check out different neighborhoods. I was really just taking it all in.
Now, even though I was interning at a corporate entity, the real goal was to become an actor. In my mind, I was just a film and theater actor masquerading as a guy working in intern at a corporation. That's the narrative in the story that I told myself.
I remember it had to be just sometime during the week. There weren't a lot of people in crowds, so it wasn't too busy. I went to this mall in... I got to be honest, I can't remember what the mall was, but it was in the DC area. Going into the mall and I'm just walking around, I'm mall walking with all the mall walkers.
I see this photography studio within the mall. I don't know if it's like senior pictures and other things, wedding photos, but there was a whole section in the store that had pictures of actors. It caught my eye because I wanted to be an actor.
I go into the photography studio/store and I'm looking at these pictures, and it's a picture of Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, and they're signed, and a bunch of other actors, too.
There was this guy, late 40s, early 50s behind the counter in all blacked out with a giant chain, gold chain and lots of rings on his fingers. He saw me looking at these pictures of actress and he goes, "Hey, are you an actor?" When he said that, I thought, "Man, I must really exude all this artistry. He knows I'm an actor." I turned around and said, yeah, I'm an actor. I haven't done much yet, but I'm in pursuit of being an actor in film and television and theater.
He goes, "That's great. Yeah, I could tell. I could tell you're an actor. You just had that look." I was like, "Oh, man, this is pretty cool. He can tell." He goes, "I took those pictures." He's referring to Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, all these people. I was like, really? He goes, "Yeah, I have a lot of connections with agents in the industry, and I take photos for their clients, and these are some of their clients and they sign up for me. So I do a lot of headshots."
He goes, "Do you have heads shots yet." I said, no, I don't. He goes, "You got to have that if you want to make it in the industry?" He said, "Do you have a manager?"
And I said, no I don't have a manager yet. "What about an agent?" I said, no. He said, "Well, you got to have those if you want to make it in this business. I know because I have connections in the business." I sat there.
As I'm listening to the guy, I thought to me, he really has the in on this thing. I was more open to talking to him because I felt like he was a connection point to what I wanted to do. That's how I presented himself.
Then he's like, "Hey, do you have a type? Has anyone told you what type of actor you are?" I was like, "What do you mean? Drama or comedy?" He's like, "No, just like a type." He's like, "There's a Leonardo DiCaprio type. You got a nice head, like Leonardo DiCaprio. Big head, nice face. You're like a Leo DiCaprio type," where he's like, actually more like a Jonathan Brandis. RIP. Jonathan Brandis type.
I was like, "I love those actors." I was like, "Yeah, I've been told." My ego is on fire right now. He goes, "Let me ask you something. Do you work out?" I was like, a little bit. I play soccer and I try to keep fit. He goes, "Yeah." He goes, "Take your shirt off."
I'm going to be honest with you. I didn't bat an eye. I took my shirt off in point five seconds. I just took my shirt off. He doesn't move. He's just looking at me. I can tell the look that he's looking at me with is not one that I really like.
Somehow it broke through this haze and this intoxication of fame and my future and my dream, and this guy being a step in the right direction. Now I'm standing in a photography studio in a mall. I'm like a freaking Tuesday, and I got my shirt off. I'm showing this guy my chest.
What is happening? This all happened, by the way, in a millisecond? I put my shirt right back on. I said, "Oh, yeah, okay, well, I got to get going," and I get out of there. I hear him, "See you later. Bye." I drive back home and all I could do is think about what I just did.
The lesson that I had learned in that moment and now, which is no desire, no dream is worth compromising one's own dignity. From that moment on, I've kept my shirt on.
7 Minute Stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato. Our senior audio engineer is Ken Wendt. Our resident artist is Pete Whitehead. Original Music by TJ Duke. If you or your company needs help starting a podcast, Aaron and Ken's company Valley View does just that.
Reach out to them at valleyview.fm. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcasts. I'm Cori Birce. Make sure to tune in next week for another story.
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