Adventures of an Actor: The Real Buddy Holly

Shorty after graduating from the mighty Cornish College of the Arts, I auditioned for a play advertised as a new work musical about country music. Do a contemporary monolog and bring your guitar! So I did.

I did my monolog, (can't even remember what I was doing at that time) picked up my guitar when the director said:

"I see on your resume you say you played Buddy Holly..."

"Yes."

"I don't recognize the name of the show."

"Yes, 'Not Fade Away'. Story of Buddy's last concert. I wrote and toured it myself."

"Really. Can you do us a Buddy song?"

"Sure, what would you like to hear?"

"How about 'Blue Days, Black Nights'?"

Now, that is an obscure Buddy song, not on any rerelease at the time. You have to know Holly's music pretty well to know about that one, let alone play it. I could see what he was doing. He figured I was lying, making up something that might look good on a resume, especially for this kind of show. People do it, they're not supposed to, but they do. He figured he had me; unknown show, perfect for this audition? Gotta be resume padding.

There was only one thing I could do:

"Sure, that was Buddy's first Nashville release on Decca Records, written by Ben Hall, a DJ friend from Texas. It was a flop but "That'll Be the Day" hit on Coral records about six months later. I actually like "Blue Day's" flip side "Modern Don Juan" a bit better. Here we go..."

I did two verses and a chorus , bowed and exited, guitar still over my shoulder.

Didn't get that part, but I like to think it wasn't because I sucked, it was because I was a smart alec.

(Now, normally I would put a pic of myself as Buddy Holly, but all of that pre-internet/computer VHS and paper stuff was lost in a flood in my mother's basement. This is the lesson learned; store things up high)