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I don't think anyone in the WWE really knew that I did parkour. I mean, some of the guys have seen me doing it backstage in arenas before and have always asked about it, but the office didn't know.
I take that stage, and I'm the same guy backstage as I am on the stage. And you know what that guy is. That guy is a star. That guy is a champion. That guy is the guy that put '205 Live' on the map.
Recently, I went up to Casino Rama to see Martin Short's show, just to see how he put it all together. And after the show, I went backstage and picked his brain to find out why he did certain things.
You get into any club you want, you have backstage passes for any concert you can think of, anywhere. You have access to everything, in the same way a toddler does. Everybody's like, 'Oh come on in!'
NYFW is not just about the designers and the runway. It is a massive production from the celebrities in attendance, the assistants backstage prepping the models before they walk to the epic after-parties!
I find out as much from the guy in backstage TV as I do from my C.F.O. Anybody can e-mail me. I do town halls with employees at least once every eight weeks. I'm out there, and it makes a huge difference.
I don't often wear mascara in real life, but on-set or backstage, if I'm crying or even if my eyes get watery, I get a Q-Tip, and I wet it with a few drops of water. Then I go lash by lash and clean it up.
Woodstock - I didn't see anybody play, except when I was standing backstage waiting to go on, because it was so muddy. And the weather was so horrible, you literally couldn't get there except by helicopter.
I had the most expensive haircut you can get, and I was walking around with my hair in rollers backstage, and my hair still came out looking like I was shot out of a cannon and I had just gotten out of bed.
I read 'Backstage' a lot when I first was unleashed into the world from drama school. And what was great about it was that if I was using it or not, it was just nice to know what was happening in my community.
It was 1988, I believe, that I met Grit. We were both appearing in a Canadian Folk Festival and as we sat backstage he handed me his guitar. I played it, loved it, and then found out that he'd made it himself.
Backstage, I get sleepy, and want to curl up and snooze. I never get nervous, whatever the event. I feel quite detached until I walk on stage, and then some gear inside me clicks and off I go like a wind up doll.
It's easy to be lazy when there's food lying around backstage or there's a fast-food joint a couple blocks away. But if you walk a little further, ask around a bit, of course there are exciting things to discover.
I love all insider memoirs. It doesn't matter whether it's truck-drivers or doctors. I think everybody likes to go backstage, find out what people think and what they talk about and what specialised job they have.
You see, I am friends with a lobsterman. Because we are friends, which feels lucky anyway, I get access to the most amazing fish. It's like having a backstage pass - a culinary jackpot that feels almost undeserved.
My ideal setting is I walk from the streets, backstage, and straight onto the stage. Two minutes, and I am on the stage. That way, in my head I have gone from my world and then into a social setting with my friends.
I always say that I was dancing and acting in the belly. I feel like it's something I was born with and inspired by my family since I grew up backstage, watching them perform. I guess it was just a natural path for me.
I want to go to Harry Potter Land! I actually should text Emma Watson to see if she can hook us up with a backstage pass or something. That's the perk of doing a movie with Emma called 'The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.'
Sometimes with the WWE, you can get a little bit stale. Your traveling is usually with the same group, and you're generally working with the same person and the same type of match, and it's the same environment backstage.
So I majored in Drama, did all the plays that were possible to do, skated through school in order to be in every production on stage or backstage in whatever capacity and I came to New York looking for work in the summers.
Backstage, I do my own thing and have my own spots in the locker room, so environmentally, it's not very different for me. But the backstage environments are vastly different, but that is mainly because of the personalities.
In post-Vietnam, post-Watergate America, skeptical voters demand full disclosure of everything from candidates' finances to their medical records, and spin-savvy accounts of backstage machinations dominate political coverage.
Yeah, I did some small parts in high school and the first year of college and then fairly soon thereafter I settled into the backstage scenery, and then at the University of Maryland I was doing posters for their productions.
My former bullies pay extra to come backstage and meet me after shows, and I pretend not to know them in front of their friends. It is the most divine pleasure to exact the revenge of the brutalized child that resides within.
When I first got to WWE, people thought I was going to be fired within three months. No one liked me; no one wanted me there, whether it was the fans or the people backstage. I had to fight and fight and fight to earn my spot.
My junior year, I was in a play at school and five days before opening night, I still didn't know my lines. Opening night was a disaster. I was so embarrassed. The director made me work backstage for the rest of the performance.
Mick Jagger visited us backstage and told us how much he liked our show. Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts came back too, and they wanted to get their pictures taken with us. Bill Wyman knew our chart positions. I couldn't believe it.
It's nowhere near as intense as what I imagine an actor experiences backstage, but I feel a fluttering nervousness before a curtain goes up on a play. I mean, any play, anywhere - on Broadway or the Bowery or in a church basement.
The twenty minutes or more we spend inside the ring, that's the fun part. It's the rest of our lives that's the real battle - the ruthless backstage politics, the constant traveling, the endless mental and physical aches and pains.
The things that we have, the opportunities that we continue to do with the backstage vignettes, throwing guys into ceilings, trash cans, lockers, and everything I can find to put them in and through, that itself has been fun for me.
In 2011, I had a big chip on my shoulder, and I felt like I had a lot to prove every time I went out there. It led to good performances, but sometimes backstage, I could be - not to the talent, but just in general - I could be angry.
The backstage stuff is not for everybody. I'm very hands on; I like to train and teach young guys now because there's so many of them. There are certain ways to do things, to get crowd reactions and sell your emotions and sell stories.
My family was amazing; they exposed me to the world of show business, and, boy, it was the '70s and I got to spend a lot of time backstage at theaters and see the inner workings of how this entertainment industry is really put together.
It's like, backstage at 'SNL,' like, if you come back after a show or something, or a lot of times even at the after-parties, we're just pretty tired and like, 'Hey, what's up.' Just getting a drink and kind of chilling out. Nothing crazy.
One of my earliest memories is being backstage at 'Bran Nue Dae' in Darwin when I was about eight. It's such a fun, happy show and a real celebration of being Aboriginal... it felt really great and achievable as a career. It all felt normal.
When we were doing 'The Office,' there was an area backstage where they worked on hair and makeup, and I was sitting there waiting to get ready to go on, and one of the writers went, 'I want you to audition for 'Bad Teacher.'' I went, 'Okay!'
I've gotten to go to the Opry a couple of times and stand backstage and watch. But I made it a point not to take a tour or stand in the circle until music took me there. I told myself that was one place I'd never go unless music took me there.
Waiters are like actors waiting in the wings, bantering whenever we passed each other on the restaurant floor, shouting at each other backstage in the kitchen and winking and corpsing above the heads of our audience, the unsuspecting customers.
I was making stickers for guys' bands. I was in the front row photographing bands, booking bands, doing all of the kind of backstage stuff, and I didn't even think for a second I could do it, and then I saw Babes in Toyland, and all that changed.
I would say my most disappointing moment was not competing in a match even though I was Divas Champion at 'WrestleMania XXVII.' Although, I did get to be a part of a fun backstage segment with Stone Cold, the Rock, and Mae Young... not too shabby!
I find that I get nervous before I play. Even sound checks can give me anxiety and screw with my mind. But as long as I can play a little acoustic guitar backstage if I'm feeling nervous, so I don't have to walk in there cold turkey, I'll be fine.
But honestly, it's pretty weird; there are girls who'd do absolutely everything just to get a backstage pass. I don't know what it is, but really, when you're on national TV in America the girls love you. They all want you! And I'm not complaining!
My tenth-ever gig was in an arena, which is mad... I remember being backstage with multiple artists there and someone had had their teeth done - like veneers - and I come from a very small village where people are lucky to even have all their teeth.
In America, celebrities who go to see your show will come backstage and introduce themselves. Meeting Annette Bening and Ethan Hawke that way was amazing, but when Tom Hanks came, it was really special - I've loved him since I first saw him in 'Big!'
The first thing I say when someone says they want to be an actor is, 'Go get 'Backstage.' You know what's going on, you know who's doing what, and there's work that you can find in there. It's an incredible resource, and there's nothing else like it.
I always say the best applause you can get is when you walk from backstage up to your microphone at a concert. It's also nice to walk up to the mike at an awards show, and that applause is great, too, but the best is when your fans are cheering for you.
At one point in the mid-Eighties I shared a promoter with the Smiths. One night, we were sitting backstage when Morrissey burst in, utterly distraught, sobbing his heart out. Turns out someone had thrown a sausage at him on stage during 'Meat Is Murder.'
Our publicist at Warner Brothers is a young guy who has worked so hard for seven years with us and when we saw him backstage he broke down and cried. He couldn't believe it happened. It was seeing him so overcome when we realised how much it really meant.
It's funny, though, because when I first started going to races after we met, I was extremely nervous. It's like being backstage and hoping you don't trip over something or break an amp or accidentally speak into a live microphone, so I was really hesitant.
I do remember meeting 'The Donald.' He seemed to really enjoy the WrestleMania 4 battle royal. He watched me take a very hard front turnbuckle bump, and it seemed to stun him that I wasn't seriously hurt. Backstage, Trump gave me a big smile and a handshake.