Marc Singer Sideways Acting Masterclass

I have known actors, maybe you have one downstairs, it’s possible you may be one yourself. It’s not important.
But this is.


The Beastmaster.

It is the incredible tale of a young man, Dar, son of Zed, brother of Tal.
It is a world where only women, villains and animals have names longer than one syllable.
Owing to a prophecy that Ma-ax (High Priest of Ar –played by a young Rip Torn – you know, he plays an old Patches O’Hoolahan in Dodgeball. The young Patches is played by Hank Azaria from the Simpsons, and Huff, and Grosse Point Blank) will be killed by ‘Zed’s unborn son’ , one of Ma-ax’s witches teleports him pre birth from his mother into an ox, then teleports away (cackling). She gets killed before she can sacrifice him by a balding merchant. Just before she dies she is suddenly, briefly naked before putting her clothes back on to leap into a fire. When she dies, she cackles too.

The young man grows to young manhood. In the mean time Zed despite being held by Max for all that time has somehow managed to sneak out of the pyramid where he is being held hostage (did I mention he’s been blinded) and father a second child. He then sneaks back into his cell. The old devil.
Dar becomes a man, for some reason (maybe to do with being in the ox) he can talk to animals, like Dr Doolittle. It’s not long before he’s got a small menagerie – a panther,an eagle and 2 ferrets.
He uses his gift to see through their eyes to spy on girls bathing in a pool (in the Director’s cut they’re bare-chested – one of them, Tanya Roberts, was a Bond girl from Living Daylights). There are some fights, one of the ferrets dies biting May-Axe in the nuts and then exploding. Another witch turns into a dove. She cackles when she dies too. It might be a family tic
The Beastmaster’s younger brother is made king , wearing a big nappy. The city rejoices.

It’s a great story only made better by Marc Singer’s unique approach to acting. Marc you may remember was cameraman Mike Donovan in the original V (he also played an emerald miner who was Bobby Ewing’s friend from college in series 8 of Dallas (the one that was a dream) – he has used the powerful acting technique that he developed in all his work. It is very simple but incredibly effective; wherever you are supposed to be and whatever you are doing, always present your side profile to the camera. Whilst it isn’t the most natural pose in the world it does ensure that the audience can always see all the acting you are doing with your face, all the time.
Of course the technique has its detractors, Al Pacino was famously dismissive, ‘I never heard of that,’ his eyes seemed to say.
But for the naysayers amongst you, including local actor Stephen Yardley (Ken Masters – Howard’s Way not Streetfighter), I suggest you look at the results of what happens when Marc doesn’t use the technique. It isn’t nice.








Not Nice.