Why I Signed Up for an Acting Class as a Person With a Disability

I find excitement in acting. It’s a different way for me to show off my emotions and express myself. I’ve always thought I was meant to be a be a performer and be on stage. It might go back to when I was a little boy and used to act out wrestling matches. When I was a teenager I pretended to be in dramatic plays where I was a torn up lover or a superhero. I’m very dramatic and impulsive and I just want to find an outlet for these emotions.

In my teenage years I watched “Boy Meets World” and “Wonder Years.” I valued the childhood lessons, raw honesty and realism of these shows and resonated with their depictions of heartbreak, growing up and moving forward. I never auditioned for any type of theatrical performances or school plays as they all seemed too corny and didn’t speak to me the way these shows did. I felt Corey and Kevin laid down the proper playbook for finding a storybook romance, and they did it with such truth, it felt real at the time, even though it wasn’t. I guess that’s what good acting is all about!

When I was cutting wrestling promos, I was cultivating my acting skills. I learned the art of dramatic pauses. I also learned how to shift my emotions from happy to sad to angry to excited with a simple voice inflection. At first I was doing it for the love of wrestling, but at the same time I was learning how to become an actor. As I was training to become a wrestling manager, I auditioned for the TV show “Shameless.” My role was supposed to be a disabled person who is trying his best to get Viagra. I didn’t get the role, but they said I had a great take and I knocked it out of the park. I can attribute that to the numerous hours I put in practicing, but I also think wrestling played a big part in helping me cultivate my skills.

And now my journey to acting class begins. It’s going to be an interesting ride, to say the least. Apparently we will all be trained on how to do various scenes, and then we are supposed to act those scenes out. The classes are five days a week three hours a day, so my life may be a little more chaotic than usual, but I like chaos and I like having something to do.

I hope to use acting as a skill to help me get better at wrestling promos. I might even cultivate a new career — we will have to see where it goes. One thing’s for sure, I will give it my best because I always bring 100 percent effort to anything I do. I’m an actor and I will present myself with the charisma and attitude worthy of being one.