If there's one thing you can count on with me, it is that my "look" will always change. Some people look exactly the same year after year after year. Me? I go from long hair to short hair, beard to goatee to clean shaven, one style of frames to another, etc. It seems like every six months or so I do something different.
This phenomenon is exacerbated by my involvement in plays. When I did Barefoot in the Park in early 2001 I had long hair and a goatee and I had to keep them throughout the run of the show. By then I was sick of the goatee so I shaved it off. When Titanic rolled around that fall I was asked to cut my hair, and I volunteered to grow a moustache and big-ass sideburns. By the time my four months in that show were over I was so anxious to shave that I brought clippers and a razor with me on closing night so I could shave as soon as the show ended. For The Music Man this year I kept my hair short and my face clean shaven. The first thing I did after closing night was to start growing a beard.
So you see, being in shows sets me up for strong reactions to whatever look I was forced to endure for the show. Right now I'm involved in a Christmas drama at the Methodist church in Collingswood, in which I play a shepherd. The director asked me to grow a beard, which I am more than willing to do for the good of the show.
The problem is I don't want to grow a beard! I like being clean shaven these days. There once was a time when I would grow a beard every fall just for the sake of doing it. Not any more.
But now here I am, growing a beard. And it's not just any beard, but a full neck-to-eyeballs beard. I figure that if I'm suposed to look like a shepherd at the birth of Jesus, I might as well go all the way. It's a good idea, I guess, but I wonder how long it will last. More to the point, I wonder how long I'll be able to put up with it before I trim it down to a more civilized size.
For now, though, I grin and bear it. She wants a beard, I grow a beard - and it'll be a sight to see.
I wonder, though, what my reaction will be to it when the show is over. I know I'll shave it off on closing night, but will there be more? My plan right now is to keep growing my hair for a while and get it nice and long again. In my anti-beard backlash will I extend my de-hairing jag to include the hair on my head? I have the clippers and I have given myself crew cuts before, so I'm not afraid to do it again.
Time will tell. I guess if Tom Hanks can grow a beard of monstrous proportions for a full year, I can put up with this for two months. Still I wonder if Hanks walked into his barber's shop afterward and requested that everything go.
Somehow I doubt it.
Speaking of beards, here's a little nugget from one of my favorite columnists, Andy Ihnatko.