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Whether famous or not, even unknown, certain people who make their living as performers just have a weird light about them, a charisma that the rest of us don't.
While working in gee-gaw shops on Fisherman's Wharf in the years right after college I met my share of celebrities. Janet Jackson came into the store where I worked during her "Rhythm Nation" tour (boy, am I dating myself or WHAT?). She was sweet and shy and almost unfathomably sexy. From that height we descend to Leon Rippy, who came into the same store a year earlier. Rippy has had prominent co-starring roles in many films over the years, perhaps his biggest as the colonial militiaman who commits suicide after seeing his murdered family in "The Patriot" with Mel Gibson. Anyway, he also had that charisma, and was quite nice, fretting about spending any money lest his wife "kick [his] butt." And from that mid-level we descend to some guy hired as a "Young Elvis" impersonator for a 50s theme party at a former employer. This guy was a nobody, but he had that charisma in spades, and was also a very cool dude, quite nice.
This kind of thing is why these people get work in the entertainment biz, and keep getting it, at whatever level they are situated. This is why it is so sad to run into "actors" and "singers" without one ounce of that wonderful energy, knowing they'll never get anywhere, but seeing the ferocious ambition blazing in their eyes.
