Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Book Review: The Joker is Wild-Trials and Triumphs of Jim Carrey by Martin Knelman

                                                       


     The passage was from The Power of Focus by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Deswitt. Describes Jim Carrey journey of success.

  "Jim Carrey, the comedian and movie star who now commands twenty million dollars or more per picture, has a unique talent. He can twist and contort his face and body into the most unusual positions. At times it looks like he's made of rubber.

       As a teenager, he spent hours every day practicing in front of the mirror. He also realized that he was brilliant at doing impersonations, and this became his early routine on the comedy circuit.

    Carrey had many  challenges along the road to stardom. At one point he took two years off as he battled low levels of confidence and uncertainty. However, he was so convinced of his comedic brilliance that kept persisting until he finally offered the main role in a movie called Ace Ventura-Pet Detective. This part gave him an opportunity to be totally bizarre. The movie became a huge box office hit and launched him on the path to super-stardom. Notice, in the early stages of his career he didn't attempt to play serious roles. His supreme talent was unusual comedy. The combination of a strong belief  in his ability to plus hours of daily practice eventually paid off big time.

      Carrey improved his focus using visualization, He wrote himself a check for ten million dollars" For Services Rendered," dated it, kept it in his pocket. When times were tough he would sit on a quiet hillside overlooking Los Angeles and imagine himself as a movie star. Then he'd reread the check as a reminder of his upcoming good fortune. Interestingly enough, a few years later he signed a deal for more than ten million dollars to star in the Mask. The date? Almost identical to the one written on the check he kept for so long in his pocket."

    

No comments:

Post a Comment