Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert Cividanes
Hi Robert, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve aways had entertaining inside me. When I was a kid and my family would visit relatives, I would sometimes put together a show with my sister and cousins performing in it. It was always comedy based, I would incorporate music cues with the record player, directing the whole thing. We would put the show on in my cousin’s basement for our parents.That impulse to create and share with others was there for me very early on. In my first grade classroom, the restroom was at the back of the room. Since acting things out in class would get me in trouble I would go into the restroom and mime different characters in the mirror sometimes using water dampened toilet pare to make mustaches, eybrows, etc. I am presently in my sixties and have found employment performing annually as Santa Claus and there I am putting on a mustache, wig and beard to do what I love and getting paid well to do it.
Many years later I got myself some help with substance addictions and one of the first things I did in early sobriety was to study acting in NYC. It immediately connected me to those impulses to create and perform that I had as a kid. I was in some really good and many really not very good original plays. One of the things about being creative and working at a craft is that you learn a lot about the world around you as well as learning about yourself. It’s always been a source of enjoyment, freedom to explore and great satisfaction to work on creating things whether it be an acting role, learing to play or sing a song,creative writing or directing other actors. Collaboration when working to create something is a specific kind of exploration that can be very joyful, inspiring, challanging or frustrating experience and all of it is a reminder of what it means to be alive.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I have experienced what some call creative procrastination and it is still a bit of a mystery to me. One thing that has helped me is viewing many master classes of people whose work I admire online. I’m getting better at paying attention when an idea for a story comes into my mind and starts to stick with me and knowing that’s what I should be working on. Imposter syndrome is something I see as being so ridiculous and yet I experience that as well sometimes. I curently have an indie feature length film I co-created running in festivals. I am very proud of the project and still there are times when the applause at the end of the film goes on for a while and the thought creeps into my mind that this is a bit of an exaggerated respnonse isn’t it? No, people can enjoy what we’ve done and show appreciation with extended applause. When I remember to acknowledge that I am truly the only person who can keep me from being creative, that’s when I am really on the beam and am open to fully embracing the process of creating whatever the next project is. The world is currently seemingly more filled with distractions than I can ever remember it being before. Falling into being part of all the divisive, anger driven, pontificating noise going on can be so easy. I get it, I really do. I choose to reject being part of that. It doesn’t serve me or anyone else in my opinion and I find it stifling to creative flow for me.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My latest project is the full length feature film called Pancakes and Syrup. I co-wrote, co-produced, co-starred in and directed the film. We are presently submitting to several film festivals so that as many people as possible get to view it in a theater type setting which is our current goal. I was fortunate enough to have been inspired to write a song, something I’d never done before and it wound up being something that really works in the film. I shot footage of an episodic I wrote that was halted when Covid hit. I am busy editing what footage I have into a cohesive enough story to be a pilot episode I can enter into festivals. I had filmed parts of three seperate episodes when interrupted so the editing is a challenge but is working out well so far. I aslo have some shorts up on the internet of a spoof on Goodfellas I created called Funnyfellas The Movie which instead of being about the world of crime, takes place in the world of stand-up comedy. That experince was helpful in preparing me to be able to direct the full length feature later on. Storytelling is a wonderful way to communicate so many things to other people and I love it. I started doing stand-up comedy nineteen years ago. I have in the last few years backed away from that business because for me, the business side of it became something that just doesn’t work for me. My standard joke about that is that I stopped being involved in main stream stand-up comedy because I noticed many people seem to develop back problems from bending over so much. I do still perform recovery based stand-up when the opportunity arises.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I am good at writing and seeing something I want to comment on and putting it to a story in an interesting way. I find one of the most important things for me is to remain open to input and collaboration when creating. Being able to take things I may fail at and then taking the time to see what it’s teaching me is something I’m getting better at and I find it to be valuable in creating and just about anywhere else in my life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://pancakesandsyrup.net
- Instagram: @robcividanes
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/robcividanes
