#26 - Like a Poorly-Drawn Pony

There’s an ad I’ve been seeing on YouTube for GoDaddy’s AI-powered web design platform that I really can’t stand.

We see a derpy-looking logo for a fictional business. It comes to life off the page and speaks in a raspy cowboy drawl. “As you can tell”, he says, “I was not created by GoDaddy Airo.” We then see some other examples of logos created using the tool that the horse negatively compares himself too, saying the AI picture “actually looks like a horse”, and he looks like “a two-legged dog. A dog horse. I’m a dorse, man.”

Guess what. If you look at the comments for this video, there is OVERWHELMING support for the first logo.

And I agree! Look at this guy. He’s such a goofy little friend. Why is he so tall? Or maybe the man riding him is very tiny? Either way he’s got LONG legs. And the way the bridle is actually just a line of rope draped across his nose…like the whole concept of guiding him by force is an absurd falsity. This is a horse with personality, and a story to tell, and a point of view that might appeal to a small child who wants to learn to ride.

The GoDaddy Airo platform doesn’t just do logos. It will provide you with examples of domain names, social media assets, email copy, even entire WEBSITES without any work on the part of the user. All the pesky work of creative marketing taken care of so that you, the small business owner can focus on…other stuff, I suppose.

Small businesses — the primary target audience for this tool — already struggle with distinguishing their brands within highly-saturated markets. The solution proposed is to prioritize speed and polish over investment, in slapping on a design that seems “correct”, in disconnecting the business owner with the very thing that most people will remember about their business — its voice.

Recent Gigs

Since my last update, I have provided additional voices for the following projects:

• Magic Maker: How to Make Magic in Another World, Episode 10

• Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister, Episode 22

• Dr. Stone, Season 4, Episode 12

Featured Role: Sylphid, Headhunted to Another World

Gotta admit, I’m pretty sad this one is over.

At the tail end of “Headhunted to Another World”, Sylphid acts as Uchimura’s Watson to take down an unscrupulous merchant — who happens to be her estranged brother. Taking away all the weird implications that certain fantasy races are downright evil and those traits are passed on to their mixed-race children (can the Isekai genre chill a bit?), this provided a fun sandbox for Sylphid to cement her own vision of a just society while taking a whiny snakeman down a peg.

This season provided me with my first real fight scene, my first role shared with another actor, and my first major role in a speculative story. I remain so grateful to Lee George for casting me as this beautiful genius.

I leave you with my favorite quote from Sylphid: “Jobs are chosen by ability and aptitude, but emotions reveal our calling.”

Featured Character: Cosauko, 100 Girlfriends who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You

A few months ago I called “100 Girlfriends” “One Piece, but for women”, and I’m honored to say that I’ve been included in what is likely to be a sprawling example of the industry’s current clatch of femme talent. I play the First Baseman on a high-school girl’s baseball team themed after dinosaurs.

I love this show so much.

A huge thanks to Helena Walstrom for the opportunity to make two Pokemon jokes, fawn over Sara Ragsdale because she reminds me of my dead dog, and cheer about meat. If you want to see the zaniness go down, head on over to Crunchyroll!

Consume!

So. Severance.

What really convinced me to sit down and watch Severance was noticing that, not only was everyone in my sphere talking about it, but that when they did they were reluctant to say ANYTHING concrete about the plot.

This intrigued me. I’ve heard these same people go on about Shogun, about Hacks, about The Other Two, and more, and each time there would be mention of a specific character or a joke or a set piece or SOMETHING that excited them. Instead I got almost reverent silence, wide eyes, a small grin maybe, a little “ooooh” when I admitted I hadn’t started. Finally a “you HAVE to watch it”, delivered without follow-up or embellishment.

And I thank these people from the bottom of my heart for keeping mum.

So I’m also not going to tell you about this show. It’s not long. You can use your AppleTV+ free subscription period to watch it all. It’s not that it’s unlike any story I’ve ever seen — there’s echoes of Lost, of The Prisoner, of other lesser-known psychological thrillers — but few comparable stories are as intimate, as upsetting, and as trusting of its audience.

Performance of the Week

There is truly no bad performance in Severance. I almost made a blanket post giving the entire cast kudos for giving week after week of themselves to scenes that require extremely technical acting without sacrificing emotional specificity. And doing it on FILM, a medium that WILL give you away if you let the ball drop for a moment.

But I want to give special marks to Tramell Tillman — originally, because of his role in that banger of a season finale, but later because of this interview on The Wrap detailing his role in shaping Milchick’s character. In this, he demonstrates how an actor can and SHOULD become a true collaborator to creative leadership, how he can bring his lived experience into the room to elevate the writer’s initial impulses and create a three-dimensional agent of the story, capable of woe, dread, frolic, and malice.

And of course, yes. The man can dance.

You Gotta Look Dumb

Maybe I got so fired up about that YouTube ad because I relate to that dorse.

When I first entered the industry, I ran into wall after wall in my mad pursuit of expression. I would be told I was “unique”, praised for unconventional choices and an attachment to characters with something to prove. This was nice to hear, but the same people who called me “unique” would end up casting someone else for their projects — someone usually more conventionally attractive, or friendlier, or less anxious, or just more in line with what they expected when they created an imaginary actor in their head.

Making any kind of art requires more than passion. It requires vulnerability, a certain amount of trust in yourself and what makes you “you”, and also an expanded view of who “you” can become. It requires a willingness to use every part of your lived experience, your hopes, your fears, to tell a story in a way nobody’s ever heard it told.

When you skip the soul-searching, the effort, the specificity, the years of making sub-par stuff that nobody ever asked for, you just wind up with a generic picture of a horse.

So I encourage you — be that poorly-drawn pony. Be awkward, be fragile, be authentic, be steps away from your “best” self. Even if you want to hate yourself for it, even if you’re embarrassed by the way you walk, and how your hair sits, and feel like a two-legged dog sometimes.

Someone will think you’re the best pony in the world.

Hollis Beck is a performer and writer who crafts narratives about queer identity, found families, and people who try very hard. More information can be found on her website.