Who's Bob Calls?
Why, he's the imaginary rock star I told you about last blog. I made him up when I was about nine years old.
I had a thought the other day - I get them now and again! Wouldn't it be fun to become Bob Calls? Pretend I'm already a successful rock star? Maybe I'll be living a quiet life in the south of France amid my art collection where I moved to escape the taxman. Or another alter ego? Maybe Captain Canada? He's another character I invented when I was a kid. I put him into his own comic book.
I know that lots of artists, writers and performers have used stage names, nom de plumes and other forms of alternate identities. There's nothing new there. The only difference is that I've never thought of doing it before.
So what would it be like?
I imagined doing a "Bob Calls Show" as a live program on Facebook. Maybe I'd have to take all of his song titles (which I made up when I was a kid) and actually turn them into real songs. I could dress differently, maybe make a visit to Value Village to find some cool duds. I could be Bob in his "Sgt. Pepper" phase. Maybe I could talk differently. Who knows? This could be a thing!
"Where's Bob?" "Bob's not here so I'm filling in for him."
"Where's Brian?" "Brian's not here so I'm filling in for him."
What's the point of it all? Mostly to have a little fun. As I mentioned before I'm certainly not the first person to think of this. The whole point behind Sgt. Pepper was the Beatles masquerading as another band. I think it takes the pressure off being yourself all the time. Actors can tell you that putting on a mask frees you to be anything or anybody.
Who knows, maybe someday I'll put out an album under the title "Bob Calls and Beat Boys' Greatest Hits". Wouldn't it be fun to make up all of Bob's greatest hits?