Creating Characters

               

Deion Sanders said Prime Time was a character he created in a dormitory room at Florida University because DB's (Defensive Backs) weren't being paid what they were worth. He said Prime Time was a character and Deion was someone they never really met because he was too subdued, too subtle, and he wasn't gonna cause no disturbance. Non one wanted to watch Deion on the TV. People wanted Prime.

This goes back to an earlier blog post I made about company men.

The Deion Sanders of the world (the company men) don't make waves. They don't change anything. They're, as Sanders described, "subtle and subdued."

A lot of other celebrities have said the same thing. They created characters and personas to increase their audience. Mayweather, for example, became "Money Mayweather" and started acting cocky and flashy, not to get people to like him but to get people to hate him, because, according to his logic, whether they pay to see him win or lose, they're still paying.

The problem with this type of behavior, is at some point it stops becoming a character and instead becomes your identity, and a lot of these characteristics are incompatible with a stable lifestyle.

Maybe these are the trappings of fame and riches. Play the character to get the lifestyle, but now, in order to maintain the lifestyle, you must continue to play the character, but playing the character isn't compatible with a normal lifestyle.

The sad part is, playing a character isn't really required. Company men make more than enough money and get the enjoyment of living drama free stable lives.

More on this later...