We all love Janet

Several of us had done many shows in a row with dear Janet, someone I've been working with for a quarter of a century.  Janet --whilst performing-- believes very much in a Buddhist-style 'living in the now' kind of a thing during shows.  To calm her frenzied mind and achieve a perfect state of tabula rasa, she stands in front of the only mirror we have backstage, endless combing her hair, or wig, or nothing at all, often just staring for uninterrupted minutes at a time, lost deep in the familiar and intoxicating topography of her own features. Of course in the meantime, the poor men, who generally are in three or four times as many numbers as the women and have no time to lolligag --and barely any to get dressed-- find themselves contorting their reluctant and aging bodies in a variety of ways so that they can use the tiny edges of the mirror that the entranced Janet is willing to concede them.

Of course, once gone, we miss her simple-minded obstructionism and quickly use a stool, wig, and the only spare brush we have to simulate having her backstage (and in the way) again.  This picture, though dark, depicts me --during an actual show-- attempting to get ready to be a Japanese man around Fauxjanet, as we have named her/it.  Pronounced to rhyme with 'play.'