Friday, February 6, 2009

Gigging

Many of you who saw the recent Mickey Rourke film "The Wrestler" saw his interview with Jimmy Kimmel about the role wherein he recounted a discussion with the director who had asked him if he was familiar with the term "gigging" as it applies to wrestling and, if he was would he be willing to do it in the film.Blading (professional wrestling). (2009, January 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:37, February 7, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blading_(professional_wrestling)&oldid=264216381

Rourke who is no stranger to the body building/entertainment industries knew that "gigging" entailed tricking an audience into believing a wrestler had incurred a bloody injury from his opponent during the match. The gigging wrestler hides a broken bit of a piece of razor blade in his wrist tape and at the opportune time during the match cuts himself in a place which will produce much blood all to the delight and utter horror of the spectacle. The injury is attributed to the absolute negligence and disregard for ring safety displace by gigger's opponent.

The problem with gigging is that nobody in their right mind cuts themselves on purpose in front of an audience. There are many troubled souls who cut on themselves in private out of psychological pain but that is topic for another day. Rourke said the worst part of filming the movie was wondering when the director was going to give him the nod. How often in our lives are we given the nod to gig? Maybe not in the same sense as the wrestling world but in other ways. Be nice to the rude customer. The customer knows he/she is rude so your feigned act of contrition is gigging in the market place. Who is the audience? The guy in line; your coworkers, your boss.

The time for gigging is over. No one is fooled or entertained. Next time some one takes a shot at you don't gig. Let them in no uncertain terms that they have crossed the line. Don't oil the squeaky wheel. Add some salt and seawater and send it on its way. If you see someone showing off in his gas guzzling planet killing automobile don't ohh and ahh. Give him the finger or the universal O: sign. Seriously this is not enough love in this world but there is too much gigging going on.

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