NOLA Film Scene with Tj & Plaideau
A podcast about acting, filmmaking, and the improv scene in New Orleans.
NOLA Film Scene with Tj & Plaideau
Jim Vess: Folding Kindness
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Dollar bills transform into works of art and vehicles of human connection in the hands of Jim Vess, the beloved "origami guy" of the New Orleans film scene. Recorded at the inaugural Galaxy Con New Orleans, this conversation reveals how Jim's creative habit has touched lives across the entertainment industry and beyond.
Sponsored by Jana McCaffery Attorney at Law. Have you been injured? New Orleans based actor, Jana McCaffery, has been practicing law in Louisiana since 1999 focusing on personal injury since 2008. She takes helping others very seriously and, if you are a fellow member of the Louisiana film industry and have been injured, she is happy to offer you a free consultation and a reduced fee to handle your case from start to finish. She can be reached at Support the show
Follow us on IG @nolafilmscene, @kodaksbykojack, and @tjsebastianofficial. Check out our 48 Hour Film Project short film Waiting for Gateaux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5pFvn4cd1U . & check out our website: nolafilmscene.com
Welcome to Noble Film Scene with TJ Plato.
Speaker 2:I'm TJ.
Speaker 1:And, as always, I'm Plato.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to Noble Film Scene with TJ Plato. I'm TJ, I'm Plato.
Speaker 1:And we are here at GalaxyCon New Orleans, the first ever GalaxyCon New Orleans. First one, we brought somebody back from the dead. It's Bob Ross. Happy little trees. It's no accident. It's no accident. It's no accident. He's here, but TJ tell them who he is. So we're here with our friend Jim Vest.
Speaker 2:Jim is an actor and I met Jim on set. Jim is pretty well known in the New Orleans acting community.
Speaker 3:Not for painting.
Speaker 2:Not for painting, but he is known for making some art on set. If you've ever worked background and worked with Jim, you know who Jim is. If you've ever heard of the origami guy in the acting community in New Orleans, that's.
Speaker 3:Jim.
Speaker 2:Vess. Yeah, and as we're walking through GalaxyCon, jim told us a story about an interaction with one of the celebrities and a few minutes later, we're walking by a hall where the celebrity is doing a panel and we hear that celebrity telling the story of the interaction with.
Speaker 1:Jim.
Speaker 2:So, Jim, tell us about that, because that's pretty funny.
Speaker 3:I will tell you the story. John Barrowman, who was on doctor, who he was on um, it was the other show arrow.
Speaker 1:So he was captain jack and then he was I don't know his character name on arrow.
Speaker 3:He was somebody's dad bad guy, captain jack on uh on his show. But um, I I went up to him and I did like I said, I do my origami. I've had some great interactions with all the stars here. They all love my origami. Actually, I've had some great interactions with all the stars here. They all love my origami. Actually, I caught like five of them sharing their origami, so they were hiding behind the court curtain like little kids like that. They're Pokemon cards, you know. Oh.
Speaker 3:I got this and I got that. So I went up to John and I was doing one of. I asked him about doing my origami. He was signing my autograph and I asked him what he'd like to have and he asked me if this was my real hair.
Speaker 3:It's not a great wig. It moves a lot and you can see right through it. And I said, of course it is Not thinking anything about it. And I laughed. And then we're talking and I, you know, we went to do a selfie, you know. He's like oh, I got this and he's got the camera.
Speaker 3:He tells me to get around to one side of him and he's a little bit taller than me so he sees the top of my head and he kind of realized at that point that I don't have that. This is not my real hair. But he didn't realize that it was a costume until I pulled out my little paintbrush and I did this and he's like oh, my God, you're the painter guy. He's like yeah, and I said, yeah, I'm the painter guy, and I went like this and he just lost it. He's like you told me that was your real hair. I said I didn't think you believed me. I got quite the laugh out of him and it's a lot of fun doing this type of stuff. It's even more fun when they share stories about you. But as we were coming in to do our interview, like TJ said, we're walking by and I said they're talking about me, you know, and I'm like trying to pull on doors and seeing if I can get it.
Speaker 3:It's me, it's me, they're talking about me, but no, no, no. I mean, yeah, I would have, probably would have gotten thrown out of the con. But you all know that. You know, I'm kind of a ham anyway. So I would have done it and I probably would have got thrown out.
Speaker 1:I don't think he got thrown out. The crowd would have gone crazy.
Speaker 2:We'll never know, though, because the door's on this side of the wall.
Speaker 1:Somebody planned it that way. They knew he was going to try that. They knew. They just knew.
Speaker 3:They have security in place for people like me.
Speaker 1:So you told us about your origami, but what's it made of?
Speaker 3:Oh, I do dollar bill origami. It's just the medium I like doing. Everybody says, why don't you do it out of paper? Well, why don't you? No, nevermind, I don't know, I just that's what I learned on. I do some with other, like origami paper, but it's not like you carry around origami paper in your pocket all the time. I usually have a dollar or two in my pocket, yeah, so I just started doing more and more with dollar bills and you know it's just one of those fun things. I really enjoy doing it and it brings such a smile on people's faces. And you know, I mean there are times, you know Brian said earlier, there are times I'm on set that I probably are no use of it. There are times I'm on set that I probably spent more money than what I've made that day.
Speaker 2:But that's right.
Speaker 3:It's, it's the fun. You know, I don't act because, well, I don't background act for the money. I background act because sometimes the craft is really good. Him, him, him, him.
Speaker 2:That's why I do a pig. I can't think of a better thing to network and meet people on set than that you can hand out business cards, you can tell them about your podcast or you can talk to them about just about anything, and they may or may not remember it, and they may not even remember where they met you.
Speaker 3:Terry Farrell. I was talking to her From Deep Space.
Speaker 1:Nine, crazy Terry.
Speaker 3:Farrell. I was standing there talking to her From Deep Space, nine Crazy. I'm the Terry Farrell. I was standing there talking to her. I mean, we just started. I, you know, did the origami and I'm standing there and we're talking and she takes up my business card Because Brian, you know, suggested I start when I'm doing this, I should give somebody a card so they have a way to find me on Instagram or whatever. Not, like you know, anybody's going to call me on a telephone. If they do that phone, I don't have any more. So, uh, no, I still have the phone, but I just, uh, I don't care, just get new cards, but anyway, go on with your story.
Speaker 3:You know Brian's like. You know you need to have some way that they can find you for, probably more known for my origami. But you know I've I've had so many great interactions with people over just the silliest things. I've had people come up to me years later and say you know, when you gave me that bill I was having the worst day of my life. I was just having this horrible, horrible day and you turn that around for a dollar I made somebody's day. One dollar made somebody's day.
Speaker 1:And Jim's not just like. I'm going up to the stars and the celebrities.
Speaker 1:No, this is just everyday people. We were just sitting down, jim's eating lunch and he's starting to follow this stuff. And at the Comic-Con it's not like you have your private tables, you know what I mean. So we're sitting down, two ladies probably the grandma and the mom and the little baby come up, a little toddler, and Jim just goes here, you go, and her face lights up Probably better than the puppies that they have here. Puppies yeah, there's a whole booth with puppies. I got to go. He didn't get anything out of it, he actually lost the dollar. But that's who Jim is.
Speaker 3:I just I love doing it, and you know I mean so many people get excited, was it?
Speaker 2:Giancarlo Esposito. That remembered you from doing one on set, and the next time he saw you, he remembered you.
Speaker 3:He remembered my name A year later, remembered my name and he said Jim, right, and I'm looking down, it's like where's my name Actually at Barrowman's table I was talking to the girl at Vassar. She represents him and John Barrowman and they go all over the place and she was talking about how great he has worked with and how he just has has. It's this incredible memory and I told her that story and she said that's incredible.
Speaker 2:She said for him to remember a year later, you must have really made an impression and it's like, oh, that makes me feel good you know, it's something that's unique, you know, we, we were talking to luke hawks earlier and wrestler actor wrestler actor, pretty good, dude, pretty good he said no one's ever given him an origami, yeah, on set before. I've never before, jim, and nobody's given me one since.
Speaker 3:Watch this, he might beat me.
Speaker 1:Oh, we're going to show it to him and then we're going to film him beating you. But also, jim and I, being part of Kevin Smith's fan club, we won tickets to the Clerks 3 premiere, and so we took Spirit Airlines over to Los Angeles, which is it was nice, it wasn't bad. It's not as bad as you hear, but Jim's folding his origami. He gives them to the stewardesses, to the you know stewards, I don't know which term. And he got us upgraded to better seats. Yeah, their first class, just fatter seats. Yeah, it works. More leg room. He also got us free waters, but then, when you think about it, you did give him a couple of dollars, so I think it balanced out, that's right, that was fun.
Speaker 3:I have a slight fear of flying. I think I might have told you that. I don't know, I almost have the marks out of my arm. Now I don't really have a fear once I'm in the air, once the wheels leave the ground, I'm okay. But actually taking off like they're going down the runway, I am freaking the heck out, yeah. And I mean I just I don't like to fly. I love flying, I love flying. I don't like to take off. Kind of same way about landing, but you know, the taking off, for whatever reason, I have to do my little org on. I have to sit there and I have to fold five of them. You know, I have this weird thing in my head. I can't fold every one of them. I do, but I used to have to do five of them. Now I do whatever I can do before we take off. I don't have any number in my head, but it used to be. I had to do this many to make the plane day on the ADD.
Speaker 1:So I'm like all over the place anyway, not only to distract yourself, but you had to keep the plane up in the air by folding, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 3:I did that. I, I'm, I appreciate you getting us to California for that. We made it in one piece. That was. That was fun. You know, that was also. I watched Brian. You know, at every con we go to he takes pictures and he's posting like right away and everything else and and I'm always like oh, come on. Brian and we're in the Las Vegas airport. And he takes a picture of a Wonder Woman slot machine Before we even got on a plane. In Las Vegas, Linda Carter tagged.
Speaker 1:Responded and re-quoted yeah, wow, oh, that's cool. I'm usually not that noisy. I was like fanboying out over here, wow.
Speaker 3:And I'm like holy shit, that just shit, that just happened, you know. Okay, any other questions, anything else you'd like to do?
Speaker 2:well, well. So it's kind of funny how things come full circle. When brian and I first started talking about doing the podcast, when we were first kicking things off and really had formulated the plan for the show, the name for the show and the format, y'all were on your way together to go to geek con and we we did a little test interview just testing out the software in the vehicle.
Speaker 3:And now here we are at a convention together doing an episode funny and she mentioned geek, kind of like we I think you were talking about it earlier. Today was the very first convention that I actually wore a costume.
Speaker 1:And I was scared.
Speaker 3:I was freaking out. We were actually staying in a hotel room. I had all kinds of extra clothes because I thought there's no way I'm staying in a costume all day.
Speaker 1:Let me apologize At that con. The hotel was connected so anytime you needed to just go change, take a break, hit the elevator and go up.
Speaker 3:It was beautiful it was incredible to be that close to our hotel room. We had all the stars staying in the same hotel as us. Yeah, we were on our way to GeekCon and that was, I remember, the call, and we were in a bad spot and we kept losing you a little bit with the audio.
Speaker 1:I think we also learned that in a car is a lot of background noise. We've got a little bit. You might have heard some security and stuff back there. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And on top of that, we've come to find out that the software that we use is very data hungry. A cell signal in a vehicle is not the best yeah For that. So it is what it is, I guess.
Speaker 3:And another fun thing you know when you're talking about that in the car and everything, you guys, almost every guest you have you met where. Where'd you meet him? Circle?
Speaker 2:exercise.
Speaker 3:I've never taken the circle exercise, so this episode will never air. No, we've had some non-circle people.
Speaker 2:We've had a few that weren't.
Speaker 1:We're documenting you before you finally take the circle, and then after, to see how much you've grown.
Speaker 3:Commercial for Jim, please, yeah, yeah, insert commercial right here. So yeah, it's. You know, I would tell anybody that's doing any acting or anything like that get out there, have fun, play with this kind of stuff. Start out doing this, you know, find something. You know I did Bob Ross. There were several people walking by going Bob Ross and somebody next to him going who, and then you know it's like you see the connection and it's a very, very bad wig and a paintbrush. That's what I'm working with. You have to find yourself in in the paintbrush, in the bad wig, and and and make your spot. You know, I've seen some of y'all's work and and it's just like. You know it's very low budget and stuff like that. But but you, you bring your, you bring your stuff, you bring your a-game and and it shows it really does. Yeah, it's really impressive.
Speaker 1:To paraphrase and change a little bit, there are people who have perfect stormtrooper costumes, yeah, and they spend hundreds of dollars, which is beautiful, which I never do. So I do something, usually for a photo op, like I had star trek curtains when I met william shatner and recreated the twilight zone gremlin, so I put my spin on it. It's unique to walk through a room you got to be. You know people can like make fun of you. I had my fun and so then the picture people love when I share it. You know what I mean. So I think to go with what you're saying find your bliss, and that will inspire others to follow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and bring their own bliss.
Speaker 3:My first acting coach. I don't know if I can say her name yet because I don't know if she's going to be doing it yet, but my first acting coach, she taught me a couple of things that were really incredible, and one of the things she used to do to me was she would hand me a script to have what I was supposed to do, highlight it and everything, and we'd read it once and she said okay, now you're the other character.
Speaker 1:It's like what A couple of times that she would do.
Speaker 3:I would read my line and she would make a line funny instead of serious. And then I have to shift my character into comedy mode instead of being. You know, I had rehearsed it over and over again as serious and she would. She did things like that to me and she said you have to think on your feet. She said you will go in for an audition and they're going to say you know what, read this. They want you to read this and they're going to do that to you probably more times than just a straight audition. So if you're going to an audition, if they're seeing you again, they like something about you. It doesn't mean they like you for that one, but they want you for something. They like something about you. You for that one, but they want you for something. They like something about you. So be prepared, you know. Be able to think on your feet, take the time, you know. Learn a little bit of improv, you know, and just know what you can do and be ready to change your character.
Speaker 2:I had a cast and director tell me one time that sometimes they'll tell people exactly what you're saying to do it a different way that is not appropriate for the character Funny when it should be serious, or vice versa. Just to see how well you take direction.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then do it again, and it's just to see that you can implement what they're asking you to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I mean they usually always that they're going to hand you something different. They're going to give you a few minutes to look it over and, kind of, you know, build it a little bit, but you have to. They're not going to give you an hour, they're going to give you five minutes here. Take a look at this and let's go. You know, like I said, you know, it's just a matter of being, you know, a little bit more than just one layer. I'm just kind of a layer and a half.
Speaker 1:You're a many layered onion, but you know we're talking about your folding origami on set, which is fun, but not that giving out money is the way you have to do it. But you're a pleasure to work with on set, so that adds a good atmosphere, because it's a stressful time. We can later, but maybe not on camera, and you got to pay me $5. So what I'm saying is, if you're a nice person on set, people want you to come back to set. That's right.
Speaker 3:They really want him to come back to set with the dollars. But you know, well, I'm going to talk about that because I was walking to set I was on a TV show called the Winchesters working background actually, and I was just kind of walking down the road to to go to the where we had set up for, and this woman's like running behind me, one of the costume women that's running behind me and she, she said she stops me. She said you're jim, right? I said yeah, and she's like I'm from atlanta. I just got here yesterday. She said I had to stop you.
Speaker 3:She's like you know, they talk about you all over the place. Like you know, I've heard your name before I even came to to, uh, stop you. She's like you know, they talk about you all over the place. Like you know, I've heard your name before I even came to to Louisiana. She's like you know. And I was like oh, that's so sweet. And I reached in, I grabbed my wallet. I said here, just take the whole wallet. She laughed. So no, I'm not after an origami or anything. She said I just want you to know how, while that somebody's talking about you, it's nice that people find you fun. I mean it's been a rough couple of years in the movie business and personally it's been a rough year too, for people to see more than just the dollar bill that they're happy to see you is a very special day, cool.
Speaker 1:I think we're coming to the end, so let's just double check in, I think.
Speaker 3:I have one in this bag.
Speaker 2:We'll be back after this man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'll edit it into making an origami and hand it to him real quick.
Speaker 2:This is my normal set bag, but I think I might have moved it.
Speaker 3:You know how many times it's happened to me where somebody pulls out their origami. It happens a lot origami when it happens a lot, and it just makes me smile and and I, like I said over and over again, I've heard people tell me the story of of me changing their day or making something better for them that day. Yeah, had a couple of really, really hard stories told to me. You know, after you know my origamis and stuff, and you know, one girl said she changed her entire trajectory on what she was doing with her life and it. It's like I didn't do that. I don't take credit for that, but just the idea that she was able to stop and think about what she was doing made her want to.
Speaker 1:Your generosity was the pebble in the lake and the ripples that came out from that. You know. So, yes, you started the avalanche that helped her. Yeah, you know. Claim it, that's right. Yes, you started the avalanche that helped her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, claim it, that's right. Oh, you want to take us out.
Speaker 1:Yep, we're done. We don't have to listen to Jim. No, I'm just kidding Jim. It's been a pleasure. Jim and I always go to cons together. It's fun. I call him my con husband. My wife's like, yeah, take him, you don't care. Spirit of generosity and just being ready to do anything to her laugh. It makes it a pleasure to be here. So thank you for being on the show. Thank, you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jim, thanks for coming on, and I think this is our second con together. Now, you and I, I do want to plug December right. Yep, december, cajun Con At Cajun Con.
Speaker 3:I'll be somewhere around probably folding dollar bills, real close.
Speaker 2:Well, so probably at our booth.
Speaker 1:What I was going to say is we're actually going to sponsor the con. Right, we are going to be our logo on their banners when they make the announcements of hey, thanks for these people. People will be hearing that, and then we could use some people at our booth. So if we need to exit, you'd have a place to fold your dollars. So come see Jim, don't even worry about us. Come see him, get a dollar, bring a dollar, take my money. We might have to have them give you a dollar so you don't go broke, that's right.
Speaker 3:I start folding slower when I start running out of dollars.
Speaker 2:That's right. All right, folks. See you next time.
Speaker 1:See you December.
