Aaron Marcus spent three days lying in a chair at the Kidney Week convention in Washington, D.C., pretending to be a dialysis patient. Taped tubes and fake blood made him look real. He kept his eyes closed and stayed silent so salespeople would have to pitch directly to visitors instead of asking him questions.
Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I had a job that was very interesting, very different. And it's crazy, you just never know where you're going to end up in the industry and what might come your way. So let me tell you about this. There was a company, and the company primarily does promotional work, people handing things out at events or on the street, that kind of stuff. That's not something I would be interested in doing. Nothing against it, it's just not something I would want to do. But there was one that seemed intriguing to me, so I submitted a headshot and resume and wound up booking it. There was a huge convention at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center, and this was Kidney Week. The whole event was dealing with kidneys, so you had lots of doctors, you had researchers, pharmaceutical people. So I got hired by a company, and these people were really, really nice to work with, and they have a new piece of equipment for people with bad kidneys, and it's a dialysis machine. So What I had to do was, and I would do this, I'm trying to remember, it was like 3, 4 hours, I think it was 3 hours. I would lie down in the dialysis chair, or in the chair that they used, and that was it. And they had tubes connected to me that went to the dialysis machine. They didn't They didn't have a needle going inside me. They just taped it. It looked like it. It looked like I was on dialysis. They had red paint so it looked like blood was coming through. The machine was on. It was doing something. And that's what I did, 3 hours a day, 3 days straight. It was great. It was a really interesting experience. And I'll tell you why, for a couple of reasons. Number one, I asked a lot of questions, did a little research, and people are on dialysis. I mean, they do a variety of things. Sometimes they might be reading, they might be watching television, they might be on their phone, and sometimes they just sleep. And so what I decided to do was, look, I there were a lot of things I could have done. I could have you know just had a book and read the book, but I wanted to make it super real. Realistic, and they did mention sleep. So what I would do is I would, once I got ready, I would close my eyes. And I tell you, it was a, it was a really cool experience to just have your eyes closed and take in all the sound from the area. And I'm hearing everything from just the noise of a huge convention center. I was hearing the ringing of There was a piece of equipment from a booth next to us, kind of like across the aisle, and that thing would ring periodically. I'd hear that. I'd hear the salespeople doing pitches about the equipment. Heard people asking questions. And what was really nice was I had just come back from a bunch of days of work, and I was tired. I traveled a lot, and I just kind of like went into this other place, and it was almost like, you know, meditating for 3 hours. It was just really cool. And I found— and there were times I would sleep, you know, sometimes my eyes were just closed and I'm just taking everything in. But even in that situation It was like being in a different state, just having your eyes closed. And you almost— for me, I almost felt like I was invisible in a sense. And, uh, and then there were times I would take like a little doze and, and I would wake up and I felt great. Um, and, and something else that, that I decided to do Was I wanted to— look, I'm a team player for anything, whether it's a feature film, a television show, a TV commercial, commercial modeling ad, radio spot. It doesn't make any difference. I always try to not make it about me and try to make it about what's best for this project. And so for this project, What was really good for the salespeople was the— well, first of all, I mean, they just— and they paid a lot of money for this— to have a live human in this chair. They could have just used, you know, some kind of mock-up or a dummy or something like that, but what they were hoping for was— It might bring more attention to the booth by having a live person. And so I really wanted it to work well for them. That was another reason why I didn't want to be on my phone. I didn't want to be reading a book because what happened quite often was when people were a little bit far away, they didn't know if I was real or not. I look pretty realistic from, from a distance, but they weren't really sure. And there, there were people who would walk over to me and actually poke me. One, one woman grabbed my toes, uh, you know, I opened up my eyes because I wasn't expecting it, and she goes, oh my God, you're real! I said, yep, I'm real. I'm right here, just a regular human. And, um, and I thought that By having my eyes closed, it would intrigue— it would be more intriguing. It would be more interesting. It would bring more people over just to kind of see if this is a real person or not. And then there were a lot of people who were asking, and I made sure that I really didn't talk very much. I didn't want to take anything away from the salespeople. I wanted them to have full control over any kind of conversation. So when people would come over, like sometimes they would say, are you really on dialysis here? Because it looked very real. I didn't want to go into a long explanation with things. I didn't want to get into— I just said, nope, nope, just, uh, just an actor. And then I would stop. And then that allowed the salespeople to start a conversation and get cards. They were scanning cards and things like that. I guess what I wanted to mention here is it's really helpful, I think, to be a team player, to do the little things that you can do to make the project better. Anyhow, it was a great experience for me. I Really enjoyed it. The people were very nice. They're always walking over. Hey, anything I can get for you? Do you want anything to drink? And by the way, since I had to be in the chair for three hours straight, never had anything to drink while I was in the chair because I couldn't get up afterwards. I mean, they had a barista who was making coffee in the back of the booth, and so I would go over there and get something to drink afterwards. But anyhow, it's just I think it's a good way to. Go into projects and don't make everything about yourself. Just try to make the project better. And I think that that is a great way to get invited again to be a part of another project. And who knows? Maybe these people will bring me to another event in another state. I mean, they certainly could get a human from another state so they don't have to fly somebody in and pay for hotels and all that. But hey, they really liked what I did and I worked out well for them. So anyhow, I just wanted to share that experience with you. And like I said, you never know. Hey, they might need to do some voiceover work for, or video for some other convention to help with this project, or maybe some commercial modeling ads for this project. You just never know where it might lead. So anyhow, I wanted to share that with you really quickly. If you haven't subscribed to the YouTube channel, Make sure you click the subscription button and the little bell, the notification button, and that way every time I upload a new video, you will be notified. And also, if you can, I would, I would love to have you be a part of this channel. If you would make a donation, help support it. If you just scroll down in the text, you'll see there's a link to my PayPal account, and I greatly appreciate any kind of donation that you make. If you find this helpful, Please share. That would be great. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. Hey, and by the way, if you've ever had any really interesting, uh, acting jobs, hey, share it here. I'd love to, uh, hear more about it, and I'm sure other people would as well. See ya.
