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A WEB OF INTERESTS
StarMag, April 30, 2006
IF he looks familiar but you cannot quite place him it’s because you’ve probably seen him on TV or at the movies.
Meet Dean Cameron, who starred in I’m Not Gay (2005), Gayosity (2004) and Grace and the Storm (2004). On TV, he has appeared on Will & Grace, Honey, I Shrank the Kids: The TV Show and Mad About You.
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Dean Cameron: Everyone should read Moby Dick. |
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Cameron is also the creator and actor of Urgent & Confidential: Dean Cameron’s Nigerian Spam Scam Scam – a two-person “multi-media” comedy staged in the United States and Canada.
This guy seems to go for comedies and comedic roles. It may come as a surprise then that his favourite reads are web programming books.
“I love learning new things and there is an excitement that comes with sitting down beforethe computer with a PHP/MySQL book and carving into some web project,” he says via e-mail.
Did he design his own website? “Yes, I did write my own code, you geek,” is his answer, published on the main page of his website (www.deancameron.com).
Cameron has loved reading since he was a child. “Selfishly, I liked the attention I got from being able to read at an early age. I liked being able to know things adults knew and be different from kids who couldn’t read.”
What were his favourite books then? “The Cricket in Times Square (by George Selden) was a very intense book for me. I remember weeping uncontrollably and my mother trying to console me, an inconsolable second grader.
“We were taught Animal Farm (by George Orwell) in seventh grade and that was a big influence, though it was a short story called Harrison Bergeron (by Kurt Vonnegut) that has stayed with me.
“I never liked sci-fi, and still don’t. I do see the disconnect in accepting talking animals yet rejecting sci-fi. Sue me.... It just seems that talking animals is an obvious tool for expressing ideas but making up science stuff when there is so much cool stuff to write about real science is lazy.”
Asked which is his favourite genre, Cameron replies cheekily, “(Anything that’s) really good”. His favourite authors are Herman Melville, Vonnegut and Harry Browne.
“I think they are all powerful writers who have a deep love and understanding of freedom. Vonnegut has become a bit too bitter about the world for me.”
Which books shaped who he is today?
Vonnegut’s books; Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World and Why Government Doesn’t Work (both by Browne); Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach; The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan; Flim-Flam! by James Randi; Moby Dick by Melville, as well as his geek titles – Teach Yourself HTML in 24 Hours and Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL.
“I have a few real hardcore Luddite hippie ‘spiritual’ books (Illusions; Four Arguments), which gave me the base to build the libertarian/sceptic/atheist that I am today.
“There is an obvious common thread of questioning authority running through all of the influential books and, as is evidenced in my show The Nigerian Spam Scam Scam, I question everything and when I find that something is (rubbish), I go after it.
“The two tech books helped relieve the pressure of having to earn a living solely as an actor. Because of them, I was able to support myself in the tech world during a major career slump which has, fortunately, ended.”
Cameron believes that everyone should read Moby Dick – “the time it takes to explain why it’s the greatest book ever written is exactly the amount of time it takes to read it.”
Other books he highly recommends are Flim-Flam!, Demon Haunted World, and Why Government Doesn’t Work. Although he does not take a book with him wherever he goes, Cameron reads before he sleeps.
He recently read Sock by Penn Jillette. “I loved his powerful voice on the page and how he writes a thriller in such a way that you don’t realise it’s one until it’s over!”
The bookshop is one of his favourite places. He says, “I think that the advent of the Web and places like Amazon.com and other online booksellers makes it even easier for people to find great books.”
Copyright Star Publications (M) Bhd
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