I Am Spartacus

Yes. There is something very close to a miracle going on right now career-wise. Let’s say the doors are opening, and T and I are getting our shot at the brass ring. So…what do you do when you know you need to bring your A+ game? And…the “Imposter Voice” in my head says I don’t know quite which things we’ve been doing that created the opportunities. And if we don’t know…mightn’t we blow this?

There is a scene in Tom Hanks’ terrific musical “That Thing You Do” that I love. The tale of a “one hit wonder” band called, logically enough, “The Wonders”, (Or Oneders. Pronounced “Oh-Nee-Ders”) shows them as a mediocre garage band until their drummer picks up the beat on a dirge written by their “Arteest” lead singer, turns it into something catchy and danceable, and leads them thereby to success.

Two of their members drop out: one gets married, another joins the Marines. The timing is excruciating, as we watch their inability to handle sudden and massive success, allowing themselves to make (apparently. Who really knows?) bad decisions that destroy everything they’ve been working for. Actually, three of the four self-destruct. But there is a glorious moment when the Wonders are onstage in their first (and only) national television appearance, before a cheering crowd, finally atop the mountain, and their bass player (amusingly referred to only as T.B. Player) looks around and says, dazedly, “how did we get here?”

And the drummer smiles placidly and say, in a rather Keanu Reeves fashion: “I have brought you here, for I am Spartacus” referring…