78. I Want To Shoot You

While I was drawing this, a young man with a camera slung around his neck, approached me.
“I’d like to shoot you.’ he said.
‘Oh,’ I said, ‘really? Are you a photographer?’
‘Among other things, yeh.’ the young man said.
Then he told me his name and I told him mine and he stuck his hand out and I reached up and shook it.
‘I have, like, 14 thousand followers on Instagram,’ he said, ‘You should follow me’.
Then he asked me if I was free tomorrow for the photoshoot, and after I told him I am not sure, he continued to talk at me.
‘I’ve only been here for like a month,’ he said, tapping his chest and doing a subdued jig, ‘but things are really happening for me.’
‘Oh,’ I said, leaning back on my arms, and looking up at him, ‘that sounds good,’
Then he told me he had just made a promotional video for a tattoo artist who was about to be a celebrity.
‘He’s folk right now,’ the young man told me, ‘but he’s, like, about go big,’
Then he held out up his iPhone to show me a video of the tattoo artist being interviewed on a red carpet by a long-haired pretty teenager.
Then the young man, who was dressed in black track pants, a red tee shirt, and ochre Caterpillar boots, told me he had a manager who had gotten him some acting work, and that besides being a photographer, he also does stand-up.
‘Oh, yes?’ I said.
‘Yeh,’ he said, tapping his chest again, and frowning, ‘I’m, like, a pretty funny guy,’
Then he told me that even though he is only 21 years old, he has his own production company and that he is self-taught in everything that he does.
Next, he told me that he was living in West Hollywood, but that his roommate had started to “act in a strange way”.
‘He’s bisexual,’ the young man revealed, ‘which is cool because my uncle is, like, bisexual, but this guy was acting, like, like I was his wife’
Then he looked at his iPhone again, scrolling up and down, presumably looking for things to show me.
Firstly he showed me some images of him posing with his shirt off while 3 girls in very little clothing hung on to various of his limbs.
‘Here’s a video I made of an androgynous,’ he said, bending down, and for the next few moments, we looked at the screen of his iPhone where a person wearing a head scarf, walked along a street in high heels, singing.
And then, apropos of nothing, he told me – ‘I’m, like, excellent at imitations. Like, after about half an hour with someone I can sound exactly, like, like them.’
Then he told me he has a friend whose uncle is a big Hollywood agent, and that the uncle has taken an interest in him.
‘Have you heard of him?’ he asked me, revealing the name of the uncle/agent.
Before I could say I had not, the young man told me he was a good salesman.
‘I worked in car sales for like 4 years. And even though I’m, only 21, I was already the manager.” the said.
I nodded my head, but the young man was looking down at his phone, scrolling.
‘Yep, things are happening for me out here,’ the young man said, as he scrolled, ‘things are, like, really happening.’