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Health & Fitness

Faces of Carapace: Lance Colley's starring role

This is the latest in a series of profiles from Carapace, a free event of true personal stories told without notes by ordinary people to a pre-chosen theme at Manuel’s Tavern, 602 N. Highland Ave., on the fourth Tuesday of every month at 7:30 p.m.

Lance Colley, once an aspiring actor, had an epiphany 20 years ago in Ohio that changed everything. He had just finished working on an ABC mini-series, and was waiting to board a flight home to North Carolina when it happened.

“I remember watching [other actors] pack literally all of their earthly belongings into station wagons or vans,” he says. “They were going to drive thousands of miles to audition for the next job, with no guarantees. These were modern-day gypsies. I thought, ‘Do I want to pin my adult life on this, on something so unpredictable?’”

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He didn't. “I’m definitely comfortable with that decision,” says Colley. “I’m just not willing to make the sacrifices that are required.”

The casually flamboyant Carapace host recently turned 40, not long after learning that the 24-year-old son of a co-workers was killed in a car crash. 

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“You know what? Becoming 40 is a privilege,” he says. “Anything is a privilege. I’m not going to complain about turning 40, because I’m lucky.”

Even more recently, a brush with medical problems reinforced his attitude.

A military brat who went on to serve in the Air Force himself, Colley was born in Macon, Ga., the middle of three brothers. He’s lived in Oklahoma, Texas, and North Carolina. 

With his wife, Raquel, he’s been an Atlanta resident for 13 years, the longest he’s settled anywhere. 

Colley supervises the tech-support help desk for business, government, and public-safety customers of Sprint. Carapace co-founder Joyce Mitchell also works at Sprint, as a programmer. That’s where she met Lance, about a decade ago.

Enduring the "terror," grabbing the joy

“Carapace is a good way to meet people,” Colley says. “You already know you have at least some level of common ground, you have at least this interest in common. If nothing else, we’ll talk about that. It really helps in breaking down the wall between strangers.”

Among his greater pleasure as host is “watching [raconteurs] do something they’re terrified of doing,” he says. “For some of them, it’s a living nightmare. You see that courage pop up, and then they come off the stage and they go, ‘Oh my god, that was nowhere near as bad as I thought. In fact, it was fantastic.’ If even if they never do it again, they know they were brave enough to do it once.”

In a city where spoken-word and literary events have sprouted like mushrooms after a rainstorm, “the ace in the hole for Carapace is that we’re a good entry-level event for anybody who’s never done anything like this,” Colley says. 

“You don’t have to write anything, and you don’t have to try to sound fancy, if that’s not your way," he adds. "And the stories are about you. Most people love talking about themselves. If you want it to be theatrical and dramatic, great, go for it. If you want to just stand up there and talk like yourself, fantastic, do that.”

The storytellers come from the audience, which helps explain why “the audience is phenomenal,” he says. “Even if a teller is not as polished or smooth as some others, our audience doesn't care. They support ’em, they cheer for ’em, they give ’em a round of applause. ‘Hey, you’re doing it. You’re putting forth the effort.’”

Spectators who never take the stage find something to like, too, says Colley, who enjoys watching the audience watch the show. 

“You’ll see heads nodding in agreement, like, ‘Man, I know exactly how that feels,’” he says. "You come out of there thinking, ‘Hey, I’m nowhere near as crazy as I thought I was. I’m actually fairly normal. I had an experience almost just like that.’”

Nothing against “social media,” but the unplugged life has value, Colley says. 

“I want to hear their experiences from them directly, not read about it an email, or a random Facebook post, or 140 Twitter characters, which I loathe,” he says. 

“It’s fine to read the Facebook updates and mess like that, but that doesn't give you an idea of who that person is, or what it’s like to truly interact with them, spend time with them,” Colley says. 

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