All week long, he had practiced his one line in this play. "Hark, I hear a cannon's roar," was his line. Off stage, there would be the sound of a cannon, he would deliver his one line, walk offstage and the play would continue from there. This small, walk-on part was his first big chance to showcase his talent as an actor.

For hours on end, he had practiced his one line in front of a mirror, at the dinner table and in front of his family. Perhaps a thousand times, he had spoken the words "Hark, I hear a cannon's roar."

Nervous to the point of being terrified, he kept mumbling his one line over and over to himself as the curtain rose. "Hark, I hear a cannon's roar."

Suddenly, there was the sound of a cannon backstage. Jumping some two feet off the floor, the terrified actor screamed at the audience "What the hell was that?"

The following day, he was once again waiting tables and dreaming of yet another chance to prove himself as an actor.