I hear Michael Caine gives the performance of a lifetime

Death has a way of making the good into great and the really good into legend. I sometimes wish that Guns N Roses had gone down in a plane crash right before they recorded The Spaghetti Incident, thus solidifying them as the greatest band to emerge in my lifetime. But instead that screeching psychopath Axl Rose is in a race to see whether China gets democracy before Chinese Democracy gets released.

Well now Heath Ledger is getting the benefit of the Kurt Cobain life after death plan. He was a good actor, who mumbled effectively as a repressed gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain. And now he plays the Joker in the new Batman film. (A Knight’s Tale his most underrated work).

I have been debating with friends as to whether it is going to be a truly great performance or just a good one that people have elevated because Ledger is dead. If it is the latter then I may have to radically change my marketing strategy for my second CD release.

“He was just a mediocre comedian with a law degree. Then he accidentally OD’d on GNC mega man vitamins and ginkgo biloba. Now hear the CD that has just been elevated from halfway decent to legendary.”

I have my tickets already for The Dark Knight on Friday and when I go out with my friends after I already have my conversation starter.

“Oh my God you saw Batman – how was it?”

“Really good, especially Aaron Eckhart – performance of a lifetime!”

“What about Heath Ledger?”

“Who?”

Then I will laugh at the confusion on the other person’s face. And then walk in front of a car so that the conversation is immediately raised from weird and stupid to bold and daring.