Years ago now a young Canadian athlete walked upon the stage at the prestigious University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada and he opened the window to the rest of his life. As Paul Bond put it, “When I walked onto that stage my first day of Introduction to Acting it just felt right.” He got to play roles in such diverse productions as “The Glass Menagerie” and “Jitters.”
Next came his work in four productions at Canada’s world renowned Stratford Festival. He spread his wings and took on many commercial opportunities and the young Paul Bond happily recognized that he had what it takes to actually make money doing what he loved to do most – act. When I asked Paul Bond what “acting” meant to him he unhesitatingly replied “acting is story telling.” So there was the young Paul Bond a true professional story teller.
Canada is a beautiful country and home to some of the nicest people on our planet but if your goal is acting it is only natural to look to the south of Canada to that wild and whacky place we call Hollywood. So when the opportunity came for Paul to get legal resident status in the United States he jumped at the opportunity and moved to southern California to expand his acting horizons.
He got many jobs in commercials, television and voice over work. But it was his connection with Ray Bradbury and the Pandemonium Theatre Company that gave Paul his greatest joy as an actor. For Paul Bond his appearance in the super hit “Fahrenheit 451’ was the pinnacle of his career at the time. Fahrenheit 451 was highly acclaimed and enjoyed an unprecedented eight month run. But then there emerged an even greater joy.
His then 9 year old and youngest son Matthew started hanging out with dad at the theatre where he caught the eye of one of the top directors. It wasn’t long before Matthew began to appear in plays with his dad. To date father Paul and son Matthew Bond have appeared together five times on stage. Currently they may be seen together in the cast of “It’s a Wonderful Life” directed by Christina Harris at the Sierra Madre Playhouse which has received such amazing acclaim that it has been extended into January of 2012. Dad plays the cop while Matthew actually has two roles in this play.
Matthew is a multi talented young man who thoroughly enjoys acting and he is looking forward to being in his High School’s award winning Show Choir starting next year. As it happens Show Choir combines singing with acting and a year or so ago I had the pleasure of hearing Matthew sing on stage. All I can say is Justin Bierber should be scared, very scared.
But Matthew is anything but a stage hound. Yes he loves acting, especially with dad, but he is open to other options so long as they are in the entertainment business.
Here is a successful, not super star but yet genuinely successful father and son acting team who together have brought and continue to bring happiness and joy to tens of thousands of people who have had the great pleasure of seeing them on stage or in the case of dad on television and yet they remain two of the most polite and pleasant human beings on earth. They utterly lack any of the arrogance, over the top self involvement and frequently utterly awful behavior we all too often hear about from the “Hollywood” crowd. It is therefore my very great pleasure to introduce you to Burbank's very own Dynamic Duo, Paul and Matthew Bond. Here is the venerable profession of acting at its finest. Go and see them perform at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, you will be very glad that you did.
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