{"id":421344,"date":"2026-07-08T21:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailybanglanewspapers.com\/news\/actor-and-celebrity-impressionist-jim-meskimen-on-overcoming-career-threatening-stage-fright\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T21:55:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:55:00","slug":"actor-and-celebrity-impressionist-jim-meskimen-on-overcoming-career-threatening-stage-fright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailybanglanewspapers.com\/news\/actor-and-celebrity-impressionist-jim-meskimen-on-overcoming-career-threatening-stage-fright\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor and Celebrity Impressionist Jim Meskimen on Overcoming Career-Threatening Stage Fright"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Jim<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES, July 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Professional actor and impressionist Jim Meskimen is known for his recurring role as Martin Housely on NBC’s Parks and Recreation<\/em> and for a career built on uncannily accurate celebrity impressions, including a widely admired take on Robin Williams. But that career nearly didn’t happen. Speaking recently on the podcast The Melting Pot with Lucas Stein<\/em>, Meskimen described the anxiety that gripped him as a young performer testing out impressions in front of anyone outside his closest friends.<\/p>\n

“Before you’ve really attained some professional status and gained confidence, the whole field of creation is very tender,” Meskimen said. “I froze because I was so cautious and so unwilling to have someone criticize what I was doing.” Meskimen said the turning point came when he read the book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health<\/em>, by L. Ron Hubbard.<\/p>\n

“Dianetics<\/em> breaks down why people get anxiety, and gives you methods that can help you handle it,” he said. “I put that book to work, and within a short time, I was comfortable with performing, eager to perform and working as a professional.”<\/p>\n

Dianetics<\/em> identifies the reactive mind as the hidden source of fear, self-doubt and irrational reactions. This unknown part of the mind stores mental images of painful or emotional experiences, triggering them without warning long after the original moment has passed.<\/p>\n

The shift Meskimen describes, launched a career that would go on to include roles in Apollo 13<\/em> and How the Grinch Stole Christmas<\/em>, along with a recurring role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air<\/em> and a finalist spot on America’s Got Talent<\/em>, where his improvised celebrity impressions earned a standing ovation at Radio City Music Hall.<\/p>\n

For Meskimen, understanding the reactive mind was what turned a paralyzing fear of judgment into a career he could finally step into with confidence.<\/p>\n

Bridge Publications, Inc. publishes the nonfiction works of L. Ron Hubbard. Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health<\/em> is the all-time bestselling book on the human mind.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit dianetics.org.<\/p>\n

Sara Lucatero
Bridge Publications, Inc.
sdinges@bridgepub.com<\/p>\n

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https:\/\/www.globenewswire.com\/NewsRoom\/AttachmentNg\/37cb20d3-6361-481e-8682-191f25a91e6f<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES, July 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Professional actor and impressionist Jim Meskimen is known for his recurring role as Martin Housely on NBC’s Parks and Recreation and for a career built on uncannily accurate celebrity impressions, including a widely admired take on Robin Williams. But that career nearly didn’t happen. Speaking recently on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":421345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ml.globenewswire.com\/Resource\/Download\/37cb20d3-6361-481e-8682-191f25a91e6f","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[57166],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-421344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-globenewswire"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailybanglanewspapers.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailybanglanewspapers.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailybanglanewspapers.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailybanglanewspapers.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailybanglanewspapers.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailybanglanewspapers.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailybanglanewspapers.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailybanglanewspapers.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailybanglanewspapers.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailybanglanewspapers.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}