By Blake Dykes
Most students are familiar with pop culture and celebrities. However, there is one student who can connect an actor to any other movie star. The student is freshman Christian Dimartino, and the actor is Kevin Bacon, who has been in over 50 movies, from “Apollo 13” to “Footloose.”This little activity is called the Six Degrees of Separation.
“Well, the point of the game is to choose an actor, and connect he/she through movies and you have to do it in six ways. The actor/actress cannot be connected through TV shows; it is strictly through movies,” explained Dimartino.
Dimartino is able to perform this seemingly impossible task simply in his head.
“Ok, so say I was to connect, I don’t know, Jim Carrey to Kevin Bacon. Well, Jim Carrey was in ‘Bruce Almighty’ with Steve Carrell, and Steve Carrell was in ‘Crazy Stupid Love’ with Kevin Bacon. That is a simple one, for me at least. But he could be connected to even Kermit the Frog. You really have to be an expert in movies and know a lot of celebrities and what they’ve been in to play the game,” said Dimartino.
Surprisingly, other people can play Six Degrees of Separation too. Dimartino did not invent this game. It has been around since 1994, and was invented by four college students.Dimartino has known about this game for several years.“Well, a few years ago, my sister Chantelle told me about this game and I had no idea what ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ was. The truth is, I am a movie freak. Guilty as charged. And for me the game is just easy. My sister and I are sort of movie geniuses. I guess we’ve just sort of brought it back from the dead.”
Although Dimartino may have an outstanding memory, it also takes a lot of brains to put two and two together. He shares his strategy.
“My method normally, is to come up with an actor/actress who seems like a challenge to connect to, and just think of the movies that this person has been in, while at the same time thinking of what Kevin Bacon has been in.”Surely there has to be someone Dimartino cannot connect with Bacon, right? Wrong.
“Believe it or not, we have not found a single person he can’t be connected to. I was able to connect him to Marilyn Monroe,” bragged Dimartino.
However, his talent is hidden to many. “Not many people know about it, but those who do have tried to stump me, and the others that do think it’s pretty cool,” said Dimartino. It may seem Dimartino is obsessed but he reveals the truth. “Nah, Kevin Bacon is not my favorite actor. I like him, and the thing about the game is that I have realized that he’s been in more movies than I thought. When I first started playing, I could only think of a few movies he’s been in, but I picked up on it.”
Some may consider this pointless and confusing, and others think of it as an exciting challenge, like Dimartino.“Really this is just a big game of coincidence.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO-HN_Acj2Q&context=C3836f52ADOEgsToPDskJ_NbC4-0_UpJEf7y8QNrvw]
