Last night, I gave my first tour with a ghost tour company. Aside from memorizing my stories, this job involved dressing up in two layers of cotton and a bonnet and carrying around a lantern and a fan. Personally, I don't consider this "acting."
For me, acting involves a large shift in persona - when an actor is in character, you are talking to that character, not that actor. The actor may infuse a bit of their own personality into it, but the character and the actor are, ideally, two identities in the same brain. (This sounds very trippy because it is very trippy. Cool, but trippy.)
Ghost tours are a slightly different matter. On a tour, I'm projecting a slightly different persona than the one I'm projecting at this moment. There are more differences than there are similarities, however: Right now, I'm sitting on my couch in sweatpants; I haven't showered or put my contact lenses in. This is the first productive thing I've done today, except for getting coffee. It's close, easy, and comfortable.
Ghost tours do involve a bit of a persona shift. It's impossible to feel like you're wearing sweatpants when you're in a petticoat and bonnet. It's hard to even feel fully of this century, even though I keep my cell phone on my person in case someone gets hurt. The only similarity in feeling is how much one would sweat if wearing either outfit (sweatpants or costume) in summer heat with humidity.
The difference between ghost tours and acting is, I guess, situational. When leading ghost tours, I am Wild Card In A Petticoat With A Lantern And Fan. When I'm blogging, I'm Wild Card In Sweatpants With Laptop. They're both Wild Card.
An Actor might be Actor In Period Dress or Actor In Sweatpants With Laptop, BUT they could also be Actor As Character In Period Dress or Actor As Character In Sweatpants With Laptop.
I've tried, but I can't hold a candle to what an actor can do with character development.
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