Barry grew up to be sane, I've no idea, bearing inmind that "sane" in the acting world is a relativeterm, Considering the pressures, conflicts, and stress-es involved, how Barry grew up at all might be amore pertinent question. But this book is a testament to the fact that he has at leastsurvived, and apparently survived to tell about it. It might besaid that at best he speaks with veracity and can lay to restsome of the semiaccurate trivializati0ns that have recentlyfound their ways to the booksellers. And yes, alas, it is possibleto trivialize the trivial. The question of adjustment for a young performer is a seri-ous one. Despite the common belief, no child is a born actor.No youngster left to his own devices conceives of learning atext or a song with the notion of staging it before a group ofadults. Children can be instinctive mimics (as anyone knows whohas seen a toddler bounce to a video beat or imitate the char-acters on "Sesame Street"), and they can readily role-play ininvented games with their peers. In no way, however, do theyperceive this as entertaining others, but quite simply as enter-taining themselves. Some outside conditioning must take place before apotential thesp, ian emerges from the child and transformssimple self-amusement into attention-getting behavior. It canstart with something as simple as a lauded patty-cake orparental applause when little Johnny is able to find his nosewith his finger. Little Johnny, of course, knows nothing ofperformance at this stage but simply reads his actions as amethod of receiving love and approval. As Dr. Joyce BrothersForewordX