For the past month, Išve been boning up on Jesse James. Išve read two books, scoured the Internet and watched a handful of documentaries on the famous outlaw. All so I could take a quick trip to Missouri to "audition" to play the character at the end of June at the Kansas City Public Library. I say "audition" in quotes because for the gig there will be no script, no set lines, just a dialogue between the library director and the character in front of an audience and TV cameras. Basically, I had to show I knew my subject.

All of this came about because my folks live in KCMO, and my dad already does historical character gigs at the library and all across the Midwest. They were looking for a local guy to play Jesse James, but the actors they found were strictly of the "give the lines and Išll say them" variety. Išve had some experience with the long improv, mostly involving playing mentally ill or severely distraught characters for Albuquerque Police training. After their search was coming up dry for a Jesse, my dad said to the library powers that be that he just may know someone who could pull it off. Presto! My dad became my Kansas City agent. Never underestimate the power of nepotism.

After three days straight of cabbing last week, I hopped on a plane Thursday night bound for Kansas City. I would meet with the library folks on late Friday afternoon, so my dad took me on a day trip north to Clay County, Missouri, to see the James farm where he was born and grew up.

Before I did my research on the famous outlaw, I had no idea he was a product of western Missouri. I assumed he was robbing banks and trains further out west in Texas or Wyatt Earp & the OK Corral-type country. I lived in Kansas City for three years of my youth, and no one mentioned Jesse James in school. My dad, who is a Kansas City historian, never brought up the outlaw, and he admitted to me on the drive that he dismissed him "incorrectly" as a common criminal. Once you go to Clay County, you realize therešs nothing common about Jesse James.

At the farm, we saw watched a video, looked at old-timey pictures and scribblings, and received a guided tour of the house. It was twice the size of when Jesse lived there, due to later upgrades of his brother Frank in his later life, and it became obvious that with five to nine people living there that Jesse probably slept out in the woods a lot. The guide was not a pro, and as my dad put it "was somebodyšs cousin home for the summer." We got a stiff delivery complete with badly timed jokes, and I chuckled to my dad that I can only hope to perform as well as that guy did.

Still, the hills of Clay County, Missou-ra (as the southern folks say) have a wild quality to them. Boys could run and play and shoot and ride horses and basically do everything Boy Scouts are expected to do today. Itšs easy to imagine young outlaws coming from the back hills of western Missouri.

In the afternoon, we stopped by the Jesse James Museum in Liberty, Missouri. It was the old Clay County Savings Association where the first daylight bank robbery in American history occurred. Although it was never proven, it is thought that Jesse was the mastermind of the robbery. The tour guide was a pro, and she was an adamant one at that. She ripped Jesse James for being a terrorist and swore by all her facts, even though at least half of the "facts" about Jesse cannot be proven. I found it odd for her to be so against the legend that is funding her paycheck, but I donšt have to give the same guided tour of a room with a vault in it everyday. My dad quibbled with her a little on her stance and facts, but the confrontation didnšt last long.

I said very little, as I was more interested in other peoplešs reaction to Jesse. I learned that everyone has an opinion about Jesse James in this area, but no one has the same opinion. Such is the way with legends, I suppose.

Finally, we arrived at the Kansas City Public Library for my interview or audition or whatever it actually was. Everyone was exhausted at the tail end of Friday and craved more caffeine. I could tell my dad was a little nervous for me. Although Išve acted in more than 20 plays as an adult, hešs only seen me in one production. That was in "Julius Caesar" back in 2003. How would I handle the big wigs of metropolitan public library?

Fortunately, Išm a pro cab driver as well as a semi-pro actor. I can feel people out in about one minute. I led in with a self-scripted line I practiced which they liked, and we were off and running. We chatted for more than an hour about the different aspects of Jessešs life, and I put them at ease with my knowledge of Jesse. My dad chimed in once about a train robbery in Winston that I didnšt know any details of, but I played off it nicely. For a quartet of wiped out people, everyone had a good feeling at the end of the interview, and they said I was the man for the job. My dad gave me a nudge of approval as well.

Of course, now that I have the gig, I canšt just know about the outlaw. I must become the outlaw. Six weeks until show time, but the gig is mine!

Chris Jungle apologizes for any unlawful remarks he may make in the coming month and a half.