"Opening Night" and progress

Our class BBQ turned into something more of a pot-luck. It was nice to learn more about people and we talked about the business some too. A couple of mates offered to walk in P/R's to their agents and managers. Referrals are good.

Last night, I joined some friends from Lesly's intensive in attending another of our cohort's show "Opening Night: The Improvised Musical!" at IO West. Fantastic show. Go see it. I've seen an improvised musical attempted one other time, and it was not in the same league as this crew. Some of them have been performing this together for 7 years, and they are all very talented story-players and supportive of each other on stage. This was also my first trip to IO West since I've been here. It's a nice space, perhaps a little fancier than the Chicago space, at least in the lobby/bar, and the high-ceiling in the mainstage makes it much less claustrophobic. I did not see the basement (2nd stage).

I'm starting to book meetings with some of the agencies that the AAMCO commercial casting director referred me to. I've also got my schedule for class in September. My brother is getting married at the beginning of October, and we just got a great deal on plane tickets back to Atlanta. I repaired my window seal myself with a little advice from the folks at Alan's Auto Glass. My wife is working a big job in OC all weekend, and I'm working at the Mouse House for about 8 days for some cash. All good stuff.

It's hot in the desert

I just spent the weekend in the desert where my buddy lives. Holy hot! Why do people live there? It is interesting and almost otherworldly how water is used to appeal to people. By that I mean restaurants, apartment complexes, golf courses, malls, etc. put water features outside their establishments to lure people. Oddly enough, I found it enticing even though I was completely aware of their intentions and also not in dire need of water myself. It's just a symbol of comfort and wealth in the desert I guess. This may have nothing to do with the desert but while washing my car tonight, I noticed that the seal around my rear windshield was coming up in one corner. It seems odd that would just happen for no apparent reason. So, tomorrow I must have it repaired.

My first acting class with Lesly met for the final time last Wednesday. It was a great group. I really enjoyed the daily rehearsals, as they were excellent exercise. We're having a BBQ this week to get further acquainted outside the acting biz, but also to lay the groundwork for maintaining the connections we established together beyond this month. I'm continuing my training next month, but will have a different instructor. I've got to do a mass agent mailing. That'll be in the works for this week. Last week, I ran the camera in a casting session. That was an incredible learning experience. Note to self and actors everywhere: DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Work that script over and squeeze every drop of info out of it. If you slack off, it'll show in your reading. Be a pro.

Classy

The AAMCO shoot "Leaky Oil Guy" was great Wednesday. I arrived at 5:30am, an hour and a half before crew call, to start the SFX makeup on the trick ear. Early...tired, but excited to be working. The ear didn't quite turn out to be what I was expecting, but it's tough to make something flawlessly realistic when it has brass and plastic tubing running out of it and down your head. The contraption was too big to conceal in my own, rather short, hair. So, they decided to go with a wig. Everything was great until wig-time. Now, my head is a size 7 and 3/8. That's a fairly big hat. Despite my having been in the SFX shop, they didn't try out the wig before this very moment on the day of the shoot. My scene was scheduled for 8:30am. At 7:45am, it was brutally clear that this wig wasn't going over half my head, let alone the whole thing. Emergency ensues, PA's are dispatched to wig shops, and my scene is bumped to 12noon. The replacement wig ended up being far less realistic than the other wig was, but at least this one fit. We hadn't tested the oil rig, and didn't until rehearsal in the setup. It worked like a charm, and we knocked the shots out in fairly short order. It was a really strange, sticky and funny experience. I hope the spot works out.

My acting class is also fantastic. I love being around people who are focused on progressing, and the teacher is very good. I'm continuing on next month, and probably the month after that because I really feel I'm growing there. My hope is that I'll be artistically prepared for pilot season, and if I'm really fortunate, I'll have an agent and/or manager in time for that too.

Batting 1000

On Tuesday, I was informed that I had a callback for the commercial I mentioned. That was great news. Unfortunately, I also had some rather problematic news in other areas of my life that were weighing a bit on my mind. But the callback news was great. The location was in Santa Monica, which is an area I do not often venture to on weekdays, so I did a few drop-offs beforehand. I guess I had expected some first LA commercial callback jitters, but they didn't show up. I'll admit to feeling a little self-conscious, but strangely proud, that I didn't have anything to put on the size card next to "Agent". The scene had changed a little for the callback. Instead of taking place in an elevator, the scene was a company meeting - no dialogue, only circumstances. Things change all the time, and you gotta be ready to do it. Thank you, JaCKPie. The director directed me through it, and guys from the production company were there. At one point, I got laughs in the room, which is a good sign, and as I was leaving, the director said, "King of deadpan." Nice. I love Leslie Nielsen. I hustled over to CTG, the managers, and got the call booking me on the job later that afternoon.
To add to the joy, the CD has offered to help me get some meetings with commercial agents. First commercial audition in town leads to first comm. callback, which leads to first comm. job in town, etc. Given some of the lows I experienced over the weekend and that very day, that was a HUGE pick-me-up.

So, today, I spent two hours at a special effects shop getting my ears "Lifecast" for prosthetics that I wear in the spot. That was cool, but I'm still dealing with spirit gum in my hair these many hours later. Still, my ears are immortalized! Maybe they'll hang the molds on their wall next to Robin Williams' face and all the other faces they have up there.

Tonight, my good buddy Jim who put the JaK in JaCKPie, helped me put the HTML in a very basic web page that will help me IMMENSELY in my marketing efforts. Marketing is a huge topic at TAN, and marketing was one of the main topics of discussion in my first acting class last night with Lesly Kahn, who is a wonderfully insightful and direct coach. We meet for 6 hours, count 'em up, once a week in class, and then rehearse for 3 hours every day outside class with our mates (not our spouses). My world is busy, busy, but I feel more every day that we're on the right path. Glenn Morshower, fantastic character actor and another insightful person, said something like this a couple of weeks ago, "Life has a way of proving you right." What do you want to be right about?