Saft

I've decided to shoot this short in February. It originally came to me from a Video Circus Idea.

Callback felt really good. If I book it, It'll count for January... not that I'm counting but goals are good to have & I certainly would like to/plan to have 1 booking (plus) a month. If I do not book it, I shall spend this Saturday working on the short.

Good Christian boy

...That's me! At least it will be tomorrow at my callback for CatholicRelief.org. Oddly, the message from my agent was something like "we really want to see him, and we're not sure if we saw him before. huh? Hey, sounds good to me, I'll be there with bells on.

A douchebag says what?

What happens when you completely lie about your life to reap accolades, sympathy & millions? Karma! If you bought this fictional turd I strongly encourage you to return it.

poly sci?

OK, I don't usually post stuff like this but some are just so good I can't resist.

Gratitude

I was at my second audition today at 200 S. LaBrea & it was packed. One of those days when you can just feel the energy & are happy to be in the business. Walking in from my rockstar parking spot it struck me that I have been here a lot in the last few months, enough so that I get that L.A. parking priority thing. You know, the phenomenon of visiting a place often enough that you have a second, third & fourth favorite parking area. And upstairs was just jumping! A bunch of people from IO including Kevin whom I did Video Circus with. He had his Mom in tow who was quite nice. I had a stimulating conversation with my friend Vicki, reconnected with John, a classmate from Caryn West's class and spoke briefly with Tim's fellow Groundling, Naughton,who may have summed it up best simply saying "man, everybody's here".

How's that for an assload of links?

I hopped around on a couch for a while for Joe Blake. I think it went alright but like any good improv audition 800 other bits pop into your head on the way out. Not for long though as I ran into a couple more folks then stopped off to rearrange a few things at LA casting. Earlier I had an interesting audition for CatholicRelief.org with John Mulkeen. Did some dropoffs to CD's I haven't seen in a while(Chelsea)on the way out. I'm feeling some callback vibes and some gratitude for another action & audition packed week.

Takin the Bus to the Bowl

What's going on here?

Oh it's Bettis, getting one of these:
Making some history, on the way to the Superbowl. Happiness.

Fire

So I see more than one pass of the "Midnight Sun" helicopter lights across my window & hear some large vehicles & sirens, enough to make me look outside & see that the building next door is on fire. Small fire though, I don't think there was major damage. Hell, I don't really see anything but I am getting blasted with diesel exhaust from the 4 trucks. Hopefully everyone's OK.

sleepy

Audition today for Taco Bueno at Judy Landau's office. It's been a long time since I've been there. It was for a "Science Guy" type which I've played before. The Kid I was partnered up with was great but a little shy. It went ok, I don't know if I was my scientific best.

I also read for Danny Goldman again this week & he had some nice words to say.
-more later-

Ok, it's now "later" & I don't really feel like adding in more details. One reason is I wonder if people read very far down. Hmmm, perhaps new posts with links to old is the answer. Any input from the blogisphere? (Hal's term)

Four

So Hal "tagged me" to do this survey. At first I thought it a little like the lame survey-type things over at Myspace but then figured, what the hell.

Four jobs you've had in your life:
Trade show walk-around doofus, Eggroll sales in a dive bar at Penn State, Volunteer Ski Instructor @ the N.S.C.D., Dental floss box assembly line extra plastic scraper

Four movies you could watch over and over:
Caddyshack, Dead Poets Society, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Pulp Fiction (only 4 is unfair)

Four places you've lived:
Koreatown (L.A.), the Jersey Shore, State College PA, Morrison CO

Four TV shows you love to watch:
The Simpsons, Family Guy, The Office, Invasion (again, 4 is not enough so friends' shows get precedence. and I didn't even touch cable)

Four places you've been on vacation:
Truk (Chuck) , Tignes France, Czechoslovakia (historic time after fall of communism-before the country split in two), New Zealand

Four websites you visit daily:
Actor's Access, Dalt's Gang, Behind The Celluloid Curtain, Dealmac

Four of your favorite foods:
Pizza, Anything Bacon related, Summer Grilling(all of it), Crunchy Chocolate things

Four places you'd rather be:
Rather? On the set of my: 1Sitcom, 2Drama, 3Film . 4In an outdoor hot tub, high up in the mountains, snow coming down, awesome lady by my side

Four albums you can't live without:
Pink Floyd - Wish you were here, Queen - Sheer Heart Attack, Stones - Exile on Main Street, Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath (come on! 4?!?! just about any from these 4 and many more)

Four magazines you read:
I have zero subscriptions right now, I read some trades online, always liked National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Ski

Four cars you've owned:
1963 Chevrolet Impala SS Convertible, 1965 Oldsmobile Delta 88 4-door, 1972(?) Volkswagen fastback, 1992 Subaru 4wd wagon "the Loyale with Cheese" (current)

Four people to do this meme:
(see, doing this late, many friends are taken)
Frannie, Deb, Stephon, Susan
(ok, I found 4. Not as hard as I thought and I didn't even hit the Myspace blogs[do those count?])

Steelers!

Despite being 9 point underdogs, playing on Indie's home turf & some bad officiating, the Pittsburgh Steelers have advanced to the conference championship. They play Denver next Sunday then on to the Superbowl!

Bob splurged on some tasty bait to compliment our very "LA" football breakfast.

Sex

I vote yes.

OK Walter, I'll just wait for those numbers to roll in!

ok

Audition in Lisa Fields office as a somewhat out of control golfer. No problem there! I like this office, my last time there was the first audition with Origin.

The callbacks for Comcast at ASG & Sprint at Francene Selkirk-Ackerman went ok but slightly odd. At ASG for the Drifter character about 1/2 the guys were coming in for the first time straight to the c/b. Not the best thing to see but on the other hand it's nice when your agent can get you straight to c/b with a CD if you were busy for the first audition. So no biggie. I get in the room , get the new explanation & do it. Get a couple notes & right when I start the second read a giant, evil eyelash comes slashing into my left eye. Luckily blinking made it feel worse, like stabbing motions. Blinking furiously away and continuing on I wonder if I should stop (of course all this happens in a second or two) or plow through. I decide to plow through as we had some business to do looking down which would hide my fluttering eye and/or give the giant log a chance to pop out. Somehow it popped out without making a ruckus & I believe I gave them what they wanted, they said thanks & I left. Hopefully they didn't think I was winking at them (as the tough guy drifter) to help get the job.

At the sprint callback they liked my read & gave it a minor adjustment. A similar adjustment comes before the 3rd read when I take the opportunity to pop about a third of an altoid in my mouth, as it was a bit dry. Now I decided not to mention this altoid moment because I felt I could do it on the sly while they were explaining. And I did pop the little moisture generating nugget in there quite stealthfully ...along with a nice piece of shirt-pocket-string.
Director: ...as if there were more people around.

Bill: thwppt, pfft, Yes, ok...

Session runner: Action

Bill: Just a sec, lemme chew this mint real quick. OK

Session runner: Action

And they thank me & I leave, thinking and/or hoping I gave them what they wanted. Hopefully they didn't think I was tongue waggling (as the trustworthy casual businessman) to help get the job.

Gut

I'm getting a gut. It's happened before & never gets past the point where it is now but it kinda sucks. See, I never do the " I gained through the holidays" thing, except for this year. Well, and maybe some year I don't remember to well. But it sucks because this time I think it's only partially (I dunno, 1/2, 1/2 sounds good) my fault, partially the fault of some meds & the fact that I had to give up running months ago. I'm tired of typing the word "partially". Probably because I'm still in a bit of a grease coma from all the pizza I crammed down today watching the Steelers give a beating to cinci.

Had a good day yesterday. Right in the middle of it was an interesting hit-man audition. Heard a bunch of guys screaming in there before me, I played it less-screamy. A lot less. I also got asked to be in a (slightly paid) staged reading from someone I auditioned for 2 years ago . Cool. Oh, and the first rehearsal is really more like an audition then the winners stay & rehearse. OK, not quite as cool but still worth checking out.

Another Callback

Now were talkin. And this one also goes back to mid December, ASG casting, Comcast. A good role for me. At the original audition he had some of us read for a second, completely different spot as well, so it was a fun audition, with bonus. This one is next week,same day I'm going in to read for Lisa Fields for an Investment spot. Yesterday I had to miss a USC grad thesis audition. It was a western spec commercial that sounded fun. I hate missing any audition but sometimes that's just how it goes... plus Today I had another print go-see & read for Melissa Martin for a VW industrial, in a German accent. We had fun in there & I hope the accent didn't suck to bad. Can you tell I'm diggin all the commercial activity?

Got a couple mailers to get out tomorrow. The plan was to at least use up all my stamps on postcards & headshots going out tomorrow before the rates go up Sunday. That way we wrap up a little motivation on top of not having to buy an assload of 1 & 2¢ stamps. Bonus! Uh, except I'm ready to crash...I'll let ya know how that goes.

OK I think I may be back to more regular writing here, complete with zany links & pictures. Still not sure how much to pull back the lid here, I guess I'll figure it out along the way.

Callback

It feels good to start off the new year with a callback. Or I guess maybe I finished off last year with a good audition? Maybe a little of each. I actually finished off the year with 4 commercial auditions last week when it was kinda slow, so I was already psyched about that. Plus I think we rounded the corner on this f'n migraine thing (that's what all the Borg equipment in previous posts was trying to figure out) which makes a generally happier actor in the audition room & everywhere else.

So, this callback is with Ava Shevitt for Home Depot. She's called me a few times since I've been with Janet/Origin and this is the first CB... as a matter of fact, I had a CB on my very first audition through (can I stop calling them my new agent(s) now? I think so) Janet but have not had another until now. That was starting to concern me until I realized that many CD's are calling me in repeatedly and , of course, ya just never know, don't sweat it, etc. etc.

As I'm typing this another audition came in for tomorrow: Sprint with Francene Selkirk-Ackerman, whom I've read for many times over the years. Hmmm, and now that I think about it I believe I had a callback there a few months back--ok, nevermind, I just checked & that was with the old agent so the above post stands. I think.

Also as I type I'm watching a wicked awesome sunset. Here's a Sony-Ericsson T610 rendering of a similar "Hotel California" type sunset earlier this year. The view right over my monitors.