HOT, humid, cold, wet towel

Holy hot, humid, hazy, helluva DAY! Today had to be one of the top 3 most miserable days of the summer. I worked my ass off for ZICO coconut water today in this horribly hot, humid, hazy, unhappy...heat. I put together a team of samplers for sampling today and it was rough on all of us. I'll be really disappointed if my numbers (sales) don't show some improvement in August in light of all the hard work I've put in. I realize that August is traditionally slow for any business,but still. I had another promising conversation with my boss, the co-founder of ZICO, earlier this week regarding me going out to LA to open the market out there. I'm really hoping to make that a reality.

Thursday afternoon, I met with a director who is shooting a short film that is backed by a major cellular carrier in Europe. I guess he directed a short for this company previously and they are paying him to do it again. He and I met to discuss my involvement. He wants me to play one of the lead characters. A fast-talking agent who is trying to sign a new band to his record label. It sound s like it will be a fun shoot. My friend Daryl Lathon will be there. He is the DP (Director of Photography) for this project, could be some great exposure. I'm all about exposure. I told him to count me in.

I went out and got drunk thursday night with Dave Newman. Dave is the little brother of Ken Newman, my best friend from college. Its always good to see Dave and refreshing to hang out with him. He's a very free-spirited guy who's very comfortable with himself and operates with a "Devil-may-care" attitude. He does tend to get a little obnoxious from time to time, and he's VERY good at offending people in stuffy social situations, but that's what great about Dave, nobody ever seems to hold it against him.

Ok, anyway, We hung out, had many drinks, I got drunk, and felt like absolute shit the next day. I had to load up the ZICO van with product in the blistering heat, and then go to an audition at 2:30, an audition that I totally blew. I sucked. I felt like hell, I looked like hell, and I was extremely frustrated with myself afterwards. I just had to get that off my chest. No more drinking like that the night before an audition.

I'm going to go sit in front of the fan with a cold wet towel on my head.

Keep looking

Ok, It's Thursday morning. I've been crazy busy this week with lots of ZICO activity. ZICO, being the newest, hottest beverage on the market as well as my full-time non-acting job. Old-Skoolers call it a day job. Regardless, I've been fairly tied up with sales and marketing efforts for ZICO this week. I HAVE managed to get to a few auditions, one being my BLUEFLY.COM callback and the other being a CHARTER CABLE commercial.

To quote a few of my lines from ALOHA SAY THE PRETTY GIRLS..."I have to say this, and I'm sorry, but I have to make myself clear..." I will no longer be disclosing specific information about my auditions. I am very superstitious when it comes to booking jobs. Before I started blogging, I would never mention to ANYBODY that I had a callback in fear of the jinx. SINCE I've been blogging, I babble all day long about my first audition, first callback, second callback,blah blah, blah, and I haven't booked anything...SO...I may mention that I have an audition today, or something like that, but I will no longer include details and I ESPECIALLY won't mention callbacks until I've booked the DAMN JOB. Let's see if that changes my luck.

By the way I have an audition today....

I spent some time with Jeff at his studio last night. Jeff is my friend who is editing my film, BUZZING THE BUZZER. We are both learning alot from this little project. This is my first time producing and directing and Jeff is an assistant editor at OGILVY & MATHER and wants to improve his editing skills. I felt bad last night because Jeff went ahead this week and spent some time editing BUZZER on his own, and the stuff he came up with great, but it just didnt quite point us in the direction I wanted to go with the film, so we scratched most of it. I could tell he was a little frustrated, but I guess tha'ts another lesson to be learned. We eventually went back to where we left off last time and actually made some headway. There is a certain pace and rhythm that this film needs, so each edit, each cut is crucial to keep that pace intact as well as allow the rhythm to build. It's very much like a song, at least it's that way in my head. Sometimes its difficult to verbalize, and I dont quite know how to describe what I'm looking for. So, I have to keep looking until I find it.

ONWARD!

I knew I felt something

FRIDAY!! Wow, what the hell do I do with myself? Seems like the past 10 Fridays have been filled with performances or rehreasals. I think I'm still in detox mode from the show, and very happy happy I dont have to be anywhere tonight. I may go downstairs to Mercury Bar and drink myself out of ALOHA withdrawl.

This morning I worked on the set of AS THE WORLD TURNS. While my Mother may disagree, its nothing to get excited over, its just a few scenes of background work. My call time was 7:30AM and I was done before 11AM. I LOVE AS THE WORLD TURNS. They are by far, the best show to work for. Everything out there runs SUPER smooth. The full-time cast and crew are all SUPER cool. In general, I think the CBS soaps (AS THE WORLD TURNS, GUIDING LIGHT) are so much better to work for from an actor's Dayplayer/U5/background player standpoint. Everybody is nice and respectful, regardless of title. Time management and professionalism is superb. The ABC shows (ONE LIFE TO LIVE, ALL MY CHILDREN), on the other hand, are a disaster. Everything is always in a state of chaos. Actors can't get call times until the day before, so its impossible to plan anything around the shooting schedule. Even then, the schedule is constantly being revised and call times range from 8AM to 6PM. The staff, not so much the contract players (Although there are no angels), as the makeup, hair and assorted crew members, are OFTEN rude, making you feel small, unwelcome and unworthy.

So anyway, I'll be briskly passing through the Lakeview Lounge a few times in some random episode in September. Blink and you might miss it.

Earlier this week (Wednesday) I auditioned for a BLUEFLY.COM commercial and a VOLVO national spot. The VOLVO spot is supposedly a big job and they are casting in every major US market as well as a few foreign marlets to find the right actors. There is no dialogue, but we were instructed to deliver a very specific mesage through facial expressions. VERY subtle expressions. The VOLVO spot shoots in Hawaii and pays a butt load of money. I could sure use a trip to Hawaii. I could sure use a butt load of money. Both auditions went relatrively well. I felt very relaxed, very comfortable with the material. In the past, when I've booked something like a national commercial, I always seem to have a unique connection to the material. It's like I can see the spot. I can see it and feel myself as part of this little story. I don't, however, feel like this is anything I can control. Believe me, I wish I could. I'd "See" and "Feel" myself as part of a Steven Spielberg story. The Seeing and Feeling thing is simply what all my bookings have in common.

I received an email today from Michael Hein, the producer of DEAD SERIOUS:

Well, it took a full year, but Dead Serious is ready to screen. I'm sending out this mass email to gauge our best date for a cast & crew screening in NYC. I'm looking at the end of August, an 11pm screening on a Thursday night in NYC. Please let me know if your still in the area and if you will be able to attend so I can set a date.

We shot DEAD SERIOUS last May and June. Its a low-budget independent horror comedy. The cast and crew are seasoned professionals as well as leaders in their field...the field of low-budget independent horror. While we were shooting,there was a lot of industry buzz surrounding this production. Fangoria magazine, for example, came to the set and interviewed Michael and director Joseph Sullivan, as well as a few of the actors. Here are a few links to some of the stories that came out last year while we were shooting:

CAMPBLOOD.org: "Set visit to DEAD SERIOUS. Happy Hour is officially over."

ENTERTAINMENT INSIDERS: An interview with the cast and crew of DEAD SERIOUS.

I am a supporting player in DEAD SERIOUS. I play the role of LANDIS, underground militia member, bad guy with a dirty mouth. I had the opportunity to work with a professional fight choreographer, fire a stage weapon (AK-47, 9mm) and die a painful death.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Oh, by the way, I just received a phone call from one of my agents and I've a callback on Monday for the BLUEFY.COM commercial. I knew I felt SOMETHING.

Dose of awakening

ALOHA has finally closed. We finished off with two really strong shows on Saturday and Sunday night. I have been saying for a while now that I didnt think we be able to top Week One's Sunday night show, but Saturday, July 30th took the prize. We had an amazing audience that was filled beyond capacity with an audience that had a great energy and lots of laughter, which enabled us to relax and have much more fun with the whole thing. The cast party was on Saturday night and most of the audience was invited to hang out and have a few drinks with us, so they were probably all happy about drinking free beer. I know I was. I ended up geting home at around 8AM the next morning. I crashed and slept until about 2P, got myself together and headed back out to JC for the final show.

Sunday night was a smaller house but we were fortunate to have a great audience. They were adoring and enthusiastic. Also a bit obnoxious at times (One audience member kept repeating lines out loud, even beating an actor to it here and there). God love em.

Wednesday morning and I'm still going through a bit of withdrawl. ALOHA SAY THE PRETTY GIRLS is over (For now). It's a very bittersweet ending because on one hand...I NEEDED SOME REST. I, actually I think we, meaning the entire cast, have been churning along for months now, giving SO much of ourselves to keep this thing rolling. Everyone was in desperate need of a break.

On the other hand, being a part of this production created so many good things that it was tough to say good-bye...or Aloha (Ok, that was a little corny). I came to really cherish the people involved. I mean I've connected with cast mates and crew in other shows before, but this was much different. There is just something about this play, whether its a blessing or a curse, I don't know, but there was some sort of mysterious spell that threw me into this surreal dimension. Maybe that's why Naomi rarely lets anyone produce this play. Maybe there is a spell, some little dose of awakening.