9:59 pm - Fri 4.20.2013
feast/famine

What a difference a week can make...!

I've gone from crying about poverty and a relative dearth of auditions, to having money raining down upon me, with more on the way, due in part to, not one, but two co-star bookings (The second of which is for two episodes).

In the past week, I finally received, in quick succession, the checks for the first network repeat of my NCIS episode, and the season 2 repeats of my 3 Shameless episodes, all of which aired back in January (The Shameless episodes aired as part of a marathon leading up to the 3rd season premiere).

Feeling lucky at that point, I thought I'd check in with JS, to see if anything had come in yet from the 5th 3rd Bank commercial.

And it had; at this writing, I have a residual check for the commercial, for a shade under $900, in my wallet, just waiting for the next time I can get to the credit union.

(But wait! There's more!)

Then this morning, literally as I was heading out the door to my WW meeting, I got a call from Sharon; the Pretty Little Liars people want to use the scene I did a couple years back as part of a promotional, Here's-what's-happened-so-far montage.

So of course, I get paid for that (I don't have the exact dollar amount in my head, but I think Sharon said something in the neighborhood of $850. Whatever-it-is, I'm pretty tickled - Who'd of thought I'd get another decent payday for that nothing bit, years down the road?).

And as an extra added bonus to what was already a nice week, I got a little - I don't know what you'd call it. "Revenge"? "Vindication"? - a little satisfaction, by coming back from a dismal guest-star audition at the beginning of the month, to book two co-stars gigs back-to-back this past week.

But I've run out of time, so this will have to be continued tomorrow...

Sat 4/20/13 (6:08 am)

Where was I...?

Had an audition for the MTV show Teen Wolf on Tuesday.

There's a superstition with actors, that if the casting person is clearly enthusiastic about what you've done, you're not going to get the part; every actor in LA has a story like that, where the casting director acted like what they did not only changed their view on acting, but about life itself...but they still didn't book the role.

("Didn't even get a callback..." is often how the anecdote ends.)

So when I did my bit and the camera guy complimented me on how I played it - I didn't do much with the lines beyond just saying them; apparently, my fellow thespians loaded them down with "drama" - I was pleased, because it's nice when people like what I do, but at the same time, I worried that the old "If the casting person compliments you you're screwed" superstition would play itself out.

But it didn't.

I shot the episode in Northridge on Thursday night.

Seemed to go well.

One thing I've really enjoyed about this past week is that, between the auditions and the gig on Thursday, I didn't go in to Weight Watchers till yesterday morning.

That's no rap on Weight Watchers - As I've suggested before, beyond the pay, I'm all right with Weight Watchers as a job - just saying it was fun to have three days where I got to just be an actor.

That's what I came out here for, after all.

The "True Blood" audition was Wednesday morning.

It took awhile to get in, but my name was finally called, about 45 minutes after my appointment time.

And it was worth the wait - I did the scene (Two lines as a "Lab Coat Scientist", with a Southern accent), then stepped off to the side, concluding with the stereotypical "Bad Actor" bit ("And... scene!"), because, in the moment, it just seemed "the thing to do".

And while I'm guessing that's not the first time they've heard someone end their reading that way, they laughed, and the Director complimented me in the same spirit, commenting on how moved he'd been by my performance.

The "vibe" in the room was very light, and I've had enough experience at this point to know that's a tremendously good sign - When you're in a Producer session, and everyone's in a laughing, jokey mood (Or when they start "taking you out for a test drive", asking you to try the scene this way and that), you can be sure, at the very least, that you're being strongly considered for the role.

Actually, the only thing making me think it wasn't likely I'd book the gig was that I'd booked the last one; I'm no statistician, but with the odds already against you booking any given gig, the odds against booking gigs back-to-back would seem appreciably higher.

But, happily, here we are - I'm shooting on Friday (It's a little unclear how things are going to go - they may try to get all my stuff in one day, if possible - but I'm supposed to be in two episodes).

Well, that's basically it - I'll probably write more about this week, because I don't think I've "squeezed all the juice out of it" just yet, but those are "the broad strokes".

I feel like I've waited a long time for things to "roll my way" again.

I'm not going to say I "earned" it, or that I "deserve" it...but I'm sure glad it's happened.

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