10:12 pm - Tues 1/1/08
2007: My Acting Career Year In Review

Just compiled my acting career "stats" for 2007.

Overall, I had 65 auditions, 13 callbacks, 8 "avails", and booked six gigs (Four commercials - Propel, Snickers, Coldstone, and Comcast - and two tv gigs, on Passions and Monk).

And I attended 39 workshops at ACG.

The majority of the auditions (53) were commercial, with most of the callbacks and avails coming from there as well.

I can't help but notice it took 53 auditions to book four commercial gigs, but only a dozen theatrical auditions to book two tv gigs.

(If I remember correctly, those percentages are very similar to last year's, which again makes me feel that if I could only get more theatrical auditions, I'd "seal the deal" often enough to have an actual career.)

I wish I could say that the "acting" I did this year was fun/emotionally satisfying/felt "creative", etc., but this was another year where I felt like the most "acting" I ever did was at workshops, where I almost always acquitted myself quite well.

(While it feels good to do well at workshops - I often think, after doing a scene, "Well, it's good to know I can still actually act..." - as you might imagine, I'd rather be getting my theatrical jollies via paying gigs, instead of having to pay someone else for the privilege.)

But while creative satisfaction was hard to come by (Though I did enjoy the Coldstone commercial shoot) - and some of the gigs I had this year were actually kind of unpleasant, in terms of being really tedious and unsatisfying - I made more money than ever before (Not just since I've been in L.A., but in my entire life).

The lion's-share of the income came from the Propel commercial, my first decent "national" (Where I'm one of two "blink and you'll miss me" paparazzi). But I got a couple nice checks for some of the other things as well (And I grossed over $4,000 from residuals for my Gilmore Girls and Nip/Tuck episodes from 2006).

And that money made a lot of nice things happen this year (More on that in my next entry), so I'm not about to dismiss the joy of making money.

It's pretty fucking cool.

I just wish I were making it while getting to actually act, that's all.

So, all-in-all, though I still don't feel like I'm "acting", and it was disappointing that the year kind of petered out for me after the Monk shoot in September, 2007 has to be read as a banner year; I now have five co-star credits, I have a full "team" in place (Having gotten a theatrical agent this year. But more on that in my next entry), and I made serious bank as an actor for the first time in my life.

I have to believe that, when the WGA/SAG stuff settles (And let's hope that's sooner rather than later), 2008 has the potential to be a bigger and better year than the year just past.

I'm hoping it's the year I'll start getting "guest star" auditions, and booking them.

The year I get my first movie role (s).

And the year I book some nationals that make me laugh at what a big "windfall" I thought I'd gotten from Propel.

In any case, I have a feeling it's going to keep being an interesting ride...

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