11:18 pm - Thursday, Dec. 01, 2005
Giving Thanks

Sun 11/27/05 (9:49 a.m.)

Just got off the phone with Cary a short time ago...

He�s helping me update my resume (Correction: He�s updating my resume), and I have to say�It�s pretty cool to look at my �credits� and see a network tv show listed. And it�s fun to imagine �co-star� roles becoming �guest-star� roles, and someday�who knows?-- maybe even �starring� roles.

(But now back to the real world...)

It almost seems too late to talk about Thanksgiving, but I did something a little different this year that bears mentioning.

The owner of The Laugh Factory�(Jamie Masada)-offers free Thanksgiving dinner to performers and other lowlifes who don�t have family in the area. And since I found myself at loose ends this year (I passed up one invite when I thought I�d have to work, and Cary and Kay had plans with friends), I decided to give it a go.

I called and made a reservation on Wednesday afternoon�It�s a pretty big event, and they had 1:00, 3:00, and 5:00 �shows� to choose from�then on Thursday afternoon, I drove to the ArcLight, parked, and walked down to The Laugh Factory.

I got there about 45 minutes early�for the 3:00 �show�and waited in a line of maybe a couple hundred people (I noticed, as I have many times before, that you never see a lot of attractive people at things like this).

In line, I spent most of my time talking with a middle-aged guy in front of me, who started the conversation by asking if I was an actor�because I �looked familiar�--and noted my resemblance to John Lithgow (Which, personally, I don�t see. But it�s not the first time I�ve heard that in recent years, so there must be something to it).

He�d just finished writing a book (Can�t remember the title right now), a memoir about his growing up in an Iraqi-American-Jewish family (And if that wasn�t enough material for one memoir, I think there was a gay sub-text there as well; In any case, I remember something about �sexuality� in the subtitle).

Anyway, once the line started moving, it moved pretty quickly�We were ushered in, and workers served us turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes, etc. and so forth�and we were directed to wherever there were seats (I ended up seated, along with my new Iraqi-American-Jewish-Gay friend, by a railing in the balcony).

I�ve put the word �show� in parenthesis because calling a free holiday handout a �show� seems a little goofy. But it turned out there actually was a little show�While we ate (And the food was fine, by the way�no complaints there), they had an M.C. and three comics performing little mini-�sets�.

(If I�d been in charge of the show, I would have put the three comics in reverse-order of how they actually appeared; as things stood, each succeeding comic was less funny than the guy before him, and that�s not how things are supposed to go. But anyway...)

In about an hour, I was back out on the street again, trying to gauge how I felt about the whole thing.

Honestly? The experience made me feel just a tad pathetic, and I probably won�t do it again.

But that�s not to say that I�m not glad I did it this time�I�m a single, middle-aged guy with no family, and holidays continue to pose something of a....challenge.

So I give myself �props� for not just wallowing in self-pity. It didn�t really quite �work� for me�I wasn�t miserable, mind you. I just thought �I�d probably have been happier just taking myself out to dinner somewhere...��but I tried it.

Three cheers for �trying�.

Mon 11/28/05 (9:32 a.m.)

I have a callback at 11:00, for Quaker �Breakfast Cookies� (Hey, I know it's a stupid product, but give me a break, willya?--I don�t create the products, I just shill for them).

This is from an audition at the first of the month, the same day I had the Kellog �Go Tarts� audition (Which I had a callback for the following week, was put �on avail� for the next day, then was eventually �released� from said avail, all in the time it�s taken Quaker to do a callback).

No big �acting thing�, this spot. But of course, I want to book it nevertheless, cause the name of the game here is �Making enough money to not have to work a regular job�.

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