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10:19 pm - Sun 7.31.2011
Somewhat Of A Deal

Somewhat Of A Deal


An interesting period of time...

I don't want to spend a lot of time writing about the "debt crisis" - All I'd do is reveal my political ignorance/naivete - but I feel...uneasy regarding the deal that seems about to be struck.

(I think of some of my community theater experiences, where the rehearsal period was so bad it was a relief the show went up at all...but that "relief" didn't mean the show still wasn't really bad.)

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Well, the big acting news has been, and continues to be, Shameless - more on that in a moment - but that said, I had a very nice audition on Thursday, one I fully expect to bear fruit, if not immediately, then in the not-too-distant future).

It was for the show Happy Endings, a sitcom on ABC.

It wasn't much of a thing - just a one-line co-star role as a neighbor (Brett submitted me for it for the "recurring" possibilities of "next door neighbor") - but the interaction I had with the casting director was very positive; when she looked at my resume, she remarked, "You've been on some really good shows..." (Mentioning Mad Men in particular), which I used as an opportunity to hype my return appearance on Shameless.

Anyway, it was a very pleasant interaction (She referred to me as "adorable" at one point), and when I left, she said that if I didn't get this thing, they'd get me on for something else (Which I was pretty thrilled about, especially considering this was a first meeting).

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Worked concessions for another show at Sacred Fools last night (The show was Watson, a show they developed in workshop, and I was impressed - it was a great deal of fun).

I'd wanted to usher again, so was a little disconcerted when I was asked, via email, if I minded doing concessions instead; I kind of did mind, but didn't want to be "disagreeable", so I said yes.

As I often do, I was making what should have been "no big deal"...well, if not "a big deal", then "somewhat of a deal" - I seem to harbor a great deal of anxiety about "not knowing what I'm doing" and thus "screwing things up" - but I went in armed with an email detailing what I needed to do, and when the time actually came, Terry, one of the Producers at the theater, walked me through all the procedures anyway, and it was all easy-breezy.

It didn't hurt that the usher, Libby (?), an attractive, personable fellow actor, seemed to find me entertaining.

And while all this was nice - easy duty, nice conversation with a pretty girl, seeing an enjoyable show, and meeting French Stewart (Who was in the show) - the best (potential) development happened after the show, when Terry asked for my email, so he could send me the script of a show of his (Something he's looking to have "workshopped" a la Watson).

That's exactly the opening I'm looking for at this theater, where I start becoming a familiar face, and a familiar face that's recognized as an actor.

So, long story short, the concession stint I was stressing over (I had to finally tell myself, "Good God, Jim - You've done retail most of your life, you can certainly handle concessions at this little theater..."), ended up being a very positive experience.

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Speaking of "experiences to stress over"...

Yesterday afternoon sometime, I received an email from Haley, who runs the voice-over part of BCK; she was putting the call out for a SAG voice-over audition for Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3, a straight-to-dvd movie.

The catch?

I would have to record the audition from home, because it had to be submitted by 8:00 am tomorrow morning.

I have a mic, and awhile back, I downloaded a recording program called Audacity, but voice-over auditions have been pretty much non-existent, and I never really learned how to use the software (The few auditions I've had I've done at a recording studio in Studio City).

Adding to the stress was the fact that I didn't have as much time as you'd imagine, considering it's "the weekend" - I was doing the concession thing last night, I was going to be involved with Weight Watchers through mid-afternoon today, and then tomorrow there's Shameless.

So I struggled with it for a couple hours - I'm not the most "technically inclined" of men - having to figure out first how to successfully record what I was doing, then having to download another program to convert the sound file to the mp3 format, then having to call Haley when I realized I'd forgotten the username for my Actors Access account (Where I was supposed to send the submission from).

Long story short, it was once again my "community theater" analogy - I was so relieved I'd finished it, it was almost an afterthought that the actual audition was not very good.

But at least I did it. And hopefully that "trial by fire" will help me do things better next time.

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After I finally finished the voice-over thing (It struck me at one point that "If this were an on-camera audition, I might very well turn it down"), my thoughts returned to Shameless tomorrow.

I went over the lines, and had a brief crisis-of-confidence about what I was doing.

But I expect it's going to go fine - He's great, and I'm not so bad myself, and it's not a hard scene (In a way, I think it's easier than what I did last time, at least in terms of physical "business").

My call time is 10:30 am, and they've got a read-through of the next episode scheduled at 1:00 pm, which suggests that they expect to knock the scene out in a hurry (Again, it doesn't strike me as a particularly hard scene - it's basically just the two of us having a brief conversation in the bar - so I'm encouraged that everyone's "on the same page" about that).

Should be a good time, a nice memory for my mental scrapbook.

And that said, I should get to bed, and at least try to get some sleep tonight...


 

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