around midnight - Fri 12.31.2010
My Year In Review (2010 Edition)

The Year In Acting

There's no question 2010 was a "banner year", career-wise; I booked my first official "guest star" role (On Castle), booked twice as many theatrical gigs as ever before, and more total gigs than ever before.

The "stats":

46 auditions.
21 theatrical auditions - 6 bookings
23 commercial auditions - 1 booking
2 voice-over auditions (Which makes me so glad I spent over $300 on voice-over stuff - on a demo, a microphone, getting on VO websites, and buying studio time).
6 callbacks (1 theatrical, five commercial)
6 "pins"/"avails" - booked three of the six.

I worked directly with Nathan Fillion, Amy Poehler, Mathew Perry, and Emmy Rossum, and met Allison Janney, William H. Macy, and Peter Stormare (And that's very meaningful to me; I used to tell people - when I worked at Borders, then at ArcLight, where I met any number of celebrities - that I didn't want to meet well-known actors as a "fan" while at my service job, but on the set as a "peer"...and that's actually starting to happen).

This is a fun thought - because six of the seven gigs I booked haven't aired yet, 2011 is going to be a big year for me on tv regardless of what else happens.

When I counted how many theatrical auditions I'd had this year, I wished there had been more, but was pretty impressed with the ratio of bookings-to-auditions, or auditions-to-bookings - I never know which way that's supposed to go (On average, I booked a gig every 3.5 auditions).

I wish I could say the same on the commercial side.

As the year was nearing an end, I starting thinking I'd have to subtitle this entry "The best of years/The worst of years", because while I was "rocking the casbah" theatrically, I was genuinely afraid I'd get through the entire year without a single commercial booking (Which has never happened before).

But I finally put one in the "win" column in December with the Budweiser spot.

That said, I still find how things went commercially this year...troubling; with 23 auditions (The small number of auditions is troubling all by itself) I should have had at least 11 or 12 callbacks, and booked at least two or three gigs.

I need to be more successful in commercials, because at the level I'm at, "that's where the money is" - It was sobering (and sometimes depressing) to think, as I was having "my best year ever" theatrically, that I could have done twice as well and still not have made enough money to live on.

(And "living on my income from acting" is one of the goals I had coming out here).

But whatever "concerns" I have - about number of auditions, about my commercial fortunes, about "making a living", etc. - I don't want to send out the wrong message (Or for that matter, send the wrong message to myself): This was a year to be proud of.

And I am.

But I need to do better.

(There's loads more to write about on this subject, but for now, I want to move on...)

The Year In...Everything Else

I moved in 2010, which was a very big deal - My first move since moving to LA in March of 2001.

There have been a few "trade-offs" - the location (Six blocks from the old place) is a little less convenient, for example - but all-in-all, I couldn't be happier.

In my old place, my rent was about to go up to $800 a month (It was $519 when I first came out here) - and with my uncertain income from one year to the next, the yearly rent increase was an ongoing source of anxiety ("My @#!! income isn't going up every year...!", I'd whine to anyone who'd listen) - and I didn't have parking.

You have to live in K-town - or at least tried to park there - to know how big a deal having your own parking space is.

My own parking space would have made the move worthwhile all by itself - Before now, I'd arranged my life in LA around driving as little as possible, because I didn't want to deal with parking - but to have a parking space and have the rent be $100 cheaper?

Well, I only wish this had happened years ago.

(The move is a testament to the power of putting your desires/intentions "out there" - I'd thought about moving for years, but couldn't make it happen. It only came about because I mentioned my unhappiness with my current situation to my therapist, who then told me another client was in a similar situation, but had found a place cheaper than what she was currently paying, which also had parking...and that's where I now reside.)

I had surgery this year - a septoplasty to fix my nose and somnoplasty on my tongue - in an effort to correct my sleep apnea.

The surgery was in November, shortly before Thanksgiving, and I'm still having some "issues" in terms of healing (The septoplasty has been no big deal, but the procedure on my throat left me pretty uncomfortable afterward; I was feeling better for awhile, but then started feeling worse the past couple weeks, to the point where I'm worried some kind of "complication" has developed).

But looking past potential "complications" - has something gotten infected, I wonder? - and the efficacy of the procedure (With my throat still sore, I think the jury's still out on whether it's going to "work" or not), I was happy with myself for finally "pulling the trigger" in terms of trying to do something about this ongoing, very debilitating problem.

I don't think of myself as a "doer" - In the past, I've tended to just be unhappy about whatever situation I find myself in, without ever quite marshaling the will to do anything about it - so this was a big step...and one I'm still hoping will improve my life.

Another "big step" in 2010 was dipping my toe back into the "dating pool", after years of being on the sidelines.

I went out four times this past year, and while nothing much happened (Though I did make friends with one of the women, and have socialized with her a couple times since), it's again something that feels very positive - A small sign that I want "more life in my life", and am starting to take actual steps to make that happen.

A nice development this past year, speaking of friends and socializing and whatnot, is that I became friends with Howard C. (From my ArcLight days) on Facebook, and we have become regular movie companions.

Howard's a little older than I am, even more of a movie fan (He's a screenwriter, so he sees just about everything out there, then deducts it come tax-time), and depending on what's out there, we'll see a movie maybe every week or two on average.

It's been great fun, one of those "little things" that make life richer and more enjoyable; I didn't realize how much I'd missed seeing a movie with someone, then having coffee afterward and talking about what we saw.

And I guess that's about it (I could write about the new WW program, but I think I'll save that for a WW-centric entry I've been thinking about writing).

In the past couple days, whether on Facebook, or talking to people face-to-face, it's struck me that I was particularly fortunate this year - I had what has to be seen as a pretty great year in 2010, and a number of people I know...did not.

So I'm grateful. It doesn't mean I don't want things to be better in the New Year, but I'm definitely aware that 2010 was, by and large, pretty damned kind to me.

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