3:38 pm - Sat 2/16/08
The Land Where I Book Gigs And Make Money

After yesterday's Orbit gum callback - which went well - I spent the rest of the day waiting to get "The Call".

"The Call" never came.

Which means A) I didn't get the gig, or B) I didn't get the gig yet.

Now as I've written before, everyone who knows anything about this stuff says that, in order to not make yourself crazy over auditions, you have to audition, do your best, then forget about it and move on.

You can't dwell on the outcome of a given audition, because that's the one thing you have absolutely no control over.

That said, I'm getting good at the "doing my best" part, but still working on the "forgetting about it and moving on" part.

The best I can manage is to give myself a deadline; if I haven't heard anything by Monday night, I'll assume it didn't happen, be disappointed, then "forget about it and move on".

And that's especially important in this case. Otherwise, I could end up "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory"; I haven't even shot the AT&T spot yet, but it's already "old news", and I'm on to the next thing, a thing that probably won't happen, because they usually don't.

It might be nice to spend a little more time in "The Land Where I Book Gigs And Make Money".

Cause who knows?

I may want to buy a house there.

There was a wonderful surprise in today's mail: A substantial Propel check from JS (the biggest single check I've gotten in quite some time).

Apparently, the spot, to my delight, is running again.

It made me think about a couple things:

1) As 2008 approached, I struggled mightily with my fears for the new year. I worried that, with the WGA strike (and a possible SAG strike in the wings), there'd be nothing to audition for, and my spirits (Not to mention my finances) would plummet, as I ransacked my savings just to keep myself in basic room and board.

But here's what things look like, a month-and-a-half into 2008: The WGA strike is over, I've just booked my first commercial (After getting four callbacks in seven auditions), and I've gotten over $3100 in residuals from last year's work.

So what good did tying myself into knots with worry do me?

2)With my mutant power to turn even the best of all possible events into something to feel anxious about, I often think that the "down side" of commercial work, when I get it, is that I never know how much I'm going to make, or how long I'm going to make it. So it's hard for me to make financial plans of any sort.

But here's something I should be considering: I've never been in the position to even think about "financial planning" before - beyond contributing to my 401K at work - so that's pretty amazing.

And the "up side" to not knowing how much I'm going to make from a commercial, and for how long, is that I get to have a day like today, where I go the mailbox, there's a check for $2200, and I think "Holy shit - I'm still getting money for this one-day job I did a year ago...!".

And that, my friends, is a good feeling indeed.

(Running out of time here...)

Had a "phone session" with Javier today, since I couldn't do my regular session and time.

And speaking of "time", I wish I'd given myself more time to write about it, because the last two sessions with Javier have felt particularly productive and instructive.

(Today, we spent most of the time talking about the stuff I've just written about - Making money, and the various issues and concerns that brings up for me.)

And speaking of "making money", I've got to jet off to work (Well, it's like "making money", only smaller).

See ya!

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