12:31 pm - Sun 6/19/05
My \"Full-Bodied\" Week

Tues 6/14/05 (8:40 a.m.)

I got home from an audition yesterday�which seemed to go well�and heard the jury was in on the Michael Jackson case

I hadn�t been following the Jackson trial that closely, but had read enough about it to know that, by and large, it wasn�t going the prosecution�s way. So I wasn�t shocked at the verdict, but I felt let down nevertheless�The defense case may have been flimsy, and the prosecution may have been very effective, planting so much �reasonable doubt� that the jury had no choice but to vote the way they did, but my gut reaction to the verdict is that a serial pedophile has gone free.

My hope after something like this is that Jackson will somehow have �learned his lesson�--Even if he didn�t get convicted, this can�t have been much fun to go through�but I have my doubts. This is a guy who�s had to buy his way out of trouble at least twice before (with multimillion dollar settlements), a guy who told an international tv audience that he invites children into his bed and thinks �it�s a beautiful thing�. And now, after this latest business, he may just think he�s �bulletproof�.

And who knows? Maybe he is.

Unfortunately, even if he isn�t, I don�t think he�s going to be able to stop himself. He�s a pedophile, after all.

You can only hope that, at the very least, people will stop pimping out their children to him.

It was for Old Spice (In particular, for some new �body spray� they�re coming out with).

I played the doorman of an apartment building, greeting people who are going off to work as �Body Spray Guy� is just coming in, I assume from a night of hot sex (Because after all, he�s �Body Spray Guy�). As he enters, a sexy woman who�s leaving does a �180 and follows him back into the building, as I say �Welcome back, Miss Keaton...�.

I was happy to be there, the guys in the room were very nice, and I had the chance to do three or four takes, so I felt as if I�d gotten a decent shot at the thing. All in all, a very good experience.

Afterwards, I had to �talk myself down� from over-exuberance; I have the bad habit, if I haven�t had an audition in a couple weeks (And my last audition was three weeks ago), of somehow thinking this audition is somehow more significant, when really, it�s just one more audition, and I�m no more likely to book this one than the last one, or the one before that.

(A reminder, for people who are reading this and thinking �What a bad attitude...�: I do, of course, think I�m going to book things in the future. If I didn�t, I wouldn�t be doing this. But I�ve had somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 commercial auditions at this point, and booked...I don�t know, maybe a dozen gigs. So assuming I�m going to book every audition I feel good about would be downright silly, and put me on more of an emotional roller-coaster than I already am.)

Fri 6/17/05 (11:19 a.m.)

Well, it has been one crazy week...!

Monday:

In addition to the Old Spice audition, I had my second go at that acting group I first checked out last Friday.

I went back with Logan, and this time actually performed some acting-related activity�There were two of us who were new to the group, so instead of formally �auditioning� us, John E. (The director) had us read a number of smaller parts in the play they�re working on, Comic Potential (They�re actually past the �read-thru� stage, but he said it couldn�t hurt to go through the whole play again, and everyone seemed fine with that. They didn�t have enough actors there for all the parts anyway).

What struck me afterwards was not how much fun it was�even though it was fun�but how normal it felt. There I was, reading a play with a group of actors, like I�ve done many, many times before (Though not for the past number of years), having all the same feelings�Eager to make a good impression, impressed with some actors, not so impressed with others, bored at some points, involved at others, flipping ahead impatiently in my script to see where I�d come in next, scared I�d fall on my face with the next character I�d be asked to read�and it just felt really...comfortable.

I felt confident I was making a good impression (Mike, the other �new guy�, was really good as well), and turned out I was�At the end, I was �in�; John asked me to get a copy of the play, and was planning on plugging me into the Monday night thing (The group works on this play on Mondays. A different play gets worked on by other members of the group on Wednesdays. Friday is �open� to whoever comes in with something they want to work on, and the other days are for �showcases�).

When I broke my schedule down for them (I normally work Monday nights, but have Wednesdays and Thursdays off), they actually started talking about doing part of the play on Mondays, and �my� part of things on Thursday (After whatever �showcase� is going on has ended), and �putting them together� at some later point.

Even if that doesn�t happen-and I�m not sure I�d want it to, because that�s committing to spending another $100-120 a month (In addition to whatever �showcases� I wanted to attend)- I was really happy, and flattered, that it was being talked about (John just couldn�t decide to do that unilaterally, but needed to take it up with the other actors involved).

So we�ll see. I haven�t heard back from John E., or Logan, or whoever, so I assume it�s not gonna happen. Which, as I said before, is kind of okay�I do want to get into regular acting study at some point, but right now, I�m seeing this group primarily as a way of getting seen by agents and casting directors. That seems like the biggest �bang� for my non-existent buck at the present time.

Tuesday:

I had an audition for Chase (Bank? Credit Cards? Financial Services? I didn�t actually know�They just said �Chase�).

A pretty fun spot, centered around �The Moocher� at a hospital.

In one vignette, he asks a guy in the bed next to him, who�s getting an IV, �Are you gonna finish that...?�, while in another, he asks for a hit off an old geezer�s oxygen tank, and in a third, he tries to squeeze in with a woman on an MRI.

I was going in for �The Moocher�, and I felt like it went very well. The way they did it was have two actors at a time go in, do the vignettes, and then switch roles. And I got a very good response, both as �The Moocher�, and as they guy being mooched from.

I left feeling like it had gone about as good as these things ever go.

Wednesday:

Let me preface this part of my entry by saying this: I never �switch shifts� with people at the bookstore, or even just take someone�s shift outright on one of my normal days off.

The reason for that is that I�m afraid I�d book an audition that day and screw everyone up.

But Anna had worked for me a week ago Friday, when I first went to the Actors Co-op with Logan. And even though it wasn�t my understanding of our �arrangement� (I assumed she was taking the shift, and I was just going to take a personal day), when she developed a conflict and couldn�t work her shift Wednesday, she played the �But-I-Worked-For-You� card, and emotionally blackmailed me into working her 12:00-8:00 shift.

By Tuesday night, when I hadn�t gotten any audition calls, I thought I was free and clear (It always feels weird when I don�t want to get a call from JS). I was hoping for callbacks from Old Spice or Chase...but just not on Wednesday.

But less than an hour before I had to start getting ready for work that day, I checked my voicemail...and there was a call from JS.: I had a callback for the Chase spot in Santa Monica, at 3:45 (Not quite �smack in the middle� of my workday, but pretty damned close).

After cursing myself for my weakness (For letting Anna coerce me into taking her shift), I called JS to confirm the audition. Then I called work, and fortunately, spoke to Joe: He redid the schedule so I had a two hour break in between (Instead of just the normal one-hour meal break), so now I had at least a shot at getting back and forth without getting an �occurrence�.

But it wasn�t to be�I was actually early to the callback, but it was a good 40 minutes after my appointment time before I finally got seen. And that put me smack-dab in the middle of rush-hour on the 10 when I was trying to get back to the bookstore.

I was 35 minutes late, which is a full �occurrence� (The rule is this: You get six minutes after the hour with no penalty. After six minutes, up to a half-hour, it�s a �half-occurrence�. After that, from 31 minutes to skipping your shift altogether, it�s a full �occurrence�).

So basically, I�m never going to work anyone�s shift again, for the remainder of my time at Borders.

Anyway, I checked my voice mail on and off the rest of the evening at the bookstore, to see if I�d booked the gig. And when no call was forthcoming, I assumed it was going to be, once again, �close, but no cigar�.

But when I got home from work, there was an email from JS�I was on �Avail� for the gig. Still no �cigar�, but very �close�.

Thursday:

Was my loan signing seminar, at the Wilshire Radisson Hotel, maybe five or six blocks from my apartment.

I was nervous about it initially�I was afraid that without being able to take a nap, I was going to be overwhelmed by fatigue and the crushing boredom of it all (�Fatigue� and �Boredom� often work in concert to make my life suck).

But it really wasn�t a problem. I felt like shit, like I usually do, but no worse than I usually do. And I was invested enough in learning this stuff that I didn�t have any problem keeping awake.

(My sense of the job is that it�s not �rocket science�, by any stretch. Just a lot of little things to remember�It�s a �process�, and once you learn it, you�re pretty much good to go, notwithstanding the occasional �bump in the road�.)

In the morning, I was excited when I got a voicemail from JS, but it was just them double-checking my availability (You have to call and confirm when you have an �avail� and I�d forgotten to do that).

There was a morning session, then an hour lunch, then an afternoon session.

About an hour after lunch, into the afternoon session, another earthquake hit (The first thing I noticed were the two large chandeliers starting to sway back and forth).

Just like me during the previous earthquake�which hit while I was in my apartment, writing a journal entry--I saw a number of people get up, as if to flee the building or get under a doorway or do whatever you�re supposed to do, then sit down when they realized it wasn�t going to be �The Big One�.

The female speaker for the afternoon, who�s from Minnesota, was moderately rattled by the experience, so we had a 10 minute break while she composed herself, then went on.

And in the afternoon, I got the confirming voice-mail: I�d booked for Chase!

I called JS back to confirm, and they told me the production company would be calling me later for my call time and directions.

So then I called the bookstore. Since I didn�t really know anything at that point, it was just kind of a �head�s up� courtesy (I said I�d call back when I knew more, but it was looking �iffy� that I�d be able to work my shift the next day).

I got the call from the production company that evening�I had a 7:30 a.m. call the next day, at St Mary�s Medical Center in Long Beach�and called the bookstore again, saying it was possible that I�d be late for my shift, but be able to work some part of it.

(Well, I knew this was going to be an epic entry, but this is getting ridiculous...I think I�m going to stop here, and start my next entry with Friday�s gig.)

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