YES!!!! Today I get the word that I booked a "Wrigley's Extra" national commercial. It is through the same casting director, production company, ad agency and director of the "California Lottery" spot I did 6 months ago. When my agent called me with the appointment; she told me I had been requested. This is what I want to happen more often. I shoot on Friday 12/7. NEWSFLASH!! This evening my agent calls to tell me that I am not to show up on set for "Flipside". WHAT!!!! There had been some mistake in the union paperwork and we can't start shooting this weekend. It has been postponed till January.

COMMERCIALS COMMERCIALS & MORE COMMERCIALS. For the last 3 weeks it has been incredibly busy for me commercially and I love it. Also, my callback ratio seems to have improved greatly. That is something that I have been working on. I have had a callback or avail for almost everything I have gone in for. Now I just want to book something.

Last night we had a table read for the pilot presentation that I am doing.It is called "Flipside" and it is set in a record store. The presentation is a collection of scenes for the BBC in London. It will be presented to them and who knows from after that.

I'm back in the saddle at Henderson/Zuckerman Friday reading for a director session. I read 40-45 actors, some I know from workshops to actors that I often see on TV and in movies. 4 were working, on "The West Wing", "Grounded for Life", "The Parkers" & "Spin City" and snuck over for the audition. Several more were working on films. Today, for the first time, I got to sit in on a meeting with an actor who was being offered a part in the film. When I was there on Tuesday there was an actor being talked about for a certain role, today the director watched his demo and the deal was made.

It is so interesting for me to see how the business works at this level. A lot of what I've seen are actors who work at a level where the little things don't count as much. If I had a dollar for every actor who did not bring a headshot with them I could have filled up my gas tank!! No headshot or resume, no resume, it's not stapled. You know what? I didn't matter one bit, they all got seen just the same and the people in charge didn't even seem annoyed by it. I guess when you are with DBA, ICM, Endeavor, Gersh, AAA, UTA, Innovative, etc you have more pressing matters than photos.

I would say the biggest thing they all had in common was confidence, you can tell that these actors have and are working, and a lot. The director is a dream, giving "clues" before an actor reads, redirecting and even shaking hands when they enter & exit. Oh yeah, I also read with K. Callan, author of the New York & LA agent books and met one of the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Nice!!! That's it.

Today I worked as a reader @ Henderson/Zuckerman Casting. As always it was a great experience. I was reading about 10 different roles, 30-35 actors so it was kinda crazy. It is interesting seeing so many different actors and their choices on the same material. They called actors without representation, from workshops all the way to actors & actresses represented by Endeavor, WMA & ICM, etc. The business talk that I hear is eye-opening as to how this business really works. It makes it so clear that we are in a "business". They asked me to come back on Friday to be the reader for the first director session. I highly recommend being a reader if you get the chance.

I just found out that I booked a pilot presentation called "Flipside". It is a fun part that should give me some good film. I was surprised that I got the callback because my pre-read wasn't too hot. I think it was because I was so right for it. I'll take that. I'm not sure which SAG contract it is, but it isn't paying much. That's okay; I just wanna do the work. It felt good to talk to my agent about us possibly not doing it. I'm really looking forward to it. I shoot in early December. Cool, now I get to do another postcarding.

I have always been very big on the postcarding of CD's/agents/managers or whoever's attention you are trying to get. Recently I changed my strategy a little with my postcards. They were getting kinda jumbled up with info, so I went to larger size. I switched from a 4x6 card to a 6x8 card. It is more expensive all the way around; they cost more, use more ink and are 34 cents to mail. The flip-side is that I get more bang for my buck. Since it is larger I can put a small resume with selected credits "and" callbacks, airdates, representation, another photo and the like. It is a nice cross between a regular postcard and a full H/R. The way some CD's are now about opening envelopes I think postcards are even more valuable to my business, so the investment didn't bother me too much. This morning my agent called with an appointment from Andrea Cohen Casting for a guest-star on "Nikki". She received my postcard this morning and said it was "the most effective postcard she ever received". I have never met her or anyone from her office before, so this feels really, really good. Now I gotta rock da house!! Hopefully, I will get more of these guest-star auditions in the future. .