Class tonight was a little different since it was Halloween and a lot of people didn't show up. We did monologues, it's been a long time since I've done one, but it went well.

Audition “Boston Legal” @ Valko/Miller Casting. This office pre-reads me quite often and I go to producers every time, but I haven’t booked since “Ally McBeal” in 2001. I think it’s time to change that.

The audition went well enough to get a callback for a couple of hours later. Since I was way down in Manhattan Beach I took time to visit my favorite store - Costco!! Ha!

Anyway the callback went well, I felt, so we'll see what happens.

Audition: “Office Max” @ Jeff Rosenman Casting. This was a lot of fun. I knew the session director and the lady I was partnered up with and we had a great time. I am right for this, call me back!

Audition: “Tostitos” @ Deborah Kurtz Casting. It goes well enough. I tried to get in on a “Sunny D” spot that was going on at the same time, but I was unsuccessful.

Tonight was the second episode of a series that my friend Jonathan Julian has a recurring role in called “Noah’s Arc” on the Logo Network. Actually, he’s been in everything episode so far. He got this role from a self-submission on Now Casting about 3 years ago. It was funny, shot well and definitely pushed the envelope.

Callback: “SBC/AT&T” @ Francine Selkirk Casting. This goes well. I mean, it was really simple, but everything felt really good. This spot should run a lot since it’s launching the new, merged company. It pays double scale and double scale residuals…NICE. I would love to get this spot. I guess time will tell.

Tonight I started a new acting class with Amy Lyndon. I think it’s going to be a good class to help me make better, more specific choices in my work.

Okay, my call time for the 48-hour film project I’m doing this weekend is 7:30am. The name of the project is “Cast THIS”. The film is to be no longer than 8-minutes, has to have certain line of dialogue, a certain prop, a certain character name and the genre given to our team is comedy. All of these guidelines came down last night @ 7pm. That is when writer, producer, actress Julia Flint starting writing. By 1am we all had the script. We had a read-through @ 8:30am and started shooting shortly thereafter.

The story is about a disgruntled casting director trying to cast a project. I play one of the actors auditioning for the project. I knew several of the actors from Actorsite. It was a fun, amazing experience. I still cannot believe that we got it all done. I see “we”, but I really mean “them”, I was just a piece in the wheel. Thanks Julia!

Go-see: “Pfizer” Yeah! A print go-see. This one is quick, fast and in a hurry. Cool, I’ll take it however I can get it.

Audition: “Citi Advantage Card” @ Alyson Horn Casting. This went really well. I have booked through Alyson in the past.

Audition: “Coors” @ Francene Selkirk Casting. Cool, I just auditioned here yesterday. This is where I had my first audition in LA on July 29th 1998. This on goes really, really well. We had a ball in the room. I have yet to book in this office, but that will change……. And I hope soon.

Audition: “Honda” @ Ross Lacy Casting. That makes three really great auditions today. Now let hope for some callbacks!!

Audition: “SBC/AT&T” @ Francene Selkirk Casting. This went really, really well; which has nothing to do with whether I’ll get a callback or not. That’s okay, as long as they keep giving me the opportunity to book. Eventually I’ll score again.

Check this out. As I was walking back to my car after the audition my phone rang. It was an “818” number I didn’t recognize. I thought maybe I left something at the audition and needed to return. So I answer my phone and it’s Alison Mize from Deedee Bradley Casting. She had just received my postcard and wanted to congratulate me for booking my first Guest Starring role. She had a lot of compliments for me. I had to tell her that the episode has been pushed and it won’t air on Thursday like it said on all of the 131 postcards I sent out. She said, “So what, the important thing is that you booked it”. Thanks Alison.

I did a scene for her at an event a couple of months ago and she commented that she was glad to get to see me work because she sees my photo all the time and now has a little more to go on. I was speechless. It was such a nice thing to do.

I’ve been trying to get in that office for a good while and it’s nice to know that all of the drops, postcards, etc. are not in vain. Hopefully, I’ll get in to audition in the future. My day was already going well and that just made it even better.

This was my first commercial audition in several weeks so I have a feeling that since it’s been a little slow lately commercials are going to pick up.

I am participating in the 48-Hour film festival with several other actor/producers/writers, some of which I know from the Actorsite Networking Group. The production takes place this weekend and we had our cast and crew meeting tonight. I think this is going to be a lot of fun. Oh yeah, since I got the surprise that the “IBM” commercial is being used worldwide I was able to make a donation to the production of the short film. It wasn’t much, but hopefully it will help with the craft services cost or something. In my future I really hope to be a philanthropist on some level. It can’t always be money; there are many other ways to give back.

At 6:30 my phone rings and it’s 2 commercial auditions for tomorrow. YES!!! Then @ 8:25pm I get a call for a third audition. I couldn’t believe my agents were still putting out calls. Actually, I’m not shocked. It’s just a good feeling to have such a great team to work with. Matter-of-fact after interning last week at Nancy Nayors office last Friday I’m going to send a thank you note to my theatrical agency just to let them know that I appreciate what they do and have done for me over the years.

Okay, it’s official. The episode of “Love, Inc.” has been delayed to who knows when. The good thing is that the person who gave me that info has seen the episode and said that it turned out really it’s very funny. That person is also close to one of the creators of the show and said that s/he would lean on him to bring the nerds back. Cool. Oh well, 131 postcards went out yesterday with the wrong date on them. Ooops.

Tonight I conducted another orientation for a group of New York actors testing the waters in Los Angeles. There a fun, energetic group with lots of questions about how the LA market works. I definitely don’t have the answers, but I’ve picked up some ideas along the way.

Ahh! What a day today was. I was planning to sleep in, but it was not to be. After a bunch of stuff I had to do this morning I was on my way home to grab a couple hours of rest. Right then I received a call from Janine @ Nancy Nayor Casting asking if I could intern for the rest of the day. They were swamped with submissions and needed help to open them.

So I arrived to a whole lot of submissions for 3 different films they are working on. The first thing it did was amaze me I get any appointments at all. I mean, there were so many submissions to go through. Boy, this is a tough business we are in. Fortunately, I bought my own letter opener with me.

When you go through over 1,000 photos it’s interesting to see what other actors’ methods are. I couldn’t understand the rationale of not stapling the headshot to the resume at all. You would think that attaching the two things would just make sense. I also noticed a lot of duplicate postcards. That seemed to be mostly people that were using labels. In this particular office they were addressed to three different people, but in reality the went in to one stack.

I can tell you that, from what I saw, everything gets looked at. If the submission had the right project and a character name it went into the stack with all of the agency submissions. So THAT was encouraging, but I gotta tell you the odds are……..well.

This was timely because I am in the midst of sending postcards for my appearance on “Love, Inc.” this week. Actually, they may have changed the date because there’s a different episode listed on tvguide.com. I’m kinda in limbo because I don’t want to send them with a date if it not going to air, but I need to get the word out that I booked the job.

Audition/Producers/Tape: “According to Jim” @ Zane/Pillsbury Casting. Cool, I just had a good audition with them last week. It’s all about getting them to trust you and to keep bringing you back. Of course, you wanna book too…..eventually. It went well so we'll see.

Audition/Producers/Tape: “Joey” @ Greenstein/Daniels Casting. Here's another casting office that recently called me to producers. This is what I’ve been trying to accomplish, so maybe I’m getting somewhere. Actually, I found out that the role I went in for on “Joey” a couple of weeks ago was cut from the script. I just have to keep my momentum up in these offices and build up a following. I felt good about this one too.

Airing: “Hot Properties” on ABC @ 9:30pm. I’m in one scene as a doctor. Okay, so while reading a review of the pilot yesterday I had a sneaking suspicion that I was cut from the episode. I was right, they left that scene out, so maybe they'll call me back in for something else.

Although, I haven't seen the "IBM" commercial but one time, I found out today that they are using it worldwide. Let me just say that is a good thing.....a very good thing and a big surprise.

Audition: "In Justice" @ Zane/Pillsbury Casting. I auditioned for a series regular role on this show back during pilot season. So now I'm going in for two smaller roles, on tape for producers. It goes well, so I guess we'll see....or we won't.

Airing: “Weeds” on Showtime @ 9:30pm. I don’t have Showtime, but one of the other actors I worked with has a copy I’ll be able to see. He informed that my brief appearance was made even more brief through editing.

Audition/Producers: “Monk” @ CFB Casting. I’ve dropped off 2 or 3 times to this office this season for various things. They do call me in too. Actually, I booked a small part on “Weeds” which airs Wednesday the 5th on Showtime. This will be about the fourth time I’ve gone in for “Monk” and hopefully I’ll eventually get something on the show.

CUT TO:

Ooops! This didn’t go too well. At least I don’t think it did. As soon as I walked in one of the casting directors starting talking about the episode of “Weeds” airing this week. I thought that was cool that she actually remembered the particular episode that I was in.

The role I was reading for just had a couple of lines that ran pretty much together in the scene with a continuation to the very next scene. I chose to just run it all as one scene instead of doing one line, cutting, and then doing the other line. It was totally my fault and my flow got kinda jacked up when they broke it up into two separate scenes. It said “Start” and “End” on both pages, so I have no one to blame, but me. Ewww!

I bang the pavement hard with drops this morning. Last week was kind of quiet and I would like this week to be different. I was really hoping to get a callback for “The Unit”, but it looks like they moved on without me. I think I’ll get back in that office before too long.

I had a list, mostly from the Actorsite to go on. About 18 different drops, I knew I wasn’t going to do them all today because they were all over the city and I have be careful of my gas consumption. The Actorsite list usually has many addresses that I haven't heard of and I don't know where they come from. That's cool though, it keeps me busy. The Actorsite is where I found the original listing for “The Terminal” and walked to the casting office, dropped off my photo and booked a role. Speaking of the “The Terminal”, I am still waiting for home video residuals which are MONTHS late…….did I say months? I won’t get into it, it’s sore subject with me right now……

So my first drop is way out in Pasadena and the traffic most of the way there is horrible. Well, at least I got to talk to my brother, Todd, in Virginia. We talk business practically everyday and I love that.

It seemed that almost every drop I did today was at an unfamiliar address. So I was totally feeling like “why am I driving waaaay out here? Traffic sucks. I should just blow these off today and go home and feel sorry for myself.” That’s when my alter-ego in the passenger seat looked at me and said “dude, stop bitching!” There are times when I just don’t feel like doing it. Sometimes I pull out my bag of tricks and sometimes I carry my ass home.

Today I opted to pull out the bag of tricks and see what I could find. It was my alter-ego (also me) telling me to "Keep it moving!", so that is what I did. I get to the first one in Pasadena and hand my photo to the receptionist and totally felt like it was a waste of time. I had to laugh, BUT I followed my own advice of “nothing is a waste of time, because you never know what the future will bring”.

So on to the next; it was in a neighborhood. First, I’m thinking that I’m in the wrong place so I double check the street and lo and behold I AM in the right place. It’s a house with a big ass dog barking in the back behind a fence. The spot was a little “hoodish” and I was like “yo, I’m outta here!” Then I was like “I drove all the way out here, I GOTTA drop this off, who knows what I might be walking away from”. For real though, I was kinda nervous about rolling up to someone’s front door.

I took my own advice and went for it. I walk up to the door looking for a drop box or something so I can “stick and move and be OUT”. NOTHING. I’m thinking somebody is going to come out on the porch and say “HEY get away from my shit!!!!!” At this point I’m laughing inside because I rarely get nervous in the field, but I was sweating bullets.

The front door was one of those heavy, black, metal security doors that you can’t really see into, but they can see out of. I couldn’t tell if anyone was looking at me so I was trying to be cool, but not really and finally I hear this voice. Oh sh*t. I couldn’t see who it was. So I ask “Can I drop this off for the casting?” Finally, I could sorta see who I was talking to; it was an Asian woman in her 60’s who didn’t at all look "Hollywood". She doesn’t know what I’m talking about, so I say “uh, can I leave this for the movie?” she replies “huh, moobie?” I’m ready to apologize and head back to my car and right then she says “KYC ProoooDuctions?” I say “Yeah!” and she opens the door and takes it and even says “thank you”. I thank her and breathe a sigh of relief. I head back to my car, but not before giving the barking dog “da finga, beeeyotch". Peace!

After a couple of wrong turns trying to get out of this very unfamiliar place I head to Sunset Blvd. for my next drop. But even this was an address I had never been to. The attractive receptionist greets me warmly and points around the corner to a woman who was sorting photos.I politely hand her my photo; she glances at it, then sees my name and looks right at me. Her look was so abrupt that it stopped me in my tracks. I was startled, so I said “Ha, have we met before?” she kinda nodded. I honestly didn’t recognize her so I said “ok, well, hey have a great day” and hopefully, gracefully made my exit. What a day.

Next stop was another unfamiliar spot on Las Palmas. The three women were very nice and responsive to me being nice and friendly. Whew, some normalcy.

Even when I got to Sunset-Gower Studios the security guard was a little weird, like I was the first actor to drop off a headshot. Anyway….back to work……………