Audition: “ABC-7” Promo @ Danny Goldman Casting. I haven’t been in this office since Nov. 27th 2001. Wow. The audition goes well so hopefully I’ll be back on their radar in the future.

After a really long day of flying I am back in Los Angeles. I had a great time in Birmingham, Alabama with my family. It was so nice to get away from the big city hustle for a minute.

Since I was the last one flying in my family was pretty much waiting for me to have dinner. Let me tell you, I ate, I ate, I ate and I ate. Typically, I eat very little and very slow. I mean I’m like the slowest eater in the world. Actually, if I eat too much or too fast I will usually get sick to my stomach. BUT I love to eat!! I’ve always been this way. I weigh the same or even a little less than I did when I was in high school. Fortunately, I didn’t get sick this time, I think because most of what I ate was home cooked stuff.

For the first time in my life I went shopping on Black Friday, well I did more window shopping than anything else. It was complete chaos. Not really my thing, but interesting to watch nevertheless. I had a much better time going to the outlet malls, I try to only do the “full price thing” when I really have to.

We also went to the newly opened Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. It was quite the spectacle, lots of fish and many other creatures. I had never seen a penguin or touch a shark. It was pretty cool, I recommend it.

All in all, it was just great to be with my family again. I’ll get to see them again in Virginia Beach in about 3 weeks.

YES!!!! I am leaving for Birmingham, Alabama this Thanksgiving morning and I cannot wait. I am so ready for a break from most of my regular routine, but I’ll be back before I know it.

This is going to be a great trip. I’m going to visit my sister and her family AND my youngest brother and his family are flying in from Virginia Beach as well. I am really looking forward to spending time with them. I love my family so much, I just wish there were more pockets of the great connection I have with some of my family members.

We are also planning to visit the new aquarium in Atlanta that is billed as the largest one in the world. It’s been a minute since I’ve been on a road trip; so this is great timing.

Audition/Producers: “Jake in Progress” @ Megan Branman Casting. This for a one day guest starring role.

Audition: “Sealy Mattress” @ Keri Peyton Casting.Oh yeah, I also got word that the episode of "Love, Inc." that I shot airs on December 15th. Finally!!

Callback: “Staples” YES!! The call comes in this morning for a callback for the “Staples” spot I went in for on Friday. I’m glad I’m finally at least getting callbacks for Ross Lacy, because he gives me more chances commercially than anyone else in this town. For the longest while I wasn’t getting ANY callbacks for him, but that has changed recently. This callback goes well so we’ll see.

Class tonight at Amy Lyndon was great.

Today is Mom’s birthday. Wow, what a void. BUT I am handling it well, much better than in the past. I am so glad that she got to see some of my work before she passed.

I think she raised me well and I hope I can do as much for the children I plan to have one day. I often think back and wonder what kind of child my parents thought I was. Well, I think it’s obvious what my father thought of me – not much, but that’s another story for another time. I think my mom thought I was a little odd; at least quite different than what she was used to growing up in the projects just outside Philadelphia.

I was a curious kid and I mean curious about everything. I am still that way even today. I was always interested in how things worked. It’s funny, because looking back I probably seemed a bit like a “mommas boy”. Nah, that wasn’t the case though. It’s just that I wasn’t afraid of what people thought of me. I mean, I remember @ 7 or 8 years old my mother teaching me to fry an egg or years later learning to make a box cake. My mother, being a seamstress, could always count on me to help her hem her dresses and pants. I took a foods class in high school; that was a convenient way for my extremely nerdy-ass to get next to some girls. I had limited success at that.

I think the reason nobody really tested my “manhood” or I guess “boyhood” is that I had MAD SKILLS on my BMX bike, could ride the heck out of a motorcycle and I could fix things. Oh yeah, I had skills on the neighborhood football field too.

I say all of this because even though most of what I did as a kid was foreign to my parents, they never really stopped me from doing the things I wanted. I mean we used to catch snakes and frogs at the golf course and bring them home as pets. I remember building a ramp and jumping over my VW bug in front of the house. So I’m thankful that they never stopped us because those little things can prevent us from being free to pursue our lives. I feel free to pursue mine and I thank my mom for that. Happy Birthday Louise L. Fuller!!

Audition: “Staples” @ Ross Lacy Casting. It goes well.

This afternoon I was back in the saddle as a reader for Natasha Cuba/Kelly Wagner @ Nancy Nayor Casting. This ended up being a kind of a long session even though we didn’t see that many actors. The director, Paddy Breathnach, was spending A LOT of time with everyone. It was great to see such patience and also interesting to see people take direction – or not. This was the last session before Paddy goes back to Dublin.

I’ll say it again – it’s so insightful being a reader. It’s amazing to see these young actors come in that have so much going on – even though you have probably never heard of them. Some of them will blow up in the coming years. I witnessed one actress given the pros of doing the project even though it would totally take her out of her first pilot season here in LA.

Audition: “Criminal Minds” @ April Webster Casting for Scott David. Scott called me directly for this on my cell phone. Funny because I was at the dentist and I thought I’d put my phone on silent, but actually it was vibrate – thankfully. He tried my agent, but it was lunch time. So if I hadn’t answered he probably wouldn’t have left a message and moved on to the next person the he could actually talk to. I wouldn’t have been able to return the call because it came up as “UNKNOWN ID”. I guess the lesson in that for me is to realize that if my phone is on silent I may miss an opportunity because I definitely think I would have missed this one.

Anyway, it was a last minute reporter role added to the script. This is what I’ve been trying to accomplish – getting what I call “in casting directors’ mouth” meaning that if they are putting together a session to go straight to producers I want to be one of the first 5-7 actors that they think about. That way I am not depending on my agent, breakdowns or anything like that, but I’m doing my part to help the whole effort.

Now here’s the not so great part. The audition just went “so so”. I was rushing to get there and I didn’t stop to “FOCUS”. I had another commitment on the other side of town that I was driving there from and I was the last actor to read. No excuses, my fault, I had the time, even just 2 minutes to collect myself, but I rushed myself. There were no other actors there so I went right in the room.

I wasn’t horrible, I had some nice moment, I think. It just wasn’t together like I would have liked. Yes, I’m guilty; I yelled “F&%K!!!” a couple of times when I got back in the car.

Today marks 3 years since losing my mother to cancer. I did pretty well in moving forward with it, better than last year and MUCH better than the year before. The only trouble spot was someone who I know meant well, but sorta forced me to think of it in a bad way. THAT was troubling for me to say the least. I’m not out of the woods yet, her birthday is next week so I’ll probably shed a tear or two at some point. I miss her dearly.

Audition/Tape: “The Office” @ Allison Jones Casting. This goes well. Allison even commented that she thinks she got my photo from my own drop-off. I like hearing that. Of course I would like to book it, I felt great in the room and feel that Allison and her associate Dorian Frankel will bring me back in for other stuff.

A last minute call comes in from Janine Sugawara @ Nancy Nayor Casting asking if I can be a reader this afternoon. Of course I said yes. I’d met Janine and Joanne Bloom from that office at Actorsite and volunteered to be a reader. Actually, it’s for Natasha Cuba and Kelly Wagner working in conjunction with Nancy Nayor Casting – I think. Anyway, the film is called “Shroom”. Yeah, like psychedelic mushrooms. It’s a horror film directed by Irishman Paddy Breathnach. It was a lot of fun, Natasha and Paddy seem to be really happy to have me there and surprised I was so prepared. She introduced me to Kelly Wagner and they requested photos from me for their files.

I always say that being a reader is unbelievably educational and I’ll say it again. This was a great thing for me. If you get a chance to do it – do it.

I am conducting a “Power Lunch” at Actorsite today. I am not really sure what the format is, but I assume it will be a bunch actors discussing ideas of how to make it happen. Maybe I can find some tips too!!!!

Well, I have to assume they moved on without me for the “KFC” spot. Dag! BUT I also didn’t get a release from my avail, which I usually get. So maybe I’m still in the running…..I won’t hold my breath though. NEXT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got some great news from a friend, she booked her first national commercial for “Comcast”. I am particularly tickled because a year or so ago she wanted to take a commercial course with a teacher around town. I had no problem with that particular teacher, but I thought Craig Colvin would be a better choice because he is a working casting director who is on the pulse of what is happening in the industry. I actually went to his office, spoke to him directly and passed on the brochure to her……..and to her credit she acted on the information. She learned alot from the course and gained much more confidence. Through mailings she had some meetings with commercial agents but they passed on her. Around this time Craig started calling her directly for auditions. I think she got callbacks on 2 of the first 4 and booked the 4th one. It was a non-union spot so she didn’t have to join SAG just yet(she’s SAG-Eligible). She approached one of the reputable agencies that previously passed on her and they were eager to sign her since she had just booked.

Well months passed and that reputable agency did very, very, very, very little to help her in ANY way, BUT Craig Colvin kept calling her whenever he could for both union and non-union commercials. This is the first SAG commercial she has booked. It just shows the many ways to move forward in this career. Have a great shoot and I hope you make a ton of money on it!

Callback/Avail: “KFC” @ Ross Lacy Casting. YES!! This is for the spot I went in for on Tuesday. The audition was really funny. It was a take off of “The Jerry Springer Show”. I had a great time during the original audition. I told them “I just came to get my ‘Jerry Beads’”. “JERRY!, JERRY! JERRY!”

Well, the callback went great….I think. The director said it was funny and allof the rest of ther crestice team laughed. When I signed in I saw that they are having another round of callbacks tomorrow/Friday for the food. I guess they want to see how the actors interact with the chicken. I can tell you that I interact with chicken really good. So I guess they will see who they like from the callbacks and then bring them back for another look. I hope I get another callback.

I ran into my friend Margaret Easley at the callback. Actually we auditioned together at the first audition. I met Margaret while doing a "US Postal Service" commercial several years ago. Although I see her on TV more than I do in person I think she is just a great person. I am always more inspired after talking to her. This time the topic of discussion was buying a condo or house. This is something I am a little bit obsessed about these days. I think buying property will make my relationship with Los Angeles a much better one. So I am trying to get things together (credit, savings, etc.) to make that a reality. Plus, I think the housing market is going to burst in the near future. At least I hope.

Audition: "Eve" @ Powell/Melcher Casting. Ewww…this one goes ok. I think I made the character a little too charactery. Maybe I was more sketch-like and less mutli-camera comedic. Gotta work on that.

What a day today! I was driving around like a madman, but I got it all done. Three auditions, plus a dentist appointment and a workshop. I'm beat...and it feels good.

Audition: "Kellogg's" @ Ross Lacy Casting. I auditioned here just yesterday and this one went well.

Audition: "TGIF" @ Kathy Knowles Casting. I felt good about this one too. Actually, really good, I felt like my partner and I gave them something different. For better or worse!

Audition/Producers: "Boston Legal" @ Valko/Miller Casting. Cool, that didn’t take long to get back in this office. I was there just two weeks ago. I did my thing, so we’ll see what happens…..if anything.

Audition: "KFC" @ Ross Lacy Casting. I am so overdue at this casting office that I won't even talk about it, actually I am overdue in a lot of casting offices.

I got my first call today from my new theatrical agent, Caleigh. She was going to submit me for a series regular role that required a sketch and stand-up background. She called to see if I had that background, unfortunately I don’t, but it was great to talk to her. She is so energetic that it’s catchy; I am really looking forward to working with her.

Audition: “GE” @ TLC/Loree Booth Casting. It’s always a pleasure to audition here and anywhere else for that matter, but this office doesn’t usually do callbacks so I always feel like I’m really close. Gotta think positive!

FINALLY she's here!!! I became an uncle for the 5th time yesterday. Nikita Fuller was welcomed into the world @ 6:30am in Prague, Czech Republic. My brother, Tommy, has been living there for the last 5 years. I went for a visit in 2003 and it sounds like I need to plan another trip soon. The proud parents will hopefully visit the US in the Spring.

While running on the treadmill this morning (trying to maintain my girlish-figure!! I do live in LA!) I thought about how fortunate I am. I mean things are really good for me. Sure, there are some elements of my life that could be better, but I am definitely on the right path. Let me tell you, I know firsthand, what it's like to "not" feel like I'm on the right path and it can be challenging.

Yeah, I'd like to have parking, more in my savings account, buy a condo or house, get married, have children, become a better performer, finish my script, book more substantial roles in TV/Film/Commercials and Stage, learn how to ride Motocross better, do more consulting, be a better boyfriend(during the times when I am one), have a relationship with my father, get my oil changed in my car and two tires, etc. But I gotta tell ya, I am moving forward in almost everything I just listed and that is a great feeling. Step-by-step baby!!!

Today I went to see Casting legend Sheila Manning and Breakdowns Service mastermind Gary Marsh speak about commercial casting. Let me tell, it’s incredible how things have changed since I arrived in LA 7 years ago. Sheila said that she hasn’t used a VHS tape in months. Normally she would put audition on a VHS tape and have to FedEx it to New York, but now all of the sessions are uploaded to a virtual network. The client, ad agency, director, etc. can literally watch the auditions within minutes anywhere they have an internet connection. Crazy, it happens so fast.

The sessions was quite informative and I will definitely use the tips they gave to give me more of a chance to book commercials. I need all the help I can get!! Matter of fact, I might take Craig Colvin’s Commercial course to brush up on my skills.

I found out from the casting associate that the role I went in on for “Boston Legal” was cut from the script. That was good to hear. Now I know at least one reason why I didn’t book it. Hopefully, they will bring me back in very soon for something else.

Busy day on tap, three auditions. This is the way I like it....until I get burned out and I’m screaming to get the ^&%* out of LA for a bit, which I feel happening at the moment. I definitely have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this city. Maybe “love/hate” is a bit strong, how about “love and “why the ^&* can’t I park there!!!” relationship. Don't get me wrong LA has been great to me, but sometimes I just want something a bit slower paced.

I have it pretty good as it is, spending about 6+ weeks a year at home on the East Coast. There are some things that could change my perspective like........and........yeah those things would be an interesting addition.

Audition: "Wal-Mart" @ Joe Blake Casting. This goes well and I think I'm right for it.

Audition: "The George Lopez Show" @ Zane/Pillsbury Casting. This the 3rd time in the last 3 weeks that I have read for this casting office. I haven't booked yet, but I think I am doing my job right. I just have to stay on the course of doing good work and the rest will work out......right?The character is a guy who is about to get married and he's getting some counseling about it. Ha! Sounds like my life! Moving right along….......The audition went well. They gave me a little redirect and I felt like I gave them what they asked for.

Tonight I'm conducted an orientation for another group of actors from Actor's Connection in New York. They are in LA testing the market. This was a nice, spirited session. At times I felt like a street preacher. I love to talk about things that I'm passionate about and I'm really passionate about business. Not just show business, any kind of business.

Audition: "Aftershock" @ Pemrick/Fronk Casting. Okay, I was late getting to this audition because I was talking to the New York group. I don't usually have appointments at 7:50pm, but I'm thankful. I've been trying to get into this casting office for years. They cast tons of independent films. It was a little weird because even though a lot of people were in the waiting room I was taken in immediately because they paired me up with another actor I hadn't even taken my jacket off yet when I was brought in the room.

The other actor wanted to talk about another project we had worked on together. It was great to see him, but I didn't want to talk about it right then in front of the Producer, Director and Casting director. So that started off a little weird, but I think I recovered and got back on track. When I came out of the room I ran into a dear friend of mine which was a really nice surprise.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I have a new theatrical agent. Well not exactly a new agent, but an additional agent at my theatrical agency. Her name is Caleigh and I already like her. She is young and energetic and even knew who I was when I walked in her office. I know that if my existing agents brought her on board she must have her stuff together. Caleigh was brought in because one of the partners, Josh Schiowitz, is relocating back to the New York office.

Callback: "Tostitos" @ Deborah Kurtz Casting. YES!! The audition was fun and I felt a little connection with the director. On the way out one of the other actors in my group said that he knew that it was already cast. I don't know why he said that, but he seemed convinced of it. I didn't let it get me down though, I'm still gonna hope for the best. Those Tostitos tasted really great. I could eat those all day on set…..well not all day……..well yeah, all day.