Last night I was working at the restaurant and I waited on a couple of actors I know from the audition circuit.  It always a little odd for me when I see people I now there, maybe not odd for them, but it is for me.  Anyway, of course, the “how are things going” talk comes up and I mentioned that I was taking an ongoing commercial class.  They were really surprised and intrigued as to why.   All of us have worked a bit in the biz and many actors look at commercials as something that don’t take much skill.  I kinda disagree with that and the bottom line for me is that I think I have A LOT to learn about commercials and performing in general. 

So today in my commercial class it was clear, very clear, as to why I am in class.  I was horrible and boring on tape.  I just didn’t look as though I was having any fun.  I know I’m not like that all of the time, but still…I’ve got a long way to go.  The particular commercial we were performing was actually an infomercial – 4 pages of dialogue.  I was concentrating more on getting the words right than being watchable.  As a result I did pretty well with the words and was pretty unwatchable…I was cringing in my seat, BUT I felt it was part of getting better.  And I’m going to have to get better if I expect to book jobs, make a living and move forward in my career. 

So yes, I’m in an ongoing commercial class.  And I’m proud of myself for getting up Sunday mornings after waiting tables all night Saturday night to do something for my career.

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