Audition: “Statefarm” @ Alyson Horn Casting. This was fun, funny stuff.  I got to work with kids and that’s always good time for me; I like messing with them!

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14 years ago today I moved to Los Angeles from New York to further my acting career. I can't believe it's been 14 years.  I guess I should be calling Los Angeles home now, but for some reason I’m still not sure…

In other news I started a 7-week INTRODUCTION TO IMPROV class at iO today.  I think I need to be looser while performing and hopefully studying improv will help me achieve that goal.  It’s funny because I have no problem with being loose in real life, but sometimes when I perform I almost seem like I have a stick up my a** so I’m trying to fix, LOL!

Class today was fun and there are some talented people in there, so it should be a great experience.

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Guess who has an audition?  Me!  It feels it’s been forever.

Audition: “UPS” @ TLC/Loree Booth Casting.  It’s funny; every time I audition at that office the conversation, before and after the audition, takes longer than the actual audition.  It’s always good, interesting conversation about politics, music, the economy, etc…and I’ve booked in the office several times in the past; including my last commercial booking.  The audition went well and was a nice welcome back to work that I moved her to do!

Uh oh…my credit for TOTAL RECALL on IMDB has been changed to “uncredited”.  That isn’t good news for my possible appearance in the film…or any future residuals.  Well that’s the way it goes sometimes. I mean I can't be upset, after all, they did pay me for my 2 days of work and the really great thing is that the Casting Director, Debra Zane and her associate Tannis, has me on her mind.  I really appreciate that.

Debra has cast me in 4 studio films, although I’ve only gotten to actually shoot 2 of them and looks like I'll only be appearing in one of them.  That one is THE TERMINAL.  She cast me in OCEANS 12, but they were over budget and behind schedule some my scene was cut.  She cast me in OCEANS 13, but they were ahead of schedule and the dates I had been given changed after I had also booked a commercial for MICHELIN.  After a lot of trying to make the dates worked I finally had to pull out of the movie. That was a really hard thing to do because not only, obviously, I wanted to work on the movie but I also had a scene with Al Pacino.

I later found out that I had been cut out of the MICHELIN commercial.  OUCH!  Yeah, tough stuff. I’ve been hired twice by Steven Soderbergh but I’ve never gotten to shoot anything for him or even meet him.  It’ll happen one day in the future.

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Well, it’s over; my vacation that is.  I really wish I had another week away from the hustle & bustle of Hollywood, but time is short and I have a plane ticket back home.  Is LA home for me?  I’m still in denial after 14 years of being here.  Geez. 

Overall, the trip was bitter/sweet and it seems to get more bitter and more sweet every time.  As many of us know, family can be trying and beautiful at the same time.  I got most everything done that I had planned and new horizons concerning the future of the family business are exciting.  Nothing concrete or officially involving me, but I’m an optimist of what the future might hold.

It’s amazing, I left Virginia Beach 17 years ago and I still dream of somehow, figuring out how to be in two places at once.  I have such strong feelings that our family business, Philadelphia Cold Cuts, has the potential of being wildly successful…and I want to be a part of it.  I talk about it ALL the time.  I’d love to work with my brothers again, but it’d never happen with my father in the mix.  At least I can’t see how it could.  The kicker is that I still, very much, want to perform professionally.  I don’t know…

One thing I do know for sure is that I can do FAR more than I am doing in this life and I need to find a way of getting closer to realizing my full potential…in Hollywood and out of Hollywood.    I didn’t move to Hollywood to serve burgers and fries and I while I greatly, from the bottom of my heart, appreciate the employment; I should be doing so, SO much more.

Speaking of Hollywood; I missed an audition today for a web series because I was travelling.  Oh well, not much I can do about it except for attempt to get rescheduled.

Without question, the coolest thing about coming back to LA was flying first class.  It makes SUCH a HUGE difference.  I could definitely get used to traveling first-class.  

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This was a bit of a head trip for me.  Today I went to a small family reunion on my father’s side of the family.  Even though the gathering was only about 50 miles away my father didn’t attend.  Who knows why; my father was just being…”my father”. 

The crazy thing for me was that I haven’t seen or spoken to my father in 9-10 years so I don’t really know what he looks like anymore.  I mean I have an idea what he looks like, but that’s it, an idea.  When we arrived, some of the first few people I saw were two of his nephews - my cousins.  I was kind of staring at them in this weird way because they are the closest thing, in my life, that resembles my father.  And they were living, breathing, talking, interacting with people, etc!  It was just odd…and quite sad actually.  Not the event, just the notion of being so rejected by my own dad.  It’s amazing; I guess I don’t exist in his world anymore.

I’d be lying if I said that being rejected in that way hasn’t affected me; it has.  Of course it has…and does.  I’m not sure what I did to contribute to it being this way between he and I…maybe nothing.  It has always been this way from what I can remember.  I’m one of 6 children and he had his favorites and I certainly was not/am not one of them.  “Favorites” might not be accurate, but he treated some of us “more favorable” than others.  Maybe it’s just that way he’s wired.  It scares me for my future to be honest.  I’m so afraid of ultimately being like him that I feel that I may end up being…exactly like him.

At any rate, I had fun at the event.  

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I arrived home, late last night, and have been in the car all day with my brother Todd, niece Sophia and her mom.  Todd and I are taking them to Dulles airport in Northern, VA so they can travel to Lithuania (where mom is from) to visit and so that Sophia can meet her family for the first time.   

It was a long day, but a great trip even if just to look out of the window of the car at a different, East Coast landscape.  We even ran into a little bit of “Hollywood” at the airport.  My brother spotted Tommy “Tiny” Lister aka “Deebo” from “Friday” walking towards us with his driver.  Todd remembered that I’d been a reader for him years ago for a potential film project.  His driver sprinted off to get the car so he wouldn’t have to walk in the heat and humidity.  I walked up to Mr. Lister and, of course, he had no recollection of when we’d met, but we chatted and my brother and I took a photo with him.  He asked me what I was doing there in VA.  I told him I was “still in LA”, but just home on vacation. 

As I was walking away he called after me and asked, “What’s a reader?”  I explained to him that I was the person that he read the scenes with for the casting director.  Funny!

Me and Tommy "Tiny" Lister at Dulles Airport 

While waiting for his driver to bring the car he walked over to us and sat on the bumper of the open trunk of our car and chatted with us.  We asked him about the rumors of a new Friday film being produced and he said Ice Cube had turned in a script, most everyone seemed to be on board and it looks like it might actually happen.  It was a pretty cool experience.

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Today I am leaving on a jet plane to go home to Virginia on a much needed vacation.  I’m really looking forward to meeting my newest niece, 5-month old Sophia, for the first time.      

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My younger/bigger brother, Jeff, was in town this week from Virginia Beach and we had a great time!  We went to The San Diego Zoo & Wild Animal Park, an LA Dodger game, Go-Kart racing and even visited a Rolls-Royce Dealership…

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