Shooting “Lowe’s”.  I had a nice, long day on set of doing…absolutely nothing.  I just sat around all day, dressed and ready to go, but it was not to be.  I’m back tomorrow to get another crack at it!

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Fitting “Lowe’s”, I’m really glad to be here.  I tried on a bunch of stuff and met my “wife”, Kyra and my “daughter”, Milan.  

Audition: “Charles Schwab” @ Sonnenberg Casting.  Geez, I’m so spot on for this spot it’s not funny.  I hope they see something similar.

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Yay, at 10:47 this morning, Jamie, one of my amazing commercial agents at KMR, called to tell me that I have been booked on the Lowe’s commercial!

Audition: “Best Buy” @ Francene Selkirk Casting.  If you ask me, I think I’m perfect for this spot…’nuff said. Call me back at least…I’m tellin’ ya, I’m the guy!!!

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Callback: “Lowe’s” @ Petite, A Casting Company.  This callback went pretty well.  I had a great wife and “child” to work with in the room.  I say, “child” because, honestly, I’m still not sure if it was a boy or a girl.  We were the first group to go in.  I usually try to avoid that, but it was okay.  We did it once and the director gave us some adjustments and we did it again.  After the second time we did it, I saw the director give “two thumbs up”…I took that as a good sign.  We shall see.

CUT TO:  6:12pm

The call comes in from my commercial agency that I’ve been placed on avail for the “Lowe’s” commercial.  Yay!

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Audition: “Progressive” @ Ross Lacy Casting.  This was a great one!  I was in the room with some heavy-hitting women.  I see them on TV often.  It was small, subtle work and we killed it…I think.  

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Audition: “Lowe’s” @ Petite, A Casting Company.  This went okay, I think.  Usually, when I have a wife and children in an audition things go really well,  his time I wasn’t so sure.  One of the children seemed like he/she was afraid of us, the rest of the family.

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Audition: “McDonald’s” @ RMB Casting.  This went well and I hope to be at the callback.

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Shooting: “Georgia Natural Gas” in Long Beach, CA.  Nice, bright and early call time of 7am and I didn’t have to work last night, so I’m feeling a bit rested…not always the case.

Fortunately, we were the first spot of 3 for today, because I have an audition scheduled this afternoon, back in Hollywood.  I ran into an old friend from my days in New York and early days here in LA, Marvin Bang, he was also working on this production.

Marvin gave me the good news that he had earned 20 SAG Pension Credits.  I’ve already qualified for a pension as well, but 20 credits is a bit of a milestone that I plan to reach, if not more.  I was overjoyed to hear that news!  I currently have 16, expecting that to be 17 by the end of this year.

A little after 9am I received a voicemail from an actor/CD/theater director and husband of CD that I know.  I don’t know him well, like he wouldn’t have my number without searching for it, but my number would be easy to find.  Anyway, he is directing a staged reading and needed to replace an actor who booked another gig.  He wanted to know if I could step in for him…tonight. 

Uhh…

I hadn’t been on stage, in any form, in a good while and I respect this persons’ taste and am happy that he thinks I can do it on such short notice.   

“Yeah, of course”, I told him.  He said, “Great, I’ll email the script right away”.

We finished shooting, had a great lunch and I was on my way back to Hollywood to my audition.        

Audition: Giovanni Rana Pasta” @ Ross Lacy Casting.  This didn’t go that well.  Not like “horrible”, I was just disconnected and not sure exactly what was going on…or is that horrible?

Staged reading: @ The Road Theatre.  This was a great time, the role was perfect for me and the lead was my former property manager from the first apartment I lived in when I first moved to Los Angeles.  SO glad I got this call!

This has been one, long, day.  Now, I have to go to my night job.  Ugh!

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Fitting: “Georgia Natural Gas”.  This was a good time and simple.  I met my commercial “wife”, Cherise Boothe, lovely lady and I look forward to a day on set with her.  It’s always great when you get paid to try on clothes, right? 

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Audition: “Hyundai” @ RMB Casting.  I think this one went well.  It was certainly fun. 

Callback: “Verizon” @ Petite, A Casting Company.  Eh, not sure what to make of how this went.

But.

I’ve been booked on the Georgia Natural Gas commercial to shoot next week.  Yay!

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Audition: “Verizon” @ Petite, A Casting Company.  This went well, I like playing a dad in auditions.

Callback: “Georgia Natural Gas” @ Craig Colvin Casting.  Yes!  This callback went great!  I hope to book it.  It won’t be a big money spot since it’s limited to the state of Georgia AND just for the holidays, but I’ll take it.

Callback: “Phone Project X” @ Ross Lacy Casting.  This didn’t go as well as the initial audition.  I’m not sure why, I was just flat and probably trying too hard.  Oh well, on to the next.

I got the call that I’ve been placed on avail for the Georgia Natural Gas spot.  Yay!

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Audition: “Project Phone X” @ Ross Lacy Casting.  I’m so perfect for this!  Improving with a major comedian?  That’s right down my alley!  I demand to be at callbacks for this…at least.

Audition: “Bosch” @ Schiff/Audino Casting.  This went great!  I would love to book it, of course…or any TV/Film job.  It’s been forever since that has happened.

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Audition: “Georgia Natural Gas” @ Craig Colvin Casting.  I used to audition for Craig all of the time, back in the day when his office was in the valley.  I was glad to see him; he’s always a nice and personable guy.  He was even in the room, which is rare, many CD’s monitor the auditions from their office while they are running other parts of their business.

I was very happy with how the audition went!  It’s a Christmas spot…in July, lol!

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Audition: “Careerbuilder.com” @ Ross Lacy Casting.  I felt that this one went pretty well, but I think I look too young for it…not a great way to enter the room.

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Audition: “Southwest” @ RMB Casting.  This was fun, not sure how great I was, but I had fun.

Audition: “McDonald’s @ RMB Casting.  I didn’t actually have an appointment for this one, but while I was waiting for my Southwest audition, the session director asked if I was ready to go in…for the McDonald’s one.  That told I was “right enough” for it.  So I very nicely asked if I could read for it.  I had a great time with my fellow actors, but I could tell that I was too old for it.  The other guys were in their early/mid 20’s.

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Audition: “Courtyard” @ Spot Casting.  Eh, I’m not so sure about this showing, but maybe the powers that be will feel a bit different.

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Audition: “Slim Jim” @ Francene Selkirk Casting.  Not sure I nailed it, but it was a fun spot and a good time in the room.     

Audition: “Ally Bank” RMB Casting.  I’m perfect for this!  I should book this spot everyday of the week!

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Audition: “Samsung” @ Alyson Horn Casting.  I used to audition at this office regularly, but I haven’t been here in a good while now and I’m glad to be back…  I just wish the audition would’ve gone better.  Oops.

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Today I arrived in the Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for the wedding of a friend.  Wow, this is what I needed to take my mind off of the “situation” with my father, my career, my night job, the suicide manifesto, etc.  

This wasn’t so much a planned trip, but it sure was the right trip and at the right time.  I had been wanting to venture down to the Caribbean for a long time to “see the blue water” and it’s totally worth it.  

We’re staying at a 5-star, all-inclusive resort called The Majestic Elegance.  I’ve definitely never experienced anything like this before.

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This morning I received an interesting email.  It was a group email that included 11 other people that I didn’t know.  It was from a guy that I met years ago while doing casting director workshops.  A really, really nice guy in my experience, but I hadn’t seen or spoken to him in just over 10 years.  He was no longer pursuing a career as an actor and had moved on to becoming a photojournalist.  He often traveled to poverty stricken locales and took the most beautiful photos.

I had reached out to him about 5 years ago, just to check in on him to see how he was doing.  He responded, we caught up through email and that was that.

The email I received today almost seemed like his account had been hacked so I only “sorta” paid attention to it.

BUT.

The second line in the message read as follows: “But if you are receiving this now, it means that I am dead.”

Yeah, that’s exactly what it said.  I needed to get out of the house for an audition, but it stayed on my mind.

Audition: “ProActive” @ Ross Lacy Casting.  This was a fun audition, but at the same time I don’t think it went so well for me, go figure!  I don’t know, I just don’t think I was fully getting it. 

When I returned home I looked at it again and it started to haunt me.  It was suicide letter.

He included a link to the information he wanted us to have.  Part of me didn’t want to click on it, but I eventually did.  At first it didn’t seem to work, but I later realized that it was taking so long because there was so much content to be downloaded.  The package included photos, text messages, emails, audio recordings and 585 pages of written text.  Yeah.  Seriously.

Needless to say, I was shocked.  I didn’t know this person really well outside of seeing him at acting workshops, but to me, he seemed like a great guy.  I couldn’t figure how or why I was included in the group email.  It put me in a really dark place for so many reasons. 

Obviously, I haven’t read hardly any of the manifesto yet, but, in a nutshell, this is what he says happened.    Basically, he was a child actor and according to him, his parents used his earnings from aged 5-11 for their own personal gain to purchase real estate.  He says he was abused verbally and physically by his parents and sexually by a school official.  He says nobody stood up for him, even people that were supposed to by law.

So he spent the last 5 months of his life putting this package together to distribute to everyone possible.  I later found out that he also sent it to the police before taking his life along with the lives of his parents.

Yeah, it was murder-suicide.

I’m speechless.  I just don’t know what to say.  I really don’t.  I can’t imagine how I ended up on a list of people to include in this.  I literally hadn’t spoken to him in more than 10 years.    

If interested in more of what took place you can do an internet search of “suicide actor Las Vegas parents manifesto”. 

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