MY EYE!!! MY EYE!!! Something is going on with my eyes. I've been wearing contact lenses for the last several years and...... I've been slipping on the maintenance part. Well, now it's time to pay the band. The pain had been brewing for a day or two.

It started with the feeling that I had a grain of sand in my eye. It quickly progressed to downright terrifying, I mean unbelievable. Any sort of light absolutely killed me. I didn't have any health insurance, but I had to go get checked out. I actually had to wait until the sun went down to go to the hospital.

So I go out and it's snowing, I like really cannot see. The first cab I hail wouldn't take me to the Westside; he said the roads were too bad. That was crap; he was just being a jerk. I get another cab to take me to the hospital. He takes me to the wrong place; the right place is a couple of blocks over. I am in unbelievable pain, it's snowing, I'm in the wrong place AND I can't see. I am a sitting duck.

I finally make it to the right place and am quickly diagnosed with ????? I am prescribed an ointment sent on my way.

I call my manager at the Harley-Davidson Cafe and inform him that I will not be able work the following day. It's the first time in my life that I have ever called in sick.

I had many friends in my room at night in the form of bats without wings.....RATS!!! Or mice, they are all the same to me. Get this I had a reading light up on my fancy loft bed. Well, it wasn't really all that fancy. The light cord ran down to the floor. One night I woke up and saw 3 or 4 mice scurrying. One was literally running down the cord of the light, another on top of the TV and another on the floor. I was officially freaked out. I mean, in one sense, it was really cool because it was clear that I was doing for my future. They added character. I guess.

I finally found a place to live in Manhattan!! I moved into a 3 bedroom apartment with 3 other people. There was a Korean girl and Chinese guy; they were a couple, a Jewish girl and I. We were like the United Nations.

My room was so small it was unbelievable. It was the size of a walk-in closet with the bed built up on a loft. I could barely stand up under the bed and I'm on 5'8". It served its purpose for eleven months. It also had plenty of mice. I would hear little noises at night. At first I didn't know what it was. I soon caught onto their game.

It was rough, bussing tables at a theme restaurant in NYC. The money sucked!!! I was so broke that I had to wash my uniform in the sink. The neighborhood in Hell's Kitchen, where we lived, was another story. Can you say "crackhead city?" Greg couldn't seem to understand that we were "no longer in Kansas". This was "HELL'S KITCHEN, NYC"!!! NOT Virginia Beach, VA!! You don't have to talk "every" crack head. I remember one night on the block a guy thought Greg said something to his girlfriend. I think it was a set-up of some sort. He could tell that we were new in town. I was like "Greg c'mon!! Let's go!!"

Anyway, we both started taking classes at New York Performance Works downtown in Tribeca. I booked my first New York acting job in September; it was a promo/trailer for a pilot. At this point I was sleeping on cushions on my brother's floor in Park Slope, Brooklyn. This is also when I decided that living in Brooklyn was NOT going to work for me. Nothing against the planet Brooklyn it's just working the hours that I do I was spending way too much time on the train. Greg had decided to go back to Virginia to regroup. New York was much more difficult than he expected. Also, I think getting so close on that soap gig kinda got to him.

Meanwhile, at work I was having some "issues" with my pay. I confronted the GM about it a couple of times and the second time he said he was thinking about promoting me from a busser to a server. Hmmm...I was very skeptical. I knew I was a good worker and I thought he was going to keep me through the Summer and then fire me when business slowed down. I'm in New York, now I don't trust anyone!! Lo and behold Scott Young was true to his word and one of the worst jobs I ever had turned into the best job I ever had. Waiting tables was quite a challenge for me. I didn't know how to balance a tray of drinks very well and I had NEVER had a drink of alcohol in my entire life. I had alot to learn, but I had so much fun being there. I met so many people that I really liked; it was a very good time. Thank you Harley-Davidson Cafe management & staff.

Okay, this is the deal. Greg and I have been searching for jobs since we arrived in NYC two weeks ago. We haven't been very successful, thus far. On Friday we applied at a "TGI Fridays" in mid-town Manhattan. The gentleman we spoke to, 'Rocco' was very encouraging. He said that it didn't matter that we didn't have experience as waiters because "we train all of our staff anyway." Cool!!! He told us to go to another location and see another 'Rocco' and he would take care of us. The first mistake we made was to think that this would actually work and the second was to stop looking elsewhere for employment. Today, Monday, we show up to see 'Rocco' and he totally dissed us, New York style. Welcome to the big city kids!! I just sat there and laughed because he was so rude to us.

Afterwards Greg had an appointment with a photographer for headshots and I decided to go back to the Harley-Davidson Cafe, alone, where we had inquired twice about employment. The two previous times we were there I felt the GM, Scott Young, liked us but couldn't do much with us since we didn't have experience. I walk in and see Scott and I think he was surprised to see me AGAIN, so I told him my situation. I said "Scott we'll do anything". He says "I know". I say "No, you don't know. We'll do ANYTHING". He sees that I am serious and just looks at me for a moment. He motions for me to hold on a second and disappears downstairs. A second later he returns and says to "come in tomorrow @ 4:30pm, wear all black." YES!!! We finally got jobs, both of us. Did I mention that we were hired as bussers?

It's time!!! The moment of truth is here. We had finished a year and a half with our private teacher and we were leaving. Our friend Dalbe Markman had set us up with two girls who were willing to let us stay with them in New York on a temporary basis. We traveled to NYC by Greyhound. While we were waiting for the bus to leave I felt like I had been released from prison. I just didn't feel like I was going to get what I wanted if I stayed in Virginia Beach. We sat at the very back of the bus 3 seats across for the 6+hr journey. I turned to Greg to see if he was feeling the same. He wasn't. As I was getting ready to speak I saw that he was crying his heart out. He was leaving a girlfriend and close friends and it's just hard. He was fine moments later. NEW YORK, NEW YORK!!! We arrive. Greg and I actually had to share a bed for 4 months!! The shower was in the kitchen!!! This apartment was a trip, it was in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan (46th bet. 9th & 10th). I only had two-hundred dollars to my name. In New York City!!! We hit the ground running, I starting auditioning right away mostly for commercials. Within 3 weeks Greg almost booked a role on "All My Children", he got down to the last 5 guys who tested at the network. It was an interesting time and I wanna thank Lindsay Dickon & Shaunda Bradley for letting us stay with them and Dalbe Markman for setting it all up.

I made my decision to move today. I am really going to do it. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The longer I stay in Virginia Beach the more time I put between now and obtaining my goals. Again I get a nudge from talk radio. I was on my way back from a long trip to North Carolina for an audition and I was listening to an interview with Sandra Bullock. Sandra was talking about her journey and how things had worked for her and she said "..........and then I moved to New York." Right at that point I answered the radio and said "I'm moving too!!!" I got home that night and called Greg and he was thinking the same thing. The big question was how we would make this happen. We had a mutual friend, Dalbe Markman, who had friends in New York who were willing to let two strangers come to stay with them. I put in my two weeks notice at both of my jobs. That night I lay not able to believe what I had just done. I guess I had to move now.

In early January Greg and I made the trip up to NYC. We didn't really know what to expect, we just knew that someone in New York was interested in us. We both did monologues and they were pretty bad, but she wanted to sign us anyway. I guess she saw potential in us, she gave both of us contracts and we were on our way back home to Virginia Beach. We were so excited that we don't even remember the trip back home. We really felt as though we were on our way and we were!! The kicker was that she wanted us to move to New York within 2 weeks. What!!! We knew we couldn't get there that soon, but we were working on it. In the couple of months that followed we both got a few calls for auditions in New York. It was a taste of things to come.

We were making plans to either move to LA or NYC. Mind you I was completely broke. I had no idea how this was really going to happen, yet I knew it "had" to happen. Anyway, we started doing mailings to New York and Los Angeles. I remember getting a call from a commercial agent in LA; it was Doug Murphy @ Media Artists Group. Greg got a call from a manager in New York; she wanted him to come to New York for an interview right after Christmas. I was much more familiar with NYC than he was so he wanted me to go with him. I couldn't afford to go unless I was going to get seen as well. So I called her up and she was cool with me coming up to interview. I had just booked my 2nd national commercial; it was for "Jackson-Hewitt Tax Service".

Around this time Greg and I were really itching to get out of Virginia Beach to further our careers. Once we flew to New York for an open call for the film "Dead Presidents". The whole thing consisted of a Polaroid being taken. It was I, Greg and my little brother Todd. On the way back we stopped by my friend Genine's place in Harlem. Greg was freaked about being in Harlem and on the way to the airport the cab broke down and we missed our flight.

Slowly we started getting auditions for TV movies and films around town and in Wilmington, North Carolina. Even though we were 300+ miles away we were considered local for the productions down there. Within the next month or so Greg and I earned our SAG eligibility. He got his in a movie-of-the-week in North Carolina and I got mine after being cast in a commercial for "Hardee's".

I'm still in class with Sylvia at The Actor's Place. I found that this acting stuff isn't as easy as it looks. That is a compliment to so many actor's who make it look easy. Around this time we started to audition for industrials and student projects. We actually started booking things as well, it was a fun time.

I worked my way into assisting the extras casting director on a 4-part mini-series called "Vanishing Son" to be shot locally. I had gone to the open call at a local mall and was DETERMINED to get on board somehow. I told the extras casting director, Pam Plummer, that I would do anything to help out. The next day she called and took me up on my offer. It was a great experience for me. I got to be on the inside of a real Hollywood production for 6-7 weeks. I really liked what I saw and Pam was the coolest. I was even able to call in several of my classmates for background work. One guy even got a line and became SAG eligible. A few of the actors that were a part of the project were Rebecca Gayheart, Russell Wong, Dean Stockwell & Matthew Lillard.

I started a new job at the Lillian Vernon distribution center in Virginia Beach. It was not a very good experience, but I did meet a very, very sweet young lady named Ellen that I enjoyed spending time with. She was definitely a breath of fresh air in that place. Just meeting her made it worth it, almost everything else was forgettable. I do remember that actor River Phoenix passed away during my time there.

I didn't have the slightest idea how to get started in the business since I lived in Virginia Beach, VA; not exactly Hollywood East. A friend had turned me on to me on to an acting teacher in town named Sylvia Harman at The Actor's Place. Her private classes were the perfect place for me to start; she was a teacher that was experienced and thorough. I quickly found that Virginia Beach was not a bad place to start. The first night in class I met William Gregory Lee, who like me, was hungry as hell. He was not about to be denied his turn at success. It was a great match, two guys who were on the same page as far as what it would take to "really" do this. In this same class I eventually met actresses Joanna Canton & Michelle Krusiec.

The very next week in class he was already asking me "when was I leaving for NYC or LA" I didn't have an answer I just said that I was gonna work as hard as I could everyday and it would happen in due time. It could be 6 months or 3 years, but I knew it was gonna happen. Within months we both started to expand our horizons as far as keeping on top of the business. I remember driving 40 miles round-trip to get Variety Magazine. At the time, I really couldn't even afford the gas to make the trip, but at the same time I couldn't afford "not" to make those trips. I felt like I was in college, even though in reality I have never been. It was around this same time that Greg and I had our first professional audition. It was for an episode of "America's Most Wanted". Greg booked a principal role and I was hired for background.

Family Channel Studios-I am sold on this business, I think. I was having a great time. This was my first real view into the process of how a real production is made. The lights, the camera, the actors, hearing the director yell "ACTION!" and the live audience. It was a great intro to the business. Oh yeah, one of the guest stars of this episodes was indie queen Hope Davis.

Remember that agency that was never going to call me? THEY CALLED!!!!!!! They wanted to know if I would be interested in doing background work on a TV show. The show was called "Big Brother Jake" starring Jake Steinfeld of "Body by Jake" fame. It was filmed locally at The Family Channel studios. They wanted a young black actor who had a little edge. "Edge?" Maybe it was my shoulder-length dreadlocks. The person that they would have normally called had cut his dreadlocks for a movie recently. The agent told the Casting Director that I had no experience, but a great attitude.

Today was the big day for my meeting with this agency. I arrive and they have me fill out a bunch of paperwork. I was then taken to another room and read commercial, on camera. OMIGOD!!!!!! I had no idea it was so difficult, that camera was so intimidating. Anyway, I was horrible and it was okay. I told the gentleman that I was going to start classes with a local teacher next month. He agreed that this teacher was probably the best in town. I couldn't wait to get out of that office. I knew I would never hear from these people again. I finally called that teacher and signed up for her classes.

Today was seemingly just another day at the slicer, but ended up being somewhat of a turning point in my life. I have always listened to a lot of AM Talk radio. On this particular day the host was interviewing a state politician. Somehow they got on the subject of his son who is an actor. They were saying that he had a part in a Sissy Spacek movie, sounds good to me. For whatever reason, they mentioned who the young actor was represented by. I wrote it down and said to myself "I have to call them, TODAY!!!!!!" I looked it up in the phonebook and 20 minutes later I found the courage to cold call.

A very distinguished sounding man answered the phone. I asked how I could find out about auditions for movies or commercials. He replied "If you are not a professional you wouldn't know". Not what I wanted to hear, but it kinda made sense. We continued to make small talk and were about to end the conversation when somehow, in a very natural way, it came up that I was Black. HUH??????? When he found that out, he immediately set up an appointment for me to come in and read. He didn't think I sounded "Black", whatever that means. He said the agency needed black actors who weren't too ethnic sounding. Okay??? The appointment was set for 3 weeks later.

I have always been interested in photography, so I am taking a summer photography course at local community college. It was a fun class, I even got to develop and print my own photos. About 2 weeks from the end of the course I told my instructor that I was going to start taking acting classes. Of course he laughed and didn't think I was serious. I still hadn't made any real plans as far contacting that teacher or anything.

The Intro.........

What follows is a step-by-step account of my continuing journey to fulfill my dreams of being successful in the entertainment business. Obviously it is not finished and it won't be. It will remain a work in progress.

I was born in Lemoore, California @ 5:15 on a Monday morning. Being a military family, we moved around a lot, but by the time I was five our family settled in Virginia Beach, VA.
I was the third of six kids. After my father retired from the Navy he bought a small deli and the family business was born. Actually, it was born two years prior in our own kitchen with my mom making Philly-style hoagies for my father's lunch. He, we the help of the family, turned it into a very successful business. I worked in the establishment for many years, but I knew early on it wasn't my calling. My father and I were never able to see eye-to-eye on anything it seemed, so I made other plans.

I always wanted to work in the entertainment field, it was fascinating to me. Not only the performers, but the business side as well. It didn't matter if it was a new studio deal, an Oscar winning performance, a Hip-Hop star crossing over into TV/Film and especially the whole "smoke & mirrors" aspect of the business. I loved it all. Since I lived in Virginia Beach I figured I would have to move to LA or NYC first. I had no idea how to get "in", but I was determined to figure it out.

Working in the deli I spent a lot of time looking out that front window while slicing turkey, onions or pastrami. My family's business is quite successful, but it was clear to me that I couldn't stay there. The question was how was this going to materialize. I have always been a result-oriented thinker, so I already pictured myself in the big cities of LA or NYC making big moves. A friend of mine, Jonathan Julian, had told me about this acting teacher in town that was really good. I had never taken an acting class in my life. I set up an appointment with "procrastination". I sat on the info for a time.