Audition: “1600 Penn” @ Debra Zane Casting.  I love reading for this office.  These ladies; Debra, Tannis & Shayna are just amazingly supportive of my career and I so appreciate the opportunities they give me. 

I left the audition happy with my performance; although there was one little, tiny thing I wish I would have done differently.  I feel I brought something in the room and took the direction I was given.  The role is a recurring co-star and I think I’m REALLY right for it.  NEXT!  

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Audition: “Dodge” @ Ross Lacy Casting.  I had a great time in the lobby AND in the audition room for this one.  Ha!

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Aaleyah, my 17 year-old niece got on a plane to return to Virginia Beach this afternoon.  I think her trip to Hollywood was a success.  We stayed busy and I did my best to show her what I could of the city.  I’m not the greatest host, but I think I did pretty well. 

Aaleyah fuller in Hollywood.

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Callback: “McDonald’s” @ Ross Lacy Casting.  I think this went pretty well, but I probably had an even better time in the lobby chatting with fellow hilarious commercial actor Leonard Jackson.  Leonard seems to book commercials ALL the time.  That’s where I wanna be…

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Today my 17 year-old niece, Aaleyah, is arriving for a visit to Hollywood.  I bought her a ticket so that she can see a part of the country she hasn’t seen before going into her senior year in high school.  Just a little something to, maybe, help her think big and go for her dreams in life…I wish someone would have done something similar for myself.  I got so little guidance growing up it’s scary, lol!  I’m trying “be the change” I want to see in my family by supporting the younger ones coming up.  I have to say that it’s quite the uphill battle.    

Anyway.  Yes, I’m a little nervous about how it’s going to turn out as her and I have had a slightly rocky relationship as of late.  I’m hoping for the best. 

Audition: “Hot in Cleveland” @ Greenstein/Daniel Casting.  This went well and was a lot of fun.  It was great to confirm that I’m still on the radar of this casting office as it had been a while since I’d auditioned there.  Now I have to race to Santa Monica for my next one.

Audition: “Honda” @ Kathy Knowles Casting.  I barely made it to this one, but once I got in the room I had a great time with my scene partner.  They should just hire us both!

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Audition: “McDonald’s” @ Ross Lacy Casting.  I’ll admit that I felt  little lost in this one, but I also felt that it went really well based on the reaction from the session director.  Hopefully, I’ll be at call backs next week.  

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Oh well.  It looks like I’ve been released from the “UPS” commercial avail @ TLC/Booth Casting.  Darn.  Oh well, I guess life moves on…of course it does.

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Yay! I got a call this afternoon informing me that I’ve been placed on avail for the UPS commercial from last week.  It would be so nice to book something…anything at this point.  In other news, TOTAL RECALL opens today and I don’t think I’ll be in it unfortunately.  I’m pretty certain that my part was left on the cutting room floor. Who knows, maybe I’ll be in the DVD “uncut version”. Is that what they call it “uncut”?  I think I meant “deleted scenes”.

Audition: “Toyota” @ Petite, A Casting Company.  I tried to get to this audition early out in Santa Monica because I needed to get to my callback back in Hollywood. 

I arrived early hoping to get in and out, but it didn't really help. My category didn't start until I arrived anyway. So I sat there on pins and needles trying to get out of there as soon as I possibly could. I hate being "that actor" having to ask other people if I can go ahead of them, but I guess you’ve got to do what you have to do.  It was great to see that the other actors were very accommodating and sensitive to my situation.  When I finally got in the room to audition I think it went really well.  I had a wife to work with and she was great.  It’s funny, I work really well with “wives” in auditions; sometimes I wonder how I would work with a wife in real life…

Callback: “AT&T” @ spot casting.  The callback went great! They kept me and had me wait for another actor to read with him as well. I was very happy with how it went, so we’ll see.

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Audition: “AT&T” @ spot casting.  While rehearsing for this audition with the two other actors I had to become “that actor”.  What I mean by that is that I thought it was written a certain way but one of the other actors didn’t seem to get the joke and I had to inject my two cents of what I thought was going on.  Eventually they saw it my way.   I think I was right and fortunately they didn’t seem to take offense.  In the end I feel like it went really well, we had fun and we’re on our way.

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I was funny when I walked into this audition.   It was weird. Every little thing that the casting director or the other actors said I had some sort of little funny thing to comment about.  Anyway, the Casting Director thought I would be great for a different commercial that they were doing as well so, as a result, I got to audition for that one too.

Audition: “Dodge” @ Rick Montgomery Casting.  This was the one that I got pulled into; I think it went okay.  I was okay with that so we’ll see if they were okay with it as well.

Audition: “Ford” @ Rick Montgomery Casting.  This one was fun. I was supposed to go in with a fellow actor but no one else showed up so it was just me. I read with the casting director and had a great time with a little improv at the end.   It was a blast.

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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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It’s my birthday…yeah.  I’ve never been too big about celebrating my date of birth. I’m not sure how that started, but I think it has to do with my extreme fear of rejection.  I’ve never once asked for anything for my birthday and definitely don’t have the guts to attempt to have a birthday party.  I just feel that nobody would show up, but that has been proven wrong because a co-worker pulled together a celebration for me a few years ago and people did show up!  It all probably has to do with me being rejected by my father growing up and still being rejected to this very moment; just a guess.  I think I’m on to something… 

On another note, I was interviewed about how I became debt-free by The JW Financial Coaching Podcast.  It was great to be able to share my journey on one of the smartest things I have ever done in my life by paying off ALL of my bills and turning into a saving machine!  I hope it inspires even just one more person to take control of their finances.  Here is the link:

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Audition/tape: “Hollywood Heights” @ Shaner/Testa Casting.  I felt ready for this read, but got mush mouth after the CD said “Action!”. It was weird; it was like I had marbles in my mouth.  Fortunately, the CD gave me another shot and I felt much better the second time around.   Then I did the second scene and that was good too.  I would love to FINALLY book something at this office.

After the audition I made my way to the credit union for my weekly deposit and ran into Matt Nolan, an actor I worked with on WEEDS in 2005.  Back when he and I worked on the show I didn’t have another job; I was making my entire living through acting.  Matt had been a similar situation, but needed to pick up a regular job and told me that he worked that job for 7 years.  I remember that my entire body shook when he said “7 years”.

The thought of having to go back to a regular job terrified me back then; even though I knew it could happen one day.  So here I sit, 7 years later from working with Matt on WEEDS.  I’ve been back at my supplemental job for 4 years…and who knows how much longer I will be there or somewhere else to make a living outside of performing.  The job wreaks havoc on me in many ways and has been a really good thing in as many ways too. 

Anyway, it was great to see Matt and he gave me a heads up on some things that he’s doing that could help me out as well.   

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