Dateline: Day Twenty

So yesterday I had my meeting with John Kirby.  It was good.  We talked for over an hour about the scene and other things.  From there I went back to my apartment.  I then got an e-mail from the guy who I was to do my scene with at the Casting Director's workshop today.  We talked briefly and I found out that the scene was e-mailed  out.  So  I got on the computer and got it.  But it was in Jpeg so I couldn't read it because it was too small.  So I left to take it to Kinkos.  I drive to the area where Kinkos was and it suddenly dissapeared.  I drove all over the area and it wasn't there.  I called John D. and asked him and he said that it was at the corner of Alameda and Riverside.  No it wasn't.  Finlly I figured out that it had to be the FedEx Office building.  I went in and found out that they had been bought out by FedEx a while ago but just changed their sign to get rid of Kinkos on it.  So I get my scene printed. 

So then I got another message (not sure why it wasn't in the same message as the scene) that told me that I had to bring a hard copy of my headshot and resume.  What!?!?  I didn't have any ready.  I had no updated resumes ready to go.  So I had to leave early this morning just to get one copy of my resume printed out. 

So, Saturday, funny enough it's the day I seem to have the most going on on a regular basis.  This morning I wake up and go to John D'Aquino's new theater for his kids class at 9.  It's not a new theater but he started renting the space this weekend to hold his classes.  So I showed up and had a good time with the kids.  John S. and I did our scene from Of Mice And Men.  Now if you aren't familiar with this play or movie, it's pretty deep.  It's not a comedy but there are comedic moments because it deals with George and Lennie.  Lennie is facinated with rabits and mice.  If you are a Looney Toons expert, the play is refered to in a few of the cartoons.  A large goofy character says about Bugs: "I will love him and squeeze him and call him George".  Anyway.  We had to do a scene that was particularly deep.  John D. called it a bear.  I played Lennie (no jokes here please), a mentally chalenged, large man.  He has gotten in trouble for touching a lady's dress inapropriately.  Now this is the early 1900's so it's a different time.  They got run out of town and chased down.  Anyway.  This scene is where his brother George basically blows up at him and tells him that his life would be better if Lennie wasn't in it.  It really is a tough scene to play because of the different layers that you need to find to play a mentally challenged person in a stressful situation.  Anyway, we do our scene. 

I then jump in the Durango and leave class early to get across town to Santa Monica Blvd in L.A. to the theater where the Casting Director's workshop is being held.  Of course Burt (AKA Tom Tom) is not working.  He's getting slower as I go.  It took him about fifteen minutes to find a satilite signal to use.  So I was able to get to the general area but had no real idea where it was.  I was actually about four blocks from the theater when he finally came on. 

So then after doing this big, deep scene and driving across town in traffic without Burt I then had to do a scene from "The Dog That Saved Christmas".  Don't worry, no one has seen it.  I don't think it has been made.  Now, again I play a moron (stop it with the jokes already!), but this time it really is funny.  The problem is I am doing it for a lady who casts for the TV show Hawthorne on TNT.  It is not a comedy, nor is it near one.  She also casted for "The Closer" before it was cancelld.  Anyway, we get up there and do our scene and we do well.  But we were the only ones she didn't have notes for.  And we were the only ones she didn't ask to do it a second time.  Not sure what that means but I can be pretty sure that even if she was looking for my type, that scene wouldn't get me cast on her show.

Now on my way home I stop at Vons which is a local chain of grocery stores.  It sits in a little shopping center by my apartment complex.  There's a Starbucks on the corner about fifty yards from the grocery.  Now what cracks me up is the fact that when you walk in the grocery, the first thing you see is a Starbucks kiosk sitting in the grocery store!   

Then I come home and watch an episode of "Bones" on the internet and there's a character on there that was right up my alley.  Of course it was probably filmed three or four months ago.  But I digress.

By the way, a few posts ago I noted that it must be a law that two cars have to turn on red.  Well, that's true.  The law is that two cars can turn left on red.  Interesting. 

So, nothing officially planned for tomorrow.  Rondell and I are supposed to get together and work on the screenplay.  Then it's off to a restaraunt with TVs to watch the Colts play Sunday Night Football.  I am allowing myself one meal out a week unless it's to network with someone.  I have lost a few pounds and John D. today said if I get lean and mean I'll loose my castable quality.  There is no one here that looks like me.  I've looked.  They are all 5-08 or 5-09 and 180.  I am definately a minority out here.  I also noticed there are no buffets around.  Sad.  Now being big gives me this castable quality that so few have  but that makes me a very specific type.  So fewer roles, but when there is a role there are only ten or so guys who fit the role.  For leads you may have 200 or more vying for one spot. 

Ok.  It's off to bed.  I hope you all have a great day!

Charles