Actor With a Business Card

Yeah.

My mom works with this company called E-DressMe, which is a website that sells designer clothes, and they had a crew of a Japanese morning show come in and shoot a segment about clothing based on Michelle Obama’s style. E-DressMe has a whole page of her website dedicated to the Michelle Obama fashion boom, and they needed some people to dress in the clothes and be in the studio.

So I didn’t talk or anything, I just wore a pretty dress and stood in front of another rack of dresses, ooh-ing and ah-ing and holding them up like I was shopping. We went live at like 6am Tokyo time, so about 4pm New York. Japan doesn’t do daylight savings time (a fun fact I learned during the shoot) so depending on what time of year it is, it is either thirteen or fourteen hours ahead.

Apparently the show we shot for is Japan’s version of Good Morning America, and is the most watched show on Japanese TV.

Fun.

So I can check that one of the list of life’s goals.

Yet again sitting in Dunkin Donuts between improv practice and work. Most of my posts take place on Sundays between one and three, I’ve noticed. We have our first show in two weeks, on the first of March. Info will be put up on the website as soon as I have a minute free at home.

Ridiculously busy last night. Valentine’s Day. I was completely exhausted by the end of the night, but I had also run out of clothes, so I had to do 3am laundry. I didn’t get to bed until about 4. Balls.

Also going to be doing a ten minute play on March 11th and 12th. More info on that to follow. Still haven’t heard one way or the other about Straw-Hats, so I’m keeping hope alive.

Right now I must concentrate on not falling asleep during work.

Sometimes you read a review and you just know that this person decided to hate the show in the first five minutes, and nothing could have been done to turn them around.

The New York Times HATED Hedda Gabler. And I love that that’s the first thing people say to me after they ask me how I liked it. “Oh I thought it was great!” “Really? Because the New York Times really hated it.” I’m sorry but the New York Times can suck it. I know it’s the NEW YORK TIMES and everything, but really, sometimes Theatre Reviews are just designed to make the person writing it sound good by finding flaw in everything.

I’m sorry, but it was a really definitive show. Everybody made really strong choices and you’re either going to like them or not. I for one, LOVED that Mary Louise Parker spoke in a monotone. I’m not a moron, I noticed. It’s not like I’m going to read the review and be like, “Oh yeah! Ooh, on second thought…” No, I liked it. I thought it really spoke about how her character was kind of caught in a role. And she was kind of sleep-walking through it. Brill.

Anyway, I’m discovering more and more everyday how much I hate listening to actors talk about acting. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a nice chat about The Craft (acting, not the movie about witches) as much as the next former theatre major. But come ON people. Sometimes it’s just too much.

I mean, when you get to know somebody a little, then you can talk about acting together. Like, when I talk about improv with the kids in my improv group. But when two people who don’t know each other very well are talking about acting, the conversation inevitably turns into a pissing contest. They constantly try to slip in a little, “Oh…Harold? Oh I love Harold. Yeah, I went on tour with Harold last summer. Mm hmm. I went on a tour. Go me. What were we talking about again?”

While Jen and I were waiting for Pal Joey on Thursday night, we were sitting in Hale and Hearty soups, enjoying a hale and hearty soup apiece, and there were these two people sitting at a table next to us, reading through a scene for a class. First of all, they were both middle aged, which is always a red flag. There are plenty of middle-aged actors who still take classes just to keep themselves refreshed, because you can always learn. But often, middle aged actors take classes because they’re not getting work, and they refuse to throw in the towel and get their teaching degrees so they can ride the success of their undergrads.

Anyway, the conversation ACTUALLY descended into, “Oh, why are we actors? Why do we do what we do? Because we must create. WE MUST. Oh theatre you are a cruel mistress, but to suckle from your teet is to be closer to GOD.”

Gag.

I mean, they didn’t actually say that. But that was where the conversation was headed. You could tell.

Wow the music is really loud in this Dunkin Donuts.

I’m sounding very cynical right now. And I’m not really, It’s just kind of rough when the people in your profession are about 95% tools.

Anyway, Pal Joey was great. Stockard Channing, gotta love her, was a hoot. Her voice wasn’t astounding, but it was honest. And I thought the rest of her performance was really great. The real treat though was Martha Plimpton. HILARIOUS. She went all-out and did this whole, 1930s voice and stuff. Risky choice, but awesome.

Mostly it was just nice to see a musical that wasn’t reliant on spectacle. Instead of a big crashing chandelier, there were sparkly tap dancers and stuff. Refreshing.

My Improv Group is finally having our first show YAY! It’s going to be March 1st, so keep your eye out for a notice on the main page, all you readers. Well… Mom.

In other news, I got new Headshots done. The photographer I used was actually recomended by my Mom. Go Mom. She does the book-keeping for a fashion designer in the city and he has his studio there, so she got his business card for me.

See? Business cards pay off.

Anyway it was great stuff. We shot for about two hours and he only charged me $250. I ended up with about 600 photos and I get to pick 5 for re-touching. He’s even going to print them with my name and make a comp card for me. I highly recomend him. He even handed me the camera every twenty shots or so and told me to erase what I didn’t like. And then when I DID like something, like the angle or the shadow, he made sure we did more of that.

Seriously, if you’d like to check out his website, it’s www.kingredman.com

Good stuff.

Anyways, now I have to go through 600 headshots. I did one round erasing rejects and I still have about 400. I’m going to try and get it down to about 20 and then put them on facebook to get other people’s opinions.

Haven’t heard anything as a result of the mailing, but I did get confirmation that my StrawHats application was recieved. Of course, as it says in big bold letters across the top and bottom of the letter, this does not assure an audition appointment, only that they have cashed my application fee check.

Woot.

I saw Hedda Gabler on Thursday with Jen. We had general admission passes, which means that at like 5 minutes to curtain, the ushers seat you in the best available seats from the people who didn’t show up. Jen and I ended up right in the center of the orchestra, like five rows back from the stage.

The play was AMAZING. Mary Lousie Parker was really great. I was a little dubious about her because she’s always felt so contemporary to me, I wasn’t sure how she’d do in a period piece. But she was so good, and the entire cast was great at playing it so that it didn’t feel like a period piece. It felt contemporary, but not incongruous. Totally rocked.

My week of great performances was continued with Revolutionary Road which ROCKED SOCKS. I saw it at Kaufman Studios in Astoria, which is where they shoot Sesame Street. They have a movie theatre there. The movie was really amazing. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting it to be, and I completely agree with Kate Winslet’s winning the Golden Globe. Brilliant. But easily the best performance in the movie was Michael Shannon, who plays Kathy Bates’ son. He was the BEST part of the movie.

So last night was the Opening Night party for Hedda Gabler, and Jen got me on the list. It was beyond fancy, and there were quite a few celebrities there. Jen and I spent most of the time strolling through the VIP room, making eyes at Paul Sparks. Well, at least I was.

And wouldn’t you know it, sitting at Paul Sparks’ table is Michael Shannon. Awesome.

On my way out of the party Michael Shannon was using the ATM, so on my way out I told him, “I just saw Revolutionary Road last night and I thought you were the best part” except I’d had four glasses of wine, so what I ACTUALLY said was, “I saw Revaloorald…Reval…ahem…RevoLOOtionary Road last night…”

Slick.

Thursday night is Pal Joey night. Huzzah.

I got a copy of one of the short films I shot last week. I think I’ve become one of those actors who can’t stand to watch themselves on film. It’s just weird. There’s my big face on my TV screen. Freaky.

Here’s a thought: When does the new season of Rescue Me start? Because I am 99 percent sure that I’m going to be on camera in the episode I shot, and I really want to see it.

New headshots on Thursday. Excitement.

Well since my last post, I worked an unexpected double on Tuesday. So this is my first free time since Friday. I have to head into work at 2:30, but at least I got to sleep a little this morning, and if I play my cards right, I may have time to shower before I leave the house.

So…

I am so getting McDonald’s today. Somewhat invalidating the whole “Supermodel Body” portion of my New Year’s Resolution, but whatever.

So where was I in that last post? I believe I was talking about Equus.

Well, Harry Potter’s winkie aside, I really loved it. Honestly, Daniel Radcliffe did really well, and that’s a hard part, especially for someone so young. He seemed to have a pretty good grasp on it. And Richard Griffith was just amazing. I love it when actors still manage to bring humor to a role even if they’re in a play about a boy being sexually attracted to horses.

Also at curtain call, when I actually got a good look at the horses, I noticed that one of them was THE most beautiful man I have EVER seen. But… he’s a Broadway dancer, has a well defined upper body and (I noticed as he bowed) a tattoo on his lower back. No way he’s straight.

And then like, two days later I met one of the other horses, and he confirmed my fears. Dang it.

My marathon of Theatre continued with Blue Man Group last night, which I have surprisingly never seen before. I really loved it, it was just so dang FUN! And what surprised me was that it had a message as well. It made such a statement about the imortance of human interaction, but it kept this great sense of sarcasm so that it didn’t get too preachy. I mean, they pulled people up on stage and they had this great segment where they went out into the audience and just LOOKED at people.

It was really amazing to see people’s reactions to this. I mean, you bought tickets. You KNOW you’re at a show. You KNOW that these guys are just GUYS. They take off their make-up at the end of the night and go home, have a drink and go to bed. They are NOT really blue, drum-playing aliens. But they come out into the audience and just make eye contact with people, and they FREAK out. It’s like, once that fourth wall thing is breached, people just don’t know what to do. I think the thing I loved the most about Blue Man was that it assaulted the audience. I mean, things came flying into us at points. It made us something more than just a hundred people sitting in the dark, not talking to each other.

The finale number involved lots of paper. Big rolls of paper. And they unrolled them and we all as an audience passed the long strips of paper over our heads, to the front of the house and up to the stage. We were interacting with each other as well as the performers. It was so awesome.

Thursday night is Hedda Gabler, starring Mary-Louise Parker, followed by drinks and frivolity with Improv group members. Quite excited about that as well. We meet at 11am on Sunday mornings, and I don’t think an improv group can really be funny together unless they’ve had the opportunity to drink together. Sorry if that sounded co-dependent, but that’s just how I feel.

Check the main page for a link to my new YouTube page. My hair growth commercial is posted, but I’m in the first two seconds of it so pay attention. If there’s any kind of delay in loading it, you’re proabably going to miss me.

Hopefully my student films will be posted soon as well. Hopefully I’ll see them soon.

Alright I have about two hours till I have to leave for work. If I shower quick I might be able to enjoy an episode of 24 on iTunes before I have to start heading out.

I registered for Yoga classes today.

That was New Year’s resolution #2 on my list. #2a is to actually ATTEND said yoga classes. I’m optimistic. Also exhausted. I was filming a student film yesterday so I was up at 6:30am and then at work until midnight. And I’d been up at 8am the day before, filming in the morning and at work until midnight as well.

Today I got to sleep until 9am because improv wasn’t till 11. How sad is it when 9am is “sleeping in”.

But the important thing I think is that I did two student films in the past couple of weeks. Cha-ching. Resume fodder!

Also the commercial I shot over the summer is finally on the web. It’s on Facebook right now, but as soon as I figure out how to link to it it will be available on my website. All that’s really required for that is for me to be on my home computer instead of Dunkin Donuts, so that’ll probably happen tomorrow.

Also getting new headshots and possibly my nose pierced. Maybe I should wait until after the headshots for the nose. Or should I get the pictures taken with it? Hmm…decisions.

StrawHats application is all done and ready to be mailed, which will be happening on my way to work as soon as I exit this building. If I can find a mailbox. They’re kind of thin on the ground in Times Square, have we noticed this? So very tired. Have to work until eleven tonight. At least it’s not midnight. I can’t wait to be able to sleep tomorrow morning. Although I am going to watch my recently downloaded episode of 24.

One of my favorite actors, Peter Wingfield is on this season. Unfortunately he’s not using his British accent, which I think is a waste of a sexy voice, if you ask me. But then I just watch my Highlander DVDs and feel sated.

Best friend extraordinairre Jen Whitton is now the Special Events intern for the Roundabout Theatre Co, so not only is she back in my life rather than the jungles of Indiana, but we also have tickets to the Blue Man Group on Tuesday. And she’s also taking me to the opening of Hedda Gabler and Pal Joey. She’s the best wife ever.

I saw Equus on Wednesday. Jen and my friend Z and I did student rush. For anyone who hasn’t seen Equus, above the stage there are balcony seats, done in a horseshoe (ha) around the back wall. Those are the seats they give for student rush. It’s awesome. You have to kind of lean on the railing to see the acton but it’s totally worth it. The show is staged so people do face the back wall a lot, but they take you through the backstage area and they give you this whole big speech. Cell phones have to be turned all the way off because of the lights and other equipment, there’s no talking at ALL because anything you say becomes part of the dialogue of the show, and we weren’t given programs until the end because “they tend to fall off the railing and hit our actors on the head.”

About two minutes after we sat down I realized that I was on stage at a Broadway show, staring at the audience. I looked up at the bustling audience of a Broadway theatre and I almost cried. It was so awesome. Life’s dream, semi-realized. Someday Michele, someday.

The show was great. Let me first address the elephant in the room that is Harry Potter’s winkie. Truthfully, I didn’t even really notice. There was a lot of build-up, but honestly, the kid had me so invested in the story that I forgot I was watching Harry Potter. A big accomplishment because I thought he was going to blow. But to be fair, I guess the Harry Potter movies aren’t a very good way to judge someone’s acting chops.

Damn I have to go to work. More on Equus later. To the castle!

Okay. So I held off a little with the mailing. The official reason is that it was the holidays, and I didn’t want it to get caught up in any kind of Christmas/New Year’s holiday card shuffle.

The unofficial/accurate reason is that I am a lazy schmuck. And I couldn’t concentrate on buying my family their Christmas gifts and planning what I was doing for New Year’s and do a mailing at the same time.

But now, the holidays are over, everyone’s back to school, improv has started up again, and I am ready to go. I just need stamps. And then we’re off.

Balls to the wall.

Okay. I’m just going to print onto my headshots, and enjoy my 160 sheets of scrap paper. Perhaps I’ll use my resumes to wrap my Christmas gifts.

I just ordered more ink. Tax write-off.

Whatever. I’m over it.

So after using all the paper and ink it takes to print out 169 resumes, and beginning to staple and crop said resumes to my headshots, I had the bright idea to run my headshot through the printer to see if I could print the resume directly onto it.

And now I’m pissed because it works perfectly.

So now I can either sit and watch my Netflicks copy of “Vantage Point,” painstakingly stapling and cutting resumes, or I can re-print 169 resumes and hope that I have enough ink.

Either way, I will have wasted a great deal of something, be it time or money.

Deep breath.

And…

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

I have finished all my letters, and all my mailing labels are printed out, including my return address labels. All that remains is to print out 169 resumes (which I am currently doing), buy 169 envelopes, buy 169 stamps, staple 169 resumes to 169 headshots, put 169 letters and 169 headshots in 169 envelopes, place 338 labels and 169 stamps on 169 envelopes, and then shove the whole stack in a mailbox.

The sad part is that when I graduated college 2 years ago I ordered 200 headshots, and I’m pretty sure I have 169 headshots still in the box.

If not…well we’ll jump off that bridge when we come to it.

This is kind of fun.

In a really dull, office-work kind of way.

Oy.

After two days, all my cover letters are done.

Final count: 169

And now…the address labels.

Yay.