My acting coach mentioned something in class the other day that got me thinking. He said that life is the ultimate training ground for acting. By living through all of life’s experiences - the highs and lows, the good and the bad, you are then more able to communicate these experiences back through acting and art. So don’t cheat yourself on life. I say one should take the opportunity to experience as much as you can (that which is healthy and legal). Do something you wouldn’t normally do. See something you wouldn’t normally see. Go somewhere you wouldn’t normally go. Leave your comfort zone, put aside personal preference and free your mind.
0 CommentsMonthly Archive for August, 2003
My wife just informed me that 22-year old porn star Mary Carey is running for Governor. To raise money for her campaign, she is giving away “dinner dates” for contributions of $5000 or more. She also has some very interesting reform ideas.
An ingenious publicity stunt? Who knows. But could you imagine if she did get elected? California would then officially be known as the “porn capitol of the world”.
As Mack 10 would say - “Only In California“.
0 CommentsThe improv went pretty well today. The major note that I received was that I need to act more like myself and let my personality show through, but incorporate OCD/germ phobia behaviour. Today I was trying to be more of an uptight scientist character which affected my relazation and responsiveness. So next time I think I am going to try set up a romantic dinner for a date, but this time I will do it according to my style and personality but include OCD/germ phobia behaviour.
0 CommentsHere’s the setup for our improv tomorrow:
I am a brilliant young scientist who has OCD and germ phobia. In my house, everything is very clean and neat. I am particular about the way everything is placed. Everything must always be put back to the exact original position it was before it was moved. When people come to visit they have to remove their shoes and leave their shoes outside the door. When I first answer the door I cover my face with a mask so as to not breath in any germs this person at the door may have.
My activity in the scene tomorrow will be setting a table for a romantic dinner. I have a crush on a very attractive colleague and have invited her over for dinner. I will play classical music in the background and all my movements will be in rhythm to the music (as part of my OCD behaviour). I will alsol be cleaning each utensil wearing gloves and using seven strokes over each piece.
During all this I will be expecting my brother to stop by whom I am currently mad at because he borrowed my car and got in an accident.
My acting partner is my friend whom I’ve known for about a year. She works at the same facility that I work at and I see her everyday. She is very nice and polite to me. For the scene, I have to justify why I told her boyfriend to break up with her. My reason is that one night we all went to dinner and when I was in the bathroom I saw her boyfriend come in, use the restroom, then leave without washing his hands. I was totally disgusted and now I think he is very unclean and not good enough to date my friend.
0 CommentsI was talking to Heather after class on Wed trying to decide what impediment I should try for Sat class. My first thought was to try acting out a short-term memory loss type of condition. After watching the movie Finding Nemo I thought that this might be an interesting condition to try. Heather instead convinced me to research germ phobia since she thought I could draw from my family growing up. Although no one in my family really had an OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) or any real serious germ phobia, my father always put an emphasis on cleanliness. This possibly stemmed from his many years working in research labs. Anyway, my research turned up interesting information on Howard Hughes and Nikola Tesla who both had eccentric personalities and habits due to OCD and germ phobia. I also found information on the TV series Monk (which is supposedly very good), and the movie As Good As It Gets which both deal with charcters who have OCD and germ phobia.
2 CommentsThings didn’t go that well for me tonight. Our scene lasted about 3min before Tom stopped it. I ended up pushing my objective of wanting to get money from my partner. My partner told me repeatedly that she didn’t have the money and I kept badgering her. The scene went nowhere. The problem was that my situation didn’t work. I needed a better reason to be coming over to my friends house and I needed a better sense of what I wanted from her, why I needed it, and how my whole life was going to come crashing down if I could not get it.
Well, I’ll have to plan a really good emotional impediment for Sat to make up for my poor performance tonight… everyone else was really good tonight, which made me look pretty stupid… on the plus side, Tom did say that I looked emotionally invested in the conversation I had with my partner…
0 CommentsAfter visiting both my agents (theatrical and commercial), the decision has been made to go with the following photos:
)
)
)
)
)
The first two will be used for theatrical submissions and all of them will be used for commercial submissions.
The first three photos will be reproduced and duplicated as 8×10’s for my agents and all the pictures will be posted to my profile on LACasting.com.
LACasting.com is a farily new online service which stores actors resumes and photos so that casting directors can search the database and look for specific people for projects. The basic service is free for actors in agencies associated with LACasting. Actors incur charges when changing their initial photo on the site or adding additional photos. There have been many start-up companies trying to digitize the casting process but LACasting seems to be the only one gaining significant momentum in Hollywood. Both my agents insist that all talent must register and keep current updates on the service. I’ve also started to see notices in casting offices encouraging actors to keep their profiles current on LACasting. The website itself has its quirks and security holes but should get better as time goes by.
5 CommentsHere’s the improv setup for my next class:
My partner and I are neighbors in an apartment complex. We became instant friends when I helped her move into the building. I used to have problems w/ drugs (weed) but I’ve been clean for the past few months. I will be coming over to Shannon’s (my acting partner) apartment asking for money. She has to refuse to give it to me and justify why she can’t. I need the money because I spent all my money on weed and I’m about to get kicked out of my apartment since I haven’t paid rent for the past two months.
0 CommentsIt’s 5am.
15min ago I woke up to the sound of our dog barking. I had to use the bathroom so I went downstairs and decided to see what nonsense our dog was barking at. When I looked outside, to my shock and surprise, I saw a person in our yard wearing an orange jump suit holding a lighter to the ground. My heart skipped. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Maybe I was half asleep or dreaming? I thought, is this the gas company? The person stood up and was holding some papers. They quickly opened the gate and left. The way they moved and their build suggested it was a skinny woman. I’m not sure. I tried to see where this person was going but they seemed to dissappear.
Completely weird.
Now I’m up looking around outside to see if they come back. I’m not sure what to do if they do except yell at them or try to chase them down, or go out there with a crowbar or my martial arts sword, or what?
0 CommentsI was on my way to pickup some food Sat evening and while sitting at a stoplight, I noticed a group of Hasidic Jews walking across the street. This is a pretty normal thing in LA but on this night it sparked a curiosity.
Why do Hasidic Jews dress the way they do? Why do they seem to be stuck in a particular era of fashion? Why were all the other fashion trends in history accepted up to this point? Furthermore, why are Amish stuck in a particular fashion era as well? What has determined that these particular fashion statements are acceptable for these groups, and members in these groups cannot deviate?
20 years from now, will there be a religious sect that only wear Hammer pants? If there is, I’ll probably be a part of them.
