Today I discovered that there is something very meditative about gardening. I found myself in a zen-like state as I tilled the soil preparing it to receive flowers and bulbs Heather was planting. Then suddenly my meditation was interrupted by booming bass sounds and rattling metal as a SUV w/ 22 inch chrome rims and tinted windows drove by…
0 CommentsMonthly Archive for February, 2004
For Valentines Day Heather bought me a HUGE heart shaped cookie from Mrs Fields which had the words “I Love You” written on it with icing. She also gave me a small box of chocolate mice from Burdick Chocolates. Both were very, very yummy! For Heather, I ordered the highly praised chocolate truffles from XOX Truffles. Also, when Heather went to sleep on Friday night, I stayed up and arranged a large assortment of live, potted flowers in the room. When Heather woke up on Valentines Day, the first thing she saw was brightly colored orchids, tulips, mini roses, roses, and cyclamen. The best part is that we can plant all these flowers and they will last way past Valentines Day.
That evening we went to go eat at our favorite restaurant Houston’s in Century City. What we didn’t expect was that the NBA 2004 All Star Weekend was happening and a lot of the players and guests were staying nearby at the Century City Plaza hotel. That meant the mall was pretty packed and that a lot of people were eating at Houston’s as well. Luckily the wait wasn’t any longer than 30-40min and we sat down and had an incredible meal of filet mignon, prime rib (w/ real horseradish on the side), baked potatoes and apple walnut cobbler. YUM!!!
After stuffing ourselves we shopped around a little bit then decided to go to the Beverly Center for - more shopping. Unfortunately what we didn’t realize was that there was some special event going on which had the mall PACKED full of people and we ended up spending an hour in the parking garage just trying to leave!
Oh, I forgot to mention…
While we were waiting to be seated at Houston’s one of the waitresses approached me and asked “are you an actor”? Quickly I responded “yes I am” trying to figure where she might have seen my work lately. Maybe she saw the “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Asian Men” show, or maybe she saw me at the Asian Pacific American Stand-up Comedy Festival…
“Were you in Flower Drum Song“? She asked.
“No I was not.” I replied disappointingly.
“Oh, sorry” She replied as she quickly left.
For a second I had hopes that maybe I was barely crossing the line of “unknown actor” to “slightly known actor”. Guess not.
0 CommentsHas anyone seen the new Nissan Armada commercial “Break glass in case of adventure”? Well I auditioned for the commercial back in November and obviously didn’t get it. Although, what I did get was a response from the creative director who created the spot! Check it out! I wish my commercial agent would read my website so he could see that I’m at least getting positive feedback…
1 CommentTonight in class I finished my work on the Edmund Pollard monologue. For my performance I modified my toga costume so that it was sleeveless and hanging off my right shoulder. Tom wanted more “bohemian” so I showed more skin. I also used grapes instead of an apple for the top of the scene. I remember seeing an illustration of Bacchus online and he was reclining eating grapes. So that is what I did. Before the lights came up on stage I reclined on the ground holding the grapes above me while I bit one of the grapes from the bunch. The lights then came up and there I was reclining in a toga eating grapes. I thought it was very effective and got a good reaction from the class when they saw me. My performance of Edmund Pollard tonight was more playful, soft and seductive. After the first run through Tom gave me some slight adjustments to my performance and I performed it again. I ended up performing it three times with Tom’s approval on my third performance.
So now we’re back to scenes again. The play I will be working on is “One Sunday Afternoon” by James Hagan. I’ll have to pickup the play tomorrow…
0 CommentsHere’s our new guard dog Simon. Don’t let his looks fool you. He’s viscious. He will jump up and bite you in the ass.
Yesterday was the conclusion of Joanne Baron’s Master Class. Overall I really enjoyed the experience. I learned a lot from watching Joanne critique the scenes and lecture on the process of acting, character interpretation and script analysis. I also enjoyed being coached by Joanne and learning what aspects of the process I really need to work on. For me it came down to the fact that my emotions tend to be “locked up” and repressed and I need to really work on finding my emotions and learn how to express them vocally and physically.
What happened in our scene this time around is that we didn’t make it past the first page of material before Joanne stopped us and started critiquing us. My partner and I were never really clear on what exactly was happening in the beginning of the scene and thus, it showed in our acting because our actions were very general as well. Joanne spent the next hour coaching us through the first couple of lines breaking down each moment and emotion. Although it was nerve-wrecking at first, as we followed her coaching we could sense a complete difference from when we started. The audience could see it too as we received laughs in places we didn’t before. Joanne was very gracious in her coaching paying us both compliments but giving constructive criticism as well. Even though we were not able to complete the scene for the class, it was a great learning experience for both of us.
Now that Master Class has concluded I have started to look more at the business side of my acting “career”. What I recently realized is this: my current headshots don’t work. I just don’t feel my current pictures represent “me”. My agents agree as well. They never thought the pictures were that great, they just tolerated them. So now I’m on the search for a new photographer. This is always hard. I have never been completely satisfied with any of my headshots except for the ones with me in a leather jacket. Those were taken back in 1998 by David LaPorte. That was a magical session because I’ve had five other photo-shoots with him and have not been able to re-produce the feel of those headshots. So today I called both my agencies for recommendations and this is the list so far:
The phone calls start tomorrow…
A couple months ago I did a small role in this comedic film which spoofed “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy“. Today I received an email that there will be a screening on friday. I’m debating on whether I want to go. It would be interesting to see how crazy I looked…
0 CommentsYou know you live in the “hood” when the local KFC has bullet-proof glass around the entire cashier/kitchen area. This KFC was protected better than some banks! Maybe they were just protecting their famous secret blend of 11 herbs and spices.
0 CommentsI didn’t write an entry last night because Heather and I were out late dining with the stars of The Bold and The Beautiful. I’m not lying. They were sitting at the table behind us :). Heather was actually dissappointed that I didn’t have a camera phone so she could take a picture to show her mother and grandmother.
We were actually dining at The Whisper Lounge at The Grove. We both induldged in $9 signature cocktails and stuffed ourselves. We started with a spinach salad complete with goat cheese, walnuts and bacon. Heather then had the filet mignon with horseradish mashed potatoes and I had the (huge) lamb shank with horesradish mashed potatoes as well. We finished our meal by sharing an apple cobbler with ice-cream. It was all very good but still doesn’t beat our favorite restaraunt, Houston’s.
0 CommentsTonight in class I performed another paraphrase of the Edmund Pollard monologue. I was trying to address the notes Tom gave me on my last performance. He wanted me to be more passionate and more like Bacchus who is half man, half beast. So tonight I was preparing my performance thinking of vampires, seduction and the old Nine Inch Nails song, Closer.
Well I came on strong in my performance hitting the emotions I prepared to express. The only problem was that my interpretation was completely wrong. Tom said I was way too evil and sounded like evil Zargon from outer space, or I was from the underworld. He said no one would want to party with me or join me. The entire class started laughing like crazy. It was pretty funny. I guess I went way over the top with the beastly passion. Instead I’m suppose to be seducing and inspiring people to join me in my hedonistic ways. I’m suppose to be challenging and inviting people to party with me.
Tom asked me to try it again and the third time I performed the paraphrase Tom said I was now headed in the right direction for the monologue. He said I need to continue to be more playful and let my own personality seep through a bit more.
So next week I will be performing the monologue using the original text. Hopefully I won’t come off evil again…
0 CommentsPilot season is here and my theatrical agent is calling asking “Where’s those headshots you promised me?” So tonight I’m putting together a stack of 30 headshots & resumes to send to my agent tomorrow….
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