I’ve talked to so many people in the past week and have so many interviews setup and pending for this week that I feel like an “A-List” actor. I’ve interviewed with a couple small companies and have also interviewed with a few very large, well known companies. These companies range from web design firms to internet and media conglomerates. It just so happens that my skills and knowledge are in high demand right now. The future looks promising. But I’m still trying to figure out how I can gracefully segue from web developer to producer of original content for film, tv, internet and mobile devices and of course also be an “A-List” actor.
One way to accomplish this feat is to “just do it”. So that’s what I’m doing. This past weekend a friend and I started production on a short comedic movie entitled “The Crispy Creme Conspiracy”. We finished shooting scene 1 and have 3 more scene to go. It looks pretty good so far, but the most important part is the fact that we are just doing it. This is just the beginning of our filmmaking projects.
In the Matrix, as Neo comes to terms with the truth of what is “real” and embraces his power he’s able to challenge and defeat the seemingly impossbile. I’m starting to see this reflected in my life. For most of my life I’ve lived fragmented identities: the small town introverted conservative Asian guy / the wanna-be R&B|hip-hop playa with the flashy style / the technology whiz|computer hacker / the actor|comedian|dancer|singer|spoken-word entertainer. As I’ve started to integrate the different aspects of my personality and life I’ve found confidence and power. I just needed to believe in myself and have confidence that all of my experience and background has enormous value. This has become even more evident in my current job search. At one of my first interviews I was informed by the manager that all candidates are run through Google. Of course, they found this blog and read many entries about me and my acting career. Now at this point, in the past this would have sent me into a panic attack triggering me to sweat profusely since I had been “busted”. But now that I have decided to just live truthfully I took it in stride and told them what my true goals are: to become a well known, respected actor who is also a filmmaker with a state-of-the-art production studio which creates original content across all mediums - film, TV, braodband, mobile, etc. I told this manager that I am at a place in my “career” that I will no longer just take any job. I will only take a job that serves my future goals and that truly interests me. A job that integrates all my skills and interests. Luckily the market for my set of skills is really good and I’ve had many, many phone interviews and face-to-face interviews every day at different companies. A lot of these companies are actually places that I feel I would really fit in: production studios, TV networks, new technology start-ups dealing with convergence, etc.
Another benefit of all this interviewing is that it has made me even more outgoing and comfortable with talking with people. I feel it’s even boosted my charisma. Case in point - I met with a technical recruiter a few days ago and 10 minutes into the interview he stopped and said “Don’t take this in a wierd way, but have you ever considered acting?” I just laughed assuming that maybe he saw this website. I asked “Why do you say that?” And he replied “You just have a really strong presence and charisma”.
That’s what I’m talking about. Now If only people in Hollywood could recognize this as well.
What’s inspiring is reading about Josh Holloway (from the show LOST) who is 36 and at the time of being cast in LOST, was in the process of becoming a real estate agent. He said that at that time he couldn’t even “buy himself” a role. But he pursued other forms of income never giving up on his acting dreams and then all of a sudden he ends up on one of the top rated shows on TV. He also talks about living truthfully. Ultimately, that’s what acting is about. Living truthfully in front of the camera. But it is something we should be doing every moment of our life.
I’ve manage to setup 5 very promising interviews within 72 hours of putting my resume out.
I just wish these were all AUDITIONS!!!! So far this year I’ve had one theatrical audition and several commercial auditions. No callbacks yet.
In other acting news, I’ve been told that a final cut of the indie film I was in last summer - “Mah Jong” will be completed at the end of this month. I’m also going to be shooting a short film next weekend with a good friend of mine. So I’m in the process of rewriting the script. He’s also going to try his hand in editing the piece as well. Two weeks ago I submitted my materials to a manager whom I was referred to. No response. And I’ve also been toying with the idea of doing stand-up again - just to get in front of an audience to perform. I’m also considering joining a theater group but I’m not sure which one.
I also need to get back in my scene study class…
Published on Thursday April 20, 2006 .
I try to avoid mentioning anything about my day job(s) on this site, but recent events have compelled me to say something.
HOW THE HELL DO PEOPLE DO IT???
How do people get up every day and go to some lame ass job that is totally pointless and devoid of passion and creativity? My motivation every day is that I’m collecting a nice paycheck which supports my Hollywood acting dreams. I live on the hope that one day I can go to my boss and say “I’m sorry but today is my last day. I’ve just been cast in a leading role in Francis Ford Coppola’s next film opposite Johnny Depp”. Without this dream, most of the jobs I’ve had over the years would have been COMPLETELY pointless. I’ve only been lucky in the fact that I’m really adept in picking up new technology skills without taking classes or even buying a book so I’m able to have a job that pays well. But I always end up resenting my job and my workplace. So in some ways I welcome recent events in which I was asked to resign. The office politics surrounding this event is worthy of a feature film. Everything has been - and still is very hush, hush. They are expecting me to disappear silently so that I can become a scapegoat for their failures. I feel a Jerry Maguire moment coming…
But a disruption in life can be good at times. It makes you re-evaluate goals, life, etc. It makes me think that working a “regular job” isn’t any more stable than being an actor. It makes me think that I really need to get my shit together and do what I REALLY LOVE doing which is acting and making movies. In the meantime I’ve started the process of looking for another day-job again. Although this time will be a little different. I am really going to look for a job that REALLY fits me and my goals.
Yes my goal is to become a well respected, well known, working actor.
But I could never settle for “just” being an actor. No. I have bigger dreams such as owning my own production studio and making my own movies and distributing my movies using internet convergence technologies. So I’ve decided the best bet is to get a tech/web development job at some film production studio or some other company which deals with entertainment and cutting-edge convergence technologies. That way I can still get a nice check but also hopefully learn skills which will advance my goals of becoming the next Mel Gibson (I mention him only because he’s an actor and a producer/director. Producer wise I’d rather be Robert Rodriguez who is totally hands-on, high-tech and independent from Hollywood).
ugh.
Why couldn’t I have been born to parents who own a production company or at least have a lot of high-power Hollywood connections.
Someone just needs to put me in a reality show.
Published on Saturday April 15, 2006 .
The authors of the book “Freakonomics” did a study on women who used online dating services and found that half of those women said they would date a man of a different race. But statistically they found that 97% of the replies of white women go to white men. So then they conducted a study on how much more money a man would have to make before he became popular to women of another race. What they found is that white women prefer white men, but respond equally to profiles from hispanic men if they make 77k+ more, black men if they make 154k+ and asian men if they made 247k more than their caucasian counterparts.
That’s sad. I’m sure stereotypes have something to do with it. Personally I feel like I won the lottery since I ended up marrying the hottest red-head in the office that every guy talked about!
Looking at this data, it’s also easy to see why Hollywood is still reluctant to feature strong asian leading men. Even though these statistics were taken from online dating services, I would say that this is the general attitude from the general public - that asian guys have to try harder in order to be respected in non-stereotypical roles. But I also find hope in this. I figure, if I was able to charm my way into the heart of my dream girl, why can’t I charm my way into the hearts of people in Hollywood and middle america?
I just need to keep working on self confidence. Here’s a good role-model: Bruce Lee.
“If you wake up Monday morning wanting to go to work, then you are in the right career.” This is the life lesson I learned today from Donald Trump on “The Apprentice”. But I already knew I’m not in the right career. That’s why I skipped out to a commercial audition today for TLC. TLC is currently running these “Life Lessons” commercials promoting… the channel, I think? That’s the wierd thing about the TLC commercials. They’re going for this off-beat approach, but it’s so off-beat that I don’t get it - and I feel like I’m a pretty smart guy. What are these commercials promoting??? Well no-matter. I hope I book it. 
Speaking about Donald Trump, I saw him speak at the Learning Annex Real Estate Wealth Expo at the LA Convention center over the weekend. He was entertaining, but that’s it. As for the Real Estate Wealth Expo, I learned a lot of interesting information about real estate investment strategies but was hammered with sales pitch after sales pitch for $2000-$5000 investment strategy kits and asset protection kits. It’s amazing to me that so many people were stupid enough to spend money on these get rich quick schemes. Ultimately, the only wealth that was gauranteed from the Wealth Expo was for all the salesmen who pitched their products and for the Learning Annex who lured over 50k people to the event at around $200 per person. That being said, I did learn a lot about different real estate investment strategies and asset protection strategies and will be doing research on how I can use all this info to my own advantage. It is true that the only way to create true wealth is to make money work for you and don’t work for the money. In other words, invest more, spend less, be a business owner and have multiple streams of income. For me, I’m still pursuing the Hollywood way which is to eventually create a brand based on my future celebrity status and license my brand to different companies for all types of different products and services (and also build my own companies). Either that or come up with the next huge creative property franchise like JK Rowling did with Harry Potter. Her creative property has made her a billionaire.
Anyway, here’s some links to resources I found which give a voice of reason to the over-hyped “One weekend can make you a millionaire!” Wealth Expo:
http://www.johntreed.com/Reedgururating.html (Checkout what this guy says about the learning annex!!!)
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Investing/Realestate/P77333.asp
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_32/b3845105_mz025.htm (de-mystifying the hype around tax-lien/tax-deed investing)
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/real-estate/20050707a1.asp
http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/29/real_estate/investment_prop/gurus/index.htm
Basically to sum up all these articles, it is possible to become a millionaire using some of these real-estate investing techniques, but it’s just not that easy. Heck, you could become a millionaire with the right website idea. Plenty of people are. It’s just not that easy.
BTW, did I mention that I’m selling my “Get Rich With Your Website!” kit for only $2000 today? I usually sell it for $5000, but just for today, it’s $2000 and you will receive personal coaching over the phone too. (I bet you anything I could have got in front of those 20,000+ people in that keynote hall and sold them some “internet kit” for $2000. I could have made a killing. People were that willing to charge up their credit cards on the dream that they were soon going to be millionaires).
Published on Thursday April 6, 2006 .
H sent me a link today about this film - The Grace Lee Project. It opens in LA today and I’m going to make an effort to go see it. What immediately caught my attention is how similar the themes are of this film with my life. The filmmaker Grace Lee grew up in Missouri and was the only Grace Lee she knew. Then she left the midwest an discovered that there were many other Grace Lees out there. So she created a film to explore the stereotypes surrounding her identity. I grew up between Delaware and Pennsylvania and I was the only David Chiu that I knew of. Heck, other than my family and one of my parents friends, we were the only Asian people I knew of. Growing up I was unique. I was different. I was Asian. And I set out to change the way people perceived me and my asian-ness. Well, actually I just tried to shrug of my asian-ness and assimilate both the white and black culture. Well, more of the white culture but with a strong affinity to r&b/new jack swing music and style. Eventually I grew up and moved to LA to become an actor and immediately had culture shock. I never knew so many asians lived in one place (other than in Asia). What was even more shocking was my first audition walking into a room with a bunch of guys who walked, talked and looked very similar to me. I was no longer all that unique. A few more years pass and I receive another shock when I type in MY Name into Google and find out that MY Name had been moonlighting as the Mayor of San Marcos, a well-known poker player, an executive, a couple grad students, and several others. My name lives on around the world. It was like looking at parallel universes and possibilities of who I could be if I made different choices in life. It was wierd. But then I realized that the website belonging to me appeared at the top of the list - and everything seemed ok again.
I’m glad I found out about The Grace Lee Project. It was good inspiration to get my creative thinking going again.
After writing this I decided to make a self correction. Actually, there were other Asians other than me. There were a few Asian kids at my school (5 including my brother that I can remember). And there was that short stint at “Chinese school” that my dad tried to force upon us one summer. I guess by saying that I was alone in my asian-ness was actually a mirror into my insecurities as a kid growing up and always feeling a little different and inferior…
24 hours after getting all four of my wisdom teeth removed I’m sporting a new look:
Recovery from the surgery has been the worst part. The procedure itself wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. After they sat me down in the dentist chair across from the needles, drills, pliers, scalpels, etc, they put an oxygen mask over my nose, a blood pressure cuff over my right bicep and jumper cables on both wrists (at least that’s what they looked like). The doctor then inserted the IV in my left arm (which turns out was the most painful of the whole procedure) and started the anesthetic. I don’t even remember closing my eyes but I remember him telling me to open my mouth so that he could place a rubber block between my teeth to keep my mouth open. After that I didn’t feel a thing. I do remember the doctor saying “we’re half way done” but that was it. The next thing I felt was the IV being taken out from my arm. After being escorted to the recovery room and waiting for a couple minutes my wife came back to the recovery room with meds in hand. After a couple more minutes the nurse gave us the recovery procedure and my wife drove me home. My lips and tongue were numb for the rest of the day and the first time I had to change my gauze was probably the most painful part of the whole ordeal. Now I’m on the path to recovery. I tried eating some bean soup last night but I can’t open my mouth that far without pain. So I’m left with protein shakes, fruit smoothies and yogurt. I’m taking Vicodin every so often but I’m recovering well. My lower jaw is pretty sensitive though. I feel like I’ve been in a boxing match with Mike Tyson but luckily there is no bruising. Luckily I have my beautiful wife to see me through my recovery.
Thanks to all of you who gave me recovery advice!