Keeping It Reel: An Actor's Blog

So I did this thing. I had never done this thing before so it was both a challenge and an adventure. And, as with any challenging adventures, I learned a great deal about myself: my strengths and my weakness. I also learned about this industry. I guess you could say win win. Can't say much about too much right now, but there is a story to tell.  Stay tuned. just keeping it reel copyright 2019 all rights reserved ...

The audition.   This is the moment. There is no turning back.  All your preparation. All your groundwork.  Don't think. Just breathe. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.  And then just do it.  Don't act. React.  Listen. To every word. And then walk away. Take a beat. Exhale. And work on the next audition.  There's going to be a moment or maybe even two moments in which you will think about all the things you should have done during that audition. You'll beat yourself up about a missed line or an eye blink or a misplaced hair or that you put the wrong emphasis on a particular word or phrase.  This is normal. This is part of the process.  Are you done? Good.  Get off your ass. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, or proud of yourself, and move on.  There's work to be done.  Get to it. just keeping it reel copyright 2019 all rights reserved ....

Soprano's: "We were a very successful, critically acclaimed series on HBO." Game of Thrones: "So were we." Soprano's: "We had the most controversial ending of any television series ever." Game of Thrones: "Hold our beer." Or, if you'd rather, a cup of coffee from Starbuck's.  (Rim shot) HBO's juggernaut series Game of Thrones has ended after eight seasons and the show's ending may just be one of the most controversial endings of a series in television history.  Needless to say, die hard, and, maybe even casual, fans of the series were not happy. One fan even raised over a thousand signatures on a petition to have Season 8 reshot.  Most, when asked, would probably wish that the scripts for Season 8 were piled in front of them so they could snarl and say, Dracarys!  At which point a dragon would unleash a fireball and incinerate the scripts. Just in case you didn't know what dracarys meant.  Nobody...

"If your ship doesn't come in...swim out to meet it." Jonathon Winters What are you waiting for? Low tide? Did you just eat and believe that whole wait half an hour before you get back into the water thing?  Water too cold? Doesn't matter.  Sharks? Doesn't matter. There's a lot sharks in this business.  Or is it that you can't swim? You need to fix that...and lickety split! just keeping it reel copyright 2019 all rights reserved ....

Whatever it is you want to accomplish... you have to work for it.  No one is going to just hand it to you.  There are no bottles with genies in them. And besides...what fun would that be? You have to earn it. You have to.  Because when you've sweated and bled and pounded your fist and cried  and  beaten yourself up and doubted yourself  the moment the door finally opens for you will be that much sweeter.  #Always4ward Always.  Never give up. Ever.  just keeping it reel copyright 2019 all rights reserved

This post isn't so much about acting as it is about watching actors.  Or rather, not watching actors.  I went to the movies last. If you know me, I don't often go to the movies on a weekday night.  Nonetheless, we went.  Somewhere along the way we as a society have lost the ability to sit in a dark movie theater and watch a movie. I don't know when it happened, but I'm sure it has something to do with the invention of the cellphone.  This wasn't an issue when I worked as a theater manager. The challenges we dealt with were things like people with their feet on the seat in front of them, people talking, babies crying and, in one extreme case, a guy who had set up a tripod and camera so he could record the movie and later sell as a bootleg.  Hand. To. God. We have cellphones now and apparently we can't simply turn them off and disconnect from the world for more than five minutes...much less two hours.  There is nothing more annoying th...

“We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.” ― Voltaire "Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans." - John Lennon "Anticipation, Anticipation. Is making me late. Is keeping me waiting." - Carly Simon We are trained from an early age to wait. As infants we wait for someone to pick us up, to feed us and to change us.  As children we wait for the ice cream man and for Santa Claus.  As teens we wait for the final school bell so we can run out into the sunshine and play. As an actor you spend a good amount of your time waiting.  We wait for our agent to call us to tell us we have an audition. Then we wait for the sides and any taping instructions there may be. Then we wait for the phone to ring. Then we hopefully work and the second we wrap we wait for our agent to call us to tell us we have an audition.  It's a vicious cycle.  How are we supposed to stay sane while we deal with all that? Medita...