L.A. Dispatch - 7/25

The workshop wave began this week. Started Monday night with my (thank God) LAST session at TVI. Lauren Fernandes from Heidi Leavitt Casting. They cast mostly features. Lots of indies and some studio stuff, including several Oliver Stone pics. My scene was weird and the level of talent was unusually low, even by TVI's usually low standards. Followed up with an email the next day and she responded surprisingly quickly with a positive shoutout to my reel.

Wednesday began my residency at Act Now!, which touts itself as the "most exclusive networking outlet in L.A." (AND, I would argue, the most unfortunately named.) That said, the experience at Act Now as compared to TVI was like night and day. Of course there's duds in every workshop, but by and large the participants at Act Now seem to KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING, which was refreshing.

Wednesday night - First of 2 intensives with Russell Scott, associate CD for "Lie to Me" and "Breaking Bad". Great guy, seems to know his way around a scene. Liked the work.

Thursday night - First of 2 intensives with Todd Sherry of Patrick Rush casting. CD for "Chuck". AMAZING class. TONS of useful nuggets re: auditioning for TV. Really good-hearted and funny guy. Second workshop with someone from that office and I like the way they do things. Got a call the next morning from my Act Now rep saying that Todd made specific mention of me in his eval form and that apparently I stood out and made an impression. Spent the rest of the morning on the phone with The Missus weighing the likelihood of getting a call for "Chuck" before I bail and briefly brainstorming ways to keep me here a week or two longer. I say "briefly" because the numbers quickly revealed themselves to be not-at-all cooperative. Regardless, I added it to the list of shows I need to familiarize myself with on Hulu.

This morning - First of two intensives with Stephanie Laffin, CD for "House". Funny, brassy and matter-of-fact, her contributions were more anecdotal than practical, but one of my questions did lead her to take a look at my resume, which elicited a round of "Oh, you worked with Gus, love him... Oh, you know Suzanne, love her... ", etc. ANYTHING you can do to distinguish/legitimize yourself is a boon. Not a game I like to play, but a game I've learned I simply HAVE to play. She responded to the work and gave me a "nice to meet you, I'll tell Suzanne I met you" on the way out. "Suzanne" being Suzanne Ryan, head CD for L&O. In my head I thought, "Yeah, actually, please don't. Because I'm going to be hitting her up for L&O work in a little over a week and YOU'RE supposed to think I'm LIVING here."

Basically, I'm living a double life right now. I am cheating on NY with LA and praying neither of them finds out about the other. The push and pull of this has been taking a toll over the past week and solidly landed after this morning's workshop. I've essentially added a new level of duality to my already-dual existence. Day job v. career pursuit and now LA v. NY. The efforts I make toward designing a fully-integrated life have DISintegrated me that much more.

And today the braindrain reached a fever pitch.

I took a break from the mental back'n'forth with a nap this afternoon and am back in workitout mode at Three of Clubs on Santa Monica and Vine. Made popular by being featured in "Swingers", but sleepy and sparse on this particular Saturday night.

Missing The Missus. Monumentally. Sort of obvious, but the pangs are no less sharp.

All Hamleting aside, I have had some less-than-minor revelations this week. Which I will get into in another post.

For now, it's time to load the jukebox...

-IMBA