In the Bay Area Dec 23-28

I'm flying up to Sacramento for a training session with my new employer. As of Sunday Dec 23, I'll be visiting with friends and family. I'm curious to see if anyone pulls the old "you're not the Donovan I remember" trick. The point of course being, I need a little time away to gain some perspective on the whole affair so that I can return energized and grounded in the New Year.

So to celebrate, here is a montage from my favorite childhood Christmas film, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.



Happy Holidays dear reader!

Passed Groundlings Level One

Today was my last day in the Groundlings basic improv class. You have to audition to get into the class, and a decent number of people don't make it. At the end of the term, each student meets privately with the instructor for an evaluation of their work and to find out whether or not they can move on to Level Two.

Actress Jennifer Coolige had to repeat Basic three times before they let her move up to Level Two. So as we were finishing up our last class session, I began steeling myself for the possibility of repeating the intro course.

At the end of class, our instructor set out a sign-up sheet and pen whilst the seething horde of students high on improv and caffeine literally wrestled for pole position. I struggled to scratch out my initials on the legal pad while my legs were being held in the air and I was being dragged away by an actor who played serial killer Norman Bates in a haunted house (and you think I'm kidding about this). Despite this grandiose effort, I was only able to secure my place in the middle of the pack (#5 of 12).

When I finally met with my instructor, she let me know that I was ready to move on to Level Two. Yippee! I was quite flattered when she said the following of my work:

"You take really good care of your scene partners, which is what this is all about. You are very good about taking care of the who, what, where and you've always got solid character work. You're talented and you're funny, which is something that I can't teach, so good for you. I hope that you go through the rest of the Groundlings program, you're entertaining to watch."

Unfortunately when I went to register for the Level Two class, all of the slots were filled and I signed up for the sketch comedy writing class instead. I'm excited to do more work with The Groundlings, I'm learning a ton and I feel like I'm a much better comic actor as a result.

The Ugly Truth of Working at Home

Last night I attended my friend Lolly's last class at the Acme Comedy School. The $5 ticket price was more than compensated for by my eating my body weight in red-frosted cupcakes. After the show I was talking with an actor who had worked at home but after three months took a 9-5. When I asked him why he chose to lock up his schedule, he explained that he was lonely and unproductive when he worked from home. I can definitely relate to that.

This is the schedule I lived for the better part of last month:

9:00am Wake-Up & Hit Snooze
… Snooze Repeatedly
9:30am Rationalize that I need the sleep and turn off alarm.
12:00pm Wake up naturally and decide that I should go back to sleep anyway.
1:00pm Wake up and check email and read Blogs.
2:00pm Eat breakfast – cereal & milk.
2:30pm Begin watching episodes of 30 Rock/Dexter/Heroes
2:40pm Eat a second bowl of cereal and continue watching TV.
4:30pm Feel horribly disgusting about watching so much TV and take a shower.
5:00pm Try to do work but get distracted by some part of the Internet.
7:00pm Take myself out to Thai food in the neighborhood (rationalization: if I go outside, I can come back renewed and refreshed).
8:15pm Make a To Do list of tasks that need to be accomplished.
8:45pm Rationalize one more television episode.
9:15pm Berate myself for watching TV but watch yet another episode.
9:45pm Make myself another bowl of cereal.
10:00pm Become so overwhelmed with guilt and self-loathing that I start doing items on my To Do list.
12:00am Get a minor headache from being up late. Take a grandmother strength Motrin and drink a cup of Earl Gray Tea.
12:20am Get back to work.
2:30am Delirium sets in – but work must continue.
4:00am Work is done. Time to blog or surf the web.
5:00am Wonder why I'm still awake.
5:30am Get in bed and go to sleep.

Thankfully, my schedule is much improved of late. My family bought me a laptop so I drive to The Library right after my groundlings class and work there until about 7pm. Then I usually hang out with a friend or see a show until 11, and then I get home and work from 11:30 'til 2am.

Sitting On My Hands

As far as acting goes, I have essentially spent the month of December sitting on my hands. I've been submitting daily through LA Casting and Actor's Access and haven't been called in to audition for so much as a student film. While I'm definitely able to invest more time and energy in my acting classes and my friendships, I really wish that I was getting more on-the-job training. Dustin Hoffman has a really great quote in this month's issue of Interview magazine about this very subject:

"A writer doesn't have to sell his book to write every day, but we (actors) have to have a job in order to practice our craft."

After my Groundlings class tomorrow, I'm going to call my manager and see if he can get me back in the room with the boutique agency who was interested in representing me commercially and theatrically. Maybe they'll be able to get me into some auditions.

I now work in Customer Support.

Sorting out my financial woes has many times surpassed acting as my primary focus in LA. While money is something that impacts everyone, I'm excited for the day that it will be less of a concern.

Although I've yet to sign on the dotted line, it looks like I've got a new job lined up. I'll be doing customer support for VetPrep.com – an online veterinary test preparation service. This job will be salaried and should cover my rent and utilities – relieving the stress of wondering when the next check from freelance work will roll in. The work consists of answering customer emails, making phone calls, and sending out promotional materials. In fact it's not terribly different from what I do as an actor: respond to breakdowns, make phone calls, and send out promotional materials.

My technical background is a real boon for me. Geeks have a leg up on most actors with day-jobs. There aren't many non-technical jobs that pay as well or offer nearly as much flexibility in terms of: place of work, time of work, and amount of work.

LA Gets a Bad Rap

Say what you will about LA being populated with superficial people who have been injected with enough Botox to prevent their Grinch mouths from smiling even as they stab you in the back. I don't know enough about the city to accept or reject those claims outright. But I can tell you that there are certainly people and places that don't reflect the commonly promoted stereotype.

While the concept of thousands upon thousands of artists coming to pursue their bliss in the entertainment industry Mecca only to find frustration and failure is horribly tragic, there is a beauty in it as well. Tonight I attended a birthday party for my friend Whitton, an actress and blues dancer that I first met at the ACT Summer Training Congress a few years ago. I found myself surrounded by actors, musicians, dancers, animators, and writers – all of whom were engaged in the simultaneously geeky and sexy enterprise of ballroom dancing. I talked with various people at the party about their art, their goals, their concerns, and their day jobs. The through-line was passion; these artists were passionate about their work and were excited to be doing it. That is where I find the beauty in LA. While it may be hell for all of its inhabitants eventually, for each new arrival surrounded by other idealists Los Angeles, city of angels, is a Utopia.

The Laramie Project

I got an email earlier this week from my friend Prince Gomovillas asking if I wanted to see a high school production of The Laramie Project with him. Apparently some students at the school had put on a production of Prince's play "The Theory of Everything" and invited him to see their latest undertaking. Not one to turn down a comp ticket, I said yes.

I'm glad I did. I was absolutely gob smacked by the production. The direction was extremely tight and effective, but more impressive was just how committed and heart-felt the performances were. I found myself weeping at various points throughout the show. Many of these young actresses were working at a professional caliber - Prince explained that he felt is was a stronger production than when it played at Berkeley Rep. It was most definitely not like any high school play I'd ever seen.

Kudos to all involved.

Too Busy to Blog

This past week has been pretty hectic and I've given this blog less attention than I would like. However, leading a life so interesting that I don't have time to write about its myriad happenings is not an altogether bad situation to be in. For now, I'll just give you the bullet points, and with luck I'll be able to find time to write more detailed entries later.

• I attended the opening night of my friend Diablo Cody's film "Juno". See this movie – you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be quoting it for weeks.
  
• I signed with a talent manager named Blair Silver who found me through a cold-submission by Sage Marketing for Actors.
  
• I love my Groundlings class. I'm learning a ton, and my commercial acting is improving as a result.
  
• I've got one week left in my commercial acting class with Jeff Hardwick. I'm learning scads here as well.
  
• I attended a free workshop held by John Sudol on commercial acting which was extremely informative.
  
• I've fleshed out the story of my screenplay a bit more.
  
• I got the first of a series of checks in the mail from my day-job. Thank goodness!