Yeah, and also...

Pretty Little Liars and Hot in Cleveland

2011-06-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

So last night my episode of Hot in Cleveland aired and it is pretty funny. You can watch it online here on hulu. I show about about 3 minutes into it. I just remember what a fun day that was!!!

And Monday was the return of Pretty Little Liars, one of my favorite shows that I was thrilled to be on the season premier of. I am shown for just a second in the beginning. Watch the episode here. Well, actually don't watch it if you've never seen the show because it is seriously good and jumping in at the start of season 2 would be a huge mistake go buy or rent season 1 on DVD hahaha.

Audition and Pride

2011-06-12T12:23:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday I had an audition to go to in the early afternoon. It is for a short film called "Exit the Friend Zone" and I am trying out for the lead character's best friend. The audition process was a bit odd, they had me fill out an employment application for the production company and they had some people and scheduled times and others were just told to show up between 2 and 6. I got there right at 2 and ended up waiting around for about 45 minutes. The audition was held in an industrial part of town that I wasn't very familiar with so that was strange. But once I actually got in with the director everything went pretty well, I think I was funny and would be good for the part.

After that I met up with my friend Mitchel and we went out for Pride. We didn't pay to go into the festival (it is like $25 WTF, Minneapolis was always free to get into). Instead we went to The Abby and then St. Felix for some cocktails and burgers. All and all it was a pretty fun day!

Too much fun in the sun

2011-06-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I went all the way down to Huntington Beach, which is about 40 miles from my place (I feel so much worse for those who came from the valley because it was even further for them). It was to film a Pepsi commercial. We weren't actually on the beach we were at the Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort out by the pool. Which, admittedly is a pretty fantastic place to spend your work day. However, that being said there were a few drawbacks.

I had to get up at 5 in order to get ready and be there on time, but since this was a huge call when I got there it was pretty much just 3 plus hours of waiting around doing nothing. And then we went to the set and had a few rehearsals and then broke for lunch. After lunch it was pretty much just being in the sun and dancing ALL DAY...we're talking like 7 hours straight of this. It wasn't horrible because my friend Breanne was there so I mostly just talked with her, but it got really exhausting. I was pleased that one of the assistant directors asked me if I was a music video back-up dancer, and one of the featured extras came up and told me she thought I was really good at dancing too! But unfortunately it didn't get me bumped up at all LOL maybe next time.

First day and Rage debut

2011-05-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday I had an audition for a Scandinavian commercial, I am not really sure what they are selling but all I had to do for it was sit in a chair and pretend to be watching a horror movie. Hopefully I got picked, it is kinda hard to know if you did good or bad on something like that. The commercial audition happened to be right by my office, so after that I went to the office early and then just sat outside and read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which I started on the plane ride over the weekend. Then I went and grabbed some dinner and then started my shift.

The job itself is obviously a bit harder than being in training, because we're on the phones the entire time. I didn't do very well, but I think a lot of that was that I had a sort of emotional weekend and was still jet lagged. A few of us were taken aside after we lost enough calls and after that I started to do a bit better.

I found out via twitter (Follow Me) that the Rage commercial I did is now out. ESPN did this little behind the scenes video for it, you can see me in it.

And here is the finished product, which I am really easy to spot at the beginning wearing a green long-sleeved polo. I also pop up a number of other times for like half a second, so have fun playing where's Andrew....like Where's Waldo, but more fun.

You Win Some and You Loose Some

2011-05-05T16:58:00.000-07:00

I had my first audition today, but it didn't go very well. It was for the lead in a short film, I got the audition through LA Casting. When you get an audition they give you "sides" which are the parts of the script they want you to practice for the audition. The sides for this part were REALLY long, but only sporadic pieces of monologue here and there, it was really difficult to practice for. Anyways when I got there they had changed a few words around and it completely messed me up and I got flustered and really blew it. Oh well, it was only for a short film and it didn't pay very much so it isn't a huge loss and at least it was a new experience.

Some better news is that I found a part-time job. I am doing non-profit fundraising over the phone. I didn't want to work in a call center again but this job is very flexible with the hours. I can pretty much just work weekends and that will leave Monday-Friday available to do background work and auditions (hopefully future auditions will go better)

I am doing audience work tonight on the Hells Kitchen finale, it was the first paying gig I've gotten from LA Casting so at least the services of the site are starting to pay for themselves!

William and Kate

2011-04-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

So the Lifetime movie William and Kate (for now you can still watch it all on Lifetime's site at that link) that I worked on aired and my jogging scene with Kate is right in the beginning and I am totally visible on camera for about a minute. It was pretty exciting for me, I watched it with my roommates Wendy and Suzanne. I tweeted the girls over at my favorite blog Go Fug Yourself because they were reviewing the movie and they actually featured me in their post on it! Check it out!

Then they went to bed but I decided to be ridiculous and stayed up and watched the wedding. I did think Kate's dress was beautiful and I loved that my old youth group leader Kari was also up for it so we had a lot of fun facebook chatting about it.

Griffins and Tigers and Extras Oh my!

2011-04-29T21:04:00.000-07:00

So I got a job through Virgo Talent, which was good I was starting to wonder if I had made a mistake in registering with them because it had been about 6 weeks. Anyways the job paid pretty well and it was to do background for a commercial. Much to my surprise and delight the e-mail with our instructions said, "There will be a tiger on set".

As it turns out it was a commercial for the video game Rage and the commercial is starring Blake Griffin as he tries to get himself into the game. Among other things he dunks over a tiger. I got to be outside for the scene where he is in a motion capture suit and knocks over a bunch of mannequins and so because I was already outside for that I wasn't in the group that got to work with the tiger. I was kinda bummed about that, but according to the others they hardly got to go near it, I did get to see it from inside out holding area and I snapped a picture.

I also was in some office scenes sitting at a desk while the leads were talking, then I was crowded around a window, I drove by Blake holding a sign in my car and I got to walk with another girl while Blake is shaving outside and chases us into the office building. So when that commercial comes out I should probably be pretty easy to spot!

Headshots!

2011-04-21T20:59:00.000-07:00

So I got my headshots done yesterday, I actually have a few hundred pictures LOL But these are the ones that we decided we liked best and went ahead and did some retouching on. The photographer is really nice and is a friend of a friend so I got a pretty good deal on them, I think they turned out pretty well. Ken helped me resize them so that I can add them on LA Casting, a website for actors to find roles, mostly smaller roles or larger roles in smaller productions but they have a lot of commercials and a lot of music videos so hopefully this works out well!

Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

2011-04-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

So, I have hardly been working at all lately and am starting to look for part time jobs. I know that it is summer hiatus for most TV shows so there is less work to go around, but still I think Cut Above should be finding more work than they are. I finally got booked on a commercial for today that paid much better than average. The call time was early in the morning so I packed all my stuff the night before, made a lunch because lots of commercial sets don't feed you and got to bed early.

In the morning I forgot to bring my bag that had all my extra shirts in it, but I did remember the bag that had my extra shoes, scarf, hat and changes of pants. I realized my mistake as soon as I got there (I was there 35 minutes early) and offered to drive home and get the stuff, the assistant director said not to worry about it. But the wardrobe lady flipped out at me about it, and told me off when we were showing her our options. She then made me change into a pair of mesh shorts and a tank top (pretty much everybody else was in jeans and hoodies, which I was wearing when I showed up). While I was changing she was very loudly complaining about me to the other wardrobe people.

The shoot itself was really quick and we were done in just under 3 hours, even though we were getting paid $150 so it was kinda OK overall. But when I got home I received an e-mail saying that the casting directory had gotten two phone calls from production and one from wardrobe because I didn't bring extra changes of clothes. That really made me mad because that wardrobe lady must have complained so much that other people called about it and then she still called about it herself, what a bitch.

Pretty Little Liars

2011-04-10T22:18:00.000-07:00

So my call in service allows us to call and have them submit us for jobs that Central Casting is working on, which is great because it saves the trouble of having to call their line a million times to try and get through. It also is good because it lets you have a bit more control over what projects that you work on. Using that system I was able to get to work on one of my current favorite shows, Pretty Little Liars.

The bonus of this was that it films on the Warner Brothers lot, which I had yet to get on. I was really excited about this, because I was a huge WB fan back that what was a network and Warner also produces some of my all time favorite TV/Movies like Batman (movies and cartoons) and of course the Animaniacs, who famously lived in that tower!

The shoot itself wasn't the greatest because it was a night shoot, so that is always cold and we didn't work long enough to get overtime but oh well. I got to have a little part in a show I love! Also, it is filmed on the same sets as Gilmore Girls which I used to watch all the time with Chrissy in college, kinda funny how they use the same little fake small town over again. I eventually got done about 2:30 in the morning, so I went home and went to bed and then slept in about half the day.

Tonight was our weekly house dinner, Suzanne made fried rice, which I helped to season...but I might have to take some time and teach her my signature recipe for it, cause not to brag but she ain't got nothin on me LOL

Late Night Brunch

2011-04-08T18:11:00.000-07:00

So last night I was talking with my roommate Wendy and we decided it would be really fun to have brunch for dinner. Brunch for dinner is a lot like breakfast for dinner, but with mimosas. So she and I walked down to the store (I love that I can walk to the grocery store) and picked up some stuff to make a nice brunch for dinner.

I made an egg bake that had eggs, zucchini, asparagus and onion, she made a fruit salad and Paige cooked up some bacon and sausage. We also got a few bottles of champaign and orange juice and just had a great night with the roommates all talking, laughing, eating and drinking.

Synchronicity Salon

2011-04-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was the salon at Synchronicity LA, one of our sister houses on the boulevard. They host a monthly salon where people from the neighborhood and friends get together to share their new music, poetry and video productions. It was a really cool, laid back vibe and a lot of fun. They had a little cookout first and then everybody gathered in the garage, which does have it's own studio for the show. I ended up buying a pair of earing for my mom from a guy Mo who hand makes jewelry.

After the saloon it sort of just turned into a nice little laid back party. I am really liking that there are so many interesting and fun people in our community. It feels much more like home that Performer's House did. I like Performer's House, but I always felt a little bit like I was staying at somebody's place, like I was a guest in my own home. Here I feel a lot more welcome.

Moving into the ship!

2011-04-03T12:12:00.000-07:00

So Tyler (pictured above) and I moved into HMS Possibility, in "the historic Adams neighborhood of LA near Koreatown" aka almost in South LA but still a few miles from the hood. The move was really easy as I had just moved across country in January and he just moved into Performer's House in February so neither of us had a ton of stuff. We moved on the 30th because I was a bit nervous about whether or not we actually HAD to be out of the place in Santa Clarita before the 1st or not.

I am getting to know the roommates, it is definitely an adjustment but I think it will be for the better. Fletcher runs the house, the lease is all in his name and we are subleasers under him, he is pretty funny, a bit older but friendly and interesting. Xander who is a voice-over actor, Wendy who currently is between jobs, Paige who works as a personal assistant and Suzanne who is a consultant for people opening personal training businesses. There is also Marvin who is a bit older, and seems fine but the other roommates don't seem to fond of him, but he is moving out anyways.

Tyler and I ended up going back to Performer's House yesterday to assist with the estate sale that was going on there. It was nice to get to see JoBeth again, I am for sure going to miss her. There wasn't too many customers when we were there, but JoBeth said they got a lot of people earlier in the day and did ended up making some pretty good money off the sale. Hopefully between the fundraiser and the sale Christy and Performer's House's future are both secure.

Glee!!!

2011-03-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

so I worked on Glee! today and I was really excited about it because I love that show. It was for one of the musical numbers which means LONG hours, but luckily I was booked through my call in service so I knew a few others on set and that makes the time pass quicker. But still, all that singing and dancing takes A LOT of takes, it is so thrilling and fun the first few times and then comes the acting challenge of maintaining you good cheer and happy face as long as they need you too. I actually even volunteered to stay a bit later than some, because I'd rather make some extra over-time than sit in rush hour traffic in LA

I had to push a stroller around all day and just couldn't get over of fascinated people were by it. Other extra, random people who happened to be at our location even a certain mohawked cast member were interested in it LOL. No idea why, it was just a stroller with a doll in it haha

Street Art, Umami and Meredith

2011-03-26T17:50:00.000-07:00

Nathanial won a radio contest and scored some concert tickets so he decided to extend his stay a bit longer, but Nick and Geneva still went home as planned. The other day when we were on the way to LACMA he had wanted to take pictures of some of the street art we saw along the way. So today he and I decided to drive around so he could get pictures of some of the more interesting pieces. I really liked the piece above which I think is a Banksy but Nathanial assures me it is not (it still could be).

One of the other reasons for our get together was because I had been wanting to check out Umami Burger ever since I read about it when GQ picked it for Burger of the Year 2010. Umami the the supposed 5th taste, along with sour, sweet, salty and bitter. It is supposed to be the savory or meaty taste and it is widely accepted in the Eastern hemisphere but still debated here int he western hemisphere. They make several different types of burgers but I had to try the umami burger because come on that's what we were there for. We also had some sweet potato fries with umami ketchup. The burger was really good, for sure a lot better than In N Out haha but of course this is a sit down place, not fast food. The umami ketchup was actually kinda gross on the fries but worked better with the burger.

Sitting just two tables away from us was Kate Flannery, who plays Meredith on The Office. This was my first legit celebrity sitting in the wild, so that was fun. Sadly she didn't appear to be the chugging vodka from the bottle type in real life. We actually bumped into her again afterwards when we went into some little camp/kitsch/toy shop near by.

Untitled Medical Drama

2011-03-24T18:06:00.000-07:00

So I am still doing my background work, I am just not posting about all of it as much because, well since we can't take pictures on set or post anything about the plots of them there isn't a whole lot left to say. But when something interesting or funny happens I will be sure to share it.

I did work a VERY long day on a CBS pilot staring Christine Lahti, whom I really like especially from the little seen show Jack and Bobby. So far it was my longest day to date and we filmed in a real hospital that had real people in it. OK most of what we filmed was in like the ear clinic so we weren't interrupting any medical emergencies, but I did have one person come up to me thinking I worked there, I felt kinda bad then being dressed like a Dr. in a hospital. About the funniest thing of all was the sign above that was posted in our holding area, I don't think it was meant for us, most likely for maintenance workers in the hospital or something, but I got a kick out of it anyways.

HMS Possibility ...THE SHIP

2011-03-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

So I had looked at several different housing options and there were a few apartments that I really liked. One in Eagle Rock that had really friendly people living in it and then a really funky cool place up on a hill in Echo Park (I really wanted it because you could see the Hollywood sign from the balcony). But then I remembered that money is still kinda tight out here so Tyler and I started looking for places to live together to save money. He first found Synchronicity LA but he thought it was a bit too hectic there, and then was referred onto an affiliated house HMS Possibility just a few houses down the street.

HMS Possibility is an intentional community house, which I think is just modern speak for commune LOL. It is really geared toward people who don't just want to rent a space with some random people but want to live in a community or ad hoc family setting. The house has regular family style dinners, shares the chores equally and gets involved with the larger neighborhood community. I also really like that the house itself has the same feel to it as the old frat houses around Hamline like The Black Hole/The Blue Marlin that I lived in. We have a fenced in yard, parking in the back and porches and balconies as well as living room and dinning room. It is a lot more space and a much more laid back vibe than Performers House.

LACMA

2011-03-21T16:10:00.000-07:00

I went to LACMA (LA County Museum of Art) along with Patrick and Nick, Nathanial and Geneva who are all still in town. It was really cool, the complex is HUGE. I got to see that awesome metal balloon dog sculpture that I had wanted to see since I saw it in a GQ special on some of the best art museums around the country. We went into the modern building as well as one of the historical buildings, then we walked through a fashion retrospective and finally saw the Japanese building (personally I found the architecture more interesting than the art there). It was a really fun day trip to go on. Some of the cooler exhibits we saw were an Andy Warhol one, a Picasso one and Monet.

Before we went we stopped by In 'N Out burger which was my second time having it and overall my reaction to the place is "meh". I just don't get the big deal about it really. Their burgers are good by fast-food standards, but their fries are absolutely terrible and the line always takes forever.

After LACMA we checked out the Le Brea tar pits, which are conveniently located right outside the museum LOL. I had always wanted to see them because I'd heard about them so much over the years, but when you actually get there you sort of realize it is just a tar pit so not super interesting, but I did get a cool looking picture of it.

St. Paddy's Day!!!

2011-03-18T18:14:00.000-07:00

St. Patrick's Day was a blast!!! My good friend Nathanial was in town along with his girlfriend Geneva and our friend Nick. It was really nice to get to hang out with some Minneapolis people here in LA. Nathanial, et al were staying with Ken and Patrick, so I went to meet up with them because Patrick was playing a show with his band, Slugger O'Toole. As it turns out the band was playing at several shows, they are an Irish band and it was St. Patrick's Day after all. So we ended up going to multiple shows of their's around LA.

The first show was at Tam O'Shanter near Los Feliz are then we we went to Molly Malone's near Beverly Hills and then to O'Brien's in Santa Monica. We did have a scary little run in with a sobriety check point. Ken was driving my car and was our designated driver so we weren't too worried, but still it was a bit of an ordeal and a pain the butt. We all had to get out of the car and they did a little test with him, which obviously he passed so that was good.

Then we all went back home and pretty much watched some Arrested Development and crashed out.

Performer's House Showcase

2011-03-07T17:32:00.000-08:00

Last night was the Performers House showcase, to try and raise some money to hopefully find a new house for us. I'm not too confident about it at this point so I am for sure starting to look for new places to live, but for the time being I'm still there and trying to help out.

We had a spaghetti dinner and raffled off great prize packages, like the one above that contained among other things a video game version of Beastly. LOL I don't really get how that is a game either, but there actually were lots of good stuff in the packages like movie memorabilia and stuff like that.

I was in charge of organizing things, which was pretty difficult but not too bad. Others performed music, monologues and even a comedy routine. We also had a dessert auction, which I thought wasn't the best idea but it turned out to be the biggest money maker. So it looks like there won't be a Performer's House next month, but they may try and start up a new one and hopefully it won't be way out in the suburbs anymore.

Compeed Commercial

2011-03-05T17:21:00.000-08:00

So last night I was working on a Compeed commercial, I wasn't familiar with what that was so after googling it I only found info on cold sore medications. But as it turns out it was for blister relief foot pads and the ad stars Caroline Wozniacki! I have always been a big tennis fan (I can't hate all sports, just most of them) and so it was really exciting to get to watch one of the top ranked players, even if it was basically just like a practice for her LOL. I was one of the people in the stands and as you can see from the picture above I had some excellent co-stars in the nosebleed section. Not gunna lie, those dummies were a bit creepy at night.

I found the commercial on youtube too!

The Event

2011-03-03T16:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I worked on The Event playing a nurse for a few scenes. We filmed at an old hospital that is only just used for filming now. Since it was a drama series that usually mean you'll working longer hours, which is great because you get more over-time pay that way. The other good thing about this set was that they had really good food. Definitely one of the perks of being an extra is that you usually get to eat pretty well. I've never seen the event but I know a few people that like it, so maybe I'll try and catch the episode I was on...we'll see.

My big TV review and the girl who would be Queen

2011-02-24T14:45:00.000-08:00

Tonight my episode of The Middle, Heck's on a Plane aired and I was able to grab a nifty screenshot of myself LOL

Yesterday I did another Lifetime Original Movie, William and Kate, about Prince William and Kate Middleton's romance. We filmed at the UCLA campus where I hadn't been before. In the morning I played a jogger and got to jog right alongside Camilla Luddington who is playing Kate Middleton in the movie. I did get to chat with her briefly and she was incredibly nice and I think has a really strong resemblance to Kate so I hope she does great in the movie! In the afternoon I was just a student in a library/study room, but in one scene they had Prince William bump into me so hopefully between that and the jogging I should be able to spot myself on TV again!!!

$0.99 and under stores rock!!!

2011-02-21T21:46:00.000-08:00

So back in Minnesota the Dollar Stores really kinda suck, it is nothing but really stupid party favors, cheap plastic toys and off brand soda. But here in LA the $0.99 and Under stores are really sweet. I made a run today and was able to get cleaning products like off brand Fabreeze, Daily Shower Cleaner and then got some chips and they even had single serving bottles of wine! They had Crane Lake which has a special place in my heart because that is what they always had at Gangchen back in the Steven's Square/Loring park hood. So of course I got some of that and then went home to drink my cheap wine at watch Cougar Town online.

First real movie set!!!

2011-02-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

Well today I worked my first day on a real movie set, for J. Edgar. It was actually a pretty long day, but not too difficult, and was certainly a wonderful thing to have gotten to be a part of. I got there at 12:00 and then I really quickly went through hair and make-up (I can't help being beautiful). And then I just waited around in holding reading magazines for a few hours in my fancy 3 piece suit. It took so long because they have to make sure EVERYBODY looks camera ready and in period clothing, hair and make-up that can take a really long time. Then we broke for lunch and of course it started raining and lunch was outside but there were tents and trailers to eat in.

After lunch we went right onto set and pretty much stayed there for the whole day. It was really cool to get to watch Clint Eastwood directing. What is really different though is that this was a "quiet set" meaning they don't all shout out "Background!" "Action!" "Cut!" and things like that. We all had to be quiet the entire time and it was really hard, but again it was awesome to see somebody like Leonardo DiCaprio acting in person. I don't know if I'll be able to spot myself in the movie because I was sort of in the back but oh well. We finally got let go about 11:30 PM and then I had to drive home in the rain. So I treated myself to a drink at the bar down the street before calling it a night and heading to bed.

Lifetimes they are a changing

2011-02-14T14:27:00.000-08:00

So today I had a pretty short day on a Lifetime Original movie, Carnal Innocence based on a novel by Nora Roberts. It was a 4th of July party scene and we all just sort of hung out at a town square BBQ. It was kind of an odd day because we spent the entire time on set, there was really no time to go to holding at all. But I did met several nice people, a few from my booking service so that is good because I will likely get to see them again in the future. We didn't get any meals, and we were never at the craft service area but since it was a BBQ scene they had real hot-dogs and burgers cooking and chips and coleslaw and such. They even had a bar setup that was serving "drinks" that were mostly cranberry or apple juice. It was kinda fun and we had really good weather.

When I got home I did get some sad news though that the landlord who Performers House has been renting from is not renewing our lease and we have to be out by April 1st. So far they are planning a fund raiser to try and find a new space or possibly even buy a house. The fundraiser will be on March 6th.

Amish in Cleveland

2011-02-11T23:29:00.000-08:00

Today was my first time working as an extra on a series that has a live audience, I was an Amish guy for a scene on Hot in Cleveland. It was a bit different than usual because first you go through and do the scenes in rehearsals a few times and then we had a long break while the cast rehearsed their other scenes. Then we came back and did it again in front of the live audience and went through each scene about twice and then we were done for the day, pretty simple.

Working Hot in Cleveland was a lot of fun though, the cast seemed really nice and friendly. I didn't have conversations with any of them, but they all said hello and smiled and had just great energy to work around. At one point Valerie Bertinelli actually held the door open for about a dozen of us and Wendy Malick joked about my hair when I passed by after having my bangs curled forward.

The other funny thing was that one of the extras being Amish just didn't look the part at all. Most of us were pale and had lighter hair, but one guy was just very LA looking with a tan and pompadour, I just thought it was odd right away that he would have been picked for this show. Well we soon found out that he wasn't a regular extra but actually an Entertainment Weekly reporter doing a story on what it is like to be an extra on Hot in Cleveland. Since he ended up sitting by me for a scene me and the other guy talked with him quite a bit about some of our experiences being an extra, just to make sure he got the whole picture LOL

opportunities lost opportunities found

2011-02-10T21:26:00.000-08:00

Well today started off really badly. I was actually double booked, which is a big no-no. I really didn't mean to it was just a timing thing where I booked myself a fitting for Hot in Cleveland and as soon as I got it I had already been booked through my booking service. However, the timing of it was pretty likely to work out because my booking service just booked me on audience work in the morning and my fitting was in the afternoon. Audience work is when you sit in the audience while they tape a show, some shows like Conan or Tosh.0 just give away tickets, others don't have enough people to fill the audience so they pay background actors to do it.

I set my alarm last night and gave myself plenty of time to get there according to the estimated time google said it would take. It said it would take 45 minutes to get there, and you always want to be a bit early so I left an hour and a half before I was supposed to be there. Unfortunately when I checked in the morning google was now saying it takes and hour and 15 minutes, and once I got the the general area I was lost as to how to actually find the correct gate at the studio to enter. So I missed my time by just a few minutes, but I did get marked down as having shown up just my spot was given away.

So then I didn't have anything to do, so I went over to West Hollywood and just did some window shopping, went to a little cafe for lunch and then stopped in at Gold Coast Bar for a happy hour drink. Then I went to my fitting for Hot in Cleveland, the show that has Betty White, Wendy Malick (Nina from Just Shoot Me), Jane Leeves (Daphne from Fraiser) and Valerie Bertinelli (from...um...LIfetime movies and marrying Van Halen?). It was on the CBS Radford lot this was my first time on one of the BIG studio lots, it was a bit confusing to find your way around but not too hard, the security guards were nice and they gave me a map to find my way. I will be playing an Amish guy so they just needed the fitting to make sure all the costumes fit right, it was REALLY fast I was in and out in about 15 minutes. I work on that tomorrow so hopefully it should be fun!

Nice easy day

2011-02-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

Well I got booked to work today on NCIS, which is really great because it works just a few miles away from where I'm living. I was just playing a pedestrian and it ended up being a really short and sweet day. I showed up (after my 7 min drive) and we had breakfast and then boarded some vans to a park. I have no idea what this scene was about because we were just walking around the park for about two hours and then we got to go home. Kinda nice to get paid for 8 hours when you only actually work for a few.

Play and a haircut...two bits

2011-02-05T21:20:00.000-08:00

I got my first job through Cut Above, working background on the movie J. Edgar as an "on-looker". This is really exciting because the movie is directed by Clint Eastwood and stars Leonardo Dicaprio, Judi Dench, Naomi Watts and Chuck Bass himself, Ed Westwick. This is also my first job that I have a fitting for, which was yesterday evening. A fitting is where you have to go try on costumes before the filming date. It actually kinda sucks because if you have a fitting booked you sort of have to give up your whole day but you only get paid for 2 hours (unless the fitting takes longer than that). For this particular movie because it is set in the 1930's they wanted everybody to have period appropriate hair so they cut my hair at the fitting. Not a huge fan of it, but I think with some product I should be able to make it look good. And on the bright side it is better to get paid $10 to get your hair cut than paying somebody to do it for you...what do you think?

After my fitting I went down to the Long Beach Playhouse to see Patrick in a play, called The Lieutenant of Inishmore. It is a violent and bloody black comedy about the lieutenant of an IRA splinter group who is going to kill his way to the bottom of a mystery of who killed his beloved pet cat Wee Thomas. Patrick played the lead, the show started off a bit slow but it built towards a ridiculous, funny and gory ending. Here's a pick of Patrick and his girlfriend Deidre after the show so you can get an idea of just how gory things got.

After the play we went back to Ken and Patrick's and had a few Big Gingers. A Big Ginger is a Jamison & ginger ale with lemon and lime, it is the signature drink of The Local in Minneapolis so it was nice to have a little taste of back home.

Cut Above Casting

2011-01-29T22:46:00.000-08:00

So after talking to a few people I decided to sign up with Cut Above Casting for my booking service. They are a bit more exclusive than some of the others and offered a good discount for paying for 6 months of service at a time. I know one of the classic tips you hear from people like Tyra Banks is that if an agency is charging you they are no good, but that is one of the differences between a booking service an an agent. A booking service is a service you pay to be listed with so that you can get jobs booked through them and save yourself the trouble and the hassle of having to go do it yourself. Cut Above submits all of their people for all the jobs they fit for and then the casting directors are the ones who make the final decision on whether or not you are booked. The casting directors use booking services to fill the spots they have for extras, they send the list of what they are looking for and then book the people they want for the job. I went to my orientation earlier this week which was pretty simple, signed some paper work, payed dues and got our pictures taken for the website. So fingers crossed that this works out and I end up booking lots of jobs!!!

Tonight was the annual Cut Above party so I brought Dean along with and we went to the home office of Lisa who runs Cut Above. It was a pretty fun party, but since I hadn't actually worked any jobs yet we didn't really know anybody. But we had a few drinks and some food and it was a fun little time. Everybody seemed really nice so it is nice to know that I will be getting booked on the same jobs as them.

Jen's Birthday Luau

2011-01-28T22:35:00.000-08:00

My good friends Ken and Patrick hosted the birthday party luau for Ken's girlfriend Jen at their place in Atwater Village, near Silver lake. The party was most definitely a great night, and very Hawaiian. I brought Dean along with and upon arriving we made name tags for our Hawaiian names, mine was Anakalwe. They really went all out with people dressed up, like the lovely Jen herself pictured above. There were Hawaiian foods like grilled spam and pineapple kabobs, Hawaiian sweet bread, chips and mango salsa and tropical drinks. They even had a few friends do some fire twirling which was awesome.

After watching the fire twirling we all started to get loosened up and had a limbo contest. I cam in second, which considering the fact that I am six feet tall I thought was rather impressive. I met a lot of nice people and got to spend time with some others I'd met once or twice before. As the night went on we got a bit wild and started smashing coconuts and using the shells as shot glasses. I really loved getting to hang out with some of my best Minneapolis friends and got to make some new LA friends too.

Kickin it in Santa Clarita

2011-01-23T15:10:00.000-08:00

I don't have any work scheduled for the next few days, but I did decide on a call in service so I will be doing an orientation with them this week, more on that when I have some more details. I have been enjoying the heck out of the weather though. I've been reading by the pool and working on my tan a lot, which has been really nice considering it is January and I know all my friends and family are freezing. But it does get a bit boring when you go a few days in a row without work, but being way up in Santa Clarita it is kind of hard to enjoy all LA has to offer unless I wanna make the 25 mile drive to the city, which doesn't really seem worth it unless I have a real good reason to. So I've just been kicking it with the roommates, including Niagia the snake:

I did go out with Dean last night, we went to Don Coucos the Mexican place across the street and after a few margaritas I ordered a beer and it came in a giant goblet that was really fun to drink out of but kind of heavy. We did get up and decided to sing some karaoke, mainly because Dean has been trying to date Meredith the girl who runs the karaoke nights there LOL We sang Semi-Charmed Life, which anybody who has known my for very long can attest that I have an affinity for. I also sang Bobby McGee, another personal favorite. I am sort of bummed that Dean is for sure moving out in a few days, I know he mentioned that he was but I didn't know that he had found a place yet. Pete is also moving out, but he was almost never here anyways so that doesn't really matter too much, kinda strange how many people have gone so soon though.

Background day to day

2011-01-20T17:48:00.000-08:00

So I did spend the last three days working on The Middle and now I think I have a pretty good feel for what this background stuff is like as a day to day job. It is pretty simple and fun, I really like everything about it except for the getting up early in the morning. And even that wasn't too bad because Monday we had to be in at 6:30 but Tuesday we only had to be in at 8:30 and yesterday it was 10:30 so it kind of staggered me back to a more normal time.

When we weren't on set I spent a lot of time talking to other extras and tried to get a feel for the best way to find work. We pretty much figured out that those of us who got called by Central had all recently signed up, as I said before you usually have to do the ground work to get jobs through Central. And I tried again to day, it is REALLY had to get through and then disheartening when you do get through and they are full or don't want you for the job. After talking to some of the extras who seemed to know what they were talking about it seems like a booking service, or call in service is the way to go. It is a service that you pay to do the work for you of booking jobs as an extra. Instead of calling around to try and book jobs you just tell the service the days that you are available for work and they try to get you booked then.

So it was good that I learned a few tips, but mostly we just were chatting and goofing off and eating all day. It certainly beats spending countless hours every week getting bitched at by people who don't want to play their student loans.

First day as an extra

2011-01-17T16:19:00.000-08:00

Well I got a call from Central Casting to work a few days doing background work on The Middle, an ABC sitcom staring Patricia Heaton. The episode takes place mostly on an airplane and I will be one of the passengers on the plane. It was really nice to get called, because dealing with the call in lines can be difficult and sort of annoying. Plus it is handy that it is 3 days in a row at the same place, I might also end up working on Friday as well at another location.

Once you get a job booked you get an "info call box number" that you call the night before to get your details. That tells you what to wear, where to go and what time to be there. You always have to be about 1/2 an hour early be sure to bring several options of what you will be wearing so that if the wardrobe people don't like your outfit for any reason you can change into something else.

I had to be there at 6:00 AM which meant I had to get up at 4:30 so I could leave the house by 5:00 and get there by 5:30. We were to arrive at a Home Depot for parking and then get on a shuttle to the set (which was only about 2 blocks away). When you arrive on set you must find the background "wrangler" who checks you in and gives you your voucher for the day. The voucher is basically the paperwork you need to work and get paid, it keeps track of what your call time is and when you take meal breaks and leave for the day. The wrangler has to sign off on it at the end of the night and you get one of the carbon copies of it and they take the others to give to payroll. The basic rate for TV and movies for non-union extras is $64 for 8 hours, which means anything up to 8 hours you get paid $64. After 8 hours you get over time, the first two hours are $12 an hour and then it jumps up to $16 an hour.

After I got checked in I had breakfast, one of the best parts of the job is that they feed you pretty well, for extras there was a big buffet with eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, fruit...ect. Once I got my food I went to the "extras holding" area which was basically a big warehouse with tables and chairs where you wait when you're not on the actual set itself. Then we were told to go to wardrobe, and luckily they liked what I had on so I didn't have to get any clothes from them.

After we sat in holding about another half hour they brought us onto set for the first time. It was basically a big plane without the nose or tail inside of a warehouse. We were given seats and after that it was pretty simple, just sit there and look when they tell you to. We were taken on and off the plane throughout the day. After we were on the clock for just under six hours we got lunch, which was again buffet style set up in the holding area. It was pretty good, I had some chicken, some pasta, cesar salad, fruit and cookies and ice-cream for dessert.

After lunch was pretty much the same as before and we got done about 7:00 pm so it was a fairly long day. Tomorrow and Wednesday should be pretty similar to what today was like, so hopefully the hours aren't too bad and I make good money.

Carpinteria & Santa Barbara

2011-01-14T21:33:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been hanging out with Dean a lot, which is funny because he is the roommate that I hadn't really talked to at all my first week. But we've gone out to the Mexican place across the street together for dinner and margaritas and it has been nice to have somebody else who is chill in the house.

Dean's sister, Denise, and her boyfriend are in town from Belize of all places to visit. Dean invited me to go along with them for a day trip to Santa Barbara. So we drove out there and then went on a nice little hike along the coast and did some seal watching at Carpinteria Harbor Seal Preserve. It is too bad that I didn't have a better camera because it was really cool, but you can't get to close to them because that part of the beach is a wild life preserve. There was a volunteer there who let us borrower some high powered binoculars and get we got to get a really good look at them. Too bad in my picture it is hard to tell which are seals and which are just rocks.

After seal watching we continued along the trail and eventually made it too the little down town Carpinteria and had a lunch at a Thai place with a really cool patio.

After lunch we went down on the beach, which I found exciting because I had never actually seen the Pacific before. Plus there were people doing some crazy military style workout class on the beach which was amusing.

After our little beach walk we drove WAY up the mountains overlooking Santa Barbara to see some cave paintings. I was honestly terrified of this drive the road was really windy and narrow. But thankfully we did safely make it up to the Chumash Painted Cave, which was pretty disappointing to be honest. It was really just an entrance to a "cave" that was probably all 6' X 6' X 6' and had an iron gate covering it. Oh well I did manage to snap a picture of a painting that is about 400 years old.

I did also take some pictures on the way down the hill too, mostly to test out the panoramic setting on my cell phone, which actually worked out pretty well. After we drove back down the hill we walked around down town Santa Barbara and went out on the wharf and had a drink at one of the bars there before heading home.

Central Casting

2011-01-12T14:51:00.000-08:00

So I went down to register with Central Casting this morning, which wasn't too bad, but I was glad I prepared for it.

Central Casting is the largest casting agency and pretty much essential for anybody interested in doing background work, aka being an extra. For those who don't know background actors are the people in the background of TV and movies. For instance if the characters are students like in Glee! the background actors are all the other kids who walk up and down the halls of school, or sit the cafeteria or watch their concerts. Depending on how much work you get you can make being background your day job while you try and audition for actual parts in TV, movies or commercials. I found this article helpful in getting ready to go to registration.

My experience was pretty much what I expected from that article. It took about half an hour to get there from Newhall, I didn't really have any trouble finding parking I was only about two blocks away. I was half an hour early but when I got there I saw the tables were already full, which was too bad because the tip I'd read online and heard from Holly, my roommate, was to get there early enough to get a spot at the tables. Then somebody came out and talked to us about being a background actor, stressed the importance of being on time (aka early), being professional and expecting to have to work in a variety of places and conditions on either short day or long days. After that we got lined up (the people at the tables get to be in line first) and filled out our registration form, paid the $25 fee and had our picture taken. I went ahead and did a shirtless picture for my second pic, even though I'm not quite in the shape I'd like to be in yet.

But that was pretty much it, a relatively pain free process and now I am on of the roughly 40,000 people in their database who can try and get work as a background actor. They did give us a handout which explained that only about 5% of their jobs are jobs where they call people and ask them to do it, the other 95% of the time we have to call them to try and get work on the info line. Basically you call a phone number and listen to the possible upcoming jobs (most for the next day, occasionally up to a week in advance). After giving the details of the job and the description of what they are looking for you get the casting director's name and number and then you try and call that to get booked. I would say this process is akin to winning a radio station contest because I tried calling for three jobs my first day and didn't get through until about my hundredth time and by then they had all the people they needed. But I will just have to keep trying or get a real job. ;-)

Getting Settled

2011-01-08T15:09:00.000-08:00

So that is my bedroom, I am getting settled in pretty good here at Performers House. I do share a room with Adam who is just about my age and from South Carolina. He has lived here just over a year and is an aspiring comedian. I am really trying to get used to sharing a room, but other than freshman year of college it really isn't something I've done since I was 6 before Eric got his own room down stairs. The main problem is that Adam has a day job and has to get up at like 5:00 am. But on the plus side that does mean that he goes to be earlier, I always have a hard time falling asleep, so it is good that he is already in for the night before I go to bed.

My other roommates all seem pretty cool. But currently there are way too many of us in the house. There are 3 bedrooms and ideally they want there to be about 7 of us, 3 people in the biggest room and 2 in each of the smaller rooms but right now that isn't the case because some people that were going to move out at the first of the month now can't move until February.

Right now there is myself and Adam in our room. The room next door has Joe, an actor, who has lived her for about 3 years and Dean who honestly I haven't really spoken to more than introducing myself. The girls room has 4 girls right now. Holly, a bubbly blond actress who has been here a few months; Jo Beth, a goth actress who has lived her a few years and has a pet snake that also "acts"; Nicole, a sort of hippie type actress who works nights as a shot girl in nightclubs; finally there is Marie who is pretty down to earth and trying to make it as a screen writer.

All and all it feels a bit like living in one of those Real World or Jersey Shore houses, except cleaner and without rampant alcoholism...which is probably a good thing. Funny enough there actually is apparently talk of turning our house into a reality show, more on that should something develop.

Performers House

2011-01-04T16:08:00.000-08:00

After my trip out west I arrived at Performers House, not to sound overly hipster but it is a collective of actors, writers, musicians and others trying to make it in the entertainment industry. Performers House was created as a non-profit organization to serve as a talent incubator so that people just starting out can work together with those who are a bit more established to meet their goals. I actually found the house on Craig's List and it did seem a little too good to be true but I did some research and went out and visited it and everything seems to be on the up and up. When I was looking I also saw listings for a place called Hollywood Dorms and a simple check on Yelp made me decide against that really quick. But performers house seemed different, it was created to honor the memory of Katie Gillette a young actress who died of cystic fibrosis at 14. Her mother, Christy, is the director of Performers House and lives in it with us.

Living in the house our rent includes all utilities, including internet and direct tv (premium channels to boot) plus we get a gym membership and access to the development's pool house, which includes one of those jumbo hotel size hot tubs. We also get acting classes, classes usually run for about 6 weeks at a time and then off for about 6 weeks so it will be exciting for that to start up again.

The house itself is in Newhall, CA (Santa Clarita Valley) which is about 20-30 miles north of LA/Hollywood depending on what you consider to be the exact borders of LA (Personally I'm not clear on that yet as to where Hollywood actually ends and begins). The Location isn't the greatest because it is so far, but when you are working as an actor pretty much every day you will be working somewhere else so there never is one great place to live that will be easy to get to for work. CBS actually has a few studios that are only about 2 miles from my house, but most stuff will be a bit of a commute.

The Open Road part 3

2011-01-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

By the third day of driving I was getting more than a little tired of it, and honestly you start to get really sore after a while our bodies are not meant to spend that much time in one place. But the upside was this day had by far the best views of the trips, simply breath taking:

And so I drove on and entered into Arizona, which I remembered as being hot and dry from visiting my grandparents when they used to live in Phoenix. But as you can see it was not hot or dry.

I saw signs for a meteorite crater site and thought it sounded cool and was kind of in a need to do something other than drive. So I pulled of to go see Meteor Crater but as it turned out it was hella expensive, like $20 or something to go see a hole in the ground. Being alone and unemployed I decided I was already spending too much money getting out to California and decided to skip that mess. After the crater debacle everything became really terrifying. The mountains got bigger and bigger and the roads got more and more twisted.

By nightfall I was pretty much white-knuckling the steering wheel and just praying for my exit. Which I eventually found, I stayed at a motel in Kingman, AZ. The hotel was on a street called Andy Devine which I decided would make a good drag name if I ever decide to make that mistake. I went a few blocks down the road to some local bar and grill and ordered fish & chips...which turned out to be fish & chips & coleslaw & baked beans & Southwest Cesar salad & cheddar cheese biscuits...and it was pretty damn delicious even if I only ate about half of it.

The Open Road part 2

2011-01-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

So day two of driving brought me face to face with one of my life-long enemies: Texas. OK, so nothing really bad happened in Texas but it definitely had the worst roads of the entire journey. I am not kidding you there were dead animals freaking EVERYWHERE, like you'd pass at least one per mile they must just never clean that crap up. Also there are almost no gas stations anywhere. My actual plan was to never to even stop in Texas, but my gas tank said otherwise. I was really excited by a sign that boasted gas and a route 66 museum (actually about 80% of my trip was on I40 which replaced Route 66 so there were tons of sings of attractions everywhere). So I pulled off the road and found myself in some bizarre tiny town that had all one way streets and I passed the museum but didn't see the gas station yet and was freaking out about being stranded in Texas. So, I got back on the highway and finally saw one, on the other side of the divide, so I had to drive another few miles to get to an off ramp and backtrack. Suffice to say I was ready to get the hell out of Texas so I snapped one pick and aimed for the border:

Not to long after I saw a very welcomed sign ahead:

New Mexico brought with it MUCH MUCH nicer roads and prettier views, things started to finally look really Southwestern which was nice. It is too bad cellphone cameras don't have view because the pictures never really make mountains and such look anywhere near as impressive as they should.

As the day came to a close the mountains started getting bigger and things started to get snowy. Oddly this was really the first snow I had seen the entire trip, I didn't see any in Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma or Texas. It was a bit scary to drive on because I got to Albuquerque during rush hour and wasn't used to the area, the mountains or the traffic patterns there.

That night I went out to dinner at a little Mexican place, it was OK I was kind of expecting more actually being in the Southwest but what can you do. After dinner I went out for drinks at some gay bar down the road from my hotel. It wasn't really a bar so much as a giant room with some pillars and a stage that had couches on it, just an odd setup. It was amusing for a while, mainly because Albuquerque is very much behind the times. But without any of my BFFs around to mock the 2007 fashions with me it got boring so I went home and watched Percy Jackson and the Olympians on HBO.

The Open Road part 1

2011-01-01T09:29:00.000-08:00

So it did take about 4 days and 3 nights to get out to California from St. Louis, which is a heck of a lot of driving. But if I really wanted to push it I could have done it in 3 days and 2 nights but having a new (to me) car that didn't seem like as good an idea. Also, I really wanted to enjoy the trip and have some sort of Kerouac experience, which didn't happen mainly because I didn't drive drunk or pick up hitch hikers. Still I did see some cool scenery and did take quite a few pictures of it as I went.

The first day I drove from Illinois all the way through Missouri and on to Oklahoma. I spent New Years Eve in Oklahoma City, it was a bit lonely but not too bad. I went out to dinner and had a nice BBQ brisket sandwich and then went back to my hotel room and had a bottle of Andre and called my friends to say, "happy New Year"

This was probably the best view from the first day:

OK maybe it was this: