Meh...
So it's been a week since I've posted a blog, and I'm saddened to report NOTHING interesting has happened. I'm in a lull. I hate that. I've got goals and aspirations I need to attain, damn it! I just feel so unenthusiastic lately. I need to pick up a bartending job a few nights a week, I think. Doing background work sucks the soul out of me. Don't get me wrong. I love hanging with my friends and all that, but it's getting me nowhere. I can't stomach being just one of the crowd in this business, and bartending will put me back in the swing of things. I've been a bit too introverted the past couple years, and it's just not me.
I tried getting in touch with an old friend from about 8 years ago, to no avail. I'm disappointed about that. Chris was the first friend I ever made in the entertainment business. When I knew him, he was breaking into stand-up comedy. We'd go to open mic night at The Stress Factory in New Brunswick on Wednesday nights. What a blast we'd have! Then afterwards we'd head over a few blocks down to this bar/tavern type place where they had 10 cent wings. OHHHHH BABY!! Fill your gut full of hot wings and a pint or two for about $10 including tip. Those were the days, I tell ya.
We met on the set of Conspiracy Theory back in 1998. Both of us being from New Jersey, we hit it off pretty well and he actually helped me out quite a bit in the beginning. He turned me on to an acting class taught by Joanna Beckson. She's taught and coached a few famous people and comes highly recommended. Her class changed my life, and, as soon as I can afford it, I'm going to get in touch with her about classes again. I'd done the first year Meisner technique and couldn't afford to go back, so I decided to move to Las Vegas and make a ton of money bartending, and then return to pursue my acting career.
Well, little did I know what hell and high water I'd need to go through just to be able to get a job out there. Between registering with the sheriff's department and the Health Department, and watching stupid assed high school type videos about the importance of washing your hands after you wipe your ass, I was $300 in the hole before I even got started. Not to mention that you have to be in the union to get a bartending job in a casino, and that there were already over 1100 union bartenders out of work before I even got there.
I probably should have looked into that before I left...
So with all that nonsense, the only job I could get was some data entry job that paid twice less than nothing. I couldn't pay the rent, so I decided I needed an education. I went to a computer technical school to scope it out, and found out the school I was interested in had a campus in my home town... *sigh*... so that was it.
"Fuck this!", I thought, "I'm going back home for an education!"
I headed back home to get an education. This also proved to be a bad decision. I settled my shit out there, and caught a plane home from Vegas roughly two weeks before September 11th, which completely fucked me up. I saw quite a few people I'd run into on a fairly regular basis who were now gone forever.
I slipped into a pretty bad depression. I still managed to graduate the computer tech school with a 4.0 gpa, because, depressed or not, I'm a smart motherfucker. Well the economy was well screwed by then with all the uncertainly, especially around here. The only jobs I could get were temporary, and even the nicest of offices were making me miserable. I was trying to get ahead in a business I never really wanted to be in, in the first place. All this bullshit to have something to fall back on when what I should have been doing was going for what I wanted and not giving myself the option to fail.
Well, the years went by and I recently came across Chris's business card in a desk drawer, and decided to look him up. Both numbers were answered by people who didn't know who he was. I can understand his "business" number, but his parent's home number was answered by strangers. I wonder what happened to him. It'd be a shame to lose touch forever. The last I spoke to him, he was planning on moving to Los Angeles with his brother and pursue his career in stand-up, and to get into writing. If only I could get in touch with his parents. I'm going to have to drive by his parents' house the next time I'm in the area, and check it out.
I tried getting in touch with an old friend from about 8 years ago, to no avail. I'm disappointed about that. Chris was the first friend I ever made in the entertainment business. When I knew him, he was breaking into stand-up comedy. We'd go to open mic night at The Stress Factory in New Brunswick on Wednesday nights. What a blast we'd have! Then afterwards we'd head over a few blocks down to this bar/tavern type place where they had 10 cent wings. OHHHHH BABY!! Fill your gut full of hot wings and a pint or two for about $10 including tip. Those were the days, I tell ya.
We met on the set of Conspiracy Theory back in 1998. Both of us being from New Jersey, we hit it off pretty well and he actually helped me out quite a bit in the beginning. He turned me on to an acting class taught by Joanna Beckson. She's taught and coached a few famous people and comes highly recommended. Her class changed my life, and, as soon as I can afford it, I'm going to get in touch with her about classes again. I'd done the first year Meisner technique and couldn't afford to go back, so I decided to move to Las Vegas and make a ton of money bartending, and then return to pursue my acting career.
Well, little did I know what hell and high water I'd need to go through just to be able to get a job out there. Between registering with the sheriff's department and the Health Department, and watching stupid assed high school type videos about the importance of washing your hands after you wipe your ass, I was $300 in the hole before I even got started. Not to mention that you have to be in the union to get a bartending job in a casino, and that there were already over 1100 union bartenders out of work before I even got there.
I probably should have looked into that before I left...
So with all that nonsense, the only job I could get was some data entry job that paid twice less than nothing. I couldn't pay the rent, so I decided I needed an education. I went to a computer technical school to scope it out, and found out the school I was interested in had a campus in my home town... *sigh*... so that was it.
"Fuck this!", I thought, "I'm going back home for an education!"
I headed back home to get an education. This also proved to be a bad decision. I settled my shit out there, and caught a plane home from Vegas roughly two weeks before September 11th, which completely fucked me up. I saw quite a few people I'd run into on a fairly regular basis who were now gone forever.
I slipped into a pretty bad depression. I still managed to graduate the computer tech school with a 4.0 gpa, because, depressed or not, I'm a smart motherfucker. Well the economy was well screwed by then with all the uncertainly, especially around here. The only jobs I could get were temporary, and even the nicest of offices were making me miserable. I was trying to get ahead in a business I never really wanted to be in, in the first place. All this bullshit to have something to fall back on when what I should have been doing was going for what I wanted and not giving myself the option to fail.
Well, the years went by and I recently came across Chris's business card in a desk drawer, and decided to look him up. Both numbers were answered by people who didn't know who he was. I can understand his "business" number, but his parent's home number was answered by strangers. I wonder what happened to him. It'd be a shame to lose touch forever. The last I spoke to him, he was planning on moving to Los Angeles with his brother and pursue his career in stand-up, and to get into writing. If only I could get in touch with his parents. I'm going to have to drive by his parents' house the next time I'm in the area, and check it out.
posted by Secret_Actor at 10/19/2006 06:39:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home