the new place...


I was talking to Zak a little while ago about twitter and he quipped, “This is pretty much the end of personal websites, huh?” and I pretty much agreed with him. I mean, I still find having a personal website very useful, especially for my acting work, but as far as sharing what’s going and voicing opinions and all that, twitter’s proven to be a really great tool.

That being said, I still should be doing a better job of keeping this page updated! As usual, life has been on overdrive, the most obvious result of this hyperactivity being that Whitney and I have finally moved to a new place. Honestly, I think a lot of people were getting tired of hearing us talk about hoping to move--we have been complaining about the hunt for probably eight or so months! But we loved our old place and had no reason to make any real major compromises when it came to what we wanted out of a new home...and then this place comes along, not a block and a half away, and, well, we basically had to take it. We’re still renting, which, honestly, is fine for me right now, owning sounds like a pain in the ass and I doubt we can afford anything resembling the place we are renting now.


The living room...slowly getting into shape

So, things are good. Work is super challenging right now, as I immerse myself into a totally new paradigm for our products (it’s a pain but it’s a good thing), and my Norton Table character made an appearance at our global sales and marketing conference in Las Vegas. It was a lot of fun, I got up on stage and basically introduced the senior staff in the consumer business, making jokes about each of them as I went down the list. What was crazy is how little I could actually prepare for the piece! I had a few notes about each person, but really, as I was standing backstage, I really didn’t have that much to go on, I was really relying on thoughts coming to me once I got in front of people. It was crazy--like, it goes against everything I’ve learned regarding rehearsal and preparation, but I have been doing these interview shows so often that I realize that once I hop into character, thoughts, reactions and jokes actually come to mind much more quickly than if I try to anticipate and plan everything out. I am a bit nervous--I certainly can’t depend on things coming to mind, but it was nice that everything clicked that one time.

The acting front has been irritatingly slow. I had a great pilot audition a few months ago, but nothing came from it, which doesn’t really matter because I don’t think the show is going to be picked up anyway. I have jumped back into acting class with Brian Reise, which has been great, and have been attending quite a few workshops with casting directors at ITA. Basically, I am trying to shake things up a bit, because whatever I have been doing for the past year or so just has not been working.

I’ve gleaned a few things from some of the workshops that I wanted to get down on “paper”. If you are an actor, you might find these tips useful. If not, you may find them interesting and useful in terms of keeping things in focus when interacting with folks.

• When auditioning, focus on the person you are interacting with. Like, really, it sounds so obvious, but it can be really hard to focus when you are in a room with a lot of people watching you, not to mention dealing with the camera, the monitor, etc. If you are being filmed, what is important is not entertaining the folks in the room, but making sure that you nail the performance as seen by the camera. The best way to do this, it seems, is to focus, intensely, on the person you are reading with, really listening, really engaging with them--this focus will be picked up by the camera and be seen by the producers. This was a big change for me--I usually entertain the room, you know? By grounding myself with the other person, it helps keep the scene moving from an honest place.
• If your character is asking a question, realize that this question is often the key to the character and, probably, the scene. Figure out why the character is asking it, understand the implications of the answer to that question--whether or not you get an actual answer. When the character is asking a question, the character is admitting a need--the character wants that answer, he has an intention to get that information. Like it or not, that old saw about needing an intention for your scene still holds up and, if committed to, will give the scene a strong foundation. I was trained to ask, “What do I want?” at the beginning of every scene (some teachers suggest asking that for every line) and I think I stopped doing that at some point. The scene is there for a reason--TV and film are so expensive that it would be cut unless it was absolutely necessary--that reason is the key to expressing that character as best as you can.
• When you are auditioning for a part, for those 3-4 minutes, that part is yours. No one else has it--you have booked it for that period of time Don’t think of the audition as a try out--it’s the job, it’s the actual opportunity to do the piece. I had some teachers insist we drop the word “audition” and replace it with the word “job.” This can be a useful tactic, not only because it helps you focus on the piece more, but it takes out the “this is just my best try at the part” factor. The audition, the interview, is you--it’s you doing the part, it’s you on the set, it’s you during lunch, it’s you working with the director, it’s you being hired.

From the Hotel Laguna, in Laguna Beach

Much coming in the next few weeks. I will be up in San Francisco for the Apple Developer Conference, I’ve got a wedding coming up, Ravi’s planning a big birthday, and, of course SDCC is coming up in July. My weekly article at iFanboy is back on Wednesdays, and I am working on at least two murmur articles as well. I’ve also submitted three treatments to a producer...we’ll just have to keep pressing on.


PS - My friend Matt Ferrucci has just started his new webseries, Real Men Real Issues, and he’s doing a great job adding new content to the show on a regular basis, unlike this website. Check it out and see what you think.

Tags: life, acting, auditions