The Alchemist

Today was the day for my photo shoot! Wow was it hot, but we carried on anyway… and I’m glad we did! We got lots of great shots including shooting my cowboy shots as a storm blew in and rain started to pour down on us! You just can’t plan coolness like that! I’ll post some of the results up here later, but I think we’ve got some really cool photos to use!

Another extremely cool thing happened this afternoon! During the photo shoot my agent called and left a message saying that I booked a commercial. Yahoo! It’s been a rockin’ day!

Dave Ruark of Comedy Sportz fame (the teacher of my current acting class and all around great guy, by the way), told me last night at class that I look like Mark Hamill (prior to his unfortunate car crash). Me? Resemble Luke Skywalker? I’m not sure. What do you think?

“Hitting the High Notes” is one of the finest articles I’ve read by Joel Spolsky (a popular technology blogger). Well worth the read - even if you aren’t involved in creating software - as this knowledge and advice can be applied to any creative endeavor that has a mass audience. Here are a couple of gems:

The real trouble with using a lot of mediocre programmers instead of a couple of good ones is that no matter how long they work, they never produce something as good as what the great programmers can produce.

Five Antonio Salieris won’t produce Mozart’s Requiem. Ever. Not if they work for 100 years.

…

The mediocre talent just never hits the high notes that the top talent hits all the time. The number of divas who can hit the f6 in Mozart’s Queen of the Night is vanishingly small, and you just can’t perform The Queen of the Night without that famous f6.

Here’s my current top list of photo ideas for my comp card:

• Casual modern: colorful shirt, linen jacket, tan pants, tousled hair
• Nightclub singer: tuxedo, microphone, slick hair, spotlight background (B&W?)
• Country-western: jeans, tight t-shirt, boots, hat
• Surfer: linen v-neck shirt, full hair, barefoot
• Shirtless – artistic, emerging from shadows (B&W?)

Comments? Other ideas?

First step in preparing for my photos: A new haircut! So what do you think?

Know why I like reading Wil Wheaton’s blog? In between all the poker (when did it become a poker blog?), there are still some sweet little postings like this.

Every time I’m called for an audition by my agent, they ask me the same question: “So, do you have you Comp Cards yet?” Well, they’ve done their job and worn me down and I’m going to take the plunge.

“What are Comp Cards?”, you say. Well, it’s a photo card used in modeling (and, apparently, commercial acting) that measures 8 1/2 x 5 1/2, has a single head-shot on one side and a photo montage (usually 4 photos) on the other. It also has printed somewhere on it the basic acting bio stuff (name, height, weight, etc.). These cards are displayed at the agent’s office and used as kind of a mini-portfolio for clients.

Obviously, a prerequisite to getting my Comp Cards done is having some photos taken. So, I’ve taken the first step scheduled a photo shoot with a friend (Jennifer Marshall) at her studio for a couple of weeks from now. (By the way, if you’re checking out the site, totally check out “family5″ here and “Child 9″ here. Cool, huh?)

Now comes the hard part: Photo ideas! I need ideas for pictures that will help me stand out as the guy that the marketers will want to hire! I need a good range of photos common to standard modeling or acting situations like: dad, athletic, casual, businessman, etc., but I’m looking for a little more creativity, too! So… if you read my blog, it’s time for feedback! Please offer any ideas you have for clothing, poses, hairstyle, situations, backgrounds… and anything else you can think of! No idea is too bizarre! Bring it on!

Thanks!

You know, I can deal with rejection. It just comes with the territory when you are acting. Most jobs you just plain aren’t going to get. But it really stinks that for commercial auditions you got no feedback! I mean Zero. Zippo. Nada. Basically, if you don’t get called because you got the part, you don’t get called. You never learn anything more than what they told you at or prior to (if you’re lucky enough to get prior information) the audition. Worse, you don’t even know if you didn’t get the part or are still casting it… unless you happen to know they’ve already shot the thing! Frustrating.

Then again, if that’s my greatest peeve right now… I suppose life is good.

I need a joke to tell for an upcoming audition. I’ve always liked this one. What do you think?

This guy goes up to a bar located at the top of the Empire State Building in New York. It looks like a nice place and he takes a seat at the bar.

“This is a nice place. I’ve never been here before,” he says to the guy next to him.

“Oh, really?” the other replies. “It is a nice place. It’s also a very special bar.”

“Why is that?” the first guy asks.

“Well, do you see that painting on the far wall? That’s an original Van Gogh, and this stool I’m sitting on was on the Titanic.”

“Gee, that’s amazing!” says the first guy.

“Not only that, but you see that window over there, fourth from the right? Well, the wind does strange things outside that window. If you jump out you’ll fall about 50 feet before the wind catches you and you’re pushed back up.”

“No way! That’s impossible,” the guy scoffs.

“Not at all. Take a look,” the other man replies, and with that the walks over to the window and opens it.

He climbs over the sill and falls out. He drops 10… 20… 30… 40… 50 feet, comes to a stop, and whoosh! He comes right back up and sails back through the window.

“See? It’s fun. You should try it,” he says.

“Try it?! I don’t even believe I saw it!” the first man shouts.

“It’s easy. Watch, I’ll do it again.” And with that, he falls out the window again. He drops 10… 20… 30… 40… 50 feet, comes to a stop, and whoosh! He comes right back up and sails back through the window.

“Give it a try. It’s a blast,” he says.

“Well what the heck, I’ll give it a try,” the first man says, and proceeds to fall out the window. He falls 10… 20… 30… 40… 50… 60… 70… 80… 90… 100 feet until Bam! He eventually hits the sidewalk below.

After watching this, the second guy casually closes the window, heads back to the bar, and orders a drink. The bartender arrives with the drink and says, “You know, Superman, you’re a real jerk when you’re drunk.”

Tom Cruise Kills Oprah. The force is strong with this one…