While I'm holding on to a razor-thin, "never say die" hope of getting a call about "Earl" today, I'm about 99.9% certain that ship has sailed; tv production typically moves too fast for there to be this much lag-time between a "producer session" and a decision.
Which means a decision has probably been made, and it didn't go my way.
Disappointing, to say the least - that would have been a nice credit, a fun day on the set, and I would have loved reporting my first booking since starting this blog (Not to mention I could really use the injection of cash right about now) - but life goes on.
I've said before that the best thing you can have happen when you don't book something is to have another audition right away.
I have another audition right away.
(Or pretty close to "right away" - this afternoon at 4:15, at Donna Rosenstein Casting in Burbank.)
It's an infomercial for The Book Of Inside Information (Apparently a tome on bargain-hunting), starring John Cleese.
The bad news?
It's an AFTRA contract, which sucks.
The worse news?
It's an AFTRA contract, which sucks, and I'm a "must-join", which sucks even harder - While AFTRA doesn't make you pony-up the whole membership fee when you have to join, like SAG, I think they basically garnish whatever wage you make under their contracts until you're paid-up.
(UPDATE: I just called my manager to ask about this - He told me that if I were to book the gig today, AFTRA would indeed want me to fill out a form letting them garnish my wages, to apply towards membership. But they can't make me fill it out - They'll just tack on a "late fee" if/when I'm deemed "late" in paying - so it's really no big deal.)
The great news in all this?
If I booked the gig, I'd be doing a bit with John Cleese.
And that would be cool.
(Interestingly, this is at least the third time I've gone in for a commercial starring John Cleese. I'm guessing that might be because he's so tall...but I'm going to tell myself it's because we're both so damned funny.)
Continuing my effort to see the new fall shows, I've recently watched Worst Week Ever, a half-hour comedy, and The Mentalist, a drama (Both on CBS).
As a potential viewer, I could imagine watching either show again (Particularly "Worst Week"), but don't feel compelled to based on what I saw.
As an actor, they didn't use a lot of people beyond the series regulars on "Worst Week", so that didn't look too promising. But "Mentalist" has the advantage of any "procedural" show - a big cast, with a lot of guest stars.
Though somehow, I don't think "Mentalist" is going to be around that long; this is Simon Baker's third crack at a series, so obviously the PTB like him, but I don't think there's enough going on here to distinguish this show from any other procedural (And I think it's going to suffer because Psych, on USA, got there first with the "guy-who's-so-perceptive-he-seems-psychic" premise, and plays it for laughs).
With "Worst Week", I wonder how they're going to sustain the premise (likeable-schlub-has-serious-bad-luck), but at least it's a relatively original premise (Except, of course, for being an American knock-off of a British series).
I was going to write about my finances vis-a-vis acting, but am realizing that going into it now would make this entry longer than I want it to be (In part, because I want to make time for a nap, if possible, between now and my audition this afternoon), so I think I'm going to save that scintillating topic for my next entry.
2 comments:
Too bad about the "Earl" auditon. You are so perfect for that show.
I have a different view of "Worst Week" than you did. I don't think it's original at all. As a matter of fact, the scene where he's telling her brother his Dad is dead? That's an almost line for line rip-off of a scene from Roseanne that Laurie Metcalf did and she was much, much funnier.
And I don't think I would ever mistake a huge kitchen for a powder room - dark or not.
(Yes, I am over analyzing the sitcom.)
Yeah, and the ratings for the first episode of "Mentalist" were quite good, so shows you what I know :)
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