The Clock's Ticking...But This Year Ain't Over Yet

Since the infomercial shoot, things are slower than I'd like them to be here in Actor-land.

Granted, it's been less than a week-and-a-half since that happy experience.

But while you might think I'd still be "buzzed" over "that happy experience", I'm kind of over it at this point.

Cause life goes on, Jimmy needs cash, and I'm on a tight schedule - I've only booked three gigs so far this year, I want to do better than last year (when I booked six gigs), and I'm running out of year to work with - which means I need auditions raining down from the heavens, so I can book...

1) The national commercial that will keep me afloat for the next year or two.

2) That really nice co-star role on a hit show that will impress my friends and make casting directors take notice (Cause before next year's out, I want to start being in consideration for guest-star roles).

3) My first movie role, in something that will, again, "make casting directors take notice" when they look at my resume.

4) That elusive job, whatever it may be, that will be fun (i.e. something that would actually involve me acting), provide a great payday, and allow me to work with an actor (Or actors) I know and respect (I still haven't had all three of those things come together yet...but a man can dream, can't he?).

I had a commercial audition last Thursday (for Budweiser), and one for Time Warner Cable yesterday.

In acting terms, they're nothing. But as I've said a number of times before, "If you're looking to commercials to satisfy your acting itch, you're an idiot" (Well, I don't know think I've put it quite that way before...but that's what I meant).

So sue me - I'm still an idiot, almost eight years down the road, because I always hope, going into any given commercial audition, that I'll be the "hero" in the spot, that it'll involve me playing some kind of "character", perhaps to humorous effect, and that I'll get that nice, "getting well-paid for doing something really fun" feeling I've been seeking since Day One.

Neither spot is that spot...but that doesn't mean I don't want to book them (Especially Budweiser, since that's a national).

Cause if I book then, they'll pay me.

And money is cool.

But beyond the making of money - and keeping homelessness at bay and all that - I really do want something to happen before the year is out that makes me feel like I really did something (Working with John Cleese was cool; working with John Cleese, or someone like him, in something people would actually want to see, and making a profit off it, would be cooler still).

It feels as if the year is coming to an end.

But I don't want to write the year off just yet.

I just want a few more good things to happen. I want to end on a high note, a hopeful note, a note that tells me, "Things are looking up".

Don't let me down, 2008...