Next Big Project

I’m in Los Angeles, taking part in four days of auditions for a big project that happens in May. Some of you may or may not already know a little bit about it; rest assured that an update will be coming as soon as I can release the information.

For now here’s a hint: follow me on Twitter at @FollowDrew.

Also be sure you’re following me on Twitter at @dancemonkey, though that account may go dark once the real fun starts in early May.

I Quit My Job

File this under “What The Hell Were You Thinking?”

I heard (in a roundabout sort of way through Yuri) that a wise man once said “No bad idea ever started with ‘This may sound crazy, but…'”.

I thought I’d better get my thoughts out on this and in the process answer any questions that may come up.

There are a lot of little reasons that I quit my job. It’s not one of those “straw that broke the camel’s back” things, where someone yelled at me and I just snapped. The decision has been in my mind to quit this job for just about the entire 15 years that I’ve worked for the company. In the absence of a truly good reason to quit, I just never did!

My son is four, and lately he’s been shooting off about what he wants to be when he grows up. Being that age his decision changes almost daily, sometime within the breadth of a single sentence. Two days ago he said he wanted to be an astronaut… OR a garbage truck guy. Then he decided he might just do both, at the same time.

I (and my wife, hopefully? Sina?) tell him that he can be whatever he wants to be when he grows up. I think we say that because that’s just what parents say, but also because we believe it to be true. The obvious logical conclusion he would draw from this is that Mommy and Daddy must be doing what they want to do, right? I mean, if you can be anything you want to be when you grow up then Daddy must be exactly what he wants to be. Why would he be anything different?

So there’s that. I’m not doing what I want to be doing, and I can’t think of a really solid reason to give Ronin as to why, were he to ask, which he will, because he’s smart and figures logical things out very quickly.

There’s also this: 15 years ago when I took this job I had no intention of having it for even one year. It just seemed like a good way to help me move to San Francisco.

Hehe, oops.

And there’s one more big thing, but this requires time-travel to the year 2015. Ronin will be 14 and will be asking me about my past, watching my old films and commercials and wondering (out loud) why I’m not an actor? He’ll probably ask something like “So what happened, did you try and it just didn’t work out?” What answer could I give to that? If I hadn’t quit my job then the answer would be “No, no I never really tried to make it as an actor. But dreams can come true son, I feel it in my bones!” Being 14, his response would probably be outward silence, but inward “What a loser, I don’t want to be like my Dad when I grow up.”

I’ve been teaching him that there’s nothing wrong with failure, failure is how we learn, failure is actually good, we learn more from failure than from immediate success. But how can that lesson jive with my never having just quit my dumb job and made a go of acting, and writing, and freelance work, and grip work, and whatever damn odd jobs I could get to keep my family afloat?

So for all of those reasons, I’ve quit my job. My last day for now is April 15th, so I’m still floating around there for the time being but I’m a bit of a lame duck. There you have it.

Oh, and there is actually one final, practical reason that fits nicely with my decision making process. As of May we no longer will need to pay for our son’s education, and as of June the car is paid off. That’s like $900 off the monthly tab right there, so what better time to jump into the deep end?

Thank you for reading, donations are accepted in the form of gift cards for toy stores, Target, Gymboree, Carter’s, and Amazon.com.

Samsung Behold II Spots Are Up!

Check them all out, great stuff. Everyone did a fantastic job, and in this case I’m not just referring to myself.

Job Recap and Debrief

So this week I had my first paid acting gig of 2010. Yuri let me eat a raw potato for something we shot back in January but he’s always feeding me undercooked food so that doesn’t count.

The paid acting job I just had was a commercial for sausage. Yes, I put sausage in my mouth followed by a blissful smile on my face, it’s what we actors do to make a buck.

I’ve also started writing more. I now contribute to an iPhone app review website (link in the sidebar there, right?) and get a little scratch for that too. It’s not much much money, I mainly do it to keep myself writing semi-regularly and to eventually start scoring some free apps. Why I would value a free iPhone app over the pay that’s an order of magnitude higher I don’t really know, but I just do.

I’m also almost done with my first “real” screenplay, and it’s a doozy. By doozy, I mean “doozily horrible”, but that’s fine. It’s supposed to be bad. When I’m done with it, it will be bad and finished, and that’s all I want. The road to my masterpiece is paved with many days of waking up at the butt-crack of dawn just to try and crank out 1000 words before I hit the train and head to work.

850 of those words will eventually be deemed utter garbage, but someone once told me that writing is hard work. I hit that person, hit him so hard his nose bled, but that didn’t change the truth of his words. I thought maybe scratching his face would do that, but no such luck. Violence truly does solve nothing apparently, though the scientist in me will be constantly testing that hypothesis on random passers-by.

Here’s hoping that by the next time you hear from me I’m on a 3-week road trip across the country for a brewery, drinking beer and dancing with the natives. I don’t hold out much hope for that casting, when asked if I had much road-trip experience I told them about how Sina and I circumnavigated Maui after she got stung by a Portuguese man-of-war in ankle-deep water. I don’t think I much impressed them with my experience, though I demonstrated that I’m a fine raconteur.

One piece of advice for this, my first full post of the new year: just don’t ever watch Valentine’s Day. I know, most of you wouldn’t want to anyway, right? Look, it’s just you and me here, we can be honest. I know that you actually think it looks cute, and even though when you’re with your friends you say how much you hate Bradley Cooper or Julia Roberts is a bad actress, deep down you just love the idea of them (and Jessicas Alba and Biel, and Eric Dane & Patrick Dempsey, and Jennifer Garner) all being in a movie together. Admit it! Valentine’s Day is supposed to be not that great, just schmaltzy and syrupy and fun and loving and just all of the things about the movies that we truly love to hate but somewhere inside we also hate to love.

Well the movie is a damn train wreck people, no fucking joke. It’s utterly incoherent, poorly written, and most of the performances are terrible. There are a few standouts and some cute scenes, but all in all this is a stinker. And just to kick you in the nuts before you even know what a wild ride you’re in for, the previews take the cake as being trailers for what can only be apparently the worst movies ever made.

Hope your year is going well, time for me to watch a decent movie.

Fitting Tomorrow

Heading out tomorrow with a mountain of clothes that the stylist won’t use, for what I’m calling “Sausage ’10”. She told me to bring everything on hangers. Who hangs their t-shirts and sweaters on hangers? And socks, should my socks be on hangers too?

Booked My First Job Of ’10

Got my first job, next week. Gonna gorge on sausage and rice, apparently. I can’t wait!

Audition Update

Four in the last seven days, all high value/low effort jobs. Came THIS close on one callback I had but lost out in the end.

Auditioning is like gambling, except the vig is in the actor’s favor. More auditions = more jobs, it’s just a matter of time. Wins usually come in streaks. Losses too unfortunately, but hey. That’s the game.

Callback today

Had a great callback today, the year is starting off well. I love when I actually look forward to auditions rather than be annoyed by them. Plus, Lucky Charms were in the cafeteria at work this morning!