Struggling actor, I choose you!

I got a job offer recently. It was to be a tour guide at a photography gallery for their next exhibit, “Who Shot Rock and Roll?”. This was a pretty perfect job for me. Basically I’d be my job to know everything about these acclaimed photographers to rock icons, their techniques, and probably their subjects as well. All of which, is awesome. I really like knowing trivia, and photography, and rock music! Plus I’ve been doing a dead rock star themed birthday thing all month long, and this just fits right in. It was a great job that I was well suited for, and was thrilled to be offered.

I had to turn it down.

At the beginning of this year, I was unemployed. With exception of a random performance gig here or there, I remained unemployed for five months. I finally got a job. It was perfect. I lost it. I immediately got a second job. This wasn’t perfect, but it was fulfilling, and I was good at it. I got offered this second job in the middle of training for my new one. This new offer paid better, but it had a much stricter schedule. If I were to take it, I’d be able to live comfortably from day to day, but I’d have to miss out on every event I’ve been planning for this summer. I’d have to miss out on the performance jobs I booked, and the PAing work I was asked to join in on. So this was my dilemma: live comfortably and be able to afford things I’ve been wanting for so long, or keep the job that would keep me living hand-to-mouth but would still make room for the adventures I’ve been looking forward to for so long. I tried to do the thing I always do and make both things work together, but they just wouldn’t have it. So I opted to remain a struggling actor. I’d keep the performances, and the adventures, and the low bank account.
I made a vague announcement on Facebook, which stirred up debate. (Why do people take Facebook statuses so seriously?) There was a lot of cries of ‘here here!’ from other actors, but some people didn’t agree with my decision. I said I chose art over comfort, which is terribly vague. So I’m here to be a little clearer. I chose to do what I love rather than miss out. I chose to be happy rather than be content. I chose stress over ease, but I chose the adventurous life over the monotonous one. Also that second job ends in October. The point is, I chose the path that had little bits of the life I want sprinkled in it, instead of the path that was just easier.

I’ve always believed that things worth having don’t come easy. I rarely chose the easy path. I’ve been enlightened recently into how this is not always the right idea, and I really need to learn to keep things simple sometimes. But in the overall bigger picture, I don’t mind toughing it out that much longer if it will lead me to the places I want to be. The second option may have a less arduous and rocky path, but when I reach the end of it, I won’t have taken me where it is I’m trying to go. For all I know, it won’t take me anywhere and I’ll just be walking back and forth, making a rut. If it takes longer, I’ll be patient. If it hurts, I’ll endure. As long as it doesn’t kill me.

And if it does I than I can at least say I’m in the Forever 27 Club.

CMF

Back in college I competed in a competition called Campus MovieFest. My team’s film ended up being the little film that could, and somehow made it to the 2007 International Grand Finale.

Five years later the International Grand Finale is now CMF Hollywood, and it’s grown from a showcase of the fifteen best films of the year to a full-on convention with panels, workshops, and guest speakers. My co-star informed me that the event was happening this weekend, and that he and I were invited to assist as staff. They still remembered us, and liked us, and wanted us to join the crew. I caught up with a few people I had met in Georgia from when I was student competing in this little contest. And then I was asked to moderate a panel on producing with EVPs from Universal and Green Hat…

Never thought five years ago I’d be in Hollywood on the other side of the table, working with those people. Who knew.

I had a dream last night that I had to protect my childhood home from senior citizens who were moving in on the space I was hosting my friends in. What do you think that means?

I just felt like blogging.

A director friend of mine who I’ve worked with a lot recently asked me if I wanted to do some PA work this weekend. Yeah, why not. Sounds fun. So my director friend gave me the info, where I met up with a friend of a friend who ended up being my co-pilot in 2010: Moby Dick, and we worked for two guys my actor friend from high school used to watch (first guy) and work with (second guy) in college. Small world.

Anyway, these two guys have just been hired by the Hub network, of which I’m a fan, to create some small segments to run repeatedly in the after school block, all summer long. (But.. there’s no school..?)  It’s a very low budget, low-tech, two guys and a skeleton crew hamming it up in a rock quarry. Everyone was being paid, and though not much, and it was for recurring bits on a nationwide cable channel, but it was still a bunch of guys making it work for the love of being able to create something.
It was fun. They were a great crew, I enjoyed working with them, and I’m glad various circles of friends overlapped and I got to join them for a day. I was working for friends of friends, but it still felt like I was just helping out friends. Kind of a happy medium between doing the working actor thing I do, and the buddy thing I do. Except I was PAing, not acting. And that’s all kind of fitting cuz they described their job as being between being paid for a regular tv series and roughing it with an internet budget. And cuz they’re film crew guys who were pretty much acting. Crazy, right?