Question from my Brother-in-Law
I’m writing on my new blog every day for thirty days straight. This is the eleventh one.I asked my family and friends for questions about my career that I could answer during these thirty days. Today I’m answering a third.
I’ve woken up with butterflies in my stomach. I’m working most of today and can’t work on my scene for my Monday audition. I’m scared, but I’m scared most of the time out here - such is the life of an actor.
Today I answer a question from my brother-in-law Neil. Neil’s married to my sister Debbie. They live in Austin and have four kids. Neil and Debbie both work at Dell, an Austin staple. In 1998 on my tenth birthday, I was outside throwing a football with Neil and my brother Scott. Neil wasn’t my brother-in-law yet. My Dad was grilling hamburgers behind me. This is where my memory gets hazy, either Neil or Scott threw the football a little too high. I jumped for the ball. I missed the ball but my right arm landed on the searing hot cover of the grill. Long story short, I had second degree burns along the entire inside of my forearm, and now my family quotes me as saying, “this is the worst. birthday. eh-ver!” To this day, Neil and Scott haven’t told me who threw the football.From the bro in law:What is the one thing (or most common thing) that keeps you optimistic and keeps you moving forward in such a rejection-filled environment?I would say pretty confidently it’s my California family. I have a lot of friends out here that make it easy for me. If I didn’t have a group of friends that loved me like a family, I don’t know if I would have lasted out here very long.I know that after every bad audition and every bad show I can come back to a group of people that A) won’t have seen it but more importantly B) wouldn’t think any less of me even if they had.My UTLA familyI spent my last semester of college in Los Angeles. The University of Texas has a program called the University of Texas in Los Angeles Program. It allows students thinking of moving to Los Angeles to pursue a job in the entertainment industry the chance to build a network before officially moving here. Almost four years since I began that program, there are several dozen of us that are extremely close, and we’ve met a dozen or more people who aren’t from UT who are now a very close part of our family. We’ve even celebrated Thanksgiving each year together - and the food has been amazing.My acting familiesI would be remiss if I didn’t mention my Stormchaser family and my acting family. Both of these groups of people inspire me as an actor and keep me accountable in making progress. My improv team Stormchaser just recently celebrated its two year anniversary, and after nearly 200 shows and a handful of long road trips together, we are as tight as tight-knit families get. Stormchaser consistently inspires me to be a better artist.I also spent nearly two years with a group of actors at my acting school. I was extremely vulnerable in front of these people, and they were extremely vulnerable in front of me. After that kind of experience for so many weeks on end, it’s really hard not to feel close to each of them. These people are still very near and dear to my heart. I still consistently check in with a lot of them and we all support each other’s work. They keep me moving forward and working hard.
What’s the name of the game today? Gratitude. I love these guys and girls.They would tell me who threw the football.