Slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch...
I’m writing on my new blog every day for thirty days straight. This is the ninth one.Well I have some amazing news. After nine days of writing this blog, I actually have some real progress to report. Today, after almost four years of living in Los Angeles, I officially start at the Hard Rock Café. Thank you. Thank you. I want to thank all the little people. Everyone who helped me get here…I don't for a second want to come off as ungrateful - I am truly blessed to work at Hard Rock. I am truly thankful for my friend who recommended me, and for all of the managers who took a chance on me even though I don't have loads of serving experience.A lot of actors and actresses are waiters and waitresses because the money is good and there’s a great deal of flexibility. Glamorous or not, working at the Hard Rock Café is going to be amazing. It's going to be fun, and it's going to give me a regular paycheck. I’ve been working a lot of irregular jobs, and this will be my first semi-regular job. It will enable me to more confidently pursue my acting career. I won’t be desperately searching for that next paycheck. And the Hard Rock Café is a pretty cool restaurant - my interviews were in front of a whole wall of Elvis Presley memorabilia.
Progress is slow out here in Los Angeles. It comes in small steps. Step by step. Inch by inch. A side story: as a little kid, my Dad would wrestle with me. He would start by saying, “slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch -” and then he’d grab me and we’d start wrestling. The phrase comes from an old comedy routine, done all over the place but most notably by Abbot and Costello, on The Three Stooges, and on I Love Lucy. I loved watching I Love Lucy growing up. Lucille Ball had a huge influence on me. And the more I write, the more I’m starting to unearth my biggest influences.
How about I talk about some real acting career progress?After three and a half years, I now have a commercial agent and a separate theatrical agent. What’s an agent, you ask? A talent agent is someone who works for an actor. They have more substantial connections with casting directors and producers within the industry and can utilize those connections to get their clients auditions. My commercial agent now works to get me auditions for commercials. My theatrical agent now works to get me auditions for TV shows and movies. They take 10% of whatever project they help me book.Now that I have commercial and theatrical representation, my job doesn’t really change. I still do the same work as always, but now these wonderful humans will be working for me in their offices as well.
Some more progress: by self-submitting, I booked a social media campaign for a company that makes moonshine. So I will be paid for one day of shooting where I basically have a party with other people my age and we all have bottles of moonshine around us. I don’t know a ton of specifics yet, but basically they’ll be taking pictures and then use these pictures as part of a larger social media campaign. This will be next Thursday, I'll be sure to write about it.
For anyone who was wondering, THIS is what pursuing my dream looks like: Hard Rock, 10%, and moonshine. It's the steps. it's the inches.