After a very stressful day at rehearsal, I got to do something that I certainly don't do every day. I went and auditioned to be a contestant on the daytime syndicated version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, which is hosted by Meredith Viera.
Now, I've always loved trivia games and game shows from Tic Tac Dough through Jeopardy! and, of course, Millionaire. But I've never been on one. I auditioned for the annual Jeopardy! Teen Tournement once or twice in my youth, but that's been as far as I've gotten.
So here's how this happened...I usually browse the ads at Craig's List daily for job opportunities and one day I saw an ad advertising that Millionaire was having a round of auditions. So I applied. And I got assigned a spot today. As it turned out, the auditions were held in the cafeteria up at the ABC offices on the Upper West Side, which is only about 10 blocks from my apartment.
I showed up outside ABC and joined the queue where we were all checked in. Then we were told to turn off our cell phones and were led into the ABC cafeteria, which involved having our bags searched by security officers and passing through a metal detector.
We then collected a manila folder and a Scantron form from a cute ABC guy and were assigned a seat at a table. After a run through the directions and a few pointers from the proctor (It pays to guess!...Make sure you're filling in the block on the Scantron that corresponds to the question you're answering!), we got the go ahead to begin.
The test was 30 multiple choice questions to be answered in 10 minutes. Topics ranged from history and geography to pop culture and religion. It was a good mix.
Now, I went to high school in the Scantron era, so I'm pretty much an expert on filling in the little rectangles. I finished this test in about 6 minutes. And I was pretty confident about 90% of my answers. I ended up having to guess at a handful of the questions. So okay.
While they were running our Scantrons through the machine to check them, there were tee shirts given out. I didn't get one. Which is fine. I have enough tee shirts.
And then we got the results. Out of about 60 people in my group, I would say about 15 passed. One of whom...was ME. Whoo-Hoo!! I wasn't really surprised given my confidence with my answers, but it's always nice to get the confirmation, no?
Those of us who'd passed were shuttled to the other side of the cafeteria where we filled out a questionaire with all the usual questions about being related to or knowing anyone who works or ever has worked for any company that has anything to do with the show. There was also a page of "personality" questions where they basically asked "So what's interesting about YOU?" Eh...
Then came the live interview. This was basically five minutes sitting with a member of the staff and talking up the "personality" points. I tried my best to sparkle pretty.
So we'll see how this goes...apparently, I'll be getting a postcard in the next couple of weeks to let me know if I've actually made it into the contestant pool.
Wish me luck!
Spent another day working as an extra on the film Duplicity today. You may recall that, a couple of weeks ago, I sat in an audience for a scene starring Paul Giamatti. Today, I spent all day on Fifth Avenue between 39th and 40th Streets treking back and forth and forth and back past Clive Owen.
By the way, Clive Owen is just as tall, dark, and handsome in real life as he is in the movies. And I spent most of the day within about 8 feet of the man. Not the worst parts of the day, believe me.
The worst part of the day was that we were outside for most of it and it was pretty cold in New York today. The crew was all dressed in parkas and winter hats. Clive Owen had a parka at the ready whenever he wasn't on the camera. The rest of us non-movie stars had to pretend that it was spring or summer or something and basically freeze our asses off all day. I thought I was being clever and wearing my coat to the set...not so much. The wardrobe people decided that there were too many coats in the scene and I had to carry mine on my arm. Sigh.
By the way, my call this morning was 6.00am. I was there for a grand total of 14 hours. It got old fast. There was a small army of gawkers on Fifth Avenue watching us and I just couldn't figure out the appeal. Sure there was a movie star there. But all he was doing was walking down the street all day. Once you've see in once, what's the attraction?
Oh, hey...I spent some time today discovering the wonderful world of craft services. I had some breakfast (grilled cheese with ham and a side of sausage) and some lunch (peanut butter sandwich), as well as some snacks throughout the day (mostly candy), all free of charge from the production. Yummy.
But I may actually end up on screen in this movie. I'll have to remember to go see it next year when it opens.
Okay, it's been a pretty quiet weekend over here.
On Friday, I got a call for work in the morning from one of my agencies...and then got a callback 30 minutes later as I'm heading out the door that the job was cancelled. Sigh.
Well, okay...sometimes this happens. So what to do then?
I packed up my music and went to three different auditions. And then I went to an interview with a new temp agency. We'll see if this new place can get me more work than the two I've already been working with. The rep I met with seemed to really like me.
Anyhow, earlier in the day, while I was in the midst of running from one audition to another, a guy actually spat on me. No lie. I only wish I was kidding.
He didn't mean to do it. He was just spitting into the street and was not paying a bit of attention to me trying to pass him. He apologized and I gave him the evil eye. It wasn't so bad...I didn't get the brunt of it. But this experience prompted me to share something very important:
Jere's Rules For Spitting In Public
1) Never Never Ever Spit in Public. No one wants to see it and no one wants to hear it. And no one wants to deal with the results.
2) See Rule #1.
3) If you absolutely MUST spit in public, meaning that death by choking is imminent if you do not, never spit onto a non-natural surface like concrete, tile, or any sort of pavement. Again, no one wants to deal with the result of your proclivities.
4) See Rule #1
5) If you're in an urban area and can't find a patch of grass to spit on, wait till you're at the corner and spit into a trash can. Please. Really. Not kidding about this. Seriously.
6) See Rule #1
Thank You.
ADDENDUM: I suspect that the above rules were taught to me as a child by my parents, grandparents, or other adults who were concerned with making certain that I grew up knowing how to behave in public. This can't be THAT unusual, right? Didn't everyone's family address issues of when is and is not an appropriate time and place to spit?
I had an exhausting New York day today. I was in rehearsal most of the day and then ran across town for an audition. By the time I got home I was exhausted and could barely move. This is partially my own fault. I hadn't eaten all day, which is good for the wallet, but not so much for my energy level anymore. I used to be able to easily go all day without having to eat, but nowadays I just seem to sputter and crash by about 3.00pm.
Of course, it depends...if I'm working in an office all day, I'm usually good with skipping lunch. But performing? I'm coming to a point where I can be as effective as I want to be without a midday meal of some sort. What's wrong with me.
As soon as I got home and made myself some chili and sat down for a few minutes to eat it, I was fine. It was like I caught a second wind. And I'm just fine now.
Oh, and I was so proud of myself tonight...the company where I'm rehearsing this play did something so offensive and disrespectful to our cast today that I nearly walked out of rehearsal then and there. I'm not going to get into it here, but trust me...I was shocked to the core when it happened. I was thisclose to sending an angry diatribal (is that a word?) email to my director and/or the Artistic Director about what happened. But I didn't...I decided to take a moment, breathe, and just let it go. If the topic comes up at rehearsal tomorrow, I will say something, but I'm just going to put my own feelings on hold for now.
Not going to fly off the handle with indignation tonight. Nope. Not gonna do it. This too shall pass.
It feels mature and adult. Not quite the same satisfaction as ripping someone who deserves it a new asshole, but it'll do for now.
Uh Huh...
Just in from New York City Opera's current revival of Candide at the New York State Theatre up at Lincoln Center.
There was drama even before the performance started. First, in the row ahead of us (the first row of the third tier) there was such an complete asshole that I just wanted to push him over the side. What happened here was that an usher was simply doing her job and she asked him to put away his blackberry or take it out of the theatre to do his business. He started yelling at her and for the rest of the night was loudly making fun of and baiting this poor woman for having the audacity to do her job and ask him to comply with the rules. You have no idea how arrogant and ugly this man was. Had I been this usher, I'd have gotten security to escort him out...his behavior was so uncalled for that I was relieved when Eric wanted to move at intermission. This guy just poisoned the very air around him.
Anyway, just before the start of the show, a gentleman in a suit came on stage and announced that Daniel Reichard, the actor playing Candide, had been battling stomach flu and would be unable to perform tonight. Instead, Shonn Wiley was called in to perform the role at what sounded like extremely short notice.
I've seen Wiley a couple of times in minor roles on Broadway, and I had no idea what to expect here. But this guy was terrific and hardly missed a beat all night long. He performed off-book and there was never a moment where it appeared that other cast members were leading him through the blocking. He was confident and played the role as though it was his own.
What an exciting night! Wiley got a huge hand at the curtain call, even bigger than Richard Kind, who played Voltaire and Pangloss, and who got the final bow.
The rest of the show was pretty good too. It's a problematic piece and this staging didn't do much to gloss over or attempt to fix the problems. The second act tends toward the sluggish because, by that time, there's not much plot to get through and not much actually happens. There was also an issue with understanding the lyrics, mostly from the opera folks (the Cunegonde and the ensemble), but this was helped by the presence of supertitles on the proscenium.
It's an interesting show. It's good to see something like this once in a while. The big Act II finale, "Make Our Garden Grow," makes me cry every damn time. I'm so glad I went...thanks go to Eric who had an extra ticket. SA-LUTE!
Okay, I'm back.
And here, as the title promised, is some stuff I've seen lately:
The Drunken City - This is a new play by Adam Bock over at Playwrights Horizons. It's about what happens when some suburbanites head into the city for a night of bar-hopping and drinking and the chaos that ensues. I thought this play was so much fun! I really liked all the characters and could have spent more time with them. It was funny and real all at the same time. There's a cute conceit that's a rather literal interpretation of making the earth move that was probably a bit much, but still...I really liked it and recommend it.
21 - This is the movie currently in theatre with Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne and others. Again, such fun! This is one of those caper flicks where a group of people bands together to tackle some goliath that seems impossibly difficult to get around. Here, it's a group of brilliant math and science folks from MIT (all impossibly pretty) and their ringleader professor (played by Spacey) who go to Las Vegas to count cards at the blackjack tables and win a fortune. Yes, it's all very Ocean's 11, but there's more here as the characters' stakes rise and fall over the course of 2 hours. Check this one out.
The Homecoming - This was the revival of the Harold Pinter play that just closed on Broadway at the Cort Theatre. Now, I studied this play in college and even wrote a paper on it...and I still don't understand it. It's the story of a dysfunctional family in London, and what happens when one of the grown sons returns home for the first time in nine years to introduce his wife to his father, two brothers and uncle. I loved this production, even if I still don't quite understand what Pinter was going for here. The performances here, especially those of Eve Best as Ruth, the newcomer, and Raul Esparza as Lenny, the slick, slightly dangerous, probably sociopathic brother. Their scenes simply crackled with tension and all Best had to do to become the sex symbol her character is to her husband's family was cross and uncross her legs...and not even particularly seductively. I cannot even explain how Best did this. But wow! I'm so glad I saw this. I have a much greater (though still not complete) understanding of this classic work.
The Music Man - this is the current production at Village Light Opera, down in Chelsea. Now, I've never really liked this show very much and I think the score is merely so-so and the story has plot holes that a band could march through. A friend of mine said the other day that for telling pretty much this same story, he prefers the musical 110 In The Shade and I think I have to agree, if only because 110 isn't done to death as Music Man is. This production was pretty good though and very well sung, as one would expect from VLOG. The full orchestra was also a highlight as we get those elsewhere so seldom these days. The show suffered a bit from lack of directoral vision and it didn't seem like anyone knew what to do with the large ensemble and, whenever they appeared on stage, those moments tended toward the stand-on-stage-in-a-large-semi-circle-and-just-sing-out. And it was weird the way the scene changes were staged. Someone made the decision to stage all the cross-over stuff, which is meant to be done out front whilst the scene change is going on behind, but instead of changing the set behind these moments, the production would then go to full blackout so the set could be changed. And there's nothing that kills a show's momentum like blackouts. They should be outlawed. This production timed in at 2 hours and 45 minutes, including intermission and it could have used the few minutes that would have been saved here. But, on the whole, this was a very solid production of a old chestnut that could probably stand to be retired from the repertoire for a while. If you like this sort of thing, you'll like it. If you've seen The Music Man 600 times, well, this is probably just one more. But, hey, what's number 601 when you've come this far?
Okay, so I haven't been doing a whole lot lately, both because I'm broke, but also because I've been in rehearsal for two different new plays.
The first was a new play at Theatre for the New City called The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether, based on the Edgar Allen Poe short story of the same name. I got this one because a friend of a friend was directing and needed a last minute understudy for one role because an actor needed to miss a single performance due to a personal matter. So I've been going into rehearsals for that to learn the role in a few days, which was stressing me out a bit. As it turned out, I would be going on without ever having actually rehearsed one of the scenes. Ooops...well, sometimes that happens, especially in understudy situations like this. I went on this past Sunday though, and it went really well, much better than I'd expected. I was nervous, not so much for the lines and blocking (although there was some of that), but because I was also participating in set changes and there was one particular set piece that was a stubborn bastard with a mind of its own. All was well though and things moved according to plan. Awesome!
So I'm done with that one now. The only play is a children's theatre adaptation of Arabian Nights at the 45th Street Theatre right here in the neighborhood. That's been stressful as well, although for different reasons. But we'll see how it goes.
I just got another email today from another friend, also looking for a last minute replacement in a play that she's doing. I probably can't do it, due to my Arabian Nights schedule, but it's so night to be asked. I love that.
What else is going on? Hmmm...well, I have seen some stuff, but I'll cover that separately. You know, I'm always saying that. I think I will just go for it and do it now while I'm thinking of it.
Last night I dreamed that I was on a car trip with my parents and brother, the same kind that we used to take when we were kids. I was an adult, but seemed younger than I am now.
Anyway, the unusual thing about this family road trip was the destination: Baghdad. We were, apparently, driving from Europe through the Middle East to the capital of Iraq.
Except that my Dad seemed to have made a wrong turn in Israel and we had found ourselves in Northern Africa. Also? We were in a country called Bacca (or Bocca) that doesn't actually exist. I looked at a map in the dream and saw 3 or 4 small countries along the Mediterranean coast of Africa that aren't there in real life. Weird.
Also, I was very upset about having missed Israel. Apparently, we had driven through the entire country in the night and I'd slept through it.
We'd pulled over at a service area off the highway in Bacca and my Dad was consulting a map trying to figure out where we'd gone wrong.
This seems odd, no?
So I spent most of the day at the Jacob Javits Convention Center working as an extra (or, as the current terminology goes, "background") on a movie called Duplicity, which, apparently, stars a lot of big Hollywood names. Whoo-Hoo!
What this involved was showing up at the convention center this afternoon in a suit. After checking in, I cooled my heels for awhile in a huge holding room with probably more than 1000 others. In groups, we were herded onto the set.
The set was a stage with a podium, a couple of large video screens, and a sea of chairs. My fellow extras and I were playing stockholders at a big corporate stockholders meeting at which Paul Giamatti was making a historic announcement. Basically, our job was to jump to our feet and wildly applaud for Giamatti at appropriate times. We did this over and over for about 8 hours.
It was interesting at first, but, by Hour 6 or so, I was done with it and ready to go home.
I'll be interested to see the movie and see what from today makes the final cut. I don't expect to see any screen time at all myself, but you never know.
Even though I've lived in New York for 11 years, I'd never been inside the Javits Center before today. It's nice, I guess...for a big box convention center. It sort of looks like a big crystal palace over in a very industrial neighbourhood of the extreme west side. It's over on 11th Avenue in the mid-30s. The rooms inside are pretty much what you'd expect from a convention center anywhere in the world.
Paul Giamatti looks in real life pretty much the way he looks in the movies. I've seen him in a couple of plays here in New York as well. He seemed to be in a good mood and was joking around a little at the mic with us, although he was busy enough that he really didn't have a lot of time to play around.
I'm glad to be home.
It's been awhile since I've seen a well-known face in the streets here, but then winter is always tough with that because we're all so bundled up and unrecognizable. But today I just so happened to catch Xanadu star Cheyenne Jackson walking east on 54th Street between 8th Avenue and Broadway. He was talking on his cell phone and I was rushing off to an audition, so there was no gawking or autograph hounding.
A few days ago, I saw Jim Borstelmann, a cast member of Young Frankenstein, walking down 9th Avenue and managed to forget about it. I loved him in Chicago and The Producers and this is one ensemble member who always managed to catch your attention somehow.
UPDATE: This has been my day for the celebrity sightings. I was getting off the train tonight at Columbus Circle and saw actress Marian Seldes also leaving the station. Fun!
Have you been watching the latest editions of American Idol and Dancing With The Stars? How much do I love these shows? They are not necessarily great music or dance experiences, but they sure are some compelling television.
On Dancing With The Stars, Olympic figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi is clearly a cut above everyone else in the competition and I have a feeling that this series is going to be about the race for second place. Marlee Matlin is surprisingly great considering the whole deaf thing. Priscilla Presley is also doing a great job considering that she's this series' token older woman and the fact that she's had so much work done that she can barely move her mouth or show any sort of emotion on her face.
As usual, the show defines the term "star" pretty loosely and there are the usual contestants of which I'd never heard before...Mario? Christian De La Fuente? Who? Dancing With The What Now?
The clowns seem to be getting eliminated early on this season with Penn Jillette going home last week (in a double elimination with tennis star Monica Seles) and Steve Guttenberg going tonight. Both Jillette and Guttenberg were better at being entertaining on the dance floor than at the actual dancing. Adam Carolla, shockingly, pulled his shit together this week and did a pretty amazing (for him) tango.
Broadway's own Marissa Jaret Winokur is not having a good time on this show. Unless you live in New York, or did about five years ago, you probably have no idea who she is. She originated the role of Tracy Turnblad in the musical Hairspray, won a Tony Award for it over the more-deserving Bernadette Peters (for her Rose in the last revival of Gypsy), and then promptly abandoned New York to try to jump start a career in film and television out there in California. And has only rarely been heard from since. She was on the short-lived Pamela Anderson sitcom vehicle Stacked. And I can't think of think else she's done. Anyway, she seems to be the judges' little whipping girl this time around and they do seem harsher on her than on the other dancers. She's definitely not as good as some of the others, so she probably won't be around long, but I felt so bad for her this week as she visibly deflated under the judges' criticism. I thought she was going to burst into tears right there. Anyway, I kind of hope she defies expectations and really pulls it out next week. After everything she's been put through, she really deserves a break.
Over at American Idol, I'm impressed with the finalists this go round in the sense that each one seems like a distinct personality and seems to have a performing style all his or her own. Usually, it's only around now in the process (Top Ten or so) that I can begin to tell the singers apart and remember them from broadcast to broadcast. Not so hard this year.
I totally don't get Jason Castro (the white boy with the dredlocks) or David Aucheleta, the teen kid who looks about 12 and seems to have no personality whatsoever. Castro seems really vacant and, in interviews, seems to literally have nothing going on in his head. I don't know if he just smokes too much pot or just isn't that intelligent. Or both. His mangling of the French lyrics of that Beatles songs a week or so ago was so stupid. If you can't handle the French, pick a different song, asshole. It was obvious he had no idea what he was doing. Aucheleta just seems very high school talent show and I don't understand his apparent popularity at all. He's clearly not in the same league as some of his competition and, since the pop pendulum seems to have swung away from boy band-type stuff in recent years, I don't think he's got much of a future in music.
Whom do I like? Well, there's David Cook, who really seems to put a lot of thought into his song selection and the arrangements. Every time he sings, it's different, but also very much him. Also, Michael Johns, the Australian rocker dude is also fun and also seems to do a great job almost every time he takes the microphone. There's this blonde Carole King/Carly Simon wannabe called Brooke something or other who is also really appealing. And there's something about the Irish rocker chick, Carly Smithson, that I like.
Didn't like Syesha, the African American girl, much at first, but she's showing signs of growing on me. To her credit, she hasn't sung "And I'm Telling You (I'm Not Going)" yet.
That blonde Carrie Underwood lite Kristy needs go soon. That blonde country girl act worked once and I don't see it happening again, most of all because this girl is just not that good. That Kellie Pickler from last year or two years ago tried the same thing, but Pickler had the additional hook of either being retarded or just really really stupid and, as we all know, there's comedy to be had in laughing at the extremely stupid (or possibly retarded). This Kristy doesn't seem to be going in that direction and without the talent to back her up, she would seem to have few options.
By the way, I'm pretty broke these days, which is why I'm watching a lot of television. :)
Okay, so last night I had the first really bizarre dream I've had in quite a while. Here goes...
Apparently, I was a new understudy for the role of Mary Poppins in the Broadway production of Mary Poppins. And I was thrown on stage in the role with no rehearsal and without ever having even looked at the script.
Now, I've seen Mary Poppins, both here in New York and in London. But what was represented in my dream did not in any way resemble the actual show or either the New Amsterdam or Prince Edward Theatres. The theatre in the dream almost seemed like a three quarter thrust space with a low platform on it that contained furniture pieces, but no actual set.
The me in the dream was desperately trying to remember the show from having seen it and was failing miserably at every turn. At one point, I even found myself in the mezzanine of the theatre instead of on the stage.
I recall catching actress Rebecca Luker (who plays Mrs. Banks in the New York company) back stage and apologizing for skipping ahead in the text and skipping her big number. She didn't seem to care (I don't think "Being Mrs. Banks" is that great a song either, certainly not when compared to the cut "Sister Suffragette."), but instead reminded me that I had to be on stage for something else. I think I found her having a cigarette at the stage door. Shocking, huh? No idea if the real-life Luker smokes, but I think dream Luker did.
Eventually (I think as a result of accidentally ending up in the mezzanine that one time), the powers that be sent someone else, an actual woman, on stage to take over the part. I was hurridly trying to make it back to the stage from the mezzanine when I heard her enter. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing. I was relieved, but a little bit crushed that I had done so poorly in my trial by fire. The audience didn't seem to notice the change of performer and the dream ended there.
As usual, I have no idea what this might mean. When I woke up from it, I had genuine feelings of depression as though I had actually failed at something important in real life.
The fact that I'm a man, and was a man in the dream, seemed not to matter a whit to anyone. No one batted an eyelash and, as I wrote, no one seemed to notice when I was replaced mid-performance by a woman in an identical costume.
Thoughts?
Well, Tim headed back to London on Friday and I've been feeling a bit depressed and lonely since. It's so weird...I was so used to being alone for such a long time that it's strange to suddenly miss having another person there. For this last visit, we were together for over six weeks, so that's going well. How odd to be sitting here on the couch watching Dancing With The Stars, American Idol, Doctor Who, and Torchwood all by myself.
So what else is going on?
I've been cast in two plays. One is a children's theatre thing at Michael Chekov Theatre Company, which is right here in the neighbourhood at the 45th Street Theatre. The other is a one shot, single performance replacement gig in a show at Theatre for the New City. A friend called me on this one and I was happy to do it. We'll see how these things turn out.
Had quite an adventure on public transit in New Jersey on Sunday. I was heading out to Bloomfield for an audition and this involved taking the PATH train from Herald Square to Newark Penn Station and then taking a bus from there into Bloomfield. It's sounds simple, but it took over two hours each way. The audition went well and I got a callback, but I'm not sure about this commute. If they decide they want me, we'll have to discuss the whole transit thing.
Oh, hey...temping has been almost non-existant. Anyone need any help? I could certainly use the cash. :)
I keep saying that I'm going to write about some of the stuff I've seen, but I just having been feeling that. Maybe tomorrow.
Oh...Happy April.