Acting Up

I started writing about some bike riding I was doing the other day when I realized that a critical part of it was something that I hadn't really explained yet. This missive will really set you up to properly enjoy tomorrow's. To begin with, (and do forgive me if I'm mistaken and I have written elements of this before), a while back I got an agent to represent me in my acting endeavors. Needless to say, this was a delightful development that will hopefully mean great things.

I really was fortunate the way it worked out. Suffice it to say that the two most relevant factors for me were having a really unique look and going out to do things. They say that 90 percent of life is just showing up, and to an extent I have found that to be true. Some amount of actual ability is useful. In any event, it's been fun learning the ropes of being a professional. There remains a lot of mystery in it for me, but I've gotten my "acting legs".

Auditions are a stimulating experience. They started off being terrifying, but each one has been easier and more fun. The cumulative experience has been helpful, as has the counsel of more experienced friends to guide me along in the process as well as the right attitude. I really have been very fortunate to have made such wonderful, talented friends in life- and to think that most of my life it was something that I managed only sporadically and with great difficulty.

It's a hell of a thing to think of where I was a few years ago. For lack of the nerve to doing anything, I was, as a college instructor once said, "trading time for money" at a restaurant job. Even after taking the step of coming out to LA, there was this long, lonely period of knowing almost no one and doing almost nothing. To even be on the precipice of working as an actor after coming here as a video editor with no ambition to perform is really something.