Living a Dream

I don't really know what to say, I guess. It's been two months since I last posted and I feel like I don't even have anything good to report. The final class session was sorta overrated: we did this goofy little runway show thing while all the parents of the "students" were in attendance. We marched around with an air of self-worth, which some of the gentlemen didn't have going into the experience. From that standpoint, it was a good thing, at least certainly for them. Granted I learned certain things during the experience, but it wasn't a matter of confidence for me; if you'd told me to walk around like that in front of people I didn't know, I would have been able to do it - I just wouldn't have been technically sound in the process. So, again, not much interesting went on there. After that I got the Agency Package in the mail and it included a date for my promotional photoshoot. Blah blah blah. Day of the photo shoot: The shoot took place in ...

It's no secret if you're reading this (both of you who read this, I mean) that I love having an audience, or at the very least, people to entertain. The more I think about wanting to be famous, the more I want it. I've been hearing people on the radio and seeing people on TV and everything they do or say makes me want to be successful...it's really outta control. Anyway, last week I was caddying at the golf course and I was with a pair of gentlemen named Pete and Kevin...easy names to remember, you know, with me being Kevin and my brother being Pete. Anyway, now that I've put space between their first and last names, they were Ditchman and Riley, respectively. Pete seemed to be a little down on his luck as of late; the economy and whatever he had been doing for a living were not a good mix. Kevin, on the other hand, was killing it. He was talking about taking jobs and how he wouldn't move to another city for less than $200,000 per year...which leads one to bel...

I had my first experience at what's known in the biz (and by "in the biz" I mean "at my agency") as a "Student Open Call." To preface, the student open call is basically a get-together where everyone who is taking classes has a chance to meet with the casting director at the agency and do a little stuff-strutting in order to make an impression. I wish it was more interesting, but here's basically what went down. I got to Akron on Wednesday about 25 minutes before the open call started - it started at 5. As I walked into the building I made the observation that, aside from fathers of girls in the room, I was the only male in the waiting room of the agency. This was intriguing. I checked in and inquired about whether or not I was the only guy in attendance; "No, I think there's one other...so you'll be fine." Comforting. It really wasn't too terrible. I went downstairs to the waiting room (same waiting room as previous entries;...

I just typed some stuff and now it's gone. That's a kick in the pants...and the cause for the title of this post. So anyway...class #3 was this past Thursday and it once again felt a little bit like a review of things that I've been hearing for quite some time. This class focused on health. Most of the stuff we talked about was limited to healthy eating. Having been a pseudo-athlete for most of my life I've got a pretty good idea of what it takes to be healthy, it's just a matter of actually doing it that flusters folks (namely me). In addition to that, though, we did two other things. The first was that we talked about face and skin care. Our instructor for this class was a woman in impeccable shape. She explained that our skin is our livelihood, in a sense, when working in this business, so we'd better take care of it...and then she accurately predicted that all of the guys in the room used the standard bar of body soap to wash their faces when showering. That...

I don't entirely feel like writing at great length about the first two classes I've had, as I'm now past the 2 nd one. However, I feel I must press on - even if it's just a little bit. The first class was a bit of an experience on account of - again - having no idea what to expect. I got to class at about 5:00 even though it wasn't supposed to start until 6. However, it gave me a bit of a chance to BS with some of the other guys who were in the class. The only issue was and is that the rest of the guys in the class range in age from 10 to about 30. There's only one guy older than me and he didn't join until the 2 nd class; a real nice guy - married, tall, black, well-dressed, etc. As for the younger end of the spectrum, there's a 10-year old kid who cannot pay attention to anything and constantly interrupts the instructor - he does everything he can do to get the attention of the 15-16 year old kids in the class. And the 15-16 year olds are way more ...

So I gathered up my mother and we headed down to the open-call on a Saturday in Akron. We didn't really know what to expect, so when we got there and saw people much younger than me, we were a little taken back. However, I/we got over it quickly. The meeting room was basically two sets of 3-row-deep chairs which faced each other; a runway- esque aisle split the middle of the room (parents on one side, potential talent/models on the other). Their projection screen was at one end of the room, which made for some physical discomfort - par for the course for any long presentation. The presentation was about what you'd expect: they blabbed on and on about how great their company is. It was mildly interesting and included lots of testimonials from now-successful talent who got their start with this company. Of course, it could have been streamlined to about 30-40 minutes instead of an hour and a half, but that's beside the point. One of the points they wanted to get to was about...

Like I said, I now wake up every day and think about how I want to be famous. Like most people, I watch television, and I see people on TV and think; "I could do that." So instead of sitting around and thinking about how I should be doing something, I've recently had the gumption to go after it a little bit. My first inclination was to maybe try out for one of my Aunt Barbie's plays. She directs plays at local theaters and they are almost always very entertaining. What appeals to me even more is that she directs plays that are incredibly light-hearted and funny. Funny, again, is something of a recurring theme in my life. However, after discussing this option a little bit with my mom and even bringing it up to my grandparents, nobody seemed to have any comment as to how I would go about that, so it sort of shifted to the back-burner. Instead, I did what any person of my generation would...I turned to the internet . I hit Craigslist and various newspapers to see if the...

One of the things I mentioned in the preface was stand-up comedy. I know that I'm a pretty funny guy, but I also know that for the most part, I don't think like a comedian. I'm funny when I tell stories to my friends because they know the parties involved - sometimes they are the parties involved, but that's another story. So the seed had been planted long ago to at least give stand-up a shot of some sort. I recall freshman year in college discussing how to get started in stand-up with a guy named Josh Wade, who performed at Marietta College. He basically just said you have to go for it...find open-mic nights and just start trying. Over time I had slowly gathered a little bit of material. There wasn't really a theme to much of it, which is dangerous. I watched enough stand-up that I realized that the good acts have something tying most of the jokes together, and even if they aren't together, there's at least an absurd segue into the unrelated joke. I had e...

Those of you reading this most likely know me, and I base that on the fact that not a whole lot of people will likely read this. However, the dream includes people knowing me, so I have to entertain the notion that at some point, people will come back to this to get a peek at what the process involved. Have you ever woken up one day and thought "wow...I want to be famous?" You most likely have, and thought about it while you sat in bed in those precious moments between the alarm sounding and when you actually have to get out of bed. Those really are precious moments; the last ones before you fall asleep and the first ones after you wake up. For whatever reason, you think more clearly - I bought a laptop so it was easier for me to write down some of the things I thought about before I went to bed - and sometimes it seems like like really comes into focus during these times. Anyway, I've been fascinated by comedy and things of that nature for a long time. My mom remembers m...