Week 396: Almost a Great Story and Summer Leverage

Weekly Written Review 

Almost! I almost made a great story this week. A series of things happened. Let's start with my audition for a co-starring role on NBC's Marlon. My agent got me the audition and I submitted the tape on Sunday. It's also my first TV SAG gig since I joined the union...I think it is. I was really confident about it. My friend LuLu helped me with the read I thought it would be my first co-starring role in the bucket. After a day or two, my white flag rose up. Oh well, let's just keep it moving, right! On Tuesday, I went down to Central Casting to update my account to union status. I signed up with Central Casting in December for the hell of it. They finally booked me for my first background gig last week. Upon that booking, I was like, "oh, this really works." I got paid on the non-union scale last week. I wanted to make sure if they booked me again it would be at a higher rate. What sucks about Central Casting is that you have to go into their office to update everything. There's no way to do it over the phone or online. So I went to Central on Tuesday to update my account and to my surprise, they contacted me the very next day for work. Two days of work on the show Marlon. Yup, the same show episode I auditioned for. 

Working background on the same show and episode I originally auditioned for a co-starring role was somewhat humbling. I got a first-hand view of the actor that took my role, lol. After thoroughly analyzing his performance, I get it. I probably made too many funny faces in my audition video. Even if I gave a perfect audition I probably wouldn't have got it. The choose a skinny light-skinned young man. Marlon was able to play off of his complexion and lanky body for jokes. I spoke to the kid that got the part and he told me it was his very first booking. I'm happy for him. That role was for him and he played the part. It certainly would have been nice to book my first co-starring role but there's a chance I might be seen just as much as him from my background work. I worked that camera. I'm certainly all up in that episode. I got some great looks and I'm sure lots of people will recognize me in the episode. Look out for me on Marlon season 2 episode 8. 

Mid-point through the first day of the Marlon shoot I get an audition notice. Oh boy! It was in the morning and I had to be back at Marlon in the morning. I knew I had to take the risk. This was an amazing story in the making. By the end of the Marlon shoot day 1, I told the 1st AD that I had a personal matter in the morning and I was going to be running late. He was cool about it. On Friday morning I got up early hoping to audition early and get out. That wasn't the case. My audition for a recurring role was at CBS Radford. My audition time was at 11:15. I got there around 9am and just waited. My Marlon call time was 9:30am. It was supposed to be at 8:30 but they pushed it an hour later. It helped but not enough. Central Casting called me at 9:30am. I told them I was running late and that I told the 1st AD what's up the morning before. As I waited for the audition to start I worked on my lines. I was called in first around 11am and the casting director said I was cute. That's a great start. She highlighted a few things on my resume and the energy in the room was positive. I started the scene and she stopped me early on. I immediately knew I blow it at that moment. As usual, I was making unreal choices or too big choices for my character. I messed up the second time and asked to start over. I barely made it through the last read and I was glad it was over. I got out of there and called a LYFT. I got the NBC Univeral around 11:30am. Someone escorted me to the 1st AD and he gave me an I'm disappointed in your face. I had to remind him of our conversation yesterday morning. It took him a second to remember and it was all good from that point. They were working on a scene that I probably wouldn't have been in first place. Then I got great placement for the remaining of the shoot.

The best part about this experience is that I get paid for the full day with no deductions. That's awesome. What sucks is that I blow the audition. What a story this would've been if I booked the audition after going through all that. Everything was in my favor. The 1st AD was on my side and I even had one of my background members that I just met updating me about the shoot through Instagram while waiting for my audition. Yet, there's no great story to share. Nonetheless, I really believe I got some good looks in the episode which airs this summer. That's more leverage for the Summer of Motown.


Sunday, April 15, 2018

* Hanging with LuLu...Pizza Hut

* Audition video sent for Marlon


Monday, April 16, 2018

* Music video audition

* No tennis today...it was way too windy outside

* Blogging...


Tuesday, April 17, 2018

* Central Casting update

* Basketball...evening...

* Signed up for Best Buy's Gamers club


Wednesday, April 18, 2018

* I randomly volunteered for a so-called TV pilot. Everyone was getting paid except for the background actors. It was my random decision of the week. I left early because it simply wasn't fun. I don't like how they treated the background actors. Part of me wishes I never bothered with it and played basketball. It was an unchallenging day.

* I didn't book the co-starring role for Marlon but Central Casting requested me to work background for the next two days. That was kind of random and cool.


Thursday, April 19, 2018

* Marlon shoot day 1


Friday, April 20, 2018

* CBS audition

* Marlon shoot day 2


Saturday, April 21, 2018

* Basketball...

* Playing Just Dance with LuLu. Yup, I bought it this week. Wow, I own Just Dance.


As the quest continues...

The future of Late Night

Motown Maurice