Week 504: The Case of the Vanishing Talent Agent

Weekly Written Review 

For the first time in just under 10 years, since I relocated to Los Angeles, I am without a talent agent.

Their Facebook and Instagram accounts have vanished. They have not returned my email or Cmail. My talent agency is gone and I'm actually at peace about it. After almost a decade of playing the industry's silly audition game, I'm ready to put that chapter behind me. Auditions have done very little to advance my ultimate goal. I was never good at it and I never will be. I had my share of big auditions but no big bookings came from them. 

When I joined SAG in 2018 my audition opportunities began to decline. On the bright side of that, fewer auditions eventually allowed my mind, body and soul to fully embrace a new creative outlet. Last year, I started screenwriting which is now my creative focus.

I suspect that the impact of Covid-19 took a toll on my agency. Since the world has been on lockdown, I haven't heard from them and I sense they won't be returning. I reached out to my first agent to say hi and they respectfully replied. I didn't dare ask them to represent me again. I don't want to waste their time. I didn't do much for them before and I doubt I'll do anything for them now.

Furthermore, I don't want to audition anymore. I'll be perfectly fine if I never audition again. I booked two feature films and a short film last year without a single audition. I need more of that. I desire a career with phone calls that lead to direct bookings. 

It's certainly interesting not having representation after so long. My first and second agents were acquired relatively easily. Rightfully speaking, most actors don't have agents right now because the industry is on hold because of the crisis. There's not much an agency can do without films being shot. Having an agent never really meant anything. For most actors, it's a security blanket. For me, it was more like a backup lottery system. Now, I'm in a very particular position. Even though auditions came with doubt, it also came with hope. It came with a possibility to break down barriers. Auditions also came with a lot of wasted time. I'm not playing that game anymore. 

Now, I got to let my words to do the acting and an abundance will follow. This doesn't mean it's going to get easier. It never gets easier. The difference now, I'm wielding a sword. The mightest of it's kind. For I am transformed and my voice is amplified. 

Sunday, May 10, 2020

* Buying turnips

* Watching: The Last Dance Episodes 5 & 6

* Mother's day...

* Discord building... Autobio interest...

Monday, May 11, 2020

* Autobio fixing and I was able to drop a few pages. Yes!

* Rewatched an episode of Breaking Bad entitled Better Call Saul. It was a reference check to the prequel.  

* Ralphs run...

* Watching: Pose. It's time to finish season 2. 

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

* Atarah's B day...

* Game stream testing with Raj...

* Cooking Rock Fish...

* Over the weekend, I reached to someone about joining my gaming community. He never responded to that inquiry but when he found out about my scripts he was very interested in that. I touched up my script today and yesterday. He read it on the same day and gave really positive feedback. 

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

* Walk...

* The script Lab submission of RAD. 

* Watching: Pose

* :-/ When you realize you don't have an agent anymore...


Thursday, May 14, 2020

* 1.6 mile run. Time: 14:44 my best run time yet. 

* Watching: Black Mirror - Striking Vipers

* Rewatching: Stranger Things

* Watched the finale of How To Get Away With Murder. It ended with a lot of unanswered questions but I'm glad it's over.

* Watching: The Last Dance episodes 7 & 8. 


Friday, May 15, 2020

* Payment for Barb...

* Garage stop, cat food run...

* Rewatching: Stranger Things...

Saturday, May 16, 2020

* Finished rewatching season one of Stranger Things...

* Brawlhalla tournament. I won again. This one was live-streamed by Gamor on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIXXaTHLlZU


As the quest continues...

The future of Late Night

Motown Maurice

Week 503: Vampire Shift Reunited

Weekly Written Review 

Lately, I've been highly unproductive during the day. As a matter of fact, all I've been doing is sleeping when the sun is out. I've been waking up between 1pm and 2pm. Not long after I wake up and in the bed again taking a nap. Basically, I'm waiting for the sun to go down to get on my grind. Around 6am when the sun is rising, that's my queue to sleep. I'm on that vampire shift again. It's been a while since I've on this kind of shift. I've done more of this in Tampa. Not much in LA because of auditions and sports. I'm actually enjoying it. It's 3:41am PST right now. The night is young with approximately 3 more hours to get things done. It's a great shift for writing and thinking.

On Sunday, I got an epiphany for my Discord account to start building a gaming community. The new vision for my server gave me a reason to connect with people I haven't been in touch with for a long time. Not even a pandemic can stop me from bringing people together. I was able to set up a friendly Brawlhalla tournament on Saturday and it was a blast. The four of us had a lot of fun. I did win my own tournament and that means they will be gunning for me in the next one. Bring it on.  

Sunday, May 3, 2020

* Phone calls... Aunty Bern, Lil J...

* A vision of Discord...

* Watching Better Call Saul...

* Playing Splatoon...

Monday, May 4, 2020

* Watching: Star Wars Episode V. I started dosing off but I completed watching the next day. 

* Writing... Project E. 1 page completed. 

* Discord building...

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

* Turnip day. Made over 1.4 million bells. 

* Finished Watching: Star Wars Ep V...

* Watching: Better Call Saul

* Writing... Project E. 3 pages total. 

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

* Project E writing...

* Watching Better Call Saul...


Thursday, May 7, 2020

* I did my weekly 1.6 mile run. I came in around 15:54. That's not going to cut it. I'm breaking 15 even next week.

* Projecting E writing... 7 pages.

* Watching Better Call Saul...

Friday, May 8, 2020

* Garage stop. Smart & Final cat food run

* Writing break...

* Watching Better Call Saul and How to Get Away with Murder. Only one more episode. Can't wait to be done with this series. 

Saturday, May 9, 2020

* Brawlhalla tournament. I'm the champ. 

* Discord networking with a random connection for possible future game testing and voiceover work. 

As the quest continues...

The future of Late Night

Motown Maurice

Week 502: The Force is finally with me

Weekly Written Review 

For years, I walked this earth with shame, not ever watching a Star Wars movie. My friend Kevin B. always gave me a hard time about that. Since the pandemic, I realized if I don't watch Star Wars now, I'll probably never watch it. The same goes for anyone that has aspirations for writing. If you want to write and you're not taking advantage during the crisis, you're most likely never going to write. What that being said, I finally watched the first Star Wars and it was... okay. I'm glad I watched it but I didn't really enjoy it much. I watched Episode V in Week 503 and I enjoyed Yoda, a lot. That's about it. 

As far as my writing goes, I approached this week ready to tackle another project. There were some developments in week 501 for Project O but since then I've been stumped. Some okay characters were created but something about the story was not working. I spent a couple days trying to fix it but the results were empty. I was ready to toss the idea back in the vault. Then on Wednesday, Atarah and I went for a walk and chat. At the time I was on the brink of archiving the idea. This was possibly going to be our last discussion about it. We talked about the original concept in 2019 and our most recent ideas, still nothing. Then we started shifting our minds into the world of science fiction. Behold, Project O became Project E and I must say its magnificent. It's a creative long-shot and I can't wait to write the pilot.  

Sunday, April 26, 2020

* Turnips...

* Walking...

* Watching: Star Wars IV for the first time... 

Monday, April 27, 2020

* Watching: Part 1 & 2 of The Last Dance


Tuesday, April 28, 2020

* Selling Turnips...

* Taiko Drum competition... I won of course. 

* Watching: Part 3&4 of The Last Dance...


Wednesday, April 29, 2020

* Walking and a huge brainstorm...aka project E. Followed by new development. We took out of voice recorder app for this one. 

Thursday, April 30, 2020

* Weekly 1.6 mile run. In 15:55 this time. My worst time but I also timed my self. There were issues. 

* Playing Spaltoon...

* Started Beter Call Saul season 5...

* Plot points for Project E...


Friday, May 1, 2020

* Garage stop. Cat food run...

*Watching: Better Call Saul...


Saturday, May 2, 2020

* Superior Groceries pickups...

* Watching: Better  Call Saul... 

As the quest continues...

The future of Late Night

Motown Maurice