I had lunch with an actor friend who is 28 and doing really well. He’s got plenty of work but the defacto strike has him frustrated like everyone else. When I asked him how his summer was going he answered “I just want to work.” That’s all of us. We want to work and we … Read more
What to offer about this current SAG negotiation conundrum… AFTRA is going to ratify, they're so far behind SAG in rates and benefits that a big increases still mean less than an actor can live on. I am a duel union member and after three years as a series regular on a AFTRA contract show … Read more
In baseball there's a term used when your team relies on the little things to win games. Your team doesn't have big hitters so you rely on the singles and steals and sheer effort to score runs. It's called playing small ball. In our biz the "small ball" equivalent would be the low budget, friend … Read more
When it comes to going out to shows I find I am a snob. Being a snob allows me to avoid any more nights of watching or hearing dreck and wanting my time back. We’ve all had these evenings and thought about them when invited out for what feels like another such outing. I don’t … Read more
Sad news today. Harvey Korman, one of our good guys, our funny, funny men, one of our heroes died today. A hero? Yeah. He made it on pure talent. Pure commitment to whatever he was doing, even when it made him look like an ass. The husband in the Mama skits was at time psychotic. … Read more
In Philadelphia there is a museum called the Barnes Foundation named after a wealthy man who collected art and believed that there was a way to teach art to people that would help them understand it better then by just having great paintings on a wall. To do this he collected a lot of paintings and … Read more
In an effort to get enough work by June 30th (to make my health insurance minimums before a strike deadline), a friend started to send me the daily breakdowns so I could see what roles were available for me. She said that it would double my auditions because as hard as they try, agents just … Read more
Sad really. We rely on our leaders to fight for us and want to believe that they are. Why is AFTRA negotiating without us in the room? Is that a good thing? It’s not what SAG wanted so I guess it’s a bad thing. Why would our leaders let that happen? Why is their even … Read more
Last week I went to NYC and stopped in at my starting place. It was 25 years ago I sat tense, lonely, and worried watching an old man with thick glasses and a cane enter the room. I had no real idea who Sanford Meisner was, I hadn’t been a student of the game, I … Read more
You meet guys like Dan Truman a few times in your life, they are the angels that you are sent that you don’t know you need until they arrive. I received an email commenting on the book. I responded and it turned into a relationship about spreading the message that we actors are not hostage … Read more