The OC, Part II

The second day on the set of The OC was pretty much more of the same. I hung around with my guys and pretty much just had fun. There was no band, so it was a lot of pretending to walk around the bar and talk to people.

For those of you that don’t know me, I am a moron. Especially when it comes to women. Sometimes the moron part of my brain takes over and bad things happen. A quick example of this was the time that I was temping in Chicago and there was an extremely attractive girl working in the office. I never talk to strange women when I am temping because I feel that it is kind of sleazy. But one day I happen to ride down in the elevator with her. Since it was just she and I, and it was after hours I decided to introduce myself. She told me her name, shook my hand, and then it happened. I opened my mouth and the moron took over.

“My, that’s a very manly handshake you have there”. I am not kidding.

She said thank you, but I saw on her face that I had become the guy who told her she had manly hands. I never spoke to her again and she never spoke to me.

Fast forward a couple of years to the set of The OC. There are a lot of attractive women there, but there are two that especially stand out. A blonde and a brunette. Now the brunette was every bit as good looking as the blonde, but all of the guys were hitting on the blonde. I guess blondes really do have more fun.

Now to book yourself on shows to be an extra you have to call the casting agency. A lot of times you are on hold or it is busy, so if someone gets a casting agent on the phone, they just pass the phone around and you get on a show. Well my friend got through and after he booked himself, he passed the phone to me and as I was booking myself, the blonde sat down next to me and asked if she could have the phone right after me. She booked herself and went to sit down. She and the brunette were sitting close to me and my three friends. Two of my friends were trying to remember her name, when the brunette leaned over and told us her name. So my friends thanked her and introduced themselves to the brunette. They both stood up and shook her hand. I was sitting a couple of feet further from her and I decided that I there were too many hands coming at her so I played it cool and stayed in my chair.

“I’m Bryan, I am not going to shake your hand, but I’ll just…..” and then it happened.

I had been holding my hand up in a kind of wave and when I finished my sentence I bent my hand at the wrist and gave her the finger pointed like a gun. As soon as I did it I dipped my head in shame and everyone began to laugh at me and ask me why I did that. I could only tell the truth. Because I am a moron. The brunette laughed also, but I could tell that I had become THAT guy once again.

At lunch, my friends and I had a discussion about whether the hand gesture I had given the brunette would be a deal breaker if I had given it to her in a bar, or another “pick-up” situation.

So I asked her when I got back. Both she and the blonde agreed that it was not a total deal breaker, but if a guy did that then he would have dug himself in a hole and would have to do a lot to get out of it.

So I raised me head knowing that I was only a partial moron.

One other funny thing happened that day. The night before we had shot a scene on the catwalk above the club. We were all in a line and two of the principal actors were on one end of the catwalk having a conversation. I was on the other end of the catwalk so you probably couldn’t see me very clearly. The A.D. told us to remember who was on the catwalk so they could match the shot the next day. I was standing next to a guy who was Johnny Talkative the whole night. Every time they told us to be quiet, he would ask me a question about something. Not wanting to get in trouble I would just mumble “I don’t know”. So the next day they announced that we would be matching the catwalk shot from the night before and for everyone who was on the catwalk to go into the sound stage and wait against the wall. I saw Johnny talkative milling around and made sure to steer clear of him until we get up to our positions. Somehow between waiting to go up and actually going up, he disappeared. I was up there and they asked me if anyone else was next to me. Not wanting to get him into trouble I said “No”. They ended up shooting it from a different angle so me, and the guys on my end, were not needed. For some reason I had to know where Johnny Talkative went. I was obsessed with it. But I couldn’t find him. I looked everywhere and he had disappeared. I finally ran into him a couple of hours later. The following is the conversation I had with him.

Me “Hey man, where did you go? We were up on the catwalk and you were supposed to be standing next to me.

Him “Dude, I don’t know what happened”

Me “Oh, because they asked me if there was anyone else up there and I didn’t want to get you in trouble so I didn’t tell them you had been up there last night.

Him “Oh, man. I don’t know where I went”

Me “Cause I saw you right before we went up and I was looking all over for you”

Him “They must have place me someplace else”

Me “Oh, they put you on the floor of the club”

Him “I don’t know. I really can’t answer that. I don’t know where I was”

Me “Oh, cause I kept thinking you must have gotten lost or something”

Him “No. I didn’t get lost, I just don’t know where I was”

Me “You don’t know where you went?”

Him “No. Take it easy dude” Laugh.

Even though I was not satisfied with his answer, I knew that he was incapable of giving me an answer to that question.

I kind of hoped that he snuck off to get high, but I am afraid that he really didn’t know where he was an hour ago.

And that ended my second day on The OC.

The OC, Part I

On Wednesday, August 11 I worked on the set of The OC. I was a little surprised that they cast me in that show because it is about a bunch of kids in high school. Nevertheless, I woke up early and drove to the Manhattan Beach Studios. The hotline stated that there would be specific parking instructions on a different voice mailbox, but as of 5:30 in the morning, they had not left those instructions. So, I drove up to the entrance and asked a group of people that I assumed were extras. They told me to park in the Office Depot parking lot and enter through the front gate. I did that and walked around to the building that we were shooting in. I got to the building and the P.A. checking us in asked me where I parked. I told him and he told me that we were not allowed to park in the Office Depot parking lot and why hadn’t I checked the voice mailbox for the instructions. I informed him that there were no instructions. A couple of other people backed me up on that and he told me that I needed to go back to my car and park in the Marriott parking lot.

So, I got to the holding area about 30 minutes late, but they understood because everyone had parked in the wrong area and had to go move their car. There were about 100 other extras in the holding area. I noticed my friend from Dr. Vegas was there as well. So we began to hang out and talk about a lot of the other extras. We went in for our first shot of the day and it was a club called “The Bait Shop” inside a sound studio. It was pretty cool, but there were a lot of us packed in there and with the crew and cast it was probably close to 200 people milling around. Most of the people that were extras were around 20-25, so I felt like I was the oldest one there. But I didn’t care, because like Dr. Vegas, it was populated with a lot of very attractive young women.

A couple of hours later, I was placed in a group of people for another shot and one of the guys said,

“You look very familiar to me”

I told him that I was from Chicago and it turns out he lived in Chicago for a couple of years up until last November. Then he said,

“Wait a minute, weren’t you on “Brain”?

Brain was an improv group that I performed with at The Improv Olympic in Chicago. It turns out that he was the roommate of a guy I know on the team and he and I had met a couple of times at parties there. So I had run into another Chicago boy.

There was also another guy who I recognized as a bar patron on the set of Dr. Vegas. He was really cool also, so the four of us became our little group. We hung out most of the day and made fun of each other and of the other people on set. We came up with little nicknames for everyone that we did not like.

One of the guys we nicknamed “The Hulk”. Why? Because he looked just like The Incredible Hulk, in a 5’10’’ size. He had the same hair and facial structure as Lou Ferigno when he had the Hulk prosthetics on. I guess wardrobe had noticed this also because they gave him a Hulk green shirt to wear. It was like a long underwear shirt that was skintight, which made him even more Hulk like.

There was also “Bicycle”, who was a young lady with humongous fake breasts. I mean grossly out of proportion with the rest of her body. And she wore a skintight top and bent over all of the time. We nicknamed her “bicycle” because we said that everyone had had a ride on her. Not very nice, I know, but what are you going to do to keep yourself occupied for 13 hours.

There was also Johnny New York, who was a guy that had the quintessential New York accent. He also sweated a lot, which has nothing to do with NY, but I thought I should mention it. He was one of those guys that had done a lot of extra work and had no problem telling anyone around him what he had done, what directors had told him that he was great, and in where you could see him in the movies that he had done. He also thought he was better than everyone, so much so that when one of my friends saw him eating an ice cream cone and asked him where he got it, his reply was,

“It’s not for you, boss”.

Which we found hysterical because that had nothing to do with the question asked.

We spent most of the day doing this.

The last 4 hours of the day was spent with us around the stage listening to a band called “The Killers” lip-sync 2 of their songs and we danced and swayed around like it was a real concert. We did this 3 times to each song. It was kind of fun the first time, but then it got old. The songs were pretty good and the band did a really good job pantomiming their parts.

The day ended around 9pm and we headed home. The call time for the next morning was 8am. So I was going to have to go to sleep and get right back up and do the same thing all over again. But at least I had some friends to hang out with.

Bartender for Hire

I worked on the set of the new television show “Dr. Vegas” today. I was slated to be a gambler, with about 100 other people. It was non-union, but it was work and it shoots on the Warner Ranch studio, which is a smaller studio than the Warner Brothers main studio. So, I put on a happy face and wore my one gambler outfit, but brought two other gambler outfits.

“Dr. Vegas” is a show that takes place, obviously, in Las Vegas. The casino that it involves is supposedly a very trendy, beautiful place. Where glamorous people go to gamble and drink. I had heard the need for extras on the hotline before but they always prefaced it with “Very good looking people” so I never called. Not because I don’t think I am good looking, ladies, you could do a lot worse than me. But I knew the kind of guys they were looking for, tall and handsome, by today’s standards. I just don’t fit into that category. I guess I am more of a cute, goofy guy, who has a good personality that puts me into the good-looking category. Believe me, my personality has made me attractive to women who were out of my league more than once. Unfortunately, personality doesn’t quite cut it when you are an extra. They just want the people that fit the part. So when I was calling in to be an extra on a different show, the guy that answered asked me if I wanted to do “Dr. Vegas”. I said yes, and felt good that some strange man, who was probably tired and wanted to go home, thought I was a “very good looking” person. My ego inflated, I went to the set.

I got through security and went to the holding area for the extras. It was in a very nice building that had a large central area, with a couple of changing rooms and another room where the food was set out. I took a seat and started to look at the other people who were slated to shoot this day. I looked at the guys and I had nothing to worry about. I could spot the ones that were supposed to be pit bosses and dealers, they were older and looked like they had been doing this awhile. The other guys were supposed to be gamblers; most of them were schlubs like me. There were a couple of guys who I would classify as “very good looking”, but for the most part it was a group of guys who got sweaty palms around beautiful women. And believe me, there was a lot of perspiration in the palms on this day. A lot of the women there were extremely attractive. They fell into three categories. The ones who were just drop dead gorgeous, the ones who were attractive, but made themselves more desirable by dressing really slutty, and the ones who were a little older and clinging on to the good looks that they used to depend on.

For some reason, all of the really good-looking women congregated into one section of the room. I dubbed this area “The Hot Corner”. And then I positioned myself so I could gaze upon their beauty and not be obvious. The P.A. came in and told us to get our vouchers and go to wardrobe and have them choose our outfits. I was standing in line to get my wardrobe approved when an A.D. came over and grabbed me out of the line and told me I was going to be a bartender today. I went to wardrobe and was given an outfit of black pants, a blue shirt, and a stripped vest. I started talking to the other guy who was chosen to be a bartender and it turns out we had the same first name, just moved to L.A. within the last month, and both came from Chicago. He is a lot younger than me, but he was a cool guy and we hit it off right away. I guess you could call him my first “extra friend”

I got changed into my outfit and went back in to wait for the call. I noticed that a lot of the gamblers were given outfits to change into also. The guys got regular clothes, but the women, especially the good looking ones, were put into outfits that accentuated what the good Lord had given them. “The Hot Corner” was especially appealing in the outfits they were given. But the people that won the prize for the most attractive and the most degraded were the women who were the cocktail waitresses. I have never been to Vegas, but if this is how the waitresses dress, then I am going tomorrow. Their outfits consisted of a sleeveless vest that had two buttons right below their chest and above their navel. The navel was exposed, and so was most of their chest. The women that were not heavily endowed were given cups to put into their bra to squish the breasts together. Let’s just say that if they needed a different name for this show, it would be “Dr. Cleavage”. But what I felt the worst about was the skirt that they had to wear. It was a mini-skirt that ended about eight inches above their knees, which meant that the back of the skirt was just below the butt. So most of them tied a shirt or a sweater around their waist until the cameras rolled. Although there were a couple that felt comfortable enough to just walk around like that.

Three hours later we were called to the set. We all went into the stage and walked onto a fully dressed casino. It was really cool looking. It was fully stocked with slot machines, craps tables, blackjack tables and a really long bar. We positioned ourselves behind the bar and everyone got set-up for the first shot. Basically we were to pantomime serving drinks to the patrons and the waitresses. So we got ready to shoot and in walked Rob Lowe. He plays the central character in “Dr. Vegas” and in this shot he was sitting at the end of the bar and looking up at the television above the bar. He was about 5 feet away from me and getting ready to go, when the director came up and they talked about the shot. I guess this show is all Rob’s baby because it seemed to me that he was calling a lot of the shots. Or maybe he is just a seasoned actor who knows what he wants. Even though I’m not that excited about being around celebrities, it was still pretty cool. So the cameras started to roll and we did the scene about 5 times. Then we moved on to the following shot where he leaves the bar and goes to a blackjack table. While they were setting up for this shot, Tom Sizemore walked in and started chit chatting with Rob and some of the other actors. Aside from some of the negative press that he has received the last few years, Tom Sizemore seemed like a very easygoing guy to work with. He was joking around with everyone and seemed like he was a good guy. So we finished the shot and we were all told to go to holding.

There I started talking to a young woman who was sitting at the bar in the shot we just finished. She was really cool and found myself really liking her. Surprise, surprise she is not from L.A. She is from the East Coast. So we talked for a while and then I was called back to the set. Before we got to the set, a guy came out and told us all that we were wrapped for the day. So I headed back to change out of my outfit and get my voucher signed. I had just changed out of my bartender outfit, when the A.D. came rushing in and told me and the other bar tender that they needed us on the set right away. We changed and went back to the casino. I guess this scene takes place after a fight in the casino, because the crew had over turned all of the tables and chairs, and had thrown cards, chips, and pretzels all over the floor. We are supposed to be picking up the bar after the fight and Rob and Tom have a last scene together. Tom looked like he plays some sort of cop in the episode. We shot that scene for about 2 hours; most of it was with a steady cam, which I had never seen up close. So it was cool to see that being used. After we finished, we went back to the holding area and saw that everyone else had left, even my special lady friend from the East Coast. I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Because it was so late, the craft services people put out sandwiches for the crew and we were told that we could help ourselves. I grabbed a sandwich and headed home.

I did not get a call to be on “Desperate Housewives” on Tuesday, so I am still waiting to get my last SAG voucher.

I bet I will dream about “The Hot Corner” tonight.

The Postman rings twice

On Wednesday, I worked another day as a union extra on the set of “Desperate Housewives”. I felt better getting to Universal Studios because I had been there before and knew what to expect. I got into the van with a gentleman whom I recognized as being on many television shows. I sat next to him and listened as some of the other people made chit chat in the van. We got to the wardrobe location at 7:45 and the Production Assistant told me to go get some breakfast because the wardrobe people would not be ready for me until 8am. So I walked down the hill of Steven Spielberg drive and got to Colonial Street where the set was for the show. They had moved catering to the end of the street. I walked there, grabbed some coffee and looked at my watch. I had about 5 minutes to get back to wardrobe. I started walking quickly back down the street towards the hill. I couldn’t go very fast because I had a cup full of hot coffee and I did not want to spill it on the set. I got to the hill and started walking quickly up it. If you ever want a challenge, try walking up a steep hill quickly, trying not to spill your coffee or look like an idiot. I failed at both. I guess I could have poured out some coffee on the way up since it was no where near the set, but that didn’t occur to me at the time. So I just plowed ahead, remembering that it is much more difficult walking up a hill than down it.

I was out of breath when I got back to wardrobe, but I made it on time. They gave me my mailman uniform and I changed into it. Another van took me back to Colonial Street and I sat in the holding area for extras. I sat, and sat, and sat. Around 10am I got up and walked to where I could see them shooting. A Production Assistant came up to me and introduced himself. I noticed that he was wearing a Cubs hat so I asked him if he was a fan or just liked the hat. He told me that he went to school at Northwestern and lived in Chicago for 3 years after that. We talked about the trade for Nomar, the differences between sports in L.A. and Chicago, and other stuff like that. I realized that I really missed talking Chicago sports with people who knew about it. Even though I am a Green Bay Packer fan, it is always nice to talk about the Chicago Bears once in a while.

They didn’t use me once the entire day. I sat and read for a long time. I talked to my parents, my sister, and the other extras. Lunch was really good, but we didn’t eat until 2pm. I got the feeling that they were running behind schedule. The guy I rode up with in the van plays the husband, or ex-husband of Teri Hatcher on the show. I got to see Teri up close and she is a VERY skinny woman. I also was watching where the husband had to change shirts for a different scene and he is really built well. I started thinking about how I should start working out and eating better so I could have a body like that. Then I walked over to craft services and ate pizza and an ice cream bar. I will start working out tomorrow.

The day ended at 8:30pm. I had been there over 12 hours and they didn’t use me in one shot. Not that I am complaining. I made some decent money and now I only need one more union voucher before I can join SAG. On the van ride down to the parking garage, I heard someone ask over the radio when they would need the mail truck again. The reply came back that they would need it next Tuesday. So, I may have my final voucher in a week.

Things are looking good.

Tuesday, August 3

The set of “Jack and Bobby” was at a school in Long Beach, which is about 30 miles from where I live. I got there and went to the check-in for extras. I noticed that most of the extras there were in fact kids just out of high school. Most of them were around 19 or 20. All of the girls were wearing what they would wear to school. I felt really old for the first time in my life. I wish that I were going to school now because if they do, in fact, wear to school what they were wearing to the set, school is a magical place. It is a place where young ladies have the tightest pants on and no visible panty lines. Where they can be free to have there breasts hang out at odd angles and not be afraid that they would be persecuted for showing the top of their ass crack. I also felt really dirty that I was looking, but glad that I choose acting as my profession.

I noticed one of the guys there immediately. He was a tall blonde that fit the “California surfer” type. He had on a t-shirt that did not have any sleeves. And it was obvious that he worked out on his arms quite a bit and I guessed that this t-shirt was pretty typical of his wardrobe. He became Johnny Biceps. Johnny Biceps had a big chain around his neck that hung down to his mid chest and he had on a HUGE belt buckle. He had tucked in his shirt just around his belt buckle; I surmised this was because he was very proud to display the state of Texas, which was on it.

After we all had gone to wardrobe to have our outfits picked out. I noticed that Johnny Biceps was given a letterman jacket; he was part of the track team. I also noticed that they made him change into a different t-shirt, one that had sleeves. I felt a little guilty about nicknaming him Johnny Biceps until he took great care in rolling up the sleeves of the new shirt so he could expose the world to his most prized possession. He also tucked in the front of the new shirt to expose what I guessed was his second most prized possession.

The first scene I was called in to do was taking place between classes, with all of the extras just walking from point A to point B. I was assigned to walk with a young girl who immediately asked how old I was. Age, or how old you look is a really important topic in L.A. That is usually one of the first questions I am asked by people I meet.

An A.D. came up to us and asked if we had any books we could carry with us. I had with my black bag that I keep my stuff in and I told her that I had a notebook that I could carry. I opened my bag and took out the notebook. She looked into my bag and saw a book that I had brought with me to kill time between shots. She grabbed it and said, “Here, hold this too”. She turned the book over and saw the title in big letters, “How To Make It In Hollywood”. She kind of paused and handed me the book and gave me a look that I took to mean, “you are an idiot”. But in her defense, I think a lot of people give me that look.

After lunch, we were set up for a pep rally in an outside eating area. All of us were sitting at picnic tables with trays of cafeteria food in front of us. We were given direction to pantomime clapping, yelling, whistling, giving high fives and whatever else you do at a pep rally. We did a rehearsal and it was obvious that not everyone understood what pantomime meant. So after a quick explanation from the A.D. we did it over and over again. I was looking at the other extras and I remembered why I am glad I am not that age again. Most everyone that age thinks they are to cool for whatever an adult tells you to do. So there was not a lot of enthusiasm from the pep rally crowd. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but if anyone sees me in this scene they would have thought that the Green Bay Packers won another Super Bowl. I was going nuts each time. I am after all a professional.

In between shots, we had time to just sit and wait. I stood up at one point and felt something weird on my butt. I looked down and noticed that I was sitting in gum. I was pretty mad because I just bought these jeans the day before, and I might have already ruined them. I checked out the damage by feeling where the gum was and then trying to scrap some of it off with my fingers. The gum was on the lower part of my butt and there was quite a bit of it. So I began to scrap it off. I was about 2 minutes into it, when I stopped and thought about what I was doing. From other people’s view I was sticking my hand into my ass, picking at it for a while, looking at what was on my fingers and then wiping it on the underneath of the picnic table we were sitting at. I am sure a few of the cheerleaders were getting a big kick out of watching this. Who says you can’t go back and relive high school?
Then, during one of the breaks in between shots, it happened. I man came up and started talking to me. He was about 5’10’’ and had a beard and a huge beer belly. He spoke with an East Coast accent. He came up and said,

“Don’t think what you’re doing isn’t going unnoticed, you’re very enthusiastic. Keep it up”.

I thought to myself, “This is it. This is what you hear about in the Hollywood stories. You do your job and someone notices and you get on a television show. This guy is going to make me a star, I finally got my big break.”

Then the guy walked away, put on a pair of work gloves and helped another couple of guys move some light stands. He was part of the crew.

I stopped imagining my Oscar speech and laughed to myself. At least I was doing a good job.

A couple of shots later, the same guy came up to me and said,

“The camera is pointed right at you, I don’t want to spook you but keep doing what you are doing”.

The camera was about 30 feet away from me. But I kept on cheering like my life depended on it.

The last shot of the day was the end of the pep rally with all of us standing on a hill with the track team, cheerleaders, some of the main characters and all of us had banners or signs or something to cheer with. I was standing next to a guy, Johnny Hilarity, who was must have been the class clown of his high school. He spent a lot of time telling the people around him why the Groundlings made a big mistake not hiring him and telling us his best comeback to people who give him shit is “You know, I crap bigger than you”, which he thought was hilarious. I didn’t have the heart to tell him he stole that line from Jack Palance, I was just ready to end the day.

Right before we did the last shot, the sprinklers went off and you would have thought someone had just released a dirty bomb. Girls were shrieking and running away, guys were pushing each other into the water and Johnny Hilarity made sure to tell the guys around him that he always made the ladies wet. Order was restored and we finished the scene. Time to head home.

As I stood in line to get my voucher signed, the girl ahead of me told her friend that she was going to ask for a “water bump” on the voucher. A “bump” is when you get an increase in pay, over your base rate, for some special reason. Suck as a special skill or prop that you provided for the shoot. Her friend asked her why she was going to ask for a bump and the girl replied,

“Well, I did get wet didn’t I? These are my shoes”.

And she was right in front of me. That means I would have to listen to her argue with the A.D. about why should would not be getting more money for the sprinkler mishap. This sort of thing always happens to me. The next time you are in a grocery store line and you notice a person arguing about the price of the grapes they just bought, and how they are not getting the sale price and how they have to send someone to go do a price check on those valuable grapes. Look directly behind that person and you will find me.

Thankfully another A.D. came over to help sign vouchers and I was able to get out of there quickly. The girl did NOT get a bump, and she was NOT happy about it.

I went to my car and discovered that I had left my lights on when I got there in the morning. My battery was dead. A very nice young lady let me jump my car with her battery and I headed home.

But there was some good news at the end of the night. I was called back to be the mailman for another episode of “Desperate Housewives” on Wednesday.

That means after Wednesday, I would only need one more union voucher to be eligible for SAG.

Just be patient.

Monday, August 2

I didn’t do much the rest of last week after my one day of extra work. I was calling the extras casting hotline and nothing much fit my description. So, I decided to go and register at another agency. What a lot of people do is register with a number of agencies and then employ a “calling service” that does all of the calling for you. The service then books you on jobs and you don’t have to sit and make phone calls all day. So the first step was to go and register with another agency. I went to an open registration at Bill Dance Casting. I was expecting a lot of people to be there but there were only 3 other guys in the office when I arrived. One of the guys was talking to another one and was telling him the ins and outs of being an extra. He seemed to know a lot about it, so I nicknamed him Johnny Extra. The owner came in and started to give us his spiel about how they work as an agency and what to do to work for them. He then excused himself to go to a dentist appointment and very nice lady took over and continued from where he left off.

When I am new to something, I usually keep my mouth shut and just listen. I knew that these people give this talk everyday to new people and they were probably tired of going over the whole thing, so the quicker they got through the bulk of the info, the better. So I just listened and smiled when it seemed necessary and nodded my head when they were looking directly at me. Johnny Extra must have wanted it known that he was an old hand at doing this because he would throw his two cents in whenever he thought it was necessary. At one point the woman was explaining how their agency would be fined by SAG if they ever sent a union extra to do non-union work. One of the other guys had a question about it, but before the woman could answer Johnny Extra spoke up.

“It means that when you go, if you go there, then they…..wait what is it again?”

The woman just looked at him and answered the guy’s question. Way to go Johnny Extra!

Then the woman was explaining that they recently worked on “Spanglish” which is an Adam Sandler movie. Without missing a beat Johnny Extra piped up.

“I worked with Adam Sandler on “The Waterboy”, Adam is such a cool guy”.

I immediately wanted to kill him.

Towards the end of the information, the woman was speaking about how what they do is important because casting the right extras makes it a movie not a play. Here comes Johnny.

“Makes it a movie, not a play. That is a really good analogy.” He really must have thought so because he let loose with a laugh that can only be described as a cross between a Hyena and a psychopath.

First of all it is not an analogy. And second of all, I knew that I was going to meet a lot more Johnny’s than I wanted to.

I registered, went home and then called a hotline to see if I could get work. There was a posting for “Gilmore Girls” that fit my description. I received the notice at 2:30 and started to call the number for the job. Busy. I called again a couple of minutes later. Busy again. So I put in “The Godfather” and watched while calling every couple of minutes and it was always busy. I guess I feel asleep because I woke up at the part right after James Caan is killed and the phone is on the floor. I pick it up and decide to call one last time. I got through and the only thing they had left was to be a high school student in a new television show called “Jack and Bobby”. A thirty-year-old high school student? They didn’t seem to mind. So I booked it and got my high school outfits together.

I prayed that Johnny Extra would not be there.