Only In The Streets Of LA

I was driving after work to the Hoya's place to go out to dinner. I was driving North on this street called Highland Avenue to get to the 101 North.

Just driving along minding my own business. I had the window down, playing some tunes, just driving.

I am stopped in traffic and I see about 8-10 police cars driving south on Highland. They were kind of driving slowly, positioning themselves around traffic, turning their lights on and off, but no sirens.

It seemed really, really strange, so I started to look around for some explanation. Maybe a police funeral, maybe a police escort, politician, something. But it was only police cars, a lot of them.

I was coming up to a street called Fountain. I was a couple of blocks south of the light and the police cars had just driven through the light coming toward me. There are about 12 cop cars or so.

All at once every cop got out of the car and draw their revolvers and point them at the cars in front of them. Then I take a look at MY situation.

The police cars are all about 30 yards diagonally to my left. The cars that they are pointing their revolvers at is just to my left and a little ahead of me. Since they all have their revolvers drawn and there are about 20 or so cops, this must be a serious situation. IF shots are fired I am just inside their line of fire.

I have my widow down so I can hear the cops shouting "Driver of the car, let me see your hands, put your hands out of the window."

The car in front of them is a big black SUV. A Yukon. BUT, there is a smaller four door sedan in front of the Yukon. Because he is in front of the Yukon, he can't really see what is going on in back of him. All he can see are some cops off to the side and hear a cop shouting to put his hands out. So the driver of the sedan puts his hands out of the window. The cop keeps yelling for the driver to put his hands out of the window. So the guy in the sedan puts his hands further out the window, and then sticks his head out.

The cops yells to the guy in the sedan to keep moving and then yells "Driver of the Yukon, put your hands out."

I see in MY rearview mirror that more police cars are blocking of the street behind me, closing off the street from the south. And two more cops cars have now blocked the street going in my direction and are motioning for my car and the cars next to me to move around him and get clear.

I follow the cops direction and drive around the police car. As I drove past the car they had pulled over, I looked and saw the guy they were worried about and it was just some middle aged guy. The whole thing only took a couple of minutes, but it was a STRANGE couple of minutes

Never did find out what happened.

Ups and Downs

The Hoya and I went to California Adventure last week. California Adventure is the Disney theme park right next door to Disneyland. It has some fun stuff, but overall it is a poor man's Disneyland with none of the nostalgia that Disneyland has.

We were eating lunch at this cafe, I had the $8 roastbeef sandwich, and as I stood up this guy who was walking back from throwing away his food stopped me. He reached out his hand and said:

"I don't know where I know you, but I recognize you. I'm John Powers"

So I shook his hand and said:

"Hi, I'm Bryan"

Then I walked to the bathroom. In the bathroom, I kept thinking where I might have run into that guy, working catering, performing improv, but I couldn't place it. Then it hit me. John Powers thinks that I am someone famous. That he saw me on tv or in the movies and wanted to shake my hand.

I went back and discussed it with The Hoya and we both agreed that he probably mistook me for someone else. Maybe Patrick Swayze.

But on the ride home I started thinking that maybe I have a shot at making it out here. If people already think they know me from stuff, maybe I am destined to be on tv or in the movies.

Without knowing it, John Powers had filled me with confidence.

Then two days later I got this letter from my commercial agent.

After close review we have not been able to service you to the best of our ability. Therefore we are releasing you from your commitment to LA TALENT. We wish you the best of luck in the future.

I felt really bad after I got that, but then again, I only got 3 auditions from this agency in 8 months and 2 of the 3 were non-speaking roles. So maybe I am better off without them.

I have a lead on some other agents and maybe they will be better for me.

Can't be any worse. And if all else fails, I will always have John Powers.

The Headshot Saga, Part II

The last time we left our hero, I had just been given the selection of two headshots that my agents liked. Now he had to get them reproduced. My incredibly kind girlfriend told me about a reproduction house that was 2/3 cheaper than the one I usually used. Being a cost conscience individual, I brought over the disc with the selections on them for me girlfriend to take a look at and alter if needed. I have dark circles under my eyes, thanks to my fathers genes. She was able to erase them on her computer and make me look young again. Then she noticed that the photos were very yellowish, so she altered that as well, and I was finally excited to get them reproduced.

We took them to the reproduction house and gave them to the lady to take a look at. She printed out some quick proofs and came over to me looking concerned. I wasn't worried because everything else had been easy, so this should be as well, right?

Wrong!

She came over and said that the color was all screwed up, that it was too blue and that my hair looked really read around my hair line. I asked what could do that and she replied that the photographer might have altered some of the color, or that the light might not have been right and that is why my hair looked weird.

So I did not leave them to be reproduced. Instead, my lovely girlfriend The Hoya took the files and left the color alone, but tried to make my hairline less red. It might have had something to do with the dye I used to color in my grey hair. Yes, I am graying, so what?!

So she fixed that and then I took them back. The printed off the proofs and they looked alright and I finally got my new headshots almost two months after I had them taken.

The better be worth it!

The Headshot Saga

I finally got new headshots taken, approved and reproduced. But it only took 2 months to do so.

My original headshot was not getting me auditions. I was more concerned about commercial auditions because I trust my commercial agent more so than my theatrical agent. I asked him to recommend a photographer that they trusted and they gave me the name of a guy named Maximo. Yes, Maximo.

I wanted to make sure that these photos turned out well, so I set up a meeting with Maximo in December to talk over what I wanted, look at my previous photos, and generally get on the same page. He was a good guy and we could shoot pretty soon, so I set up an appointment for a photo shoot.

I hate taking pictures of myself. I feel uncomfortable and I am sure that it shows in the pictures that are taken of me. But, I went into the shoot with a positive attitude and ready to get at least 1 great shot of me that Casting Directors would go ga-ga over. One is all that it takes.

The shoot went well and I picked up my CD from Maximo to look at the shots. Here is where it starts to get frustrating.

He gave me a disc of JPEG files that had about 50 shots on it that were his picks for my commercial agent to take a look at. Then he gave me a DVD with all of the files of the pictures on it. The problem is that my computer is old and does not have a DVD player on it. So I could not view all of the shots. I had to call him back and set up another time for me to come get a disc of all JPEG shots on a CD, not a DVD. That took about a week to get that and when I did it was almost Christmas and work was really busy and I was getting a show together for Chicago in a couple of weeks. I did not have the time to sit down for hours and pour through all of the shots. But in mid-January I finally sat down and picked a bunch for my agents to look at. I emailed my commercial agent, but he didn't get back to me right away. No big deal, I will just go to my theatrical agent and get her opinion. I got in and had the best interaction I have ever had with her. She told me that she liked some of the pictures I had brought in, but she wanted to take a look at the whole shoot. She didn't usually do that for people, but for me she would. She wanted me to bring in the whole disc of pictures that she would go through and pick her final choices.

I copied the CD, and dropped it off the next week. I emailed her that I had done what she asked and she replied "We don't accept CD's of photo shoots, please pick out your choices and make an appointment to come and see me". That was more like the interaction that I usually have with them. I know they see tons of people and it is hard to keep track of what you tell everyone, but it was frustrating none-the-less. I sent her another email telling her the situation and that she told me to drop it off. A couple of days later she emailed me back that she did remember telling me that and she would look at my disc and get back to me in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, I finally got through to my commercial agent and set up a time to come in. I brought the 15-20 choices that I had printed out on my computer, using up a whole ink cartridge in the process, and presented them to him. No way. He did not want to see my choices, he wanted me to leave the CD with Maximo's choices at the office and they would look at them and get back to me the next day.

The next day, I had not heard anything from them by late afternoon. So I sent an email checking up on things. "Didn't have time to get to it. Will look tomorrow" was his reply. So I waited again. Sent an email again late in the afternoon the next day. Same thing. Wait until tomorrow. I didn't contact them the next day and instead waited a whole day until contacting them. "Come in around 2 tomorrow" was his only reply.

I go in the next day, almost a full week since I had set up the first appointment, and he hand me the disc and says "Our systems are down, we can't look at the disc." I don't mention that I see at least 4 people working on computers at the very moment the system is down. "Go next door to Kinko's and have them print off a proof sheet, only costs a couple of bucks and then come back and we can look at them."

Frustrated again, but with hope that I will soon have an answer, I walk a block to Kinko's and ask the very helpful employee behind the counter a question.

"Hi, I have pictures on this disc and I need a proof sheet printed out"

"I don't know what you are talking about" she helpfully replied.

"Oh, well I wanted to print off a proof sheet that has all of the pictures on it."

"We can't do that" she helpfully pointed out.

"It's just a sheet that has all of the pictures on it, so I can take a look at them."

"If we print a sheet with all of the pictures on it, each picture will be so small that you won't be able to see it"

"Well, they don't have to be regular size, they just need to be.....

"The only thing that can do that is that machine over there" she helpfully pointed out.

"Oh, that can print a proof sheet?"

"I don't know. It can print the pictures" then she helpfully turned her back and pretended to helpfully talk to someone else.

I go over to the machine, put in my disc and try to figure out the cheapest and easiest way to get what I want. I fail miserably. I end up paying $16, to print off 4X6 copies of each of my photos. All 55 of them. It takes around 45 seconds to print off 1 picture, so I sit on the floor of the Kinko's and catch all of my photos that print off.

I thank the helpful employee and walk back to my agents office. I am sure they are wondering where the hell I went since I have been gone over half an hour. I walk in, start to give my agent the pictures, when he gets a phone call from some woman who is a model with them. She has been offered $10,000 a day for a two day Panteene shampoo commercial. She is wavering because she just got a small part on an NBC show and doesn't want to do commercials anymore and not be thought of as a real actress. So I sit and wait as my agent is trying to get her to take the commercial and he can earn his 10-15% of $20,000. After a few minutes, this nice other agent tells me that she can take a look at my pictures and I take the 55 4X6 pictures over to her. She begins to go through them and I can see that she is getting a little overwhelmed by all of the pictures. So I tell her that I have my choices of those pictures that I printed out and brought with me. She tells me to show her those.

So I end up showing her the EXACT PHOTOS THAT I COPIED AND BROUGHT IT A WEEK AGO to choose my headshot.

She choose two. My agent got off the phone and told me that he trusts the other agents judgment and does not take a look at the ones she chose.

But I got my photo choices. Now all I have to do is get them reproduced. Easy right?

Wrong!

25th Century Heroes

For the past four months I have been working on a show with two of my friends that moved out here last summer. I knew Alonzo and Buddy from Chicago where we all went through Improv Olympic together. I was very excited when I first heard that they were moving out here, because I had been itching to get something going myself to perform around town.

January 13, 2006 we made our debut at the Chicago Sketchfest.

We are the "25th Century Heroes"!!!

This is something that we are planning on doing for a long time. We are working on a website and videos and lots of other fun stuff.

The months leading up to our show were very, very hectic. It is always tough to write a show from scratch and get it ready to perform, but it was even more difficult because it was during the holidays.

But we prevailed.

Chicago was great. The Hoya and I flew in Wed night and then hung out with my sister. Thursday was a day of rest and watching shows and then Friday was the big day of our show.

The 25th Century Heroes is a theme that we have created so we can do something different than other sketch comedy teams. The three of us are from the future sent back to the present to observe humanity. We just wanted a way for us to have a show that just wasn't 10 funny scenes that had nothing to do with each other. People seemed to like the show and we got very positive feedback from everyone that we spoke with.

The Hoya was a valuable ally to the Heroes. She designed buttons that were a hit, she has designed merchandise that is available to purchase, and she sat in on our tech rehearsal and helped us to make the show look good. So the Heroes owe her a big thank you!

Expect more updates on the Heroes very soon. I am very proud of this and will continue to have fun stuff to show you soon.

Funny Taiwan Teaching Method

One of my best friends from high school has lived in Taiwan for the past 5 years. He taught English to kids. He mailed me this sheet that is a teaching aid for the kids. It is a story that most of us will know from childhood, but with a little bit of a different ending. It made me laugh so I am sharing it with all of you.




One day, while the ants were going to work, the grasshoppers were going to dance. The ant's said, "We will work all summer, because we want to have enough food for winter." The grasshoppers laughed and said, "We want to be happy, so we are going to dance all summer."

The winter came. The ants had a lot of food and thought they were going to have a wonderful winter. They were very happy, and they danced and sang songs in their house. When the ants were happy, the grasshoppers were sad. The grasshoppers had no food to eat in the cold winter. They asked the ants for help, but the ants didn't want to give them food.

So, the grasshoppers were going to die. They said to themselves, "We will work hard next summer." But it was too late. After they finished the words, they died.


I guess they want to teach the kids the hard lessons early in life.

The Working Life

The holidays are the busiest time of the year for catering. Everybody is having parties and so my company was sending out lots of people everyday. I ended up working in the office 4 weekdays and Saturdays for the past 3 months. It was nice money, but it really wore me down. Part of the problem is that catering attracts a lot of idiots. Most of the people we send out are fine and do an excellent job, but it is the idiots that cause all of the problems. Canceling on a job a couple of hours before you are supposed to start is a huge hassle for us, because there is no way that we can get someone else to take the job and get there on time. But when people cancel jobs, they act like we are the bad guys because we tell them it will affect their future with the company.

The other thing that really gets my goat is when people don't do any planning to get to there job on time. Here is one such exchange.

Me: How can I help you?
Joe: Yeah, I am supposed to be at a job and I can't find it?
Me: Okay, what is your name?
Joe: Joe.
Me: Joe who?
Joe: (exasperated) Joe Smith!!!
Me: Okay, so you are supposed to be at Cal Tech in 10 minutes.
Joe: Yes.
Me: Okay. Where are you?
Joe: I'm not sure.
Me: Alright. Do you have the address?
Joe: No.
Me: Do you have a map?
Joe: No.
Me: Did you mapquest the directions before you left?
Joe: No. I thought I knew where it was so I just got in my car and drove.
Me: Can you tell me the city you are in.
Joe: No sure.
Me: Can you tell me the streets that you are near.
Joe: I am on 1st street, passing Main st.
Me: Okay.
(pause as I try to call up a map on the internet)
Joe: You there?
Me: Yes, Joe. I am trying to find where you are. We gave you directions on your
calendar. Did you look at them.
Joe: No.
Me: Okay, hold on let me see if I can help you. You need to have the address
and directions with you when you leave for a job.
Joe: Hey man, if you don't wanna help me that's fine, I will just not show up.
Me: No Joe, don't do that, let me find where you are and get you there.


So I spend the next 20 minutes helping this guy to get to his destination, only to have him do it AGAIN the next time he goes on a job. Thankfully, he will not be working that much now that it has slowed down. When it is so busy during the holidays, we need every warm body that we can get. So, really shitty people work for us.

Now, I am not working in the office that much, which sucks for money, but is great since I have time to do other things. Like acting, which is why I moved out here.

Home For the Holidays

I went back to Chicago for Thanksgiving. My sister still lives there and my parents were driving in from Pennsylvania to have Thanksgiving in my sisters new place.

I got there a couple of days before my parents did and it gave me some time to catch up with old friends. I saw my old roommate from college who now lives in San Francisco, another old friend from college who still lives in Chicago, my old roommate from Chicago, and some old improv friends. It was a full day, but it was nice to get to see everyone.

My parents came in and then we had family time. My mother and sister made Thanksgiving dinner. My mom makes the BEST turkey ever. Her secret ingredient is that she puts grapes and grape juice in the bottom on the pan you cook the turkey in. The grapes, along with some cranberries, makes the turkey really most because of the acid in the fruit. My sister had a friend over for dinner and she said it might have been the best turkey she had ever eaten.

After dinner, we went and saw "Wicked" in downtown Chicago. We all enjoyed it a lot, even my dad.

It was good to have a day of rest before heading back to Los Angeles.

Then I went to my parents house in Pennsylvania for Christmas. It is nice to go there because we don't know anyone there since they only moved a couple of years ago, so it is only family time.

I was really, really sick when I got there. I had a cold/flu from being run down and not getting enough sleep. After a couple of days I felt better and began to annoy my family again, at which point they wished I was still sick.

Christmas was fun and got some good stuff, but mainly it was nice to see my family again and to take a little break from the insanity that was work.

New Years was spent in Los Angeles. After work, I took the Hoya to a mutual friends house to ring in the new year. The Reverend and Rockstar met us there and we all had a good time hanging out and taking pictures. New Years came and then we left because I had to get up and work in Malibu early in the morning.

I love holidays, but I wish I wasn't so busy this year because it seemed like I never really got to enjoy them.

Hello Old Friend

Well, as you can see I have not updated this blog in over a month. The main reason being that the past several months have been exceptionally busy. The holidays are the busiest time of the year for catering and I was working in the office just about every day, and doing other events in the field and doing improv at two theaters and getting a sketch comedy show together to perform in January. That, plus traveling for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and to perform this show, made my time at home minimal. But, things have quieted down and I will be back to writing several times a week to keep everyone updated with events going on in my life. For now, I will post several entries with what I have been up to the past couple of months.

The Chicago Bears Rule!!!

I would like to congratulate the Chicago Bears on their victory over the Green Bay Packers today. The Bears really put it together and managed a fine victory. Green Bay had no answers and couldn't pull out the win. So hats off to Lovie et al for a hard fought victory.

I hope you are happy Mark M.

Bear Down

Magic In LA

The past Monday morning, I was again reminded why LA is like no other city in America. I was getting into the elevator at the building where I work and right behind me walked in Tommy Lee from the band Motley Crue. He got on with a bodyguard and some "suit" type of guy. They chit chatted for the 10 seconds or so that it took to get up to the 5th floor. Being the gentleman that I am I let them get off first and when I followed them around the corner, there was Nikki Six from the band as well. Apparently there is a radio station on the same floor as my work and they do interviews there every now and then. Later on, Tommy and Nikki were joined by Mick Mars as well. All three looked like they had been doing some hard living. But it was Monday morning so I am sure that I didn't look so hot either.