It's the Tonight Show!!

I have been having a wild rollercoaster of a week! I had a few auditions for short films, got invited by a commercial agency to come read for them, and perhaps the most exciting bit of news was that I was cast by The Tonight Show to do a comedy sketch for them. Yes! THE Tonight Show.

I arrived on Universal's lot around 11am, and proceeded to the Tonight Show building. I was greeted by Alex (the page) who had me fill out my paperwork, took me to wardrobe, and then showed me to my very own dressing room. (I know, fancy!) Art was the other guy in the skit, who played my partner. The joke was playing off the Star Registry, where you can purchase your loved one their very own star in the galaxy. Well, this had to do with Conan's freckles and my partner bought me one as a gift. As we open our certificate and look at the map, it has a picture of Conan's naked body (front and backside) and sure enough...MY freckle is located on his left butt cheek, and playing it up for the bit...I am overjoyed by the placement! It's all pretty stupid, but in true Conan O'Brien fashion.

I haven't been in many dressing rooms, but this one seemed to be par for the course...there was a couch, a tv, and a fridge with drinks provided and a private bathroom. I decided to get up and look around the dressing room hallway and read the walls, which were full of autographs of Conan's guests. Well, being that this is a new studio built for Conan, and he just recently took over the show, the walls were still pretty bare. Nooo, I didn't sign the wall...but thought about it. ;)



Kristen Bell arrived, who was one of the guests of the evening. She was in the room across from me, so I sort of shied away back towards my room, but kept the door wide open, and she kept hers open as well. Andy Richter decided to come say hello to Kristen, as did Conan, but he was off to the side where I couldn't see...but here they all stood right in the middle of the hallway between our doors, so I could hear their entire conversation. I pondered getting up to go for a walk, but would have had to plow through their celebrity wall.

Eventually, they all had to go to Hair and Makeup, so I was free to wander again...which lead me to the next door in the hallway, which read Edward Norton. I didn't actually get to see Ed Norton, nor was I about to knock on the closed door. It's unfortunate...I would have loved to have met one of the greatest actors of our time (in my opinion). Art and I took a walk into the Green Room, and proceeded to indulge in the snacks and drinks that were offered. They had Caribou Coffee on set, for all my MN fans back home...I thought you might be interested in hearing that. ;) The director of our skit came by and introduced himself. He apologized for the delay in getting to our scene, and that we might have to shoot it after the show. As it turned out, they were ready for us an hour later.

They took us down to one of the stages, which had been dressed to look like the happy couples living room. The crew were really a lot of fun to work with, everyone was having fun with the shoot. We filmed it a couple different ways, but only ended up doing 4-5 takes...and then we wrapped!

As I went back upstairs...Conan was walking down the hallway with this crew behind him cheering him on to go have a great show, and I watched him disappear into the double doors, which I assume led to the set. As I was walking to my car, I glanced around the studio lot with a smile on my face, as even though I have worked on Universal several times before...this was quite different. I wasn't being shuttled to some extras holding pen, being told to walk here and there. I had actually just gotten paid to do a sketch comedy bit for The Tonight Show. Pretty cool!

As it turns out, they cut a good portion of our skit out, I assume they thought it was too racy. Alas, you can still see a 2 second close up of me in the video below. Take a look...



The commercial read through didn't go as well as I had hoped however...I did some research on the agency asking me to read for them, just making sure they were legit. They were. I arrived to the lobby to find that I would be waiting for some time, as there were quite a few people ahead of me. I was given two sides and asked me to familiarize myself with one of them, and read for the directors when called. I still remember the lines...

"My girlfriend likes it when I cook. But between you and me...I am not exactly a Wolfgang Puck. That's why I use Pasta-Roni's Chicken Fettucini. What she doesn't know won't hurt."

That's it! Those were the lines, pretty simple read...and I had the lines memorized in no time, I knew exactly how I would play it, and being that this was my 2nd audition today, I was cool as a cucumber. Heh. That is until I got inside the directors room...I fell apart. I am not entirely sure I remember what happened, all I know is...I was nervous. I could just hear it in my voice, I could see it in my hands, I wasn't sure what to do with them...I mean, I was a wreck! I am not going to say that auditioning is ever easy, in fact, that's the last thing I would call it...but I have been on quite a few of them now, and always manage to keep it together. I am not sure what came over me, maybe it was the pressure of meeting with my first potential agent, maybe all the time I had in the lobby to get inside my head, I don't know. I left there pretty bummed out though. However, now as I type this...I am sorta indifferent.

Perhaps there was a reason for all of this, and I should be looking at this as a glass half full sort of situation. As I reflect back on the week starting out superbly with the Tonight Show, and now ending with this. It made me realize that this town is full of highs and lows every second of every day, and as I was walking back to my car, with that pain in my gut and my head low. Another actor was probably just one block away skipping back to his car, whistling and kicking his heels, as HE just got the lead in a new play, or a callback for an audition tomorrow.

Bottom line...there is no yellow light in this town. I need to study harder, keep that chin up, and stay focused on the fact that tomorrow is another day, and who knows...

My Summer Update

Hello everyone, hope you are all enjoying your Summer...

Things have been up and down, but am happy to report, mostly up! I have been very fortunate with auditions lately, for the most part I have been going out on readings every week. There were a couple short film / independent features I came really close to landing. One of which, would have taken me to Sundance Film Festival this year, and the other on location in Arizona for a few weeks...not as cool as traveling to Tokyo, per se...but still a film big enough to have a budget for travel, lodging, actors expenses, etc...alas, I didn't get either.

The first film called 'Paradise' I auditioned with well over 100 actors, and was called back with a group narrowed down to 6 guys. The director had emailed me wanting me to know that I was in the top 2 for the role, and that my footage was really impressive and he does want to work with me on an upcoming project this Fall, so all is not lost.

Last week I was called to audition for what could have been my first paid commercial gig, for a major casting agency. Unfortunately, I was working an overnight shoot for the tv show 'Numbers', and couldn't get out of it...so I had no choice but to grit my teeth and let it slip away. It was a National spot for Yoo-Hoo, and I would have played a boxer.

In other news, I did get cast in a spec commercial for 'Scrabble', which we filmed last weekend! It's a pretty funny spot, and has me cast as the office clown, xeroxing a copy of my buttocks and once caught by my corporate boss, I try to get out of it by throwing big words at him. It's a pretty funny spot, and the director is going to shop the commercial to Hasbro, so who knows...maybe it'll get picked up!?

I mainly did it for my comedic reel.

Speaking of comedy...here, have a laugh!


I-N-T-E-G-R-I-T-Y

All in all, it has been a verrrrrrrry slow Summer here in Hollywood, but now that the dust has settled with SAG, more and more movies are being given the greenlight. Plus, we're now approaching TV's Fall lineup, so it's about to pick up. I recently found out that SAG is going to be making it even more difficult to gain entrance into their union doing background work, as the 3 voucher rule is now being bumped up to 6. (siiiigh)

Hope is not lost though, being that I am an AFTRA member, I need to land a U5 (under 5 lines) role on one of the daytime serials...fancy way of saying 'soap operas'...as they are mostly AFTRA productions, and then I will automatically gain SAG eligibility. So, I'll be sending out my headshots to their casting agencies this week.

June was a busy month for work though, as I was cast in 'Iron Man 2' as a member if the International Press. It was nice to have a steady job for a few weeks! The scene took place in Monaco, at the Grand Prix. The first day started out to be a really fun shoot, complete with F-1 racing, and more importantly cloudy / cool days. But it wasn't long before the sun won that fight, and we were forced to embrace those lovely UV rays for 13-14 hours a day.

**SPOILER ALERT** This sequel stars Mickey Rourke as the villianous 'Whiplash' who is a Russian madmen, armed with two whips that are electro-charged (kinda lame if you ask me) but he ultimately creates mass chaos on the racetrack and destroys cars flying down doing 200+ mph by whipping them in half, as he is on the hunt for Tony Stark. Well, as everyone who has ventured to try this before knows...this causes fire; and fire causes smoke, and breathing smoke causes, well...a lonnnnnnng day at the office. This wasn't any ordinary smoke, this was black disgusting toxic smoke, which caused the crew to eventually hand out paper gas masks, it was a nice gesture, but didn't mask the smell very well.

I also come to find out two things about Mickey Rourke, whom I have come to really appreciate after seeing The Wrestler and Sin City...1) Apparently he is a method actor now, and 2) He is a complete a--hole!

Without turning this into a tabloid blog...I'll give you a couple examples of what I witnessed. Right before the director yells action on set, the AD usually calls for "last looks" which is the cue for hair & make-up dept. to rush out and make sure the principles look how they should look, usually for continuity purposes.

Well, Mickeys characters hair has a greasy look to it, so they constantly spray him down...well, he flipped out on the make up guy, who must accidentally sprayed him in the face with the dreaded water bottle and got in his face screaming at him. Jon Favreau (director) came out and made sure Mickey was okay, but you could almost tell in Jon's face that he has been a nightmare to work with since Day 1.

The second incident was when I was walking to grab a water, I was about 5 feet from him and saw someone from "continuity" trying to get a picture of him so they know what he must look like in the next take. Ohhhhh no, he wasn't having this, and starting yelling obscenities and wanted people to "just leave him alone for a few %*&@ minutes!"

I guess this is where his method acting comes into play, he requested those fires burn 10 minutes or so before he comes out, so his character can just be in the moment, which meant our characters all had to inhale the fumes, while he was in his tent prepping. He chose a few songs to be blasted on set, so he could stay into character, which meant we had to listen to that damn Gnarls Barkley song 'Crazy' as well as Patsy Cline's...yep, you guessed it...'Crazy' and a few others...over and over and over and over. Not the most original of song choices, but hey...it seemed to work, as he was caught by TMZ that week hugging a tree while drunk, and trying to get into some random strangers car, trying to escape the paparazzi.

"Does that make me craaaaaaaaazy?"


I was most impressed with watching Robert Downey Jr. be so involved with the rehearsal process, and staying loose and in-character(s) while doing hand-to-hand combat with his personal trainer in between takes. I say "characters", as he could have been preparing for his new Sherlock Holmes role as well. None the less, he was very involved and constantly chatting with this stand-in and stunt double to make sure he knew exactly what he should be doing, and you could just tell he knows what this role has done for his career and wants to continue to get it right.

Clocking in at just under 200 hours working on set...it was a very long run, and while I am excited about the movie coming out, I might just close my eyes during the race scene and take a nap, or at least plug my nose. :) No, I was very fortunate to be chosen to work the entire length of the race scene, especially when things are as slow as they are now.

Well friends, that about sums up my Summer adventure thus far. I have a couple more auditions this week...one is a crazed cop for a 8 week internet webisode, and the other is short film, and my role is loosely based on the character 'Joe Gillis' from the classic film...'Sunset Blvd'. Wish me luck!

Oh, in closing...I was able to post my 'Mystic River' piece up on YouTube and for those who haven't seen it yet, and would like to...click on the image below. Thanks again for all of your continued support, and I hope you like it.




All the best!

~R

Where to begin...?? Part 2

Starbucks Coffee has always been treated as the "enemy" where I am from. I always made it a point to support the local mom and pop java shops, even if it meant driving a little out of the way. Well, this is Los Angeles...and much like the mentally strange, you don't have to drive far to find one. Fortunately for me, there was one open at 5am.

I ordered my triple shot ice coffee, and proceeded to run home for a quick shower, as I mentioned...rather than sleeping, my day was merely beginning. The short film I booked was scheduled to begin production at 8:00am that morning, down in Orange County (which is roughly 45 minutes south of where we live).

Which meant, I had just enough time to shower, brush my teeth, wake Sherri up to start her day, and get back on the road. It's a strange feeling being up for 24 hours, your body gets it's 5th and 6th wind, then wants to shut down, then somehow says "okay, okay, here's your 7th" and so on and so forth.

The film is entitled 'Shades of Grey', and is a film noir piece...which also meant that my character in this film smokes. This helped me get through the drive down there, as I figured I would light up to help stay focused. I used to be a full time smoker, a pack a day since I was 17...but have since quit and haven't picked up a cigarette in 3 years, 5 months, 4 days, well...you get the idea, it's not something you forget about.

So, when I went to light up...I was a little apprehensive, but knowing that these were stage cigarettes that didn't contain any tobacco or nicotine...coupled with the fact that I was veering from lane to lane, I thought I'd better indulge and avoid killing anyone, including myself.

I arrived on location a few minutes early, met the crew, and mainlined another coffee. About an hour after our call time, my co-star was listed as MIA. We tried calling his home phone several times, the director had scouts outside looking for him, everything short of bringing in the bloodhounds. I thought about taking a nap, but realized that would more than likely be my downfall, and proceeded to go outside for some air. The director apologized profusely, and I just nodded...I wasn't a happy camper at this point.

The actor finally arrived another hour later, and explained his situation and that he overshot the exit, doesn't own a cell phone, etc...I was ready to have my 'Christian Bale' freak out moment, but after hearing him out...he seemed pretty genuine and apologetic. We rehearsed for another hour or so, and got to know each other, and finally we were ready to shoot!

I won't bore you with all the details of the long shooting process. Just know that we were there for 12 hours, and the entire short is less than 5 minutes long. That's the beauty of this business, it takes time to set up the lighting, different camera angles, checking playback, etc...

Either way, I told him I needed to be OUT of there by 5:30pm, and NOOOOOOO later, as I had my Vampire show tonight in Hollywood. They were very accommodating, and we worked most of my close up scenes right away to ensure that if I was somehow still alive / coherent by 5pm, they would send me on my way.

5:25pm - recorded a couple voiceover pieces for some earlier shots we did, and that was it. I officially wrapped my first professional short film production!

...aaaaand goodnight...zzzz...huh, wha'? Ohhh, 5 more minutes Ma'...pleeeease?

No sir. Time to get on the road, as I have yet another show to do ladies and gentlemen! The Vampires Masquerade, a theatrical piece about a stage owned and run by vampires. All though at this point, I was feeling more like a zombie.

I fought my way through an hour and a half of rush hour traffic into Los Angeles and made it to the theatre by 7:30, a half an hour before we went on stage. I had just enough time to change into my wardrobe, suck down my umpteenth cup of caffeine, and get out there for the "places" call.

That night was an incredible show...I don't know if it was because I was punch-drunk and hallucinating, or if it was because it was our 2nd to last show...but we were having so much fun that night, improvising scenes, and every actor was just spot on.

Of course, after a night like this...it would be a crime to not celebrate, and so everyone went next door to the other stage and had a mini-cast party...I stayed for as long as I could, but ended up calling it a night "early".

I made one last attempt at driving, and this time...36+ hours later, with a huge smile on my face, feeling accomplished...I was headed home. I slept for a week.

Where to begin...?? Part 1

FADE IN: INTERIOR. MORNING.

Rob sleeping soundly in his bed. Sun is shining through the window, a bottle of aspirin and a "half-full" glass of water sits atop headshots, scattered across nightstand. Alarm clock reads 10:26...10:27 (beep, beep, beep!) ...close up shot of "snooze" button...Thud! Rob's hand crashes down on clock as he catches a few more winks...

DREAM SEQUENCE. MULTIPLE VOICES/FACES.

"What have you been up to?" Why haven't you updated your blog?" "Are you ever going to write more?" "I can't belieeeeve it's not butter" "Robby, I am so proud of you" ...end with shot of Mr. T driving a forklift..."Update this thing foo!"

END DREAM SEQUENCE.

...beep, beep, beep...(cut to alarm clock being knocked off the table)

ROB (waking suddenly)

"Woh." (pans room for laptop) "I need to blog!"

CUT TO BLACK.


I realize I have been asleep at the wheel when it comes to updating my blog lately, my apologies! So, before I begin I would like to give a sincere thank you to those of you keeping me on my toes and asking for updates, if it wasn't for you...there is a good chance this blog would more than likely..."fade to black".

I believe I last left you in Greece, working CSI: NY, and I had just landed a role in a short film called "Shades of Grey".

Ahhh...what a day...err, (couple of days) those were!

Thursday night I was worked the show 'Entourage' for the upcoming season. I know how much some of you LOVE this show, so I'll try and refrain from too many spoilers. I was called in to start work at 6:00pm that evening, and base camp was located in the parking lot across from Grauman's Chinese Theatre and right next door to Jimmy Kimmel Live, they needed this huge parking lot to hold the amount of extras working this shot tonight, as we would be creating one of the biggest Hollywood movie premiere's since the Golden Era.

Fortunately I was booked as Press and not a fan, which meant I would be doing actual "work" (and I use that term loosely) as opposed to yelling and screaming all night.

The line to receive our camera equipment, easily took over an hour and a half to get through...fortunately, being that we were next door to Jimmy Kimmel, we were at least entertained with his musical guest for the night (Peter Bjorn & John) who performed on the outdoor stage. Fast forward about 4 hours, and finally the shops were closed up, and we took to the streets (Hollywood Blvd). They called all the Press up to the red carpet, in front of the Chinese Theatre*.

*Side note - For those of you who haven't been to LA, or familiar with Grauman's Chinese Theatre, it has been home to many movie premiere's and once was a home for the Academy Awards. Today you can find many o' tourist taking pictures of the hand and footprints from actual famed celebrities, or you can get your picture taken with the various nutjobs posing as those celebrities, or superheroes. Like these two...probably arguing over a dollar!



Back to the story...

Once the scene had been established, the red carpet rolled out, the screaming fans tucked behind the barricade, the premiere lights swaying in the sky, it was time for the limousine to pull up and out came the faux-celebrities...there were a couple look-a-likes who arrived there before Vinny Chase and his said, 'Entourage'.

Scar-Jo was there, a Brangelina couple...or Brad-Jo, in fact there was even a Billy-Jo walking by himself, or some other d-bag from a crappy pop-punk band...but ohhh yes, all the "Jo's" were out that night.

Vinny's limo arrived and out came the posse (I refuse to spell out Entourage every time) Johnny Drama, Eric, his girfriend Sloan, Ari and his wife, then Turtle and Jamie Lynn Sigler. (apparently he and Meadow Soprano are dating in real life now)

The whole night was us taking photos while they walked up and down the red carpet for Vinny's new movie, ...**SPOILER ALERT** ...'Gatsby' directed by Martin Scorsese. Being that I was press and it was my job to take pictures, I took it upon myself to attach my iPhone camera to the lens, so that I could sneak a couple shots for you fine folks at home.





This continued into the morning hours, shooting a bunch of different angles...when finally at 5:00am, we were all done. Somehow my eyes were still open, I was still on two feet...completely exhausted, and realized that while everyone else was going home to enjoy the comforts of their own beds, my day was just getting started...

Stay tuned for Part 2

Opah!

Greetings from Greece! ...okaaay, greetings from Burbank, California.



I worked on the set of CSI NY again last week, this time as a European tourist. The set was located on the Universal lot. We were shuttled down a few miles and once we got off the bus, you couldn't tell we were still in Cali...the entire outside area was recreated to look like a small city in Greece, and I am not talking about 1 or 2 blocks, try several blocks! Walking the cobblestone roads, I came upon a fairly large church with impressive Grecian columns, several restaurants, gift shops, coffee shops, farmers market, bus station, even the alley ways had clothes hanging to dry between buildings, the attention to detail was very impressive.

I even got to see an Audi car chase down the cobblestone side streets, I mean...come on...now THAT's European! :)



Props dept. had given me a really nice camera, so I was able to play photographer for the better part of the day. At one point they paired me with another gal who I found out used to be a hood ornament for 'Lowrider' magazine (aka - a model), so I had her jump on a Vespa and proceed to work her magic for the camera. It's the little things that help get you through the day.




In other news, I had a couple auditions last Saturday, and just received notice that I landed one of them! It's a short film being submitted to festivals this year, called Shades of Gray. It's a film noir piece, about two life long friends who go down separate paths, well sorta...one a crooked cop, and one in the mafia. You get the idea.

(pinching/shaking fingers, lips in a frown) I play da mafioso.

Should be a fun script to work on, and definitely a good piece for my reel!

We begin rehearsing tomorrow morning, and filming begins on Friday. In the middle of writing this post, I received word that I will also be working on the show 'Entourage' on Thursday, but it's a night call...booo!! This means, I will be pulling an all-nighter, and driving straight down to the shoot in Orange County on Friday morning, film for 12 hours, and be back in Hollywood in time for my show on stage at 7pm!...(pause for breath)...well, it's why I am here, right?

Let the other actors sleep.

Updaaaaate!

Wowsa! I guess it's been over a month since I've posted anything. Okay, well here goes....

The two shows I am in, have been selling out each week, which is fantastic! We have moved the Dark Side of the Moon show to Wednesdays (starting tonight!) to help bring in more industry (i.e. - casting directors) and help get us cast in more work. The Vampire Masquerade show has had some industry sightings already, with the casting director for the sequel to Twilight scheduled to make an appearance. We have a website now, which has pictures, bio's, etc...

Here is the website link: http://filmmakerinterviews.ipower.com//vampire/index.htm

I have also recently went back to work doing the background circuit, which has helped put a little extra cash back in the pocket.

On Tuesday I played a neighbor in an upcoming NBC show called 'Cougartown' with Courtney Cox, which is the new project from 'Scrubs' creator Bill Lawrence, whom I think is really talented. This was a very easy day for me, as I would be playing a neighbor w/ a really "sweet-looking Jeep" so of course, I was right for the role...err...the Jeep was anyway, as that was all they used! No matter, I got to sit backstage (behind the house, poolside) with Courtney, while she read her lines getting into her "cougar-character" and I caught up on some reading of my own, though with one eye always on Courtney...just in case she decided to pounce on me. Raaaoww!

Then on Thursday I played a bartender for the upcoming HBO show called "Hung" which is (and follow me here) ...about a divorced basketball coach living in the Midwest, who realizes he could be doing much, much more...with his ehem...endowment, and finds himself in the porn industry. It stars Tom Jane and Anne Heche. The scene was at backyard bbq, in some mansion they rented for the 2 day shoot. It was a treat seeing "Bells Two Hearted Ale" (for those of you back home)...now, I am not sure about any prosthetics a la Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights, but at least they took the time to make sure the beer was authentic!

My HowCast.com video was picked up last month! This company out of NYC, which is sort of a AskJeeves.com site but with videos had expressed interest in our little project, and we went live with it recently. It was a non-paying job, but still good to have exposure and content for my reel.

Here is the website link: http://www.howcast.com/videos/166197-How-To-Pick-Up-a-Girl-At-a-Stoplight

Lastly, I just had a callback for a short film, playing a crooked Boston cop last week. I don't think I got the part, but it was good enough just to be called back, which means that my Boston accent doesn't entirely suck...accentuate the positive right?? :)

Say hi to your mutha for me, k?

...is there anybody in there? Just blog if you can hear me...

Well, in the small chance that I haven't alienated everyone, and you're still interested in the goings-on of my world, I figured I would give the blog an update. In my defense, I have been rather busy as of late. I have already mentioned the Vampire Masquerade production...which we opened the show this past Friday to a full house, and people seemed to really like it! Now, it's all about getting the agents, casting directors, etc...to show up, and take notice. One of our cast members is working on inviting the casting director of the HBO show 'True Blood'.

Okay, so in addition to being in this awesome show for 10 weeks, I just landed another very cool role in the production 'Dark Side of the Moon', which brings the classic Pink Floyd album to life, and it is nothing short of spectacular...I am really proud to be a part of it. We open this show mid-March.

I believe I mentioned in one of my previous posts not too long ago, that I have been really missing the theatre, and now here I am working in two productions, which will keep me on stage into the Spring...so yeah, I feel truly blessed.

If this wasn't enough to keep me running on cloud nine, I also landed two short films this month, one of which was an internet piece for Howcast.com that I filmed a few weeks ago, and another is a Directors project which has me reprising Sean Penn's role in Mystic River...which should be great for my reel. I start filming that tomorrow evening!

So, needless to say...it continues to be a very rewarding and busy start to the year for me. I have met some really fantastic people as of late, and hope that I can somehow share this good karma that I am receiving with all of you. Rehearsals for the Vampire show are over, so I will be heading back to the studios next week in search of those other two SAG vouchers, and more importantly to start putting some of those green paper-thingys back in my wallet and get back to normal...you know..."new car, caviar, four-star daydream...think I'll buy me a football team."

Normal.