Tag: Actors

Runner Or Actor: 1@x

Something very dramatic has been accomplished. A year and a half ago I was told that I would have to give up marathons and running altogether. With a little medical help, a lot of help from my chiropractor and my own daily rehab, I was able to not only get back to running but able to train and complete my 20th marathon just yesterday here in Los Angeles.

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My training method was something I created and called it 1@x. That means One At a Time. I started like I began my running 35 years ago, with a quarter mile and a half a mile a few miles, five, ten and so on till I was ready for 26. But it all started with that first step.

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Now before you think this only applies to runners think again. Especially if you are an actor. We actors are faced with a lot of “no’s”. That’s the business. that’s how it goes. But if we are going to find our way we have to take it one step at a time 1@x to get where we are going. Time doesn’t figure into it. The wrong step doesn’t figure into it. 1@x… until you get it right, whatever that is.

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So get your running shoes or your monologues out and get out there and hit it. And remember 1@x.

The Organized Actor

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This is good advice and perhaps one day I’ll follow it. All too often good actors who can recall lines on a moments notice, remember the blocking of a long forgotten scene or call up an emotion from a way past memory do not have a clue where they left the contact number of a casting director they just met.

If you have an office like I do or just a work area, no doubt there are piles of pictures, resumes, plays you want to read and a smattering of loose papers with numbers for workshops, scene study and maybe even potential jobs.

Organize my friends, organize. In the old days we carried notebooks(and I still do) but now it’s merely just the action of an entry in a smartphone to stay in touch with someone who may have said,”Call me”.

Here are some good organizing tips that I too should follow;

Keep your head shots and resumes ready to go(meaning updated) and always in the same place.

Keep a daily(or however often) log of who you saw for auditions, call-backs or meetings, who they are(their title)and an actual  contact address. Note: (“Casting Dept.” does not count as a legitimate Contact Address!)

If you have resumes on IMDB and other online web pages make sure you update them as well. You never know who checks these things or when.

Stay in touch on a regular basis with the contacts you do have. Not in a pushy way(I really, really need a job)but just a note reminding the recipient of  an upcoming, show, showcase or role you’ve been cast in or just, “checking in  with a reminder to keep me in mind if you have anything coming up.” It doesn’t take much.  And a postcard in  a business envelop I think adds a little class. An e-mail can be sent from anywhere and while convenient is more easily deleted than, sorry to say, chucked into a wastebasket.

I write this simply because I realized I don’t do enough of this. My friend Ron Canada who works all the time(I meaning all the time)has a photographic memory. He can walk into a cold audition, remember everyone in attendance and greet them by name when he gets his call backs. I’m not blessed with that talent as most of us are not, so all the more reason to …organize those piles a’ paper!

Actor’s “Time”

We’ve all heard the term, “time is what you make it”. But to an actor, “time” can be a period that leads to greatness, failure or possibly insanity. As actors, we all have probably too much “time”. Most of us don’t work steadily, going from one job to the next. Yes, all is well when our time is consumed creating a character for a play, waiting on the set for a movie or learning lines for a commercial. But what about the “time” in between. The “time” when seemingly nothing is going on?

That’s when we as actors have to use that “time” to our advantage.

Ben Slack

A friend of mine, a great character actor Ben Slack taught me a valuable lesson when he was alive. We would get together from time to time, usually when he had some down-time which he had much less of than I did. We would come up with projects, acting projects, one act plays, short film scripts, a study of a play. I would usually get all involved with the project saying I would get something together for the next time we met. A short time would pass, I’d call Ben and ask if he wanted to see what I had only to be told that he just got a TV series or he was off to Europe for a months worth of filming and we’d talk when he got back. The next time we’d meet, he’d have a new project he wanted to explore. After a while I learned that these “projects” was how Ben spent his downtime. “Time” to keep his mind off not working and “time” to keep his actor muscles working.

Think about it…but don’t take too much “time”. Get busy.