ER

Sorry for the delay, folks. It's hard to get on the internet sometimes. I have to go to the library or ask James to bring his phone and hook us up. But, I'm at the library now, so here we go.

For those of you that haven't heard from me, or my parents, I got another job with Central Casting as an extra in an "ER" episode. I believe the air date is March 26th. So set your recorders ;) and if I'm not mistaken, it's the second-to-last episode of the season. It's pretty cool to say I was involved with the last season of ER.

I don't want to give too much away with what I did for you avid watchers of the show. Not that it would, because nothing of it was ER-esque. I expected hospital-like background, with doctors and nurses and patients and such, and yet, I was a camp kid. And we were in a gymnasium. Totally not what I expected. The day ended up being a 13.5 hour day. I got paid for 12.5 hours of it, because the one hour extra was for lunch. What did I do you ask? I got paid to stand and dance. Yes you heard me, I stood there in an orange Hawaiian shirt, with leis, beads, and a nametag hanging around my neck, dancing to salsa music and then a band. So like I said, not very ER-esque. We did take after take after take. The coolest part of it all was seeing all the actors of the show. The first few I saw were John Stamos aka "Dr. Tony Gates", or as I like to call him: Uncle Jesse, Linda Cardellini who plays "Samantha Taggart", Scott Grimes or "Dr. Archie Morris", Laura Cerón who plays "Nurse Chuny Marquez", and Angela Bassett who plays "Dr. Cate Banfield". I saw even more than that, like the Australian doctor David Lyons, Angela Bassett's husband Courtney B. Vance. The guest star: SPOILER ALERT! haha was Tom Arnold. Seeing him caught me completely offguard. Yet another actor, like John Stamos, who I never thought I'd see in person. I was in reaching distance to these actors throughout the day. Said hello to David Lyons. Scott Grimes was singing a song and pointed at me and sang a line. He was the goof of the group. He seems like a really funny guy, and has quite a resemblance to Simon Pegg.

Like I said, I don't want to give away everything I saw and we did. But I will say that I got to witness John Stamos play drums while Scott Grimes sang. They had to do the take over and over and over again, not because of mistakes, but because of all the camera angles they used. You might catch a glimpse or two of me. So definitely check it out on March 26th. Which I do believe is the air date. If that changes, I'll let you all know.

I met a really cool guy named Scott while we were on-set. He, like me, was cast as an "18 years to look younger camp kid". We ended up hanging out all day. He's been on an estimated 200 sets before with all the extra work he's done, so he was telling me about all the different jobs and shows he's done in the past six months or so. He informed me of an extra casting agency where he was getting jobs 7 days a week! He got many opportunities at SAG vouchers and he actually could join SAG now if he wanted to, but with the $2,400 fee to become SAG, and him not having the drive to be a big actor, he's not REAL interested.

I sent out an e-mail to a different extras casting agency, so hopefully I'll hear back from them soon. They are one who they'll call me for jobs, unlike Central Casting where I have to call them.

I'm kind of shorted on time today, I only have about 10 minutes left on here, but I'll try to get on later this evening. I am headed to Central Casting for an open call for an untitled Nancy Meyer's project, starring people like Steve Martin, Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and John Krasinski. They need upscale-looking people pretty much. It's mostly in what you wear, so I'm going to go in my shirt, tie, dress pants, and slicked-over hair and all they're doing is taking a picture of us from the knee up. Those pictures will be sent to the director, and if I fit the look, they'll contact me and I'll either be working multiple days in April or maybe only one day in April. Depends on the category. So wish me luck! Keep me in your prayers, because I really want this job.


Take care all of you, I'll try updating this again soon.

Until next time...

Waterless

Hello there my fellow readers. I haven't been able to get on here much recently. Hopefully today will be the last time I have to come to the library to use the internet. Since James brought over another computer, and we placed it on the opposite side of the room, we're hoping to catch a better internet signal there. Kelly says when she had her laptop, she got the best signal on that side of the room. Well she and Amy are going to buy a USB Internet adapter today. We'll plug it into the computer and try to get that up and running. I HOPE! I'm kinda tired of having to drive to the library any day I need to use the internet and only getting it two hours a day. I would rather have it at my fingertips whenever I need it. I just can't afford to buy my own laptop right now, otherwise I could pretty much go anywhere these days and pick up wi-fi.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Valentine's Day weekend. I've never been a fan of the 'holiday'. It's always kind of been a Hallmark holiday to me. But I did celebrate our friend Matty K's birthday that night at the Liquid Zoo. I, oh so lovingly, sang "Love Stinks" by the J. Geils Band. Thought it would be fitting. :)

I forgot to mention something about last week. I was woken up to a knocking at the door. Standing there was a worker saying he had to come in and work on our kitchen and bathroom. But he wouldn't be going into the bedroom or anything like that, just those two places. I was a little confused, because I was never made aware of this. I told him our manager never told us anything about it, or at least never told me about it. I wasn't given any paper a day or two in advance like the last time they kicked us out of our apartment. I then asked him how long he needed in there. He replied with "all day". Are you serious? All day??? We didn't have to leave the apartment, but we were going to be without water all day. This is rediculous. I went ahead and let him in and he went to work moving everything out of his way in the bathroom and kitchen. I guess they were working on the whole apartment complex. This place (for lack of a better word) SUCKS! First asbestos, now water. All within a month of each other. Anyhoo, so I go into the girls' bedroom and ask them if they knew anything about this. "Oh yeah, they have to work on the water, we're going to be without water all day." Nice of them to tell ME! I guess our manager gave Amy a piece of paper about it and he also left a voicemail for Kelly. Niether of which was I told about. So needless to say, I had the brief "we told you...no you didn't" argument. So I couldn't shower, flush the toilet, wash my hands properly, brush my teeth all day. That was such a crappy day. I sat around in the apartment all day, because I couldn't leave with guys coming in and our of the apartment at will. And they did just that. We left the door either unlocked or cracked open all day so they could come in whenever they needed to. I know a couple of the neighbors weren't too happy with it either. I heard them yelling at the guys working.
At about 7pm or so, we got our water finally turned back on, and I immediately jumped in the shower and scrubbed clean along with brushing my teeth thoroughly. In order to wash my hands at all, I had to run bottled water over my hands with the soap. It was difficult.

So hopefully we won't have anymore days like that. I don't have too many exciting stories.

OH! Tuesday night something kind of funny happened. I sang karaoke, as usual. And my third and final song was two from the end. After they finished the karaoke at 1:30 and it was pushing 2 o'clock, I was talking to Sam, Manny, and Louie when this girl approached us and said, "My friend thinks you're really cute and we were wondering..are you into guys or girls?" ....... I wanted to laugh, because that question completely caught me offguard. I told her, "I'm definitely interested in girls." "Ok," she said, "well I might just send my friend over here to talk to you." "That's fine with me," I replied, "I'm up for meeting new people." So I waited there as the girl left and continued talking to the guys and we all kind of laughed it off. Five or so minutes passed and no one came over. I had my back to them when Manny said, "That girl who came over here is talking to two guys." I think she might have been trying to hook me up with a guy, but when I said I was interested in females, plans changed. I don't know for sure, but I think that's what happened. Well it was time to leave and I went and talked to Kelly and that girl was leaving and she said, "My friend was too shy to come talk to you, but you are a really cute guy and seem really nice. Have a nice night!"
That was that. I shook her hand and I went home. That was a strange way to end the night. haha

I received a couple packages from home yesterday. They are always nice to get. One was a Hickory Farms box full of sausage, cheese, crackers, and a little bit of candy to have some snackage. The other was full of DVDs and snack foods my dad picked up at the grocery. I always get so excited opening those! I never know what's going to be in them. Unless of course I tell my parents what to send.

I was just informed we're going to have a little bit of a gathering at the *cough* small *cough* apartment. But it's BYOB, so hopefully we'll get some people to bring us drinks and snacks and we'll just hang out and have a good time. I would much rather spend my time finding a new apartment with the roommates, but I guess another day.....*bangs head on desk*.

My cousin Adam has booked his flight to come visit in April! I'm so pumped for that! Ben and Shayna are supposed to be here the week of St. Patrick's Day aka Ben's Birthday next month! I'm pumped about that! And Joe told me he might be out here next month as well! I LOVE that people are coming to visit! :)



I miss you all. I love you all. Until next time...

Q&A Time!

First and foremost: I would like to give a very special shoutout to my mother. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! It is her fi..*cough*...rst birthday today! ;-) So if you know her, you better wish her a Happy Birthday wish today :)



Now, let's get down to the Q&A. Some of you asked, and here I am to answer.

Peggy Sue Frye from Kokomo, IN asks: "If you could act with any actor/actress, who would it be and why?"

--Great question, Peggy! If I had my choice, it would have to be Will Smith. I am a huge fan of this guy and what he's done with his career. He's an actor/musician/father/husband/role model. He keeps his sanity, unlike a lot of actors out there. You don't hear about him feuding with people or all over the media in a negative way. He's been through it all, starting with his music as the "Fresh Prince" with DJ Jazzy Jeff, to acting on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, to all those movies and blockbuster hits he's starred in on the big screen. He's a loving father and husband. I admire what he does. I admire who he is. I believe he's somewhere at the top of the "Smartest People in Hollywood" (I'm agreeing with a past Entertainment Weekly magazine story). If I ever get to work with him, I will have hit a HUGE goal in my life of acting.
If I had to pick another choice, it would be the cast/crew from movies like Superbad, 40-Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, etc. The Seth Rogen, Steve Carrell, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera crowd. They make some pretty funny stuff.



Pamela Hawkins (aka my mom) from Kokomo, IN asks: "If you could ask advice from any famous person, and you HAD to follow their advice, who would you choose?"

--Tough question. I would like to sit down with one of two people. One being from a director's standpoint. That person would be Steven Spielberg. How could you NOT follow this guy's advice? He's brilliant with what he does. He's been around for years and has been quite successful through his career. From filmmaking, screenwriting, producing, and directing. He's done it all and doesn't usually let people down with his work.
From an acting standpoint, for some reason, Tom Hanks is sticking out in my mind. He's made some great choices when it comes to acting and has been quite successful as well in doing so. The Academy Award Winning actor proves time and time again he knows what he's doing and he's a very intelligent person.





Libby Brewer from Kokomo, IN asks: "What inspired you to choose acting as a possible career?"


--Funny you should ask. I guess after many years of Children's Theatre, Kokomo Civic Theatre, and Tipton Civic Theatre, you'd think I'd follow the same route and head out east to New York or somewhere known for their theatre. However, after a couple years post-IU, I got my first lead in a Kokomo Civic Theatre show, "West Side Story". It was then that I realized I wanted to act. But I didn't necessarily want to do acting in a theatre aspect. I wanted to try TV/movies. I have certain goals I'm wanting in my acting career. I would like to star in hit movies, a successful television series, preferably comedy-style, be a voice-over in a Pixar film, or some sort of animated movie, and win an Academy Award, or at least be nominated. Nothing too out of reach right? haha So I guess it was just years of acting and performing and it's what I love. I enjoy it everytime I do it. Who knows! Maybe when I get into this, I'll realize it really wasn't for me, but they always say: you can do anything you put your mind to, right?





Shayla Caddell (aka my sister) from Noblesville, IN asks: "Have you been to In-N-Out Burger and how big of a burger did you get?"

--This is a wonderful question, and yet a silly one. Of COURSE I've been to In-N-Out. :) It's pretty much a must-do when you're in LA. I got their Double Double Burger. It pretty much is an awesome burger. What I love most about that place is how they do their fries. Every person who orders an order of fries gets one whole potato that they send through a slicer right in front of your eyes into 100% vegetable oil. It's cool to know I'm getting a full potato. A very tasty place if you're ever living out here or visiting. I've only eaten it once since I've lived out here. I had it when I visited Joe back in '04 and once the summer of Shannon's wedding out here.



Peggy Sue Frye from Kokomo, IN asks: "Are you going to be taking any acting classes or special tutoring while you're there?"

--I sure do plan to. As a matter of fact, just last night at karaoke, this guy named Randy informed me he and a couple people are starting up an improv crash-course type of class that will be cheaper than most places out here, and yet people could come out of there and be able to skip a level at certain places. He and his co-starters with this have studied from Second City, which is a very respectable and popular place. I'm going to look into that and also other places. I need to get into a commercial workshop. I want to take acting classes to help improve my acting and any chance I may have to get better jobs down the road.

Peggy also asks: "Even though you've only been gone a few weeks, why does it feel like YEARS?"

--Haha at times, that's definitely a mutual feeling. I already want to come home to visit, but I try to hold back a little bit. No offense to any of you back home, it's just I want to give myself more time out here. It'll make me coming home to visit even better when I do. :)


Thank you so much for your questions!! Keep asking them, for I want to do another one of these soon! I hope I get more questions and even more people asking them.


Until next time...

The Middle

Hello my faithful blog readers! I know some of you want to hear the story of my time on-set for my first 'extra' job yesterday, so here ya go:

I was told to arrive by 8am, and the location was Taft High School in Woodland Hills, CA. It was about a 15-minute drive away. I drove for the first time by myself on the 101 and did just fine. I arrived at Taft High School with 15 minutes to spare, but I saw no marked lot that I was to park in. No signs, no nothing. I found a nearby security guard and he told me I was to go down Ventura, take a right on one street, then another right, and I would see signs pointing me in the direction of "The Middle". So I drove about 5 minutes away to Pierce College where there was a huge parking lot for us all to park our vehicles. I then noticed a couple white shuttle buses which were there to take us extras over to the High School. We arrived a few minutes after 8am and got in line to get our voucher we needed to fill out and give to them at the end of the day so we could get paid. Getting paid is definitely a nice thing, as you all know. In line, I met a guy named Kurt and another guy named Cody. This was their first time at the extra thing too, so we were all confused and unsure about what exactly to do. But we were given our vouchers and told to head to wardrobe to see if what we were wearing or what we brought was best to wear on set. I was told to put on my brown, long-sleeved polo over my t-shirt. So I was good to go. We then sat in the holding area, otherwise known as "holding" for a couple hours before we were brought in for the first time. In the down time, I got to know and talk to Kurt and Cody and we swapped stories and talked about California, and acting, and moving there, etc. When they finally called us in, they started seating us in different spots of the camera/lighting/people-infested auditorium. They first placed all three of us guys in the front row, middle aisle before moving Kurt to the second row. I was the second seat in from the middle aisle on the left section of folding chair seats. On stage was a high school show choir, but I never actually found out where they were from. In the background I noticed Neil Flynn, also known as the Janitor from Scrubs. He is playing the dad of the Indiana/Midwestern family in this show. He's really tall in person. Anyway, we were all given programs and were told to enjoy the performance on stage. The show choir was performing to "Get the Party Started" by Pink. Needless to say, after as many takes as we had to go through, the song was in my head all day/night. The workers were moving a lot of people around to match up and mesh colors and looks. Luckily I got to stay in the front row. So they went through the first take and we were moving our heads around and bouncing to the beat a little bit. When they cut, one guy came to me and the lady next to me and told us to react and interact more, including 'fake-whispering' to eachother about what was going on up on stage. Everyone in the audience were supposed to be family members/friends/classmates of the kids on stage, just like going to any high school choir performance. After they told me that, I'm thinking that the back of my head and possibly my profile might be seen if they show the angle they had the camera set to. So I won't get anyone's hopes up, but it's possible. We were in there for awhile when they brought in the "first team", aka Neil Flynn, Patricia Heaton ("Everybody Loves Raymond), and the two sons of the family. They were literally 2 rows back from me, so that was a fun site to see.

Anyhoo, we were sent outside to holding and waited a long while before we got to go back inside. Lunch came around at 12pm and we were fed a feast to say the least. (Doo dah, doo dah) It was delicious! Set up buffett style, they had steak tips, chicken, fish, salad, fruits, veggies, spinach dip, and many other things. It's kind of nice getting paid to sit around all day and then get fed a free huge meal like that. When we finally got back inside, they had re-positioned the cameras/lighting/etc. to shoot from another angle. Before we got started, I noticed they brought in another recognizable actor, and sat him on the right section about two rows back. Chris Kattan ("SNL", "Night at the Roxbury"). He's pretty much as funny in person as he is on TV. I didn't expect to see him so it was pretty cool when I did. The family got to work the dialogue more, while we still bobbed and bounced to the music. We were in there a bit longer hearing all the ACTION! and CUT! and ROLLING! and all the other lingo that comes with filming and working on set, so it was a great experience and really fun to listen to.

We were sent outside and brought in again later in the afternoon/evening. By this time, we 8 o'clockers had already hit the 8-hour mark, so we knew we would go into OVERTIME! Overtime = more $$ :)

That third time going in, I got a little excited because I almost had some serious, yet short, on-camera time. I was told I was going to walk in down the middle aisle to the back row of the auditorium and sit in my seat, all while they were taping. So you'd get to see my backside the whole way down the aisle, because of the position of the camera up on stage. Unfortunately, after one take of that, with many others walking to their seats and sitting down, they scratched it because they decided they didn't like the idea as much as they thought. So instead of that, I got bumped back to the back row, maybe not to be seen on camera, but I guess we'll have to wait.

The day was long, but enjoyable. Turned out to be a 12-hr day of work. So I got paid 4 hours of overtime. I would've stayed 16+ hours had they not been done shooting at 8:30pm. I had a blast, met some new people, saw some more celebrities, and gained some experience of what it's like on set. I hope to get more of these jobs in the near future. I just have to keep calling Central Casting and checking to see if they have any open spots for shows that I fit the part for. Oh yeah, another recognizable actor in the show is Atticus Shaffer ("Hancock", "The Unborn"). I think he's playing one of the sons of the family. I didn't recognize the other son or the daughter, but hopefully I can find that out if they ever post more info about the show online.

So I hope you enjoyed this entry about my first day in extra work. It was a long story, and there are a few details here and there I left out, but nothing too important. The only downside of the show, is that it may not air till this fall. So it could be awhile before we get to see it. It's worth the wait :)

Until next time...