Thank God for God.
He's given me some great friends, some who leave chocolate trials when I get home from work, some who I sing his praises with, and some who make a killer Easter dinner.
He was also smiling upon me today.
I made the mistake of going to bed late last night, knowing I had a job interview at 10am at a place I've never been before. This was with the security company that will be taking over the site where I currently work. My buddy Mike has already been hired by them, and it seems a bunch of people at this site are jumping ship.
So I gave the interview, and they basically hired me on the spot, and I'm hoping this goes swimmingly with the changes I'm making: First of all, I'll be working more shifts at the downtown location, which will be far easier to get to transportation-wise. Second, I'll be working in the evenings, which means no more graveyards, which will be awesome. I'll finally get to sleep when it's dark out, maybe make less use of my gender-bending sleep mask. The only catch with evenings is, sometimes a call back or audition arises, in which case acting will always come first. Let's hope this new company can find guards to cover shifts easier, and if I get canned because I've missed too many shifts, then so be it. I mean, yeah, a job is extremely important for making a living, but security is not my career choice; I didn't move to exotic Vancouver, BC for an exciting career in the fast-paced, ever-expanding security industry. No sir, if I get canned I'll have a replacement in no time. It's happened to worse people.
With all the new hire paperwork I ended-up having to fill-out, I had to boot from my job interview to my 12:30 audition for, wait for it ... a Wal-Mart commercial. Oh yeah.
This was actually a lot of fun, I had nothing to prepare, so I just had to show-up and look pretty, which is basically all I do, and do well. The scenario for the commercial was a husband, wife and daughter all pondering what summer-time goodies they will want to blow their money on for their backyard. I was auditioning for the strapping young Wal-Mart Sales Associate who, with much joviality, jollity, and Jon-Bon-Jovi-ty, gestures to where they can pick-up their crap. I mean, goodies, pick-up their goodies. For commercials they're after a look, especially for non-speaking parts, which mine would be. At least it wasn't a "cattle-call", where they line-up a bunch of actors and all have them answer a dumb question about themselves.
"OK, William, where did you get that snappy vest?"
"I peeled it off the carcass of the last guy to ask me that question."
I forgot that hey-la, hey-la, my agent's back (hopefully, there's not gonna be trouble). He left me a Voicemail during my audish, and I wish he had called earlier, because my smile would have been anything but forced for the audition.
"You didn't finish the shots the other night, did you?" he asked in reference to a certain movie I had worked on.
"No, we didn't," I said, hoping for what he'd say next.
"Are you available Thursday night the 27th to finish it?"
Uhm, no, I have to work my shift as a security guard, can they reschedule?
The preceding thought was brought to you by: Career suicide.
He asked if I had seen any of the other actors that booked the parts for which I went out for previously.
"No, I didn't see any of the other actors I went out aGAYnst."
"What did you get say?"
Oops.
"Did I sound too Canadian for you just then?"
"Yer damn right you did."
I hung-up, elated, then immediately deflated when I asked if I was too late to put the sides on tape that he sent me last Friday.
"Yeah, yeah it is."
"What's the time limit when you give me something like that?"
"Two to three days."
Well, now I know. It was a crazy past week or so, but I still could have done it, I just wasn't fast enough. Also, he was out of town, and it was the first optional thing he's given me, so he wasn't upset when I missed the boat. I felt worse for my dad who shelled the $10 to order the script online, but he and I agreed that the show wasn't anything to get excited over, and my character was pretty dull.
I know that last statement flies in the face of everything an actor SHOULDN'T do (judge the piece, judge the character, cry "bad writing", or "dull character") but from an audience perspective, it's nothing I would want to watch, so why would I want to act in it? I'm a beggar who can't be a chooser at this point, but still, what you work on represents you professionally, and if you don't want to do something, you should have the option; not that I'm sure there will be things I do now that I cringe at in the future. In fact, I have a ton of those already.
I got home, and was miraculously able to nap and have a dream where Eddie Vedder was arguing with a friend of mine.
Why can't people just LEAVE EDDIE ALONE!
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2 comments:
Will Vaughan, you are awesome. I laugh extremely vigourously every time I read your blog. All in a good way of course. I'm glad you're making it work. I'm probably in Vancouver once if not twice this summer, be ready.
hey Will, at first when I read your post (3rd paragrah, about 4 sentences in), I thought you said you'll make "less use of our genital bending sleep mask" and I was going to ask you where in the world you acquired such a treasure because I've been looking everywhere for such an article. A sleep mask that not only allows you to sleep, but it bends your genitals.
But alas, I reread and it said, "less of my gender-bending sleep mask" and i went into a sudden but brief lapse of depression which was overcome by simulating such a facial covering using only aluminum foil and the clever employment of household duct tape. don't ask.
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