Thursday, January 20, 2011

Showbiz

It's a little known fact that a younger Graham had his mind set on working in show business. Various wrong turns and dead ends redirected me into the career I have today. There is zero glamor involved but I'm okay with that.

Queue flashback... diddliddilyoop - diddliddilyoop - diddliddilyoop

I was 18 years old and on top of the world. My entire future was staring me in the eyes and I flinched. Opportunity presented itself to me in the form of acceptance letters to dramatic schools that I realized would accept anybody with the funds to attend. I lacked said funds so I decided to do what most people who either live in California or recently moved to California do got a job to pay for things like gasoline, water and electricity. Food was optional.

Casting calls are fairly easy to come by but I quickly learned why so many aspiring actors worked nights. In order for me to book work I'd need to not work my regular job. The paychecks for said work didn't justify quitting my job and did little to put me on an already crowded map so I pretty much sat by the pool without testing the water. Jobs are a funny thing in that they do a good job of taking care of you and being taken care of tends to fuel your devotion. I was devoted to my full my time job.

I'd do an occasional reading for various commercials and put in for extra work but I could never find any that matched what my job paid and those that would never called back. I initially thought I sucked which I still think had a lot to do with it but after some more specific casting calls I realized that it had little to do with how well I acted and more with how I looked. I'm not a handsome man by any means. I'm pretty plain looking which became apparent while looking around the waiting area at dozens of guys just like me. This was easily the most discouraging thing for me along with the helpful advice I got along the way.

When you're starting out it's not quality, it's quantity. That's the only way you're going to pay the bills is if you can work often enough to act full time or supplant a demeaning, part time job with weird hours. I met with a few agents as well and they echoed this which I think might have been their nice way of saying, "We've got five of you. Call us back when you become more handsome."

My other option was to move to New York and become a stage actor. The food thing was starting to get a little more important to me at this point so rather than sell the little bit that I owned to pay for a plane ticket to east I modified my dream slightly. Instead I decided that I really wanted a wife, a house, and a lawn.

It took awhile to get those things but I think I made some good choices thus far.

2 comments:

  1. A wife, house, and lawn. What about a dog?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The dog was never part of the plan. I do love her though.

    ReplyDelete