February 2008 Archives

Some Upcoming Announcements of Note:

The Last Jew In Europe has been extended again @ the Triad theater, 158 W. 72nd Street, NYC: the first extension was into February and now it's been extended into March (only two days, so far: the 5th & 9th), April (4 days so far, the 6th, 9th, 27th & 30th), and May (8 days: 4th , 7th, 11th, 14th, 18th, 21st, 25th, & 28th).

I've been cast (actually, more randomly picked out of a hat, but fortune smiled on me anyway -- it's a great role) in Ten Grand's Cold Cut Reading Series. Ten Grand is an up and coming off-Off-Broadway theatre company that has recently moved into new space occupied by the Algonquin Theatre Company on 123 East 24th Street, NYC. Ten Grand and Algonquin will be joining forces on various upcoming productions. I'll be reading the part of Wayne in Philip Hopkins' An American Book Of The Dead on 02 . 26 . 2008.

I've been cast in a new play by Joel Shatzky called Other People. Rehearsals start around 03 . 03 . 2008. The show opens on Thursday 04 . 03 . 2008 and runs for two weeks at the Impact Theatre in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn NY, just north of Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, and Grand Army Plaza & the Brooklyn Public Library.

Doug Butabi: So... you want to dance?
Girl: We're not in the club yet.
Doug Butabi: Right.

Steve Butabi: Oh my God, Doug. This is the most amazing place I've ever been.
Richard Grieco: Guys, guys. This is the coat room. The club's in here.

One of my hobbies, during my active career, was watching the results of other show biz folks. I kept journals for about 5 years, then I noticed that I didn't need to keep a journal because it was becoming redundant. The fact is, that all the successful people I met over 40 years, (and when I say ALL I mean 100%) were capitalists.

I don't mean that in a political way - I'm talking about store-keeper capitalism. All the successful people I've known in the show business are successful because they are good business people. Good store-keepers.

The other side of the coin is the unsuccessful actor, writer, director, producer, etc. Believe me, most of them are not untalented, or unlucky, or unconnected. Generally, their real problem is that they are just lackadaisical business people.

The biggest mistake I see is the total time and energy the unsuccessful actor puts into the business. This amount of time can be described as: NOT ENOUGH. (Acting For Money, Bob Fraser, Author of You Must Act!, The Secrets To Acting Career Success)

I do non-paid off-Off Broadway and Off-Broadway -- but I don't expect to work for free. I never expect that.

What I Expect

I expect deferred payment from The Universe in the form of future professional theatre, film, television, and commercial work. I base this expectation on the contingency of doing my absolute best in these productions. I ACT as IF I'm getting paid.

I'm not working for free (money is important, and you have to respect that) -- I'm working for deferred payment.

This is what motivates me to work hard. I love acting. But to continue acting, to continue growing as a actor, I have to increase my value, and a necessary (but not sufficient) metric of success as an actor is money. Money won't make me happy, but I need an income, derived from acting services rendered, if I am to grow as an actor. It's that simple.

Some actors, much better than I, choose to work primarily in non-profit theatre either for artistic or professional reason. And make no mistake about it, absolutely terrific work is being done in these venues, and it's my heart's greatest desire and dream to work in these absolutely wonderful off-Broadway production houses and productions. However -- it's not (for me) enough. My "perfect" life ("perfect" in a human, rational, realistically achievable sense) is this type of work and money. That would be perfect! (And I fully intend to do this perfect thing).

 My Goal

Freeze! is one of over 70 different missions Improv Everywhere has executed over the past six years in New York City. Others include the No Pants Subway Ride, the Best Buy uniform prank, and the famous U2 Rooftop Hoax, to name a few. Visit Improv Everywhere's website to see tons of photos and video of all of our work, including behind the scenes information on how this video was made.

If you are interested in getting involved in New York you can sign the NY Agents List . . . cause a scene

A few days ago, I received this email requesting more information:

Hi Christopher,

Your blog is very interesting, and I am glad that I came across it. I am considering working with Acting Reps, and was very relieved to see that you wrote about them on your blog. (Sometimes it is hard to tell from message boards if a post was written by an actual person, but a regularly updated blog like yours gives me more confidence that you are, in fact, a human being. :)) I am not an actor, nor do I plan to become an actor, but am sort of looking for some extra work to do. It seems like you have found them to be reliable in terms of paying you, so I am wondering if you could say anything else about your experience.

Many thanks,
          Suzanne

I emailed back:

Hey Suzanne,

thank you for reading my blog and I'm glad you found it interesting. About background work -- I think it's a hard way to make extra money if you're not interested in acting or working in film or television: it's a long day, usually, you're sitting around allot, and it doesn't pay well at all. However -- if you're interested in acting or working in some capacity in film or television, then it's a great experience.

You say you don't want to be an actor, but something (other than $$) must be attracting you to working on a film set. You should do it -- have fun, talk to the crew (if they're momentarily not busy, which is sometimes rare), and see if you like being there. A lot of people who are now working on film and television sets started out as extras just to see what the hell it's all about, so you should definitely try it!

- Cheers,
       Christopher

I do think it's a hard way to make extra money if you're not interested in acting or working in film or television, but for those who are interested, doing background work is great way to get both experience and money. I've written a few times on this topic, so I'll just redirect the interested reader to these posts.

Bob Fraser, of You Must Act!, gives some excellent advice about the advantages of doing extra work.

Isabelle Palmer also has an interesting post about doing background and the valuable insight she's gotten about the life and working conditions of professional actors by just simply being present and observant on the set. If you're union, it doesn't pay much, but then again, you're not asked to do much, and it's a great education.

Finally, there's a surprising number of books out there about film and television extra work -- they're very good, check them out:

God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.
~ Isak Dinesen (author of Out Of Africa)

 

I've always like this quote (and Dinesen is a wonderfully observant and poetic writer) because it reminds me not to look too far down the road. I have my long-terms goals and a plan, but that's really only a dry map -- day by day, it's just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, being no where else than "in" that single foot-fall, being fully there, fully present.

Lately, I've been struggling to take my monologues to the next level, and I said in this post that I had a good idea about how to do this. Actually -- I didn't, but now I do.

This clip from Facing the Giants is instructive on a couple of levels: one -- it's an object lesson in setting your "real" goal to simply keep putting one foot in front of the other. Of course -- you have to pick a direction, know what you're working towards, but then . . . don't worry or focus on the hoped-for, wished-for, end result. Just focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Let your attention, your heart, and your mind be no where else other than the current step. Be fully present right here, right now.

It's also a great metaphor for how to "do" a monologue: one step/thought at a time -- really be present in that step, that thought, and be no where else other than where you are . . .

. . . and you may just wind up going much much further (in terms of reaching for your goals) and going much much deeper (in terms on a monologue):