WOW…..There IS money to be made in this business

After six months of all these lessons, I was hired for my first acting role at the Riverwind Casino on Wednesday. However, it was as an extra with no speaking part. Submitted my information to the casting director, Chris Friehofer at Friehofer Casting, and my sterling acting abilities were apparent as I was picked. Curtain call, or whatever the term is for a television ad, was at 7:00AM. I’m always up early anyway, so getting all cute and fluffy and driving 45 minutes to the filming site was not a problem. However, I had not counted on a heavy fog and a 40 car pile up on one highway and a smaller pile up on another. But, listening to the traffic reports on the way down kept me out of trouble. I checked in a little after 7:00AM with my other 31 co-stars.

We were asked to bring three changes of clothing, but wear the one you liked the best. My wardrobe coordinator, my wife, picked out what she thought would best show off my features. Eager and compliant, I was there with my stuff. We all lined up and faced the AD (assistant director, a term I now know). Almost felt as though I was in a police line up and someone was looking through a glass, pointing to me and told the police he “dun it”. However, it was just to check the outfits all of us had on. Instructions were – no solid black, white, red, green, no extreme patterns or plaids. My dresser did just fine.

This felt like home week to me as many who were there, I had met in acting classes previously taken. The AD picked out about 25 to go to the first shoot in an area loaded with blackjack tables. Here I was all dressed to go – and no place to go - as I was totally overlooked. Sobbing is so unattractive on a grown man. However, there were several actors (notice I use the term since I now consider me one) whom I knew and we had a lively discussion. Pretty sure I would need entertainment so I had brought the book I was reading for my men’s book club. I had it so that I could read during down times, but I had such a good time visiting that I never picked up the book. There were several of us who were overlooked on the first shoot. Laurie Cummings, Normanda Pelton, Rick Eager, Tony Williams, and I had a great discussion. Laurie had acutally read my blog when I first started writing and before I met her and commented on my blog that she too was a beginner. Normanda has been in several classes with me and Rick and Tony I just met. Rick is retired from General Motors and is a screen writer and told us about what he was writing. He has even written a sequal to Maimi Vice and hopes to get it filmed. There were also discussions about what agents to use in the OKC area. I still have to find one. But, after this shoot, I have decided to interview several and pick the one that recognizes my immense talent and will send me to audition for parts that will get me to the red carpet.

Finally, the first group came back and I was chosen to go for my shoot. I was fortunate to sit at the blackjack table that was the focus of most of the shoot. My table mates were Cindy Hanska, Jerome Braggs, Lauren Synar (I found out when I got home that my wife is friend’s with her mother – oh yes, again I was the oldest of the group – I’m getting used to this), and Ronnie Deane. We got to know each other since we were back and forth at the table throughout the day. Our cute and lively Riverwind blackjack dealer, Jacy Clift, taught me how to stack chips. This is one-handed stacking combining two stacks of chips. Well, I got to be pretty good at three chips, but could not quite master four. Unfortunately, these were all fake chips and could not be cashed anywhere. Even the ice in my cocktail glass was plastic.

One of the cameramen saw me stacking the chips and asked me to continue doing this throughout one particular shoot. How do you spell palsy? I stacked those chips so many times I now have a frozen claw – but hey, it’s all for art. At one point, I thought my hand was going to fall off.

During a period between shots, I was sitting with a group of actors when Lorrie Chilcoat asked if we wanted to play a game. This was an absolutely hilarious interactive fun new game to me. Joy and I take bi-yearly trips with a group of friends and she and I are in charge of bus games. This will certainly be a new addition. I am not even sure what it is called, but it is like the old gossip game we played as kids, but this was done with paper. There were seven of us who were in the game. Stephen Goodman, Cindy, Jerome, Shawana Shafer, and Leslie Hippensteel. This game required both writing and drawing. It is a good thing this group of talented people are actors as they could never make it as artists. We ran out of paper so our next game was Mafia. Another fun game. Jerome was in charge of this one and Emily Ward joined us. About the time this was over, a large group came back from filming and we got almost everyone to play the game. About 20+ of us sat in a huge circle on the floor of our waiting room and played Mafia. One thing I learned is that the camaraderie of actors is really great. We were all there under the same umbrella with no one trying to out audition another. As you can see, my book was just a heavy nuisance.

We even did a scene where they wanted those of us with shiny shoes to come forward. My newly polished black loafers got me in the spot and they put the camera on the floor to shoot us walking back and forth. I did not expect to be upstaged by my shoes.

All and all it was a fun learning experience. I never realized how much time is spent setting up the camera and lighting. And being paid was pretty exciting. At he end of our 12 hour day, I was waiting for in the payroll line with Ed Smith, the police chief of Seminole. He has really taken to this acting and I admire him. He and I talked about agents and he suggested I talk with his agent. He was cast in “The Killer Inside me” and of course, I appear to be the only one who auditioned for that movie who did not get picked. So my quest continues to find that elusive speaking part.

If you see a hand stacking chips or a pair of black shiny loafers in the Riverwind Casino spot, that may be me. Because I am now a seasoned actor, I know not to look at the camera, so I do not know if my face will end up on the cutting room floor – or in the commercial. However, I do think I should be paid extra because of my shoes.

The spots will air around St. Patrick’s Day.