And We're Back!

Welcome back from what I like to call the June-gloom.  No, I'm not talking about the weather... though it coincides with the hiding sunshine for which the expression is normally used around here.  I'm talking about one of the slowest months of the year, and the actor depression that inevitably socks in around us.  It's like PMS... you kind of know that it's happening and that it's normal, but that doesn't keep you from being really paranoid that it's actually real and that you're the only one who's feeling it and will never go away.  Without an audition on the horizon and hardly any breakdowns released, that creeping panic that your career is regressing rolls in like the marine layer on the west side.  For me this year, the normal June-gloom was magnified by the four callbacks that resulted in zero bookings for me in May.  That kinda "0-fer" stinks more than the LA river.

But life goes on.  I went to a film screening with an actress friend of mine last week.  As we were chatting, waiting for the film to start she said, "GOD, June was sooo slow!!"  It flew out of her like she'd been holding her breath until she could say it. 

Now this friend of mine, I've known basically since I moved to Los Angeles.  She had been here about four years by the time I got here.  She had some success and it's really taken off in the last few years.  She no longer has to have a side job, has a few TV credits to her name, and it seems like every other month I see her in a new commercial.  Girl is rockin' it. 

But June-gloom got her too. 

Which made me feel better.  I had started to feel depressed that all the momentum I thought my career was gaining was sizzling out and that I was back at square one.  I was called in for three television shows, multiple callbacks for each one and two feature films with callbacks.  I also had three other solid auditions that, though I didn't get called back, I knew they were good work.  And yet, no booking.  So then where am I?  Two months later and still back at square one.  Aaaargggh!!  That is so ridiculously frustrating.  Throw in an industry that comes close to a screeching halt for four weeks right after that... girl is going out of her mind.

But when my friend who is on TV all the freaking time blurted it out like it was driving her mad too... I didn't feel so bad.  In fact, it's kind of fun to know that I'm feeling the rhythm of this town just like everyone else.  I'm in the middle of it, not on the outside looking in.

But now it's July and we're back!  Most shows are coming out of hiatus, in a little over a week I've landed a meeting with the head of the theatrical department of a nice little agency and yesterday, I had an audition for big ol' SAG national.  I must have gotten rusty because as I was about to hand my headshot to the casting assistant... I saw the wrong logo on the back on my resume!!  Somehow, I had grabbed a headshot that had the my last agent's information on it.  Yikes!  Luckily I had an extra headshot and an extra correct resume, but unfortunately, unattached...  So yesterday, at 200 South -- one of the biggest commercial casting facilities in town -- I turned into one of those actors I despise... the ones who are rushing to attach a resume to their headshot in the waiting area.  (I mean really?  You can't come with at least that prepared??)  But I suppose that's a lesson for me that life happens to everyone at some point.  The next time I see an actor frantically stapling and trimming her resume in the waiting room, I'll try not to judge her.

Too much...


Welcome back in, kids.  Let's get moving.