Okay this time I mean it. I WILL BLOG MORE OFTEN, not once every 6 months or so. Well if it’s any consolation I haven’t been laying fallow during this lengthy interim. No I’ve been happily driving myself halfway around the twist with various activities that have kept me more than busy.
First off on the acting front I’ve been working at the American Idol Experience at Walt Disney World in the role of Judge #1 or “the hip judge.” So I go by my own name and I judge various singers from across the country who audition at WDW for spot in our show, if they win in one of the shows during the day (which we call the preliminaries) they come back in the evening and sing again in our finale show against the other winners from the preliminaries during the day, the winner of the finale show that evening gets what’s called a Dream Ticket that puts them in the front of the line of any “American Idol” audition in the country. It’s arguably the most high profile show WDW has seen in years and I’m beyond grateful to be a member of the cast. I’ve been subbing the role at least once a week (sometimes a lot more) for the past 3 months. It’s been a godsend to me financially and it’s a fun gig! I mean where else in this beautiful heat filled state of Florida do you get to dress in $800-$1000 outfits, bling yourself up to the ninth power, improvise for about 90 seconds per show (30 seconds per guest performer in the preliminaries, 2 minutes 10 seconds in the finale show), in an air conditioned 1032 seat theatre and get paid for it? Believe me being a judge at Idol rocks.
I had a proud moment a couple of weeks ago at the Mouse. It was during Grad Nite which is when students from schools across the country have WDW to themselves from 7pm-2am to go on rides, attend concerts and have the time of their lives in the weeks leading up to graduation. Well this year Grad Nite was at Hollywood Studios (where I work) and I received a call while I was working at Idol asking if I could work Grad Nite because they needed someone who could get students to attend concerts by these two new musical acts who had low attendance the evening before. So I accepted the gig and proceeded to beg, plead, cajole, jump, run and shout in order to pump up the students to see Mishon (who is like a younger version of Usher) and Wynter (who has lovely pipes like Rihanna). Well their concerts numbers spiked from 10 people per show the night before when I wasn’t there to 230. Needless to say the powers that be at the Mouse were thrilled; heck I was even proud of myself. This had lead me in getting called to more auditions at WDW so I feel that if I just keep working hard something will happen where I’ll get hired to learn more shows on property which diversifies me even more in the Mickey Family.
I continue to host at Sleuths Mystery Dinner show as Remington Guard Wacky Security Guard. I’ve also learned a new show there as well, it’s called “Celestial Manor” and I play a British manor owner named Oliver. There’s a whole lot of tomfoolery and ballyhoo in the show and yes someone gets wacked before dinner is served and you the dinner patron have to guess who did the whacking.
I’ve also been auditioning for commercials like a madman around Florida I’ve attended many a callback as well but haven’t booked a commercial gig yet. My agent is happy with me though because she knows if I keep getting callbacks then I’m getting closer to booking something. I’m getting better at acting in front of the camera and have been attending seminars to learn more about the business. I love theatre so much but it isn’t going pay the bills so branching out from theatre has been a learning experience.
Oh and I’ve got to tell you all some good news, another poem of mine will be published. I’ve now been published 3 times, twice in 2008 with The Evening Sun and Spotlight on Recovery, and now Spotlight has accepted another poem of mine that will be in their spring edition. It’s a poem about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 called “A Diversified Humanity.” They assigned the poem to me late last year and I’m so happy that they liked it. I was also paid for it as well which I used to pay my electric bill.
I’m so excited to attend the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators) conference on June 20th at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort. This conference gives you a chance to not only show off your work to longtime agents and published writers but to network your fanny off. When I attended 2 years ago an editor at HarperCollins in New York named Kristin Daly reviewed my poetry anthology proposal in 6 weeks. While I ultimately got a rejection from her there’s no way on earth it would have been reviewed that fast if it were say an unsolicited manuscript stuck in some slush pile. That’s what makes the SCBWI conference so vital. They also have workshops that are broken up into tracks (sci-fi fantasy, picture books, middle grade, young adult, graphic novel, illustration) that are taught by award winning writers and agents for literary magazines. This year I’ll be taking the picture book track, the teachers will be published picture book writer Alison Jackson, published picture book writer/illustrator Janeen Mason and an editor at Scholastic named Jennifer Rees. I plan on bringing a longish children’s poem of mine that would make a wonderful picture book in my humble opinion. With the economy being the way it is I’m SO thankful to have the money to go such an important conference.
I finally realized that besides being an actor I am a children’s poet. This is who I am, this is what I’m about, and I need it like oxygen. To paraphrase Hyman Roth in The Godfather Part II “These are the professions I’ve chosen.” Actually they’ve chosen me; it was like the universe laid down the path and all I have to do is walk it straight and true.
