Jump and the net will appear.?

It’s been a while since I wrote on this blog. I have been writing like crazy, just nothing on the public forum!

So I decided that four months in LA was enough time to check out the city, and I’m heading back to NYC this week. This came as a surprise to a lot of my friends, with them wondering why i ‘quit’ on LA so soon. Now I’ve never been one to defend my actions, but I guess I’ll rationalize them right now.

LA, although it was a struggle to adapt to it, has become a place that I love. Like NYC, it is a land where people have come for decades to self actualize their dreams. There’s an energy here that billows within the canyons, that offers hope to those looking to reach for the stars. The streets of Hollywood echo famous quotes of past celebrities, and now are packed with those in line for future stardom. This self actualization dates all the way back to the gold rush! People have been heading west in hopes of making their dreams come true for centuries.

After driving across the country to check out this mystical land of Oz, why do I decide to turn around and head back to NYC? Plenty of factors. Returning closer to family, preferring the lifestyle of NYC, the inspiration of the daily plights. For me, LA, once unveiled, wasn’t the ‘be all end all’ of show business. Not for now at least. I’ve actually been pretty successful for my first 4 months here. Landing an agent, performing stand up and improv, and meeting tons of people willing to help me out. 

I guess the message I’m trying to send is that I need to defend the idea that OPPORTUNITY LIES WITHIN US- not in some far off city. We must not use limitations like ‘if I lived in LA I’d have more auditions and etc etc’. Yes that might be true, but we must continue our plight wherever we lay our hat. Or in the actor’s case, his headshot. 

Opportunity lies within us on a daily basis. It was never my intent to just be an actor, to read other people’s words and die happy. I want to create, to write, to collaborate, to explore what amuses and inspires me.

LA is a land of opportunity, but our mind a sea of fortuity.

My acting career began in Boston. It led me to a bigger market in NYC. And now I feel like I’ve triangulated who I am and where I want to be, and it gives me a stronger sense of self as I return to the east coast, knowing that I’ll take bagels and pizza over traffic and botox. Not to trap myself into my own words, there will be a time when I return to LA- and there will be more opportunities here in the future. But for now, having met and experienced this lovely southern californian city, having spent many days on the beaches of Santa Monica, hiking Bronson Canyon or camping out on the 405 freeway, I plan on driving back this week to the other coast. 

Shedding the idea that opportunity must be found in one place, I’ll stuff opportunity into my car, along with the rest of my belongings, and head back east.  The beautiful thing about this life is that there is no rule book. So, like I’ve learned through acting, I’ll make it up as I go.

“Lord of the Wings”, my latest sketch comedy, is a piece about two perfect strangers, who met at a bar while trying to set their friend up on a date. They are both considered a ‘wingman’ and a ‘wingwoman’ because they assisted their friends in the hook up process. 

The wingman is always there to take one for the team, the term ‘wing’ originates from the movie Top Gun… I think…

The idea of making a short about the wings and not the actual subjects being winged for was a interesting idea to me. Kaitlin (playing Caroline) and myself (playing Chad) both came up with the idea together as we discussed what made us good wingmen. 

True Story!!- sometime over the summer I was out with a friend of mine. He doesn’t do too well with the ladies but, ass Phil would say, against all odds, met a pretty good looking girl. Now she had two friends with her, and the thing about girls is that they all operate on some sort of socialist platform. They all get a rousing conversation with the guys, or none of them do. So it was my job to disarm the other two females, keep them entertained while my buddy tossed around pretty bad game. Long story short, it worked. My efforts went a bit unnoticed and I felt the need to brag to others about how good of a wing I am. Selfless, time honored, slowly reaching knighthood status.

Text messaging back and forth like two tweens at the mall, Kaitlin and I discussed our talents, and she too just completed a good wing experience. Could it be that the two of us are premium quality wings? The organic perdu kind… We began ‘one upping’ each other on our wing stories. That’s where the idea of ‘Lord of the Wings’ comes from.

Now, with regards to the ending… That pays tribute to an all time classic film “Dumb and Dumber”. I dont want to spoil the ending if you havn’t been graced with the good fortune of watching all 4 minutes of this magic, but the ending of ‘Lord of the Wings’ is pretty similar to the scene in Dumb and Dumber where a busload of bikini clad models stop by two hitchhiking losers… You’ll have to put the pieces together yourself.

So that’s the story behind ‘Lord of the Wings’. Thanks to Kaitlin, and to the crew, Heidi, Robert, John, Andy for capturing the short while filming during a chaotic times square night. Also, thanks to GC and Olga for beautiful original music for the beginning and end credits. Really beautiful stuff, and an overall fun creative experience.

Is ‘Creativity Rewarded’ a tagline? Am I ripping someone off with the ‘Creativity Rewarded’ line? or should I trademark it? Not sure, but I googled it and couldn’t find an actual definition for the term, so here goes:

Creativity Rewarded to me means to explain the serendipitous and seemingly syncronistic moments that occur when people get together to express their creative ideas.  Yesterday we filmed a short sketch comedy I wrote called “November First”. ‘November First’ tells the story of a woman who must walk home from a crazy night of partying, still in costume. The costume (a sexy cat woman) shows the audience how we are judged by society, based on our book’s cover. It doesn’t define us, but it defines how we are perceived. Through the short set of events that ‘Cat Woman’ must encounter, she transforms from a shy, hungover girl in a Cat Woman costume, and she slowly begins to play the part of Cat Woman vixen. Is that her true personality, or is she just living in the world that perceives her as such?

The story itself does little to reinvent literature, all it is or ever was meant to be is a quick look at the point of view of a ‘walk of shame’, as heightened as possible, on the day after the best holiday ever. For many reasons I needed to make this short sketch happen. I have really desired writing a short through the female perspective. This was hard to do! It took the help of many different female friends and, likewise, a great gay friend of mine! Not that his sexual orientation had anything to do with his critique, he’s just generally a well thought out and cool guy that knows his way around humor and literature. And I have no problem bouncing ideas off of my great group of friends. They get me, and my humor, and are always helpful as a fresh set of eyes to look at my material.

So how was creativity rewarded? A great group of actors, writers, producers, filmmakers all came together on a Sunday morning in a beautifully quiet area of Manhattan to work on an idea. To make a spark turn into a physical product.

The universe is the ultimate creation, and in my mind, it rewards those who use it for creative purposes. If you commit to an idea, put it on paper, put the wheels in motion to make it a reality, you WILL  be rewarded. A beautiful day, beautiful footage, newly made friends, the rewards are obvious.

I’m so thankful and grateful for those that support my creativity, and build upon it, such a collaborative process. We find out things about ourselves through the experience. For those that are ready to pull the trigger on their own creative endeavors, I promise you that there’s no better time than the present.  Quiet your perceived limitations, put your thoughts to action and see the results literally unfold faster than you ever imagined.