A Taste of the Other Side

In my career as a temp, I've had some positions that have been easy, a few that have been interesting, but none that have required me to wear a full suit and interact with heads of finance companies. Until today, that is. I worked as the concierge/event support host for a financial symposium, interacting with directors and CEOs of companies that specialize in retirement investing and 401(k) accounts. The dress code for the job was my formal suit, and I spent all morning with people who were dressed just as well as I. There were about 40-50 execs in the room for financial presentations, all learning about new regulations, new strategies, and new tools in the financial game. The amounts of money and income they were discussing for "hypothetical clients" was in the low-to-mid six figures, and those were the "small-business" owners.

A year ago, I would have looked around at the group of people assembled in this room and been glad that I was an actor. I would have liked the freedom, the possibility, and I would have seen all of the execs as being strangled by their expensive neckties. But how strange to see how things have changed in a year. I now wanted to be a part of this group, make a salary (plus benefits), and have a corporate job where I get to attend symposiums and seminars.

Plus, it doesn't hurt that I came home with three or four days worth of leftovers, including delicious desserts. I love the temp jobs that come with perks.

An Open Letter to DC Comics

Dear DC Comics,

I have been reading comic books since I was 7 years old, picking up some of the John Byrne Superman issues when they came out in the mid-1980s. And to quote Bibbo, Superman was always my fav'rit. I was never much of a collector as a kid, even though I picked up the odd issue here and there when the covers interested me. Oh, sure, I was there for the death of Superman and his marriage to Lois Lane, but I tuned out a lot on the individual issues as I went to high school, college, and the work force. But even though I didn't follow the comics, I have always been a fan of the characters in the DC Universe, from Superman to The Spectre, Batman to Booster Gold. I followed them through the various animated adventures, feature films, and even the paperback books that were released over the last decade.

But please understand that I love comic books. I like the way the story-telling them employ, I like the unique marriage of words and art, I like the feel of holding them in my hand, and I like the cliff-hanger based pacing within the larger context of world-building and long-running subplots. A single splash page from Action Comics capture my imagination for over twenty years before I could find the issue that continued the story. The issues were exciting, each one feeding into the ones before it, and the title marched forward with one continuing story.

However, this brings me to my problems with the way you present your comic book titles. In the last five years, I've tried to jump onto the DC Superman titles a total of three times. I waited for major events to finish/end/disappear, and then I started picking up the Superman titles. I like the crossover between Superman and Action Comics, and I'm willing to purchase both titles to follow the story. But within mere months of me re-joining the comic-book-buying community, another major event came along that required me to buy tie-in titles, a miniseries, as well as other crossover titles just to get the full story that started (and sometimes ends) in Superman. I don't have the money or the patience to collect half a dozen titles just to get a single story.

And so, DC Comics, in order to get this comic book reader back to the monthly schedule, please lay off the major crossover storylines that take place across multiple books. At least two years. If I have a story that runs through only the Superman title, or only in Action Comics, then I am far more likely to become invested in the larger universe and follow multiple characters. The Black Ring storyline in Action was a great start, but it's been undermined by the entire Doomsday story that I have no interest in. Following Superman from book-to-book is not a burden I am willing to take up. One title, one story.

I enjoy the stories. I enjoy comic books. But I no longer buy them. I want to. I really want to find a monthly book that I can pick up, purchase, and love. So the burden is on you to give me something I want to buy. And I promise, I'll be there when you do.

Sincerely,

Script in Hand

The Next Step

Okay, so I supposed sufficient time has passed since I teased my future plans in my last post. I was bursting with excitement when I first received this news, but I wanted to hold onto the news for a little bit until I was sure that everything was finalized. Not that I thought that things would change, but I was secretly holding out for another possibility. But that second possibility didn't pan out, and now I'm trying to embrace the one that has been offered to me. In short, I will be attending the 2011 Summer Publishing Institute at New York University.

Since the beginning of the year, I have been actively pursing a career in publishing. I think I want to work in the editorial department of a book publisher, although I've recently been thinking about either the publicity or the promotional divisions as well. Or even production or sales... Basically I've been focusing on a shift into a different industry entirely, and I have enrolled in the NYU SPI in an attempt to get a crash course in the industry, learn some skills, make some connections, and get a job in NYC publishing when the course is over.

So please congratulate me, raise a glass to my NYC adventure, and stay tuned for more information, news, rumors, reports, worries, concerns, fears (irrational and otherwise), regrets (real and imagined), and general musings on the next step in my life. Exciting step, but a scary one.

April, and the first week of May

No clever title this time. No witty word play about where I've been, what I've been doing, or why I haven't been blogging. The long and the short of it is this - I've been very busy with a temp gig working a promotion in a local mall, I've been stressing out over my future and some upcoming career changes, and that stressing has also extended into the realm of finance, money, and all the things that go with that.

So as all of that is going on inside my head (stupid over-thinking head!), I was driving out to a local mall a few times a week to work as a brand ambassador for a promo gig. I was a member of a team promoting the new Nintendo 3DS, a handheld gaming system that features a 3D screen that does not require 3D glasses. The feature doesn't come across in any photo or video ads, so Nintendo put the demo pod in local malls so that people could get the game in their hands and see the effect for themselves.

The job was easy, occasionally fun, and it paid me very well to essentially play video games all day. It was my first encounter with promo work, and I liked it. It was a lot of work to stand on my feet for that long, and I have always hated shift-based work from my time as a deli clerk in a supermarket, but the money and the convenience of the job more than made up for it. It's the sort of gig that I am glad is over, but the money was so nice that I wish it could have lasted for a few more weeks before another gig starts.

But what's this, Nick? Another gig, you say? What is it?

That answer and more to follow.

Addendum

A few nights ago, I went out with a friend of mine who is also leaving the business of acting. And he laid out a series of three exceptions to his retirement. His three points were so well-presented and well-articulated that I knew immediately that I had to steal them. And so, here they are, in no particular order.

The three things that will lure me out of retirement are:

1) A project that interests me and that I really believe in.
2) A project where I can make a lot of money very quickly.
3) A project where I can work with close friends, or when a friend needs a favor.

Any project I do from now on will have to be one of these. Preferably, two of these. Ideally, three of these. It's been a while since I've found joy in my performing, and these three bullet points will help me find the joy again.

For Immediate Release

So, there have been a lot of rumors and stories floating around the Internet lately that I have retired from acting. I'm here to tell you today that most of them are, in fact, true. In addition, I have started most of them. But now, with the retirement policy firmly in effect as of last Friday, I am here to address some of what it means to me and what exactly I am hoping to do with my life now.

First of all, let me address the biggest question that I am asked. Yes, I will still continue to act. Acting was and remains one of the biggest passions in my life, and I receive more pure joy from it than I do from many other things. My retirement from the profession does not mean that I will never again be seen onstage or in a movie, so please don't call me a hypocrite when I next appear in a short film or the latest installment of "Super Heroes Who Are Super." Acting is fun, and I plan to continue to work on projects that interest me.

That brings us to what the retirement involves, exactly. For the last year as I have moved from performing into producing, the work I have done onstage has become less and less "fun." It's started to feel like work. And I don't mean the "boy, aren't I lucky because I get to do this every day!" sort of work. I'm talking about the "well, damn, here it is Monday morning again and I have to go to that stupid office and do the thing that I don't enjoy just so I have money coming in but I'd much rather be somewhere else" sort of work. Simply put, I lost my joy. Acting is not something that one does for the money, so to continue in a profession that I don't enjoy doesn't seem like a smart idea to me.

And, of course, let's not forget about the money. Acting can sometimes pay enough to "get by," if you are going to take into account all the side jobs, teaching jobs, freelance jobs, temp jobs, and crap jobs that you have to do in order to supplement a Philadelphia-approved rate of $75/week for your performance. For many people, this works out just fine. And I'm not trying to knock the people for whom that life works well. It worked fine for me for many years, but not any more. I had a lot of fun bouncing from one job to another, but I now recognize that I want a stable job, a reliable source of income, and an enjoyable workplace. And that's not always to be found in acting.

Essentially, I'll boil it down to this: I used to work 9-5 at a job I didn't enjoy in order to be able to find my happiness by performing on the side. But now, I want to find a 9-5 job that I enjoy and that makes me happy, and I will fill the time on the side with other hobbies and interest that make me just as happy as my profession. Some of them will, no doubt, include acting. They will also include writing, producing, reading, playing mini golf, bowling, making plastic model kits, owning a cat, collecting comic books, etc. I'm ready for my permanent, full-time career to be my primary one, my stable one, and my financially supportive one. And I know that I am not going to find any of those things as a professional actor.

However, I do enjoy the creative process and the creative arts, but now I want to be a part of the production side of them. I am seeking employment in publishing, either in the publicity, production, or editorial departments of book-publishing companies. It's a hard field to break into, and the challenges fill me with dread some nights when I can't sleep, but it's the sort of thing that I think will make me happy. I've been a freelancer for a long time, and I'm looking for a full-time, salaried position where I have to wear a tie to work.

If you have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer them. You can post them here or you can email me directly, and I will be forthright and honest about my current decision, my reasons, and my intentions.

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New Headshots?

As I have been making very clear and very public in the last few weeks, I am no longer interested in being a professional actor. My reasons are constantly in a state of flux, and I am hoping to craft an intelligent and insightful blog post that can explain them to you, the readers, and you, my friends. But until then, I'm still running out the clock on a few more projects, and am still pursuing theatre jobs that interest and excite me. But to do that, I think I might need to use new headshots. Here are some that I'm considering:This is for all those time when I'd be considered to play characters who are smug, full-of-themselves, or entirely convinced of their own good forture, future, and well-being. The complete opposite for me. (Except for the smug part. I've got that part nailed.)

This one will be my new commerical headshot, used for things like toothpaste adverts, billboards, and potential starring roles on daytime television. Just look at my hands. Don't they scream "I could play a doctor who is also someone's long-lost twin and sleeps with every woman around looking for my own sister who was brutually murdered before I was born but who has been reincarnated and is hunting for me as well?" Don't they!

This headshot seems to suggest that I'm a little quirky but still serious. The face says I can run your Fortune 500 company, but the body language says I wouldn't enjoy cashing those five-figure paychecks. (The body language is a lie; I'd love to cash the five figure paycheck.)

Quite frankly, I just liked this picture. And I'm still stuck on the plot I suggested two captions back. This is when I learned that my long-thought-dead-and-then-reincarnated-but-now-lives-a-double-life-as-a-nanny-and-an-exotic-dancer sister is also my next-door-neighbor. Spooky.

For a potential headshot, this photo is inappropriate on several different levels. First, there is entirely too much brown of the wood. Second, I have some dirt under my fingernails. And third, it cuts off some of my hair at the top. Complete inappropriate.

By this point in the post, everyone should realize that I'm not being serious. About considering these as new headshots, I mean. But out of this comedy comes a photo that I am going to use as my new headshot. This one:

It's not professionally done by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a good photo that looks like me. My old photos were a little out of date, so I did need a little update. But I also didn't want to spend upwards of 400 bucks on new headshots, since I want to switch careers completely anyway. So this will do for now. Hopefully the next promotional photo I have taken of myself will feature me in a suit and tie, and I'll be listed in the "staff" section of a publishing company's website.