2015-07-21 - 11:15 p.m.
Well, it's been another trip around the sun, and I find myself sitting here yet again (because I'm too stubborn to die) and fighting off the urge to get sad about getting older by indulging in what I do every year- stroke my ego by reminding myself of awesome things I did since my last birthday, one for each year:
1- In the last year I've been offered enough auditions, both that I can and can't attend, that in order to remember who I am developing a relationship with I have to note them all in a special book (one that's filling up fast).
2- IN that same vein, I've done enough plays, tv, and films that I actually can't remember all of them. I realized today that I did 12 Angry Men only a year ago, and it feels like a lifetime. While gathering footage for my reel I had to actually think hard about whether there were any projects I'd done that I had forgotten about.
3- I got to see my mom graduate from college after years of working at it.
4- And I got to successfully surprise her in doing so- she honestly didn't think me and my sister were coming to see it.
5- As mentioned above, I cut together my demo reel (which was an excruciating task because I hate watching myself on film)
6- I also cut a VO reel, which is slow torture for the same reason.
7- I got cast in several shows I never auditioned for- starting with the above mentioned 12 Angry Men, I began a chain of "I do a show, someone comes to see it and offers me a role in a show they are doing based on just seeing me." that is still reverberating to this day (I'm working on a project right now for the Sam French festival that's being directed by someone who saw one of the shows I landed from one of the other shows I landed from doing 12.)
8- I actually sat down and made a "To Read" list of books I was interested in and have been updating it with new books I hear about that intrigue me.
9- I've crossed a lot of books off that list because I've read them. (Most recent finish is The Book of Strange New Things, by Michael Faber. Good read)
10- I won my 1000th match in competitive Magic the Gathering tournaments, making me a level 20 Nerd. No, I don't keep track, the DCI website told me this.
11- I purchased my first brand new computer I've ever owned (on which I'm typing this). Every other computer I've ever had has been used, refurbished, or cobbled together from parts I amassed. This is my first straight off the shelf model (and it's pretty sweet. ANd I got an insane deal on it)
12- I got new glasses, and I have to say I look quite fetching in them.
13-I won an employee of the month type award at my day job (and have been consistently in the top 3 in the company in quality and productivity metrics). I don't love my day job, but if I gotta have one, I might as well kick ass as it...
14- Especially cause it leads to very flattering raises when annual assessments go out. :)
15- I put my fat stacks to work and paid off the last....enormous balance...on my undergraduate loans, meaning I can officially hang up my BA (even though it's obsolete now that i have an MA) and it can't be repossessed anymore.
16- and I did so without bankrupting myself. Or telling the operator at Sallie Mae that their whole company can now go eat a giant bag of dicks with sprinkles.
17- I tried Chicken Cock brand Root Beer flavored Whiskey, and when no one else would touch anymore, soldiered through the rest of the bottle mostly by myself so it won't end up in my bowl. Because while I"m awesome, I'm also really self-punishing at times.
18- I saw the Hubble retrospective at the Intrepid Museum and the Pop Art in TV history exhibit at the Jewish Museum.
19- I fast talked my way into an audition for a New Jersey production of Two Gentlemen of Verona. An audition appointment was technically required but I convinced them to let me read cause i was there anyway, and I got cast in the show (I had to decline the role because of scheduling conflicts, but I still put this in the win column)
20- I saved a baby's life. Well, not really, but that's how her mom tells the story- she'd locked herself out of herapartment and was in a total panic, fretting about how her kid could kill herself in the apartment while she wasn't there. And I talked to her, calmed her down, and helped herfind the super as soon as possible to get her back into the apartment while keeping her mind off the morbid thoughts.
21-I taught a woefully undereducated grocery store checkout clerk what an artichoke was. And he was grateful for it.
22- I successfully faked my way through every conversation I had to have at an audition or a rehearsal this past year where someone recognized me and I didn't remember them. I never once had to admit that I didn't know who someone was. Kind of a dickish thing to be proud of, but I pulled it off, so I might as well own it.
23- I attended a family reunion in Denver with all six of my late grandmother's children together again for the first time since her funeral.
24-I declared my candidacy for President of the United States (campaign slogan: Come on America, you know you've done worse)
25-Saw my first GIn Blossoms concert in NY
26- Got my first adult credit card now that I'm financially secure and wise enough to use one correctly to boost my credit rating.
27- I met the real life Kramer (not michael richards, teh guy who the character is based on) and didn't punch him in the face.
28-I got cast in a movie I never auditioned for and can't find out any information about in terms of old casting notices, emails I sent, etc. THis may be a scam or it may be awesome.
29-I won an audition for a speaking role on Law and Order: SVU. I didn't get the part but the fact that I had a shot as a non-SAG actor was a big win.
30-I finally read the last Harry Potter book (in British even!)
31-I got lost in Inwood Park on one of my daily walks and ended up going all the way around the whole damn thing finding my way through. It was a good workout and a fun adventure.
32- I've begun preliminary design work on my new website (coming soon)
33-I did a performance of a show on 20 minutes notice with a cast I'd never met before, and it was amazing. The production had two casts, so each actor served as basically the understudy for the actor playing the same role in the other cast. On the final night, the actor playing my role didn't show up for the last show, so I had to go on in his stead, with a cast of people I was meeting for the first time as we were getting into costume. And we rocked it. Charlie Sheen ain't the only rock star from Mars around here.
34- Just tonight I auditioned for a student film down at the NYFA and I read with this really hot Polish girl. It went pretty well, and after the audition she came chasing after me on the street. WHen she flagged me down, she asked me for my phone number, prompting an admiring whistle and a congratulatory grin from a guy passing by within earshot. Don't get too excited, it turns out she wanted to cast me in a project she's getting ready to direct herself. But that means that I showed up for one audition and have a stronger than 50% chance of getting two different jobs out of it. Because winning.
35- And while the rest of these were in no particular order, this one I have been saving for last because it's one of the top 5 moments of my career. As part of the shows begetting shows chain I mentioned earlier, I got to be in a workshop of a new play called What Happened to the Dollar in August 2014. I played the President of the United States (a fictional one, not Obama, cause that'd be super racist). We worked with the playwright on the script, giving feedback and letting him hear how it sounded. Based on the way I played the POTUS, he significantly rewrote parts of that role. Then a few months later, they were back for a staged reading in front of an audience after a week of rehearsal, and I reprised the role of the President. Then in May 2015, the again-rewritten show was given a full production at the Producer's Club in Manhattan. The NY premiere of the play, and I again was cast in the role of the President, this time for a multiple weekend run in front of actual paying audiences, including several friends of mine (thanks again for coming guys). I got to take the character from almost the beginnings of the play all the way through to the finished product, to the point that I joked with the playwright (who has become a friend), that I feel I should get a cowriting credit because I feel such ownership of the character. I believe the script is a good one and worth future productions, and there's a part of me that doesn't want anyone else to ever play the role. Getting to take the character all the way along that journey is something I will always take a great deal of pride in, both the work that went into creating the character over so many iterations and in the way it was received by the audiences that finally got to see it. It was some of my best work and something I'll always have fond memories of (unless I get amnesia).
THere's other things, but that's 35. It's been a good year, Ken fans, and we are already working toward making next year's 36 a pretty full one.
Love,
Ken
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