First Commercial Booking in LA

"It's all happening."
-- Almost Famous

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that I'm almost famous. That's just a relevant quote from the movie "Almost Famous".

The limbo state is over. I got the call from the Casting Director telling me that I've got the booking, and the commercial shoots next Tuesday.

Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), I'm jazzed. Want to know how jazzed I am? I never use the word "jazzed". That's how jazzed I am.

Actually, I use the word "jazzed" whenever I repeat that attempt at humor.

Man, oh, man... this feels good. And it's not just the bottle of champagne I just polished off. I've been floating since I got the call.

Though I do have to remind myself not to get too high. Don't get too high, don't get too low. Balance, grasshopper.

Ah, to heck with that BS. I'm feeling good!!

There's nothing like the first time.

This is validation. It's popping my cherry in LA. It's all kinds of things. It's the start of a snowball. It's... it's... it's about time.

Not that it took all that long since I started pursuing this avenue. Far from it. This booking came on my second audition. And to raise my batting average even higher, it came on my first commercial audition.

When I told my dad it might be a good idea to quit with that high percentage of bookings, he agreed, and suggested that I could start teaching workshops on how to book 50% of your auditions. Later on, we had to revise that to say that I could teach how to book 100% of your commercial auditions.

Reality check... I might not book my next 20.

But in the meantime, this feels pretty damn good. I was prepared to wait a year or two to get my first commercial booking. That was based on anecdotes from working commercial actors. It just goes to show you, you never know. Even as recently as this morning, I didn't know.

And after waiting all week for the call, I was afraid that I'd missed my chance.

I'd decided to stop calling my voicemail several times an hour, and waited until lunch to check my messages. Well, after waiting from Monday to Friday for the call, I had two messages from the CD. The first one was at 10:51 AM, congratulating me, and asking me to call back "immediately" to confirm. Then at about 11:15, there was another message, urging me to call back "immediately". I'm not sure I even let that message finish playing. I called her back, thinking that I may have missed the window of opportunity. But all turned out okay. I got the booking.

Needless to say (but I'll repeat it again), I'm feeling pretty damn good right now.

This feeling can fuel me for quite a while... not to mention paying for my acting classes for a few months.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Thanks to the powers that be, on earth and beyond.