Tune in to 9/22 to watch our friend Kate Mines.

 Check out some behind the scenes photos:

Kate Mines Full Profile at The Working Actor

Check Out Brian Palermo in The Social Network:

Check out Brian Palermo’s website

STAY UP TO DATE EVERY TIME WE POST A NEW ACTOR

FOLLOW THE WORKING ACTOR ON TWITTER:

FOLLOW THE WORKING ACTOR ON FACEBOOK:

Check back later this week to watch Brian Palermo talk about his old day job.

Jason’s choice of clothing for the audition was simple. The same outfit I photographed him in!!!

Check out what Jon Hamm had to say about his struggles before he made it big:

up to my 40th birthday, and I don’t let myself ­forget that for 15 years after I left school I ­struggled to make a living. So what’s ­happening to me now is very nice.

I’ve been a barman, a waiter, a teacher, and I even helped out on a soft porn movie — as a set dresser, not a performer, I hasten to add — because I’d do everything I could to make enough money to pay the rent.

‘Thank goodness I had some understanding landladies. There are certain dark nights of the soul, when you say: “Good god, I’ve got to get a job”. But there has to be some kind of confidence in every actor that makes them get up in the morning, because it’s an incredibly difficult life to choose, if you don’t have success early.

‘I came out to Hollywood from St Louis when I was 25, which was already late. I found myself immersed in a huge city where thousands of ­people looked like me. I hoped I would be picked out of this group and I would do what I could to make money. My attitude was that I didn’t want to be this person that just keeps striving for years.

It was a scramble, though. At that time, the cool look for guys on TV was to look like a ­teenager. I have never looked like a teenager. So at 26, I was auditioning to play the father of one!

‘I decided that if nothing much was happening by the time I was 30, then I’d go and do something else.

‘In the end, I was 28 when the work started coming in regularly. I waited on my last table when I was 29.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1353494/Mad-Mens-Don-Draper-played-nerd-says-actor-Jon-Hamm.html#ixzz1CxEZvHQL

Check out Daniel Franzese’s full profile

NBCLA Coverage:

Outtakes from my shoot with Christopher Dennis:

[Show as slideshow]

Last Friday the LAPD conducted a crackdown on the Hollywood Blvd. street characters. By all accounts (CNN, KTLA, and some folks who were present when this went down) the street cops claimed this was ordered “from upstairs.” Many of the characters who were taken down to the police station received tickets for blocking the sidewalk and loitering.

I have featured two actors who call Hollywood Boulevard their office. During the course of photographing Sajen Corona (ticket salesman) and Christopher Dennis (character) I found myself on the receiving end of demands for tips. Simply standing around Grauman’s Chinese Theater while snapping photos of architectural detail as well as the subjects of my interview was enough to provoke aggressive characters to demand a tip. “You have to give me money if you are going to keep taking photos” one of them said. These aggressive characters believed that dressing up and walking into a public space and essentially being an extra in my photograph earns them money. Christopher and Sajen quickly quieted these demands by telling the offenders, “he’s with me.” I was left alone, I had street cred.

I’m in no way defending this aggressive panhandling. However, there are quite a few characters who are respectful of tourists and do not demand tips. I’ve met quite a few characters and even approached them for being featured on this site. One of them was taken into custody but released. Many of them say “we accept tips,” but I’ve never heard anything aggressive or inappropriate from the ones I asked to be on my site. Many of them are aspiring actors. To me it seemed that there were two “groups” of characters, the aggressive and the non-aggressive characters.

From all I’ve read and been told, one consistent story has emerged. The LAPD went down to Hollywood Boulevard and unilaterally decided that anyone wearing a costume was a criminal. These officers claim to have been acting on “orders from above.” Were these officers simply told to go down and arrest anyone who LOOKED like a criminal? Did nobody think it might be smart to perform 30 seconds of undercover work to identify the aggressive characters? The aggressive characters have no shame in demanding money! It would have been quite easy to indentify the trouble-makers. Maybe if the LAPD were to perform frequent undercover busts the aggressive characters would be in check.

To me what happened on Hollywood Blvd. is the same as an officer walking into a neighborhood and arresting all the whites, blacks, or the latinos because they LOOKED like someone who committed a crime.

Late last night I put in a phone call to Christopher Dennis.  Christopher is the godfather of Hollywood Blvd. He knows who is aggressive and demands tips, and he knows who doesn’t. Christopher told me he saw the police activity and managed to get away. Hollywood Blvd is a large area and I’m sure quite a few characters saw what was going on and managed to get away without being harassed. Here are some interesting things Christopher pointed out:

• The LAPD targeted an employee from Madame Tussauds wax museum who does nothing more than hand out flyers. Would Madame Tussauds keep someone employed whose job was to attract customers if they were being inappropriate? This local business employee received a ticket.

• The LAPD threatened a group of students from NY Film Academy who were shooting a film.  The student who was wearing a costume was told, “if you come back here we will arrest you.” Apparently the police were not aware of the filming and assumed the actor was a Hollywood Blvd. character. At no point did they question the students for a film permit.

• The LAPD ticketed characters who Chris knows as non-aggressive characters for “Blocking the sidewalk.” If this state is so short on cash why don’t they ticket all 25 billion tourists who block the sidewalk all day long?

There are many aggressive characters who take advantage and bully tourists. But this crackdown seems handled the wrong way. Is this the LAPD’s fault? I don’t know. Is this the city flexing its muscles? Just cracking down so it can say “we try to get rid of these characters.” It seems to me that actual police work instead of a mass “up against the wall” could have identified characters who were following the rules and the ones who weren’t. The cnn.com article posted yesterday claims that Tony Tomey (who according to Christopher Dennis is not an aggressive character) was arrested within minutes of showing up. Did he commit a crime? CNN did not say. Christopher Dennis told me he was released yesterday evening and charged with blocking the sidewalk.

Christopher hasn’t been out working since last Friday. He went out with CNN yesterday, because he felt safe with the cameras.

Support these working actors!

Find out what life is like working on Hollywood Blvd. In the non-hooker sense by clicking here and here.

Imported beans before they are roasted

This machine cools the beans in a matter of seconds after they are roasted.

Don’t forget to try the tea!

Now its time to sample the new LAMILL drinks….but let’s meet Alex first:

Age: “Thirtymmmmmmyearsold”

Alex is originally from England via Atlanta, GA. He has worked at LAMILL Coffee for 4 1/2 years.

FAVORITE CELEBRITY SIGHTING AT WORK: “We get tons of people who come into the Silverlake boutique. It’s pretty much a celebrity haunt. TMZ is always there.  Leonardo Dicaprio is in every week, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Geena Davis. But I’m a big Star Trek fan, and I got to sit with Chris Pine at the bar a few times. That’s pretty cool.”

MOVED TO LA BECAUSE: “I was working in the corporate world back in Atlanta and I was getting so sick of it. I either wanted to shoot myself or everyone I worked with.  I had been acting for about 3 years already and earned my SAG eligibility on a Chevy/NASCAR commercial.  My best friend kept encouraging me to leave the corporate world. Finally, I took his advice and decided to move out here.”

BEST MOMENT IN LA: “1am the evening I arrived in LA. A buddy and I drove out to crash on a mutual friends floor. We drove  for 41 hours straight from Atlanta…only stopping for food and gas. We pulled in at 1am, put the car in park and just walked around this park in North Hollywood for a bit.”

WORST MOMENT IN LA: “All I have to say is Cheescake Factory…white denim.”

WORST AUDITION STORY: “It was back in Atlanta, and it was one of my first auditions ever. I had no experience, no audition technique. It was a showcase type thing and there was an agent from LA. I’m doing this deep monologue, which was the eulogy from Four Weddings and A Funeral. I was doing such an amazing job, at the end the agent was crying. I thought to myself ‘I’m amazing. I moved this guy from LA.’ The agent just sat there crying and didn’t say anything. Finally he looked up at me and said, ‘you had no way of knowing this, but I just delivered that eulogy at my best friends funeral a week ago.’ It turns out I didn’t move him as much as I thought. Ouch!”

YOU MAY HAVE SEEN HIM IN: “Boston Public” Season 4 Episode 14 “Chapter Eighty,” A Funny or Die video called Gump, NASCAR/Chevy commercial, O’Charlies commercial, The Straight Jacket Society

UPCOMING: Kapisa

DREAM ROLE: “I’m a Christopher Meloni meets Russell Crowe…I don’t think I look like him…meets Christian Bale/Jason Statham. Something dark, gritty maybe a cop or a D.A. or FBI or swat. “Southland” is one of my favorite shows right now, something like that.

The best part of a private tour is always the free samples. My drinks were made by LAMILL’s very own drink master…MAKE SURE TO START WITH GROUND BEANS…VERY FRESH A MINUTE OR TWO OUT OF THE ROASTER:

Brazilian Peaberry + Japanese Siphon Method = TASTY

The Siphon brew is almost complete as the flame has been removed, the coffee is finished percolating, is cooling and is descending into the lower chamber.

Perfection!

MY FAVORITE DRINK!!!!!!!

Coffee Margarita:  Secret blend of iced coffee, tequila and salts.  This is still in R&D and no one outside of LAMILL, except you, has even seen it.

What’s your favorite spot for coffee in town?

Check out Miranda and Gabriel’s full profiles.

Jason talks about a scary moment while working a party as Winnie The Poo:

Age: 40

Jason is originally from “a farm in the hills of New Hampshire,” but has lived in LA for 18 years. He has worked as a seismic retrofitter for 6 years.

COMMERCIALS YOU MAY HAVE SEEN HIM IN: Long John Silver’s, Dunkin Donuts, Sprint, Kaiser Permanente, Geico, AAA  Auto Insurance, Black & Decker, Del Taco, Sony Playstation, Milwaukee’s Best.

MOVED TO LA BECAUSE: “I wanted to get into the TV and film industry as an actor. But I like to do every aspect of it, I’ve done lighting, catering, wardrobe. I’ve done a bunch of PA jobs. I’ve done grip work. I just like knowing what everyone on set does. As an actor you sit there and don’t know what’s going on around you. But now I know what everyone does and I know how to stay out of everyone’s way. There are a lot of hard working people on set.”

BEST MOMENT IN LA: “I used to be in a band and we had the opportunity to open up for Smash Mouth. It was right when “Walking on the Sun” had just come out. It was just such a moment like ‘man we are playing at The Whiskey, so many iconic bands have been through those doors.’ It was just so much fun.”

BEST AUDITION STORY: “Auditions, when you’re in the room for those two minutes you ARE the character, you HAVE the part. But as soon as you walk out anything can happen, so I just move on. This was a call back so you’re that much closer. It was for Long John Silvers and they were asking me what I like to eat and if I was allergic to anything. I said, ‘nope, you put it in front of me, I’ll eat it.’ We were all laughing and having a good time. As the door clicks behind me on my way out the casting director walks out the other door and gave me a big thumbs up from down the hall. As this was going on the director walked out and said to the casting director ‘we want to book Jason.’ I was standing right there, it was so cool. The casting director turned to me and said ‘We’ll see you on set.’ It was the best feeling leaving a call back knowing that I had the part.”

WORST AUDITION STORY: “When you go into the room in a group its always tough, you’re depending on these other people who go in with you. I remember this one group audition where  two of the guys just kept messing up doing slate. The guy who was running the session just stopped the camera and said ‘ok, that’s it. We’re done.’ I said ‘we’ll we didn’t even get to….’ and he just cut me off ‘we’re done, next!’ The casting guy opened the door and we all had to leave. It was the weirdest thing. Anything can happen at an audition.”

DREAM ROLE: “Working on a sitcom, I’ve been to some sitcom tapings, I’ve worked on some shows. It just really seems like that’s where I would jive well. Believe me I’m the guy next door, I’m the quirky brother who kinda screws up all the time. I could play the brother to Jack Black or Zach Galifianakis, we just have a similar look.”

ADVICE FOR ACTORS MOVING TO LA: “Take notes during an audition. Many times I’ve been asked during a call back to do what I did during the audition. I’ve booked parts that way. If you can’t remember what you did it might cost you the part. It can also help if there is a dispute over credit. I was working a Home Depot commercial and they shot 4 different reels of me. When it came out I was bummed because I was cut and only ended up in one of the spots…or so I thought. My Mom called me and said, ‘I heard your voice in one of the Home Depot commercials.’ After listening to it, I realized that it was indeed my voice. My agent called the production company and was able to tell them exactly what reel it came from and what we did before and after. A few weeks later a very LARGE check appeared.”