The Working Actor

WATCH CHARLIE DRIVE THE BUS AND TELL HIS WORST AUDITION STORY:

Age: 32

Charlie has lived in LA for 7 years, but is originally from Chicago. He has worked at Amazing LA Tours for 2 years.

FAVORITE CELEBRITY SIGHTING AT WORK: “David Beckham on Rodeo Drive. 9 times out of 10 when I see a celebrity the people don’t know who it is. I’ve even had celebrities come up to the bus and pound on the windows. People get excited that they are seeing a celebrity, but they don’t always know who they are seeing. David Beckham was different, every single person on the bus knew who he was. Every day I get asked if we are going to bump into David Beckham. Where does he live? How can we find him? So for me, it was personally rewarding to be able to show a bus David Beckham.”

WORST MOMENT IN LA: “My dad died in December, being away from it all. My mom was back home by herself. It felt so difficult; I couldn’t just be there for my mom. I had to jump through all these hoops that felt like nonsense — flights, LAX and all that stuff.”

BEST AUDITION STORY: “It was when I got Point Break LIVE. I just showed up relaxed and the people made me feel at ease. It was an improv audition where I had to pretend I was Johnny Utah. They started to mess with me, I rolled with it and got the gig.”

YOU MAY HAVE SEEN HIM IN: Point Break Live, A GSN Commercial for “The Newlywed Game.” “It was the largest premier for a GSN show.”

UPCOMING: A web series “Dating Weakly”

THIS JOB HELPS AS AN ACTOR: “It doesn’t create a skill set like ‘Hey, I’m up in front of people everyday.’ It helps because it’s super flexible. The owner has allowed me to take the bus, drop people off and continue with the bus to an audition. They are over the top with being accommodating and making sure I get to auditions.”

DREAM ROLE: “War Movie, I don’t care what era. I just want to do a good war movie. I want them to tell me I have to shave my head. Something like ‘Band of Brothers’ or  ’The Pacific’ would be great.”

ADVICE FOR PEOPLE MOVING TO LA: “Stick around as long as you can. The older you get, the more opportunities come your way. Most people just come out and say ‘I’m gonna give it 5 years and give up if nothing happens.’ Out of college, when you’re 22-27 your peers aren’t in a position to help you out. I was just talking to a friend  of a friend and he said ‘I’m second a.d. on this project, do you want to come down and get your SAG card?’ I worked three days as a union extra and got my card like that. ”

Watch John recall his worst moment in LA:

Age: “30′s”

John has lived in LA “off and on for about 10 years,” but is originally from Austin, TX. He has worked at Hands on 3rd for 1 year.

MOVED TO LA BECAUSE: “I wanted to do acting and fashion. I knew I had to be here to do both.”

BEST MOMENT IN LA: “A few months ago I had the opportunity to be in a play at the Odyssey Theater, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. The play was received so well and we got such great reviews. It was a really positive experience for me. It added fuel to my fire wanting to be a successful actor.”

BEST AUDITION STORY: “ I got to the audition, which was for a musical, and didn’t have time to warm up. I sang my 16 bars in the regular key of the song and the woman who was conducting the audition looked at the piano player and said ‘take it up another level.’ So the piano player took it up a half step and I did my 16 bars again. To make a long story short she had the piano player go up 7 notes and then told the piano player to stop. She said, ‘I can tell you can continue to go.” It went from me being scared to a fun audition. I didn’t get cast for the part, which is part of the story in LA, you can think you did well but still don’t get it.

YOU MIGHT HAVE SEEN HIM IN: The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at the Odyssey Theater, Permanent Collection at Company of Angels. Background work on “The West Wing.”

UPCOMING: “Going out and auditioning.”

THIS JOB HELPS ME AS AN ACTOR: “The technical side of designing helps with my focus and my attention to detail. Those are the two things that make an actor really good. It helps me to work and then go and act. It helps me speed up my attention.”

DREAM ROLE: “I would like to play a detective on a crime drama, or a solider in a war film.”

ADVICE FOR ACTORS MOVING TO LA: “Don’t….No, I’m just kidding. Get as much training as you can before you go out and audition. You’re gonna go on an audition and there are gonna be 25 people who look exactly like you. What you’re able to do in that audition is what will separate you. Will you be able to use an accent? What are your improv skills like? If they throw a curveball at you, how well will you adjust? Those types of things you can only acquire skill in them through training.”

WATCH JOHN PAUL KARLIAK TALK ABOUT HIS BEST MOMENT IN LA:

Age: “Between 20 and death.”

John has lived in LA for 8 years, but is originally from Scranton, PA. He has worked at USC for 4 years.

FAVORITE CELEBRITY SIGHTING AT WORK: “Well you see George Lucas every once in a while, but I haven’t actually bumped into him and said hello. Ok, so it wasn’t this job. I used to work grocery delivery before I did this. My favorite person to deliver to was Kevin Smith. He would just reach into his wallet, take however many bills he had and just give them to you. My last delivery he gave me a $90 tip, I bought a bottle of champagne.”

WORST MOMENT IN LA: “When my car exploded. I was driving to a temp job downtown. I had this 1st edition PT Cruiser that used to be my dad’s company car, which became a graduation present. My dad knows nothing about cars, but felt that he could take the engine apart and add a supercharger to it. I’m not saying that’s what caused it to explode, but draw your own conclusions. Anyway, it started to smoke while I was driving to work. I pulled over to the side of the road and called for help. While dialing, the car exploded. Fireball out of the engine, the hood popped off, the tires melted. I wasn’t pulled all the way off the road, so people were swerving out of the way. Luckily, my CD’s didn’t melt. They stank, but they still played.”

WORST AUDITION STORY: “It was for McDonalds and was the first audition my agent sent me on in a year and a half. I walked into the room and everybody was a Latin type. So I picked up the copy and it was entirely in Spanish. I asked the casting director if I was in the right place and she said ‘can you speak Spanish?’ When I told her I couldn’t she said, ‘just futz your way through it.’ The girl next to me instructed me to shout out ‘Big Mac por favor, Quarter Pounder Por Favor.’ Once the audition ended I called my agent and asked what happened. He just laughed and said ‘my bad.’ So I fired him.”

YOU MAY HAVE HEARD HIM IN: Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic, A Red Bull Commercial, Tom Clancy’s Endwar (VG), H&R Block radio commercial.

UPCOMING: An AFI short called Little Black Dress

ADVICE FOR PEOPLE MOVING TO LA: “Keep in touch with everyone and thank them. So many people you do random things with move on and do bigger things. It’s about building professional friendships. Also, focus. It’s not enough to just say ‘I want to be an actor.’ What do you want to be on? Do you do Comedy? Drama? Voiceover? Get specific, I spent the first 3 years out here unsure.”

WATCH TYLER DISCUSS WHY HE WORKS AT KINGS ROAD CAFE:

Age: 29

Tyler is originally from Syracuse, NY, but has lived in LA for 6 years. He has worked at Kings Road Cafe for 3 months.

FAVORITE CELEBRITY SIGHTING AT WORK: “Terri Hatcher. I used to love ‘Lois and Clark.’ I haven’t seen Dean Cain yet, so I’m a little bummed out about that.”

YOU MAY HAVE SEEN HIM IN: “I did extra work on ‘The O.C.,’ ‘Las Vegas’ and ‘CSI.’ I hope I don’t have to do that again. It didn’t make me feel good about this industry. It’s a weird vibe when you are an extra.” A commercial for a Glendale gym.  A web series “On Empty.”

UPCOMING: A Warm Wind

DREAM ROLE: “A role that will catapult me into a field of actors that are constantly working. I want to be a working actor. If I’m famous…I don’t really care for that. I understand fame is a byproduct of what I’m doing, but basically I want to work.”

MY ADVICE FOR ANYONE MOVING TO LA TO BE AN ACTOR: “Good Luck! If you want to do it, just do it.  Don’t talk about doing it, don’t wait to get headshots. Just do it. Jump in and get your feet wet. I could tell you everything I know about this town, but until you are here experiencing it you don’t have a clue. You really have to go through the wringer to lose the green in your soul.”

WATCH CHRISTOPHER TELL HIS WORST AUDITION STORY:

Age: 42

Christopher has lived in Los Angeles his entire life. He has been working on the street for “a little over 18 years.”

BEST MOMENT IN LA: “Working on set…it’s my desire in life. Being on Jimmy Kimmel….was pretty awesome.”

YOU MAY HAVE SEEN HIM IN: Coyote Ugly, Bedazzled, Little Nicky, Mohammad Ali, The Italian Job, Hollywood Homicide, Confessions of a Superhero, “I’m also featured on ‘Jimmy Kimmel’ quite a bit.”

UPCOMING: “I’m going to Barcelona, Spain to work on a film over there. The film is called
La Curiosa Conexion de Juanentonce y Krypton.

THIS JOB HELPS AS AN ACTOR BECAUSE: “I’m my own boss. I can take off to an audition at any time. I’m also in a prime location…how many producers and directors travel down Hollywood boulevard looking for new faces?”

FAVORITE SUPERMAN MOVIE: Superman II

Christopher’s first day out on Hollywood Boulevard was 6/10/91 and there were no other characters at the time. He originally worked as a waiter at Hamburger Hamlet, and started to dress in character on his days off. He works 8-13 hours a day, seven days a week. His longest day was 7am-3am.

FIND OUT IF DEACON CAN DANCE:

Age: 30

Deacon has lived in LA for 3 years, but is originally from Chicago. He has worked at The Village Idiot for 2 ½ Years.

FAVORITE CELEBRITY SIGHTING AT WORK: Thomas Lennon

BEST MOMENT IN LA: “When I got my first apartment, it was the first night I was there, I had no furniture. Everything I shipped broke except for one glass. I sat there and used a suitcase as a table, and got a $5 bottle of wine at 7-Eleven…..I knew I couldn’t be happier.”

BEST AUDITION STORY: “It was few months ago, for Budweiser. It was a videoconference audition; the director and producers were in Chicago. I saw them laugh at something I did through the 20-inch screen and thought ‘alright I’m gonna book this,’ and I did.”

YOU MIGHT HAVE SEEN HIM IN: “Grey’s Anatomy,’ I played a patient with a broken leg” and a current Mazda 3 commercial.

UPCOMING: Taco Bell Commercial, Budweiser commercial, Twix Commercial, Coors Light Commercial, A Marine Story.

DREAM ROLE: “For them to re-cast ‘Lost’ and run the series again, all 6 seasons of it. I’ll play Jack, I’ll play Sawyer, either one I don’t care. That would be fine with me.”

ADVICE FOR ACTORS MOVING TO LA: “Save up as much money as you can, and don’t take it personally.”

Watch Drew tell his worst audition story:

Age: 32

Drew has lived in LA for over 10 years, but is originally from North Carolina. He has worked at The Groundlings for 3 ½ years.

FAVORITE CELEBRITY SIGHTING AT WORK: “LL Cool J, they were filming his show here the other day and it was really cool to see him in person.”

WORST MOMENT IN LA: “I was hit by a car in traffic about 7 years ago. I was in a crosswalk on Santa Monica Blvd. and a car hit my foot. There were no witnesses so I was found ‘partly responsible for my own accident.’ The cop said, I ‘failed to use due caution when crossing the street’ even though one car stopped for me. The car that did stop just drove away after I was hit so there was nothing I could do.”

BEST AUDITION STORY: “It was for ‘Reno 911!’ it was a fun vibe in the room. The audition was with the cast, and they were ready to laugh. They made me feel so comfortable. So many times you walk into an audition and the people have mean faces, are in a bad mood, or they are eating. With good improv I never remember what was said, it just feels good. But I remember every single line of a bad improv. This just felt good. I could tell when I walked in these guys wanted it to be good, and they wanted us to do well. I got to do the show a few months later. From day one I felt like part of the group.

YOU MIGHT HAVE SEEN HIM IN: A lot of theater with The Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade.“Reno 911!” “Halfway Home” a commercial for American Airlines – “Team Building.”

UPCOMING: “The Sarah Silverman Program” and a feature called Freak Dance “it’s a break dancing musical.”

THIS JOB HELPS AS AN ACTOR BECAUSE: “It’s the most creative job I can think of asn an actor. For 3 ½ hours I have to be focused, I have to listen. I watch actors work, I’m constantly seeing new choices, new ways of saying or delivering things. It also forces me to verbalize what I do as an actor. I have to communicate it to other people so I’m learning on a whole other level.”

ADVICE FOR ACTORS MOVING TO LA: “Study. Make sure you’re always in a class. Take every opportunity you can to perform and work with as many people as you can. Take your time, your’re not in a race to get famous.”

Age: 24

Liam is originally from Washington D.C., but he has lived in LA for 2 years. He has worked at The Pleasure Chest for just under 2 years.

FAVORITE CELEBRITY SIGHTING AT WORK: “I would love to tell you, but we are all about discretion. I would probably lose my job if I told you. But I’ve helped “A-list” movie stars, musicians, and directors. We get them all.”

MOVED TO LA BECAUSE: “After college, all of my friends moved to New York and I felt like I should move there as well. It seemed like the natural progression. I wanted to do something scary and go to a place I’d never been. So I bailed on my friends and moved here.”

BEST MOMENT IN LA: “Participating in the table read for 2012. I got to read for some of the uncast parts. In addition to working here, I’m also a casting intern. It was a really cool Hollywood insider moment to see the director and most of the cast working together.”

WORST MOMENT IN LA: “Getting a speeding ticket while racing from one rehearsal to another. I barely made it to the second rehearsal, but I made it there with a $300 ticket.”

BEST AUDITION STORY: “It was for the roll of a scientist doing some cleaning in the background. They had me mime some cleaning things. The director said ‘you got the role. We’ll see you next week.’ It was the easiest audition, but more importantly it was the first paying job I got in LA.”

YOU MAY HAVE SEEN ME IN: Activeion Commerical, Kate Voegel Video (99 Times). “I was in an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians,’ and in the background of an episode of “Entourage” that were both filmed at The Pleasure Chest.”

UPCOMING: The Death of a Muse

THIS JOB HELPS AS AN ACTOR:“I get to meet characters every day and its stress free. If I was waiting tables, I’d be carrying trays and stressed out all day.  Here I get to listen to music and talk about sex. I was part of the ‘Entourage’ shoot here…I got paid for that. I was also on ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ that was shot here…I’m not AS PROUD of that one.”

WATCH CODY TELL HIS AUDITION STORIES:

Age: 24

Cody was born and raised in Pasadena. He has owned Cacao Coffee House for 1 ½ years.

BEST MOMENT IN LA: “Losing my virginity.”

YOU MAY HAVE SEEN HIM IN: Big Bully, Bring It On, Not Another Teen Movie, The Intervention, Tumbleweeds, Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Madison, Trailer Park of Terror, “The Closer,” “Trust Me,” “Monk,” “90210.” Click here to see Cody’s IMDB page.

UPCOMING: “10 Things I Hate About You”

DREAM ROLE: “I want to be a superhero…I don’t care in what.”

ADVICE FOR ACTORS MOVING TO LA: “Have 3 years worth of bills in the bank and don’t give up. I’ve seen people come into LA and try to do this. It’s too hard to not be able to dedicate all your time. If you can afford to put all of your time into it, you can get your foot in the door. You do extra work, you go out, you take acting classes, you meet people, you network. It takes a long time, it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s just like anything else, It’s just like school. You’re not going to show up at school for 6 months and have a degree. It’s just not going to happen like that.”

WATCH SAJEN CORONA’S ADVICE FOR ACTORS MOVING TO LA:

Age: “30-40….If I don’t color my hair, I can be 50.”

Sajen was born in Santa Monica and raised in Culver City. He has worked for Starline Tours for about a year.

BEST MOMENT IN LA: “When I was filming my movie that I was staring in, Getting It. I got hooked up with 3 girls, you know, cause I was in the movie when they saw me in front of the camera.”

WORST MOMENT IN LA: “The movie didn’t go to theaters.”

YOU MIGHT HAVE SEEN HIM IN: “Getting It…It’s a feature film.” Click here to see Sajen’s IMDB page.

UPCOMING: “Horror 88…I play a small role in it.”

THIS JOB HELPS AS AN ACTOR BECAUSE: “It allows me to chase my dream — balls to the wall. If I have an audition I can walk and go on it. At the same time, I’m constantly pitching on the boulevard. If they are a tourist, I sell them a tour. If they are local, I ask if they are in the industry. If they are, I give them a DVD and a flyer for the movie I star in.”

Age: 27

Billy has lived in LA for 9 years, but is originally from Chicago. He has worked at Amoeba Music for 5 years.

It took Billy 50 auditions to land his first acting job.

FAVORITE CELEBRITY SIGHTING AT WORK: Parker Posey

YOU MIGHT HAVE SEEN HIM IN: A Christmas Too Many, a Wanadoo Cell Phone commercial, and a Partnership For A Healthy Mississippi Anti-Smoking commercial. Click here to see Billy’s IMDB page.

THIS JOB HELPS AS AN ACTOR BECAUSE: “The company is very supportive of the arts. It’s also great to be surrounded by other creative people while at work.”

Age: 25

Trevor has lived in LA for 5 years but was born in Florida. He has worked at The Bowery for seven months.

BEST MOMENT IN LA: “Getting hit in the nuts by Party Boy.”

BEST AUDITION STORY: “I made up a monologue on the spot and have continued to use it whenever I need one.”

YOU MIGHT HAVE SEEN HIM IN: “Mind of Mencia,” a Weight Watchers Commercial, Brooks & Dunn – Hillbilly Deluxe, and a Walmart Commercial.

UPCOMING: “Operation Repo,” and A Pilot called “Militia.”