Archive for the ‘Dante’s Inferno’ tag
John Paul Karliak – University of Southern California:
Manager of Alumni Relations

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.”


