A Year in Pictures of Working

Waiting for my flight at the O’Hare Airport, I talked to Steve (Administrative Assitant) on the phone about the WNT video project and the fact that the studio is becoming increasingly certain it would benefit from having a laugh track added. They’ve suggested adding fake applause when a character enters, “like Kramer or Fonzie.”

Steve: It can be frustrating, but at the same time I guess it’s pretty stereotypical of what happens to everyone when they deal with the entertainment industry.
Me: Only it’s weirdly distilled to its essence because we’re only working on something that’s five minutes long. There so much less room to keep the things we like as these other ideas edge in.

The flight I was waiting for was to Los Angeles, and I could sense people around me, watching out of the corner of their eye, thinking, wrongly, that maybe I was somebody.

On the plane I watched the latest cut on my iPod. Odd to see myself and Steve (and Alex and Megan). And odd to see how much it’s changed and is changing.

After that I listened to a podcast that included an interview with Jim Gaffigan, a very funny comedian and actor. “The level of humiliation that exists in acting, I think, is like a hundred times worse than any humiliating moment I’ve had in stand-up. Even when I’ve bombed, when I’ve heard boos, it’s not as bad as some auditions I’ve been to.”

And after that I half-watched the in-flight movie, ‘The Devil Wears Prada.’ It was predictable but charming, and by the end, like movies often do, it’s tone had rubbed off on my mood. I had taken on some of it’s ‘can-do’ spirit. Although what, exactly, I now feel I “can do”… I’m not so sure about.

# posted by Arnie : 11:39 PM