I shall quote Sir Elton here... #Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday...# and so on.
Another weekend and the missus is in the middle of the country somewhere. So it's Daddy daycare and we're off to a place called 'Fit for Kids' for a birthday party this morning. It was close enough to walk to although walking anywhere more than 200 yards in 100 degree heat is not, unlike brown paper parcels tied up with string, one of my favourite things. I digress. Fit for Kids is basically a gym for 36" people and I observed a very slick process for moving the little cherubs through various games and activities in what is, in effect, a large room filled with molded crash mats, a trampoline, a wall ladder and a couple of climbing frames. After that came a game focused on the birthday boy and the session ended with all the kids marching out to the food area to have cake and juice. This, of course, was the area most of the parents had been hanging out in talking about their various stuff away from the kids. Yes, this is yet another operation entirely geared to separating kids from their parents for a couple of hours - probably the largest business growth area in Southern California. That said, the host parents and the birthday boy were very sweet and littl'un had a great time, which is what we're after, innit?
Back home and I penned (typed) my letters to the various management companies I had had some success with on the phone on Friday...I said I was going to let you know what had happened during the calls, didn't I?
Well, my text for the operation was "Personal Managers and the World of Personal Management", available, as you are no doubt aware, from good old Sam Frenchs, the dealer for all things thesp for all actors on both Coasts. Through my own special technique, perfected over, well, several minutes, I choose the managers I thought may be a good fit or who were listed as accepting phone calls as first point of contact for new clientele. Yes, this superb technique normally met with one of a predictable set of responses..."Not taking new submissions at this time" or "What credits do you have", "we only take a certain type of person" or "send in your stuff and someone may get back to you"... that kind of thing. Some of the less formulaic responses were "Oh, she died last year... where did you see our listing", "I don't do personal management any more" or "we're more on the production side"...again, reasonable if not obvious. How did I do with my 'phone around you ask? Probably the best way to answer that is to let you know the attitude I was taking... You have to have a certain air and confidence about you...not arrogance but a sense of 'I have the cookie and do you want it? If not someone else will grab it'. Most passed on the cookie but by being fairly direct and concise, honest and polite I'm happy to say I made it past a few receptionists/gatekeepers to speak to assistants (who will be managers or agents themselves one day remember - treat them nice!) and in three cases, the actual manager themselves. The end tally, 3 took a formatted email and 5 asked me to write in with headshots, resume and cover letter. Not a bad total. A very productive day in moving the career forward I think! Back to my Saturday...
Today just happened to fall on the day where I could drop off munchkin for a few hours and take myself off to the cinema. So I did. Went to see 'A Scanner Darkly' which was very interesting indeed. Aside from the rotoscoping which was, of course, pretty unique and afforded the filmmakers a huge scope of effects, enhancements, characterisations etc., the story was pretty good. The acting was great - yes you could tell the acting was good even with the effects and it's well worth a look.
Hit a coffee bar close to monkey's pickup and waited out the rest of the babysitting period reading a play called 'Lobby Hero' which I'll probably do a scene from in class.