The Proof Is In...I Am Not A Jerk!

Spoiler Alert: I'm not exactly a warm and fuzzy person.

It's not that I don't like spending time with others. I just have little use for talking about myself for any length of time.

I like people to tell me what they need/what is on their mind so I will know what needs to be done. Let's get to the point and get moving ASAP.

Having said that, I recently discovered my personality is not as combative as some people believe.

In 2016, I was contacted by Mike Sager. Mike is a journalist who has written for Rolling Stone and Esquire, He is also an author whose articles inspired the feature films "Boogie Nights" and "Wonderland". He discovered my blog and contacted me about doing a feature story on Zach and his Dadager. It seemed like an interesting idea but we could never get our schedules to line up before the idea disappeared into the night.

Fast forward to this year as Mike and I touched base about the story idea. His editor wanted him to come to Los Angeles and interview out family. The story would touch on the journey that led us here as well as what a "Dadager" does for the career of his child/teen actor.

Mike and his film crew spent a weekend with us in September. The whirlwind weekend, filled with an intense interview process, included:

• Mike interviewing Dana and myself over dinner at Jerry's Deli. Dana and I discussed the decision making process behind moving to Los Angeles and what life is like having a teen actor.
• Interviews with Zach as he discussed his reasons for wanting to make acting his career, He also talked about the weird world of being a teenage stand-up comedian in the Los Angeles comedy scene.
• Mike and his crew went with us to The Ice House in Pasadena to film Zach's debut at the club.
• A few interviews, with the three of us together, discussing show business and how it impacts our lives on a daily basis.
• Even Doctor Murgatroyd AKA Doc The Dog got in on the action by insisting on sitting with us during one of the interviews.

The weekend with Mike is the most I've talked about myself/discussed the past in many years. I am not big on reminiscing about the past. I am more interested in the present as well as where I am heading in the future.

The weekend seemed to go well. Mike got a lot of good footage of Zach at The Ice House and some fun interviews at our home with all of us. The time spent looking back helped us focus on the future by examining the goals Zach is trying to achieve with his career/

I can feel your question about the interview...When can you read the feature article about Zach?

Mike put the article together and also made a short film piece containing footage from the comedy club and our interviews at home. He submitted them to his editor and discovered there was not enough drama or conflict in the piece.

In other words, I was not the cliche "evil stage parent" most people think of when it comes to parents of child/teen actors.

To his credit, Mike refused to do a rewrite that would have cast me in a bad light. He could have easily redone the piece to make his editor happy by making me a giant stage parent whose only concern is living off his kid.

The editor wanted a story featuring a stage parent like this guy: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-lavar-ball-plaschke-20171121-story.html

So, what will happen to the story and the short film?

Mike and his team are shopping the story around and getting some advice from folks in the entertainment industry. I'm not sure what outlet will pick it up and run the story. I will definitely keep you posted in the future.

For now, the initial outcome of this project is proof that I am not as big of a jerk as many believe me to be.

Don't get me wrong...I am kind of a jerk. I'm just not a "stage parent using my kid to live out my show business dreams" jerk.

A feature story about this actor is coming in the near future.

Conversations About "The Business"

No matter where you go in Hollywood, it seems like people are always talking about "the business". While the movie and television industry are a big part of this town, listening to random conversations reveals there is a "show business superstar" in everyone.

Here are seven of my favorite show biz related conversations I've heard in the past few weeks:

1. "I just finished a treatment for a gritty reboot of Howard the Duck for Phase 4 of the Marvel movies. In my treatment, he becomes a contestant on a Big Brother type show and teaches everyone the best and worst mankind has to offer while also trying to win the competition."
2. "I told him I would love to sing backup at the Hollywood Bowl but then I found out if was for the Muppets. Everyone will be looking at the singing frog instead of me!"
3. "I had lunch on the Warner Brothers lot last week. I didn't have a meeting there. I decided to sneak onto the lot to take a selfie for my IMDb page."
4. "The entire role consisted of me not speaking and staying in one place on the ground for 7 hours covered in fake blood. I can't wait to tell my acting coach!!!"
5. "I don't get why Netflix didn't go with my TGIF revival idea. I can totally see Urkel, Balki and any random cast member they can get from Step by Step living together in a Real World type show. It would be a hit!"
6. "I hope he makes it to Hollywood on the next season of American Idol. I think all of the camera time I get rooting for him in  the audience will help raise my profile in the industry."
7. "I booked a commercial where I play second banana to a dog. I've been working in the industry much longer than that mutt so this is completely unfair."

As long as there are show business dreams, there will be plenty of conversations like the ones listed above. I'll be sure and keep a notebook on me so I can write down more odd conversations to share with you in the coming months.

This Actor Has Been Appearing On Stage For The Past Three Months.

An Overnight Hospital Adventure

We had an interesting weekend as Dana ended up at the emergency room on Saturday night/Sunday morning due to intense pain. It's become a joke in our family that something always happens in March that requires her to have surgery.  It is now March so (of course) we ended up at the hospital.

We arrived around 1AM and I let her out at the front door so she wouldn't have to walk from the parking lot. I parked the car and was approached by the security patrol. They started asking me all about my exciting night. I had no idea what they were talking about but they whooped loudly, gave me a high five and left to bother other people. I saw a security guard as I entered the building and mentioned that my wife had just walked in the door. Before I could ask how to get to the emergency room, he pointed down the hallway and sent me on my way. I went down the hallway where a nurse grabbed me before I could say anything. She told me my wife was upstairs and put me on an elevator. When I exited the elevator, I found myself in a maternity ward. Two nurses approached me so I could see my wife before the baby was born. I explained my situation and they seemed disappointed in me after they realized I wasn't there to be a new father. I reminded them there was a guy somewhere in the building looking for his wife and maybe they should go find him. They ran off to look for the dad and I went off in search of the emergency room.

I finally found Dana as she was being admitted to a room. She put on her patient gown and went to the bathroom to give a urine sample. I waited in the room as a "Code Gray" came over the intercom. "Code Gray" means there is a combative person that needs to be calmed down or restrained. I could hear a woman loudly yelling that "they didn't know what she had been through", "she doesn't like to be tied down" and "she'll kick people in places they didn't know they had on their bodies". Dana missed all of this because the combative person was restrained by the time she got out of the bathroom.

The rooms started filling up as the night continued. The guy next to us had to be a cocaine addict. His nose was bleeding everywhere because "he hurt his nose and had to put some packing in it". When asked which side of his nose he hurt, he replied with the left side. Five minutes later, it was the right side. Wait, maybe it was the left side. At one point, the doctor asked him "Do you have any idea if you actually hurt your nose or can I have the real story?" I do know the guy was the biggest wimp in the world as he yelled for the nurse every 10 minutes because "he was hurting".

While Dana had x-rays and various tests throughout the night, there were more all star patients entering the emergency room arena:

• The guy telling a long winded story about the 3 times he was struck by a car
• The patient who lost a finger or two in a combine accident
• The person who swallowed a goldfish belonging to a neighbor before coughing up blood
• The rocket scientist who fell off the back of a truck while sitting on a washing machine (his brother didn't have ropes so he was sitting on the machine so it wouldn't move)
• One guy who kept saying the words "California Chicken Wrap" in relation to his emergency but was unable to give more details

My favorite person was actually not in the emergency room. I went to the cafeteria around 4AM to get a snack and some caffeine. I walked in to find a guy standing all alone in front of the vending machines. He was yelling at the soda machine for taking his money, the snack machine for talking back to him and the coffee machine for being a "demon filled with the hot liquid that the wicked and unjust will get after death". He turned around and looked at me in silence. I calmly said it looked like he was having a moment with the machines and I would come back after he was done showing them the error of their ways. I calmly turned around and swiftly made my way back to the emergency room.

Dana was discharged at 7AM and we still don't have a definitive answer to her March medical mystery. Any good thoughts you can send her way would be greatly appreciated. Also, let me know if you have any idea how a California Chicken Wrap can result in a trip to the emergency room.

This actor stayed home to keep the dog calm while mom was at the hospital.

A Recap of (Recent) Life in Hollywood

Instead of focusing on one topic this week, I'm going to do a mixed bag and discuss a variety of "life in Hollywood" events from the last few weeks.

• I was recently approached by a writer, who is also a bestselling author, about doing a profile piece on me. He found my blog and wants to feature me in a magazine article about people who take the unexpected path in life. We are working out the final details and the interview should happen in a few weeks.
• Zach, along with two of his friends, decided it was time to give back to the community. They helped plan and implement a bowling event to raise funds for cancer research. The "Bowling Bash To Strike Away Cancer" raised over $15,000 during the 3-hour event. They served as the red carpet, social media and recruitment chairs for the event. They also helped host the bash and enlisted some of their talented friends to perform as well as serve as the official event photographer and event support. It was nice to see them excited about helping a great cause and work so hard to make the event such a success.

Zach Louis hosting the start of the ceremony.

• I've had a couple of conversations in the last week about turning my blog into a book. In fact, I've spoken with two people from different companies in the past week about writing a book. One of them found me through hashtags I use regularly on social media. The other person found me searching for blogs about acting and Hollywood. I'm in initial talks with them and it's definitely an intriguing idea.
• There was a production crew in our neighborhood last week. I discovered them while taking Doc on his morning walk. The crew asked us to stop for a moment while they finished filming a scene. I was fine with waiting but Doc kept pulling on the leash, When it was finally time for us to pass through the trucks and crew, I noticed Doc had peed on the stack of daily sides left on the ground by the guy who wouldn't let us pass. I smiled at Doc and quickly started walking. My dog knows how to show his displeasure while not messing up the scene being filmed.
• Zach just started his summer vacation from college. On the agenda for this summer? Creating a YouTube channel and its content, writing new stand-up material and testing it around town, guitar lessons, sleeping late, acting classes and auditions. It might be summer break from school but the kid doesn't know how to take it easy. He is determined to create opportunities while waiting for auditions from his agents.

Writing this update reminds me I need to get book proposal samples together for both of the interested parties! I need to review the samples closely because spell check likes to spell "dadager" as "dada get" or "da did ma". Looks like a manual review night ahead of me.

This actor is looking forward to summer fun.