After shooting, and before the make up removal, we filmed a short that we’re sending to the Late Night with Conan O’Brien, based on an idea I had after watching an episode with Reese Witherspoon.

I arrived at Taylor Mosbey’s house (the writer and director of The Dinner Guest) at 3:30 AM, took a shower and went to bed.  I woke up 2 hours later to drive to Atlanta to film a commercial for Hooters.  When I arrived, I discovered that I was actually in 2 commercials, not just one, and was going to get paid twice of my original expected amount.  This was welcome news.

I had my hair colored after I got there, and he fixed my hair-straightened it and styled it, so in the first commercial, I look exactly like Billy Mayes.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of myself in that way, but we broke for lunch and I started getting dressed up like a King.  I had lunch with the director, and afterward, we filmed the other ad.  I left around 5 and wasn’t very tired, but I didn’t want to get up the next day.

What was interesting was being a principle actor on the set.  I was used to being an extra, which means people called me “you” and the director ignored all of us.  On the set of the commercial, Peter, the director, introduced himself to me, called me by name on the set, had lunch with me, and joked around with me.  It was interesting to see the extras being ignored.  When I tried to associate with them, I felt out of place, because there’s a bond between the ignored…but, I wanted to show them that I’m not some prima donna person that ignores anyone that’s not on the same pay scale.

If or when I’m more prominately famous or some such as that, I want to be approachable to the people who are paid less, because I don’t want to be perceived as some kind of stupid big headed person.  I know where I came from and I don’t want anyone to think I think I’m better than anyone.

Upon arrival in Chad, I noticed I’d been followed by a suspicious looking man.  Assuming he was an enemy, I pretended not to notice, and went about my business.  I rented a jeep, and the suspicious man was still following me.  It was made blatantly obvious by the fact that he was nonchalantly in the back seat of my vehicle.  He pretended not to even notice me, and I pretended not to notice him.

I arrived at the destination, a large tree at the edge of the Jungle/Sahara desert.  I was to find out what effects the desert had on one side of the tree, and the jungle had on the other side.  The man who had been following me took a stroll in the jungle while I looked at the tree.

I noticed that the tree was a little dry on the desert side, and more moist and healthy on the jungle side.  I made a note of it in my book when I heard a man screaming.  I ran into the jungle to investigate, when I saw the man that had been following me hanging from a tree.  He was dangling by his neck, still alive, but not for long, for he had been caught in the snare of a rare dangerous noose snake.  This foul beast is bright pink in color, except on alternate Tuesdays, when it’s orange and green.  The snake had been resting comfortably, when the man had apparently stepped on it, and its instincts took over.  It sprung up and tied itself into a hangman’s noose around his neck.

I knew that once the snake had killed his prey, he would swallow the man whole, only to be digested slowly over a period of nine years, three months, twelve days, three hours, fourteen minutes, and eight seconds.  More or less, depending on whether or not the man had eaten in the last 24 hours, how much he had eaten, and if he was wearing Nikes, Adidas, or New Balance shoes.

I took out my sniper rifle, and shot the snake five times, severing the noose’s grip.  The man fell to the ground, thanked me, and I found that he wasn’t an enemy spy, but a man that thought I was his driver for the weekend.  I told him I’d be happy to oblige, seeing as how my work was done there, so I drove him back into town, where he asked me to wait for him.  He went into a restaurant, and met some people with Russian accents, and came back with a piece of paper that looked like drawings of some sort.  He said they were drawings for his kids to color, and since they liked military stuff, he figured he’d give them these drawings that looked like missile schematics.

He chuckled to himself, muttering something about how the fools wouldn’t know that the schematics were false, and nobody would stomp down Communism.  I chuckled to myself, thinking about how this guy’s calling his kids fools.

I escorted the man back to the States, and when we were met by my boss, I chuckled with him and told him what that man had said.  Apparently, the man wanted to get those drawings to his kids desperately, because he immediately had an escort come to take him to “the big house,” which I assume is what he called his home.  He must’ve been an important guy, because the FBI escorted him home!

Well, anyway, this was just declassified recently, so I decided to make my adventure known to all.

Well, I made the fatal mistake of clicking on it, and I watched.  The music was the final song on the Gladiator soundtrack, which had absolutely nothing to do with the content.  The video was basically a story about how Satan is trying to keep Christians from devoting themselves to God.  Now, the message of being aware that Satan is out to get us isn’t what I’m complaining about.  My beef is with the idiot that wrote it and posted it like that.

The video showed a few sentences at a time, appearing slowly and disappearing slowly, I assume for the benefit of people that can’t read very fast, and don’t know how to use the pause button.  After the first “quote,” it got really frustrating.  The sentences weren’t complete by any means!  Let me give an example (not an exact quote):

Page 1

“Satan was talking to his demons, giving them

Page 2

“instructions on how to distract

Page 3

“Christians in their walk with

Page 4

“Christ.”

How infuriating is that?  I mean, at least finish each sentence before changing slides!

The other thing that got me about that video thing, was that it was calling everything a distraction from God.  Granted, if we get too involved, obsessed, or possessed by something or someone, it’s an idol, and we’ve put it before God, therefore it’s not a good thing to have in our lives.  HOWEVER, I don’t believe watching a TV show every now and then, listening to music in the car, or talking on the phone, or even going to work, would be considered idolatry.

GIVE ME A BREAK!!!

I think I ended up wandering around the mall after that.  Kind of a weird dream, eh?

However, I’m also not working.  I’m not doing what I really love.  I’m not on a set, getting paid to act, or at least getting paid to stand around.  I’m not getting the experience, exposure, and resume credits.

I value my time now, the time I have free, more than I did ten years ago, but sometimes one can have too much free time…

Here’s the question-if I’d lied, I probably would have gotten the job on the spot.  There are a couple of advantages to not having done that gig, and I believe it was God’s will for me to be where I am, but how far should I go to get ahead in the biz?  I mean, I’d never sleep with anyone to get a part or anything like that, but by telling one lie to get a role, how bad would that be?

I didn’t lie, but I can’t help but wonder what might have happened….

After filming, Jessica was with me, we met Dennis and he signed something for me, and I convinced him to sign something for C too.  Now this wasn’t an ordinary piece of paper, this was some kind of shimery, blue fabric, and he signed it in two different places.  Also, we were in a casino of some kind.

I figured C would get a kick out of it.

Have you ever dreamed anything, obtained something in that dream and woke up disappointed that you don’t really have it?  That’s how it was for me this morning.  I woke up wishing I could have kept the autographs.  Also, in the same scenario, have you ever thought in your dream, “I know this is a dream, but since I’ve now obtained this, maybe I’ll still have it when I wake up”?  I was thinking that last night too…

Oh, well, maybe it’s a prophetic dream…although I have no idea what I’d do in a casino!

I guess I’m very trusting, because when we drove to location one, the Waffle House, I left my car there, unlocked, with the keys in a certain place, in case they needed to move it or something.  Unlocked.  How many places have you been where you leave your car unlocked, with the keys inside, and not even think twice about it?  I guess I should be thanking God that my car was still there, complete with all of my crap, when I was finished.

But I digest-er-digress.  After being there for about 10 hours, with a 30 minute lunch break, they called me for the gas station scene.  Now, at first, I was scheduled to be in the Waffle House scene.  I was fine with that.  But they changed me to the gas station scene.  I was fine with that too…until I got there and found out what it was going to be.  I was to be in the establishment shot, which basically is a brief shot of a location to indicate where the scene is taking place.

After waiting all that time, I was used for a very distant shot of a gas station, and the scene probably lasts about 5 seconds.

It may seem like I’m complaining, but I’m not really.  I was used, unlike some of the unfortunate people I talked to, and I can put this on my resume, it’s experience, and (this is the best part) I was paid to sit around for almost 12 hours to talk and read.  Granted, we were outside in a tent, but we were paid and fed.

Now, on to this week.  I’m waiting for a phone call from the powers-that-be for a TV show called Life as We Know It, to be an extra in an airport scene tomorrow.  I may get the call in 4 minutes, I may not hear from them until 9 tonight.  If I get the call, I’ll be doing that.  If not, then I won’t.

Thursday and Friday I’m an extra for Due Date again.  This time in an airport scene.  3 airport scenes in one week.  I’m going to hate airports, I think.  Well, even moreso than usual.  In any case, I’ll be doing that, most likely as a customer going through security.

That’s pretty much it, besides the dinner theatre shows I’ll be in on Saturday.  Vaudeville Cafe Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre in Chattanooga, TN.  www.funnydinner.com if anyone’s interested….

Lo and behold, there were others up for the same role.  We were offered promises galore, but it came to nothing.  I didn’t get the part, but I wasn’t really expecting anything concrete anyway.  But, I did contact them later, so now I’m supposed to be in the Waffle House scene on Thursday and Friday of this week.  As an extra.  Hey, it’s work, experience, and exposure.

So when I left for work this morning, I almost wrecked into the mail lady on the sharp curve on the dirt road that leads to my house.  Was this a warning in my dreams?  Nope, because my dream didn’t have anything to do with what happened.  It was just a bunch of bad luck…