funny bone

Lisa's smiling, oh yeah!

Yesterday my acting partner, Nick sent me a link to an article Ken Levine wrote during TV Pilot Season last year. It’s fun to read whether you’re in the TV business, trying to be in the TV business or just watch TV.

I texted back —

So funny! Love it for my blog.

Nick’s comeback —

FUNNY?!  It made me cry!

I mean, Nick’s technically right. It’s ultra-depressing that one of the prerequisites of a Hot Girl role is that the producers look for someone “guys wanna f#@k.” And trust me, this is absolutely true. A major TV producer told me that point blank!

And yeah, it’s true you can make it all the way from the first audition with the CD to callbacks with Producers, Directors, coaching for the big “Test” (the moment when your future is decided by a group of people in “the room”) —  and you can do a phenomenal job, have everyone hysterically laughing and then find out that one person just didn’t think you were “the girl.” And like “Candy Land” or “Chutes & Ladders”, you end up back at the beginning of the game and have to start all over.

BUT – what other profession can you think of where every January hundreds of new and amazing job opportunities just suddenly appear? I mean, subscribe to Nikki Finke’s Deadline.com (it’s free and a great way to keep up on the latest in the Industry) and you’ll get announcements every day for the next three months about pilot pick-ups with awesome Directors, Producers and Showrunners behind them and Major Talent attached.

The beginning of Pilot Season always makes me hopeful and excited about POSSIBILITY…

It’s kind of like a new semester in school, where naturally it matters how well you did before, but still you get new teachers who don’t know you and you get to start out fresh. And maybe you went to summer school and pulled your act together or maybe you decided to get yourself in shape – but the point is you get this re-birth opportunity in the TV business that’s really exciting. (Of course the new hot girls and guys get the most attention, but hey, what can you do about that?)

And, yeah – you can get a part, the pilot can get picked up and then the someone’s someone suggests that they recast your part. But still – you’ve been in the game, you’ve gotten paid, you’ve received a credit and there’s always a chance you’ll be recast in something else in June.

It happened to Lisa Kudrow —

She was cast as Roz on “Frasier” and then someone (I won’t say who) decided she should be recast. I’m sure Lisa was devastated, but had that not happened, she would never have been Phoebe on “Friends” and we ALL know how that worked out.

So —  even if the odds are stacked against you, there’s always the chance you’ll get your moment. So it’s really worth giving it everything you’ve got. Right?

You might be like Lisa Kudrow and have the last laugh…. all the way to the BANK!

Now that’s FINDING THE FUNNY big time!

ahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

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