Under the heel and contrast

My acting "career" is more stagnant than a pond infested with mosquitoes. It is probably my fault; not foraging every opportunity to take acting class or send agencies a post card with all my vitals on it or calling my manager everyday to beg for auditions. Now is officially "pilot season." Hollywood is buzzing with entertainment lawyers battling out peoples' careers, PA's flooding The Coffee Bean to get lattes, just right, for their superiors, agents scrambling around trying to get their souls their shot (so they can then gorge themselves on their client's blood sweat and tears), and the 405 and 101 Freeways jammed even more than usual. People like me, without my SAG (Screen Actor's Guild) card and/or bonafied credits (in film or TV) get pushed to the back burner while other, more profitable/ likely prospects get to audition for all the season's new TV show ideas.
As I was pursuing my career in acting (AKA working as a server in a restaurant) the other day I met with a nice older couple who asked me politely for more bread (and butter, refills, dressing -more of anything that is free to refill) and in talking to them, they had a son who was an editor at a post production facility. Knowing full well that 99.9% of conversations in Hollywood like this are total BS, I entertained them because my wife's dreams and my own depend on that .1% that are not. They got to like me and I neglected a few of my tables to talk to them and the time came for them to leave. The asked me for my information so that we could stay in touch. Not being the savvy Hollywood type, I do not have business cards or my acting on mini CD's or anything I wrote my information down on their receipt. Most people stuff them into their purses or wallets to find them later. Then they might remember and give us a call (riiight). After we exchanged pleasantries, I went back to un-neglect my other tables and they went their merry way. As I gathered up the ticket presenter in order to take payment, I looked inside and there was my information along with the receipt and my tip. I chuckled to myself, took payment and thought huh, at least they left more than 20%, I got mine.

In contrast...

My wife and some new friends (both really pretty women - my wife hates them :)) went out to dinner at a place where your servers sing and dance as entertainment. We like to take our friends from out of town there, but we took our friend Stefani there because she is a budding singer. Stefani has only been in LA for 5 months and we see in her the same sparkle that we had coming here(as if we've even been here a year, LMAO); only she is younger and much more talented that we are. She still thinks extra work could be "fun" and Hollywood is full of producers who want to give her a record deal. Honestly, you have to have that idea and keep it or it will for sure never happen. Stefani is really a good singer, I have her CD in my car. Unfortunately, every other singer here is also really good. Anyway, as we were enjoying dinner, we told our server that Stefani wanted to sing duet with hi. He seemed actually delighted that she'd have the guts to do it. They selected music and there she went, singing in front of the entire busy place. WOW! Not only was she an excellent singer, she did it on the fly and she didn't just sing, she really performed. I was so impressed when she came back to the table. Apparently our server was too. He asked her to do a solo and audition to be a server there. As it turns out, our server will be the person she will be auditioning for...Serendipity baby!
This may not get her a record deal, but the small successes are just enough to keep one holding onto their dreams. Just enough to dodge out from under the heel of...

The DREAMCRUSHER.