This just in, America is still fat and Sarah Gilbert is still cute...
So I'm off to SF today for a weeks worth of acting. Not the film role I've been hoping for, but a good job with the SFFD, playing a role for their testing. I've done it before and it is a good job. It pays well and I feel like I did some good at the end of the day.
I'm not sure if I will be writing from the road, so here is your quick update.
Sunday, not much. Monday, less. Tuesday, worked as an audience member no a Talk show. I won't tell you which one since I'm about to talk a little trash, but it doesn't really matter.
The good news is that audience work for a talk show is ten times better than audience work on a game show, the bad news is that I ended up with $28 at the end of the day.
The morning started out slow. Got up slowly and had a little breakfast. My call time was 10:30am and I was up just after 8am. I was a little bummed because I wasn't able to go on my usual 10am walk down to the park. I've developed a crush on a girl that jogs the opposite way around the park that I walk. I always manage one smile out of her, which isn't as many as I would like, but enough to keep me going down to that park every day that I can. After wasting some more time, I got dressed in my business casual, bright colors (!) outfit and hit the road.
The studio (CBS) was in Studio City, a mere mile and a half away, made it seem like I could have left at quarter after and still make it in plenty of time, but I have to take Laurel Canyon to get there and that stretch between Valley Village and Studio City is always slow. Luckily I was bored and left super early because there happened to be construction and it took me over 20 minutes to get there. That is the great irony of LA. It can take you 20 minutes to go 2 miles or 12 depending on the conditions.
Since paid audience members are at the top of the food chain on set, we got to drive to the top of the 6 story parking garage to park. This in itself took what felt like ten minutes. The 40 minute walk over was seeming like it was going to be the better choice.
Normal paperwork and some pages in their sweet red page jackets and we were into the studio. The studio itself was really nice and (being better than a game show) the seats were comfy and spacious. The show itself was interesting since it was a talk show, so there was something to pay attention to and it wasn't repetitive like game shows. This first segment was also shot live, so that added a bit of excitement, although now I won't be able to tell if I was on tv, which I should be since I was right in the front corner when one of the guests arrived. That was when I really woke up and started to give it my all. I'm definitely a professional and try to keep my energy up, but there isn't anything better than a camera that you know is on you to motivate.
Again, keeping with the trend of better than game shows, they gave us a break after the first show. (There was actually only one live show that day and then some taped segments for other shows later.) They even gave us a snack of water, bananas and trail mix bars on the way back in! Speaking of the way back in, while we were in line, they made a new line for "SRO tour". SRO stands for standing room only and is the company that the paid audience members almost always get book through. So even though my management company booked me, I was working through SRO. The strange thing to me was that they called us a "tour". Then it dawned on me. Most of the people there that day were seeing the show just to see it. They were not getting paid and the staff did not want them to know that we were getting paid. Also, they brought us in first, I think the assumption being that we were more attractive and would be better audience members since we were getting paid. I'm not sure that either of those assumptions were true.
The rest of the show went smoothly with some more segments that would be cut into later shows. I was bummed actually because I was going to miss Jack Hannah and Robin Tunney.
At the very end they did promos for the show, which were a lot of fun to watch and really good for me to learn how the professionals do it.
Then it was over and we exited back to the parking garage. Correction, we exited to a hidden spot down by the river by the parking garage. I didn't understand why he had said to meet there when we first arrived, now I did. Once again we were being hidden from the non-paid audience members.
I was feeling pretty good since it was an easy day and I had gotten some acting tips from watching and didn't even mind the very long line with just the one guy handing out cash. Until I got to the front and I was handed $28. It was 2:30pm. My call time was at 10:30am and I was making $8/hour. This math didn't add up.
In the extra scene they generally try to average when everyone will sign out, giving the people at the end of the line a few extra minutes and the end losing a few minutes, as close to 15 minutes as possible. Apparently here we were being timed out at exactly when the show ended. So the reality of my audience work was, having left at 10am and arriving home by 3pm (remember the ten minutes of parking garage circling), I made $28 in 5 hours. Sigh.
Truth be told though, it is still better than doing nothing.
Ok, I am off to SF after my morning walk and some more packing. If I don't get a chance to write, I hope that everyone has a wonderful week!!
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