I started mailing out any head shot I had. I basically had a supermarket in my home office of hundreds of head-shots of me that never got used: some good, some not-so-great, long hair, short hair, smiles, not smiling. So I thought: What the heck? Send them out with my resume and see what happens. Like throwing a wad of gum at the wall, something may stick. A month later, “Jim” called.
Jim called to say he would like to take a meeting with me. I was thrilled and then my next thought was: What is wrong with this person? Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled he wanted to meet, but I didn’t have any recent credits to show for. I’d really only done an ’80s sitcom, some commercials, low budget movies, and a few guest star roles years ago. I made the appointment and we met. His office was in a really quaint building that had an open atrium in the center. It felt like the buildings in the New Orleans streets at Disneyland. I walked into his office and it was nice. I know this sounds weird, but the whole hour I was there the phone didn’t ring once. I notice stuff like this. But this was the only person who called, so I stayed positive.
Jim was short, bald, and an Italian, New York Jew. (Not a typo- he is Italian and Jewish) We talked about food, travel, kids and life for an hour and I told him my spiel. I wanted to get back into acting. I told him straight up, the past two managers I had could not get me in the door. It is going to be tough; I am not an easy sell. I told him I thought I had a better shot of getting an audition if I had just gotten off the bus from Kansas. He thought that was funny. That’s my problem, I charm the pants off these managers and agents, then they can’t take how hard it is to sell me. I don’t mean to sound negative here, I just have had a past experience with Michelle and Tony, so I was trying to be “real” about being a has been and the road ahead would take perseverance. Overall it was a nice meeting. I felt I had nothing to lose. When you don’t have anything, you have nothing to lose, right? I agreed to take a second meeting with his partner, Gloria. Two weeks later when I met Gloria, I had no idea the dynamic I was walking into.