Weird Week!

I miss you! 

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their October so far. I missed doing the show this week - we had it timed to be off as we're trying to do a "10 on 1 off" method so we don't burn out too hard... but also, I had a gig lined up last week. Until I didn't. 

A few weeks back, i get a message from my agent - Hey, Tim there's a role for you on The Conners... they wanted to check availability and if you'd be interested....  I've never done a proper multi cam sitcom (except for Beef House!) and the idea was interesting: I couldn't pretend to think the show was funny, but I've done more than a few things that didn't meet my personal high standards of hilarity... I was happy for the work and I knew Laurie Metcalf who appeared in Bedtime Stories and she'd always been really nice to me. She's a monster of an actor and someone I'd like to work with again. plus, John GREATman?  So I say yes and get the job. It's gonna be for at least 2 episodes and maybe more.  

The nice thing about a sitcom (and one of the two reasons a lot of actors take the gig, can you guess what the other one is?) is the hours - my schedule would have been: A zoom meeting on monday to read through the script, a 2 or 3 hour rehearsal on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then taping on Thursday and Friday, all banker's hours - I figured I could move Office Hours to evenings for a few weeks if need be... we'll make it work as we always do.  A nice little gig to close out the year with. 

So I get the script and it's... fine. I'm some new age bookstore owner - not very funny, kinda earnest and a character who's full of Buddhist philosophies...  doesn't feel EXACTLY right for me, but I see it as a challenge. It's a lot of clunky new agey lines, and I know how rattled I can get in a new environment so I dig in and really do the work to learn the lines - my first mistake. After the table read, we all get a new script and everything's been rewritten! 

 So I show up on Tuesday for our first runthrough - It's on one of the big sound stages in the valley and it's pretty chill... not a lot of people around and the people i meet are very nice and positive - "oh you're going to have fun, this is a good group. very relaxed..." Another way to look at it is: Everyone is kinda checked out.   I see Laurie and she gives me a big hug and tells me how happy she was to see I was coming in. She gives me the run of the place, and how low key it all is. I meet Sara Gilbert who I'm doing most of the scenes with and she's also very nice. We walk through the scenes, with everyone just reading their scripts because the lines had all been changed and the first weirdness hits: to simulate the pacing where the "audience" laughter will go, the little crew assembled all fake laugh REALLY loudly after the appropriate lines. It's a sickening sound to me and it suddenly makes me feel very lonely. 

It all moves really fast, like everyone just wants to get through it - not with a bad attitude, but a little paint by numbers - the plan is to run through the scenes, take a lunch break and then go through them again with the writers and a few more producers watching. We come back and right before the second runthrough, the director comes up to me and says "hey, just a note from a producer: you did it a little quirkier in the audition..."  i say 'I didn't audition." he says, "your tape." I say, "I didn't tape, it was an offer."  Oh ok. He walks away, probably confused.  Now I'm rattled. Did they cast the wrong guy? Quirky? I don't DO Quirky.  

After the runthrough I go to get fitted for costumes and my heart sinks again - They have pulled all these very BROAD hippy looking shirts for me - with beads and shit. I just go with it. Oh well, their show, I think.  But i start thinking of the screen grabs you all are gonna get from this show. Me oh my oh! 

I get home and a new script comes in - Lines changed AGAIN! OK, this is the deal, good to know. Don't bother learning lines until the day before.  So i'm working on it, and watching the baseball game and I get a call - It's Sara Gilbert and the producers. They very apologetically tell me they are not feeling me for this role - They explain that they're having trouble with it in general and they're all fans of mine and jumped the gun too quick on working with me, they feel terrible and will try and find something that fits better down the line.... 

uh. ok?  well, that sucks. I just got fired.  I guess it happens! After a few moments of depressing ego bruising, a weight is lifted. I take my script and rip it up. I guess I don't have to worry about THAT anymore.  

I check in with my agent the next morning and he lets me know that yes, everyone feels terrible and it's not a reflection on you at all, and by the way, you were guaranteed 2 episodes so they have to pay you anyway! well ok! I think i just won [Uncut Gems This Is How I Win GIF] 

That night I meet Croz! So short backstory here. I met a woman in his band, Becca Stevens, who saw me say something nice about one of Croz's recent records (Here If You Listen, which I think is REALLY REALLY good) and she wrote me: Huge fan and it's so nice you dig the record, we're gonna be in LA recording, you should stop by, I'd love to meet you and intro you to Croz. 

I took her up on the offer and dropped in after Becca made sure the conditions would be right for me (i.e. Croz would be in a good place to meet people)  

First, I just love being in a recording studio. It's one of my favorite places to be... Sunset Sound, which is just legendary... I walk in and Croz is there behind the mixing console, listening to an overdub being recorded. He's there with his wife, Jan... after the take, Becca introduces me and I get a very sincere, slightly hippy tinged "Good to meet you man." from the man himself.  After my brain officially processes that 'holy shit, that's the actual David Crosby" I chill out and we talk a bit about what we're hearing... and pretty quickly it turns from DAVID FUCKING CROSBY to... just a guy i'm talking to.  I crack a few ice breaker jokes... a good/bad one regarding the Covid protocols... I say: don't worry, I was just tested.... (long beat) not for covid though... Bahh haha. Surprising laughter from David and Jan. 

We are distracting the engineer, so we all move to the lounge area to chill as they wait for their takeout dinner to arrive. Becca acts as ambassador and gives David and Jan some context of who I am - we search for some way for them to know who I am, but it's not really clicking. "Ever see Bridesmaids?" is where we land. But he doesn't really care, he's just happy to chat. I tell them about my recent firing and he loves it, says it was meant to be and that it reminds him of when he was fired from the BYRDS. I am reminded I'm talking to Royalty. 

I hang out for a little while and we talk about Robin Williams (their close personal friend, a man I got to work with) Eric Clapton and Van Morrison (fuckin dummies)  and just the run of the mill drag of being a touring musician these days.  It was really nice and I think we just both generally got along as much as you can.... 

So, yea that was a weird week. The rest of it was pretty boring: not eating, and doing my 3 miles... Watching the Dodgers WIN, and plotting some new toys and treats for you all! 

See you thursday!!! 

Peace and Love, Tim