My Brother - The Actor?

People fly from all over the world to make it in Hollywood. They work to make ends meet, go to auditions, struggle in general.

But just what does it take to become an actor in Hollywood? For my brother, all it took was a penchant for wearing loud shirts, a healthy appetite, and frequent visits to one particular restaurant.

It turns out that he and some of his co-workers eat at a place called Cafe 50s quite often. They had been going there for some time now and recently, it has become a hangout for actors on the NBC show “American Dreams” - which honestly, I’ve never seen.

When the actors’ lunch break is up, they are rounded up by an assistant and told to head back to the studio. On a few occasions my brother was mistakenly herded up as part of the cattle because of the shirt he was wearing – some sort of loud 60s-style bowling shirt. He had to tell the assistant that he wasn’t part of the cast.

So time goes by he begins to chat with the actors and producers, befriends some of the cast, and gets to go on the set to see where it all takes place.

Then, lo and behold, I get a call from him today. He tells me that they needed someone to play the part of a TV reporter and someone [from the show] suggested that he was a good match for the role. He sent some pictures and – what do you know – he gets the job.

He says shooting begins on Monday, December 6. He has three lines and will get paid union scale. And because he has a speaking role, he earns his SAG card...or so I understand from the screenwriting class I took in college.

While this is his first appearance as an actor, it is not his first TV appearance. His vast knowledge in all things Hollywood got him interviewed for a documentary about the William Desmond Taylor murder, a show that aired on a cable channel (I forget which one) way back in 2000. He’s also done some voiceover work for radio commercials at some of the radio stations where he’s worked. But even that brief cable TV appearance made him recognizable to fellow Blue Line passengers, who asked if he “was that guy on The Biography Channel last night.”

I'm not really sure if that’s a compliment or not. After all, they do air shows about Hitler.

I told him to ask if the show needed extra writers. What have I got to lose? Well, I guess I could watch it now and then.

Check back for updates, pics, screenshots, etc.