Still in Agrabah, Gran Torino and Mickey Rourke!

So, I had a few people ask me about updates concerning Aladdin in my last blog and didn't realize that I had been updating facebook, but not myspace.

So, when I last wrote I was a little unsure of what my future would be at Disney due to the cutback. I had so many people telling me that I would be fine, but it was still a little tense until I received the official word from the mouse. We came in together as the two new Aladdin's and we have grown really close throughout this whole process, so it sucks to have him take off so early, but he'll be happier on the other coast! He's a very talented kid and it's only the beginning for you dude!

Wednesday, word started to trickle in from various cast members about what they were being offered or NOT offered for the new contract and everyone was still pretty clueless as to what was going on. There was no indication of who was getting called first, or what they were looking to move forward with and I was getting a little nervous. One of our Aladdin's was offered full time as well, but he would only have one day as Aladdin, which was going to be a cut from the last month we've been running.

I did have an audition that morning and the girl who was playing my wife, ended up knowing some of the same people I work with at the fruit stand LOL The audition was pretty straight forward and I took some liberties towards the end to improv a little, but it worked and I felt like I was on my way to booking my first commercial of 2009. I actually got a call late Friday from my agent telling me that I had a callback for Monday, which I had to do some shifting around to make, since I am scheduled to perform at Disney on Monday.

Later that day, I got a call and had another audition lined up for the next day, this time a PARK RANGER WTF!?

Thursday, I woke up and ran to ROSS to buy some green dockers a short sleeved beige button up and a hat for my Park Ranger outfit. So reading the script for my commercial, there were clearly two other roles, that I was MUCH better suited for, but so it goes, my agent thought otherwise lol I decided I would just buy the shit and return it once I was done but I had to buy the hat at Ursulas and all sales are final there. Well, I get to the audition with my outfit in my bag and I see all of the other guys in just plain dress pants and I'll admit, I was a little embarrassed to go change, but I thought back to the Aladdin audition and said, F it...I came out in my gear (minus the hat) and people looked my way...I had to bite my lip not to laugh. I got called in and asked if they wanted me to slate with or without the hat, which eased the tension a bit as they laughed...they then joked and asked where their hats were and said they wanted to remind me that this wasn't the stripper park ranger. After I said, that they weren't paying me enough for that, we went on our way and did the scene LOL I have a feeling that I might be a LITTLE wrong for the gig...but we'll see...

I went home after and cleaned a bit and still hadn't received any calls about Aladdin and it was about 4pm. I went out into the living room to grab my phone and realized it was still on silent from the audition and I had in fact missed two calls from Disney! AGH! Moment of truth. I called them back and I was informed pretty early on that I not only was I still in the show LOL, but I had ALL of my days and I had actually been given a better day. I was contracted initially to work Sunday and Monday and now I would be performing both Saturday and Sunday, which of course are busy days for the park. I was definitely excited to hear this along with them telling me they were really pleased with my work thus far and how they are wanting to keep giving me more opportunities as they come.

I felt pretty good about the news, but knew others hadn't been so lucky. I got news from a friend of mine and co-noob to the cast that he was not being offered any days with the new contract unfortunately, which was sad to hear. I wasn't surprised entirely, but it is still sad to hear. A few other friends were dropped down in their amount of days or were dropped to call ins. Tough times people...even @ the Happiest Place on Earth.

Friday I got up and went for a swim with Erin in Culver City. She is preparing for another triathlon and I thought it would be fun to join her. UGH! So tough...I did about 3 laps and my shoulders were shot...I had to do the next two laps with the little float to give my arms a rest while I jusy paddled with my feet, which was also a bitch! I then did another lap and then sprinted all the way back....f'n tough...there were 70 year old's passing me in the f'ng water! LOL

Later that night I joined Ekan and his friend Wylie and they introduced me to the dish Pho, which was simple, but a great dish! We went back to his friend's place and hung out and played with our iPhones LMAO!

Saturday I worked at apple for most of the day and then went to Barnaby's 25th Birthday Bash at Busby's which was great fun. Got to see a lot of friends and witness Barnaby completely trashed! LOL Erin and I then cruised over to David's party and thanks to our new Salsa moves, we tore up the floor for a bit, which had to be the highlight of my night!

Ran into a friend and we talked some business about a movie of his I was supposed to be in. Never worked out but other things are in the works!

Today was back at Aladdin where I was sneaking in to catch updates on my Giant's game - BOO! Oh well, I can't complain too much, Philly is on a similar road that we were on last year. Congrats E-kan, I'll be pulling for Arizona next week and I'm glad to see my second team the Steelers are still in the hunt! Let's get a wide receiver who is not a headcase now!

The first show was egh...LOL We had to run one of our contingencies and continued the streak of something going south each week we've been open. I thought nothing could top the walk of shame, boy was I wrong! It's kind of complicated to type out and explain so if you care for more details I can provide them in person...let's just say something malfunctioned and Janelle and I had to do a mad dash up a few flights of stairs, barely making it onstage in time and then we had to "sing" the rest of WHOLE NEW WORLD...I felt about 2 inches tall...

The second show was GREAT! The crowd was into it and although my arm looked terrible from a collision in the first show, I managed to not hurt my left thumb- only my right thumb...exact same injury, just not as sever...fuck! My arm also looks like I feel off a motorcycle lol...not that bad where blood is pouring and my bones are showing, but bad enough. I was asked after the show if I had friends in the audience again, because there were a bunch of girls flipping their shit in the audience...but no such luck...LOL

I was off the third show and the last show I did my other role and it was also great fun as usual and then it was a mad dash home to catch the golden globes!

Let me just say that I am so happy for a few people-
fellow Jersey Boy, Bruce Springstein for writing the song for the Wrestler and WINNING!
Colin Farrell for a truly incredible performance in one of my top three favorite movies of the year, IN BRUGES. I have always liked his movies, but something about him rubbed me the wrong way...maybe it was because a few years ago people said I looked like him and I was jealous/competitive lol but this movie was great and his range in it was impressive. I hope he continues to have great success during the next few years!
LASTLY- Mickey Rourke! I wrote about him a few blogs ago and I yelled so loud when they announced him as the winner tonight! I hope he takes the other big cheese as well! GO SEE IT! A lot of people who have seen Batman have commented that you don't see Heath at all, you just see the Joker...While that is one of my favorite performances...the Wrestler supports Mickey Rourke doing the same thing!

I'm looking forward to watching Slumdog, Ben Button and Milk as I finish watching Gran Torino.

I could blog about that movie by itself, but not right now...I'm getting tired. I will just say that I am blown away at how unreal this movie is to me. I'm not saying that people like that don't exist in this world, don't get me wrong. I just feel that in this movie, no one acknowledges how WRONG Clint's character is in this movie. It is supposed to be funny in some way because of the way some of the jokes play out, but it is just plain ridiculous. I just don't believe ANYTHING in the movie ASIDE from the Hmong cast members and the gang bangers...it's really ridiculous IMO. I don't want to hear SHIT from here on out about Christian Bale's voice in Batman without you watching Clint in this. I am laughing so hard at all the inappropriate stuff this guy says and does and it is just silly.

Bad Movie - GREAT ENTERTAINMENT FOR ME.

A song for the day - You Can’t Brush Me Off

Pieces below from the song, "You Can't Brush Me Off"


What is this all about?
You've got me wrong, no doubt
I give you all my time
Believe me, I'm
Not looking for some way out
You'll never leave me flat
I'm not a "last year's hat"
That you can cast aside
I've got my pride
And I won't stand for that

You can't brush me off
As you would a speck of powder, you may try
But you can't brush me off

You can drop a hint but I won't take it
You can tell me bad news
I intend to refuse
To go
No
You can't give me back
As you would a leaded quarter, you may try
But you can't brush me off

Happy New Year! Or is it? Aladdin is in danger...really!

First off Happy New Year!

I hope everyone reading is doing well and had a blast welcoming it in.

I ended up keeping it pretty low key. Erin and I ended up going to Lisa and Alex's place and hung out with them and another couple. We watched (I fell asleep) Wanted after the ball dropped. The highlight was drinking Absinthe for the first time. At first, I was like, "This isn't bad." Then after a few very small sips, I had a hard time finishing the stuff. Not a big fan of licorice or anything that tastes like it. I did not see any green monsters and by the end of the night, I couldn't tell if I was buzzed from that or the many glasses of Champagne.

Actually come to think of it, the Absinthe wasn't the highlight, the best moment had to be our short walk back to our apartment and me a little buzzed spotting a white form in the distance. I had a feeling it was a couch and I made Erin come with me to check it out. We got close and I saw it was a nice love seat leather couch that was in GREAT shape and would go great in our place. Erin was not in the mood to carry it back and I had to work hard to get her to change her clothes and come back with me to grab it at 3am LOL It was freezing and the couch was a little wet from the moisture in the air, but we got it all the way up and now it sits nicely in our place!

Thursday, I was able to pick up a shift at Apple and I totally forgot about time and a half which will be nice!

Friday, I ended up getting called in to work which was definitely needed. I also hung out with Hilary Swank at Apple.

Saturday, I worked and then took Erin to some Salsa Lessons over at Monsoons. It was such a great time. I really was picking up fast and loving it. We are brushing up on our moves for our trip to either Barcelona or Buenos Aires...obviously we'll have to modify some moves depending on where we end up. But it will fit in nicely with my Spanish Lessons...who knows maybe this year I'll end up on one of those Spanish Soaps my Grandma watches lol

I couldn't be more excited to head back to Disney on Sunday and had the last two shows as Aladdin. It was so nice to see everyone and it felt like I had been gone a while! I had great shows and a couple of fun spots during that made for some laughs.

Monday I was back at Disney for the day and then it was off to visit our puppy at our trainers house. I haven't seen him in like two weeks and I was so excited. I felt bad because Erin couldn't join me, but took some pictures to hold her off. It was bittersweet. I was so happy to see him and to see that he remembered and was excited to see me, but I hated leaving him again. Hope he is well. Only another week or so.

Today ended up being QUITE a day! It started off with me needing to get some stuff settled with my security deposit refund. My old apartment complex took too long to get me my check and I'm going to need to fight to get my full refund now because of the 21 day law in California. I also needed to call up Jury Duty Service number to figure out if my registration was complete due to getting cut off by shitty cell service...I got no where with either but was distracted a bit by some unsettling news on the Disney - Aladdin front.

At About 11:15am I received a text from a friend notifying me that there was a company meeting after the last show of the day - also there was a rumor floating around that the show would go from 5 days a week to 3! This would suck for me, because I was figuring that if that were to happen that the remaining days would be Fri, Sat and Sun and I would lose my Monday shift. I called up the Union Rep to ask what would happen if this little rumor turned out to be true and he said that I would have get my guaranteed hours, but that a clause in my contract could give them the ability to release me! SHIT!

At about 2:30pm I heard from my friend that there was a new rumor circulating that the park may be closing Mondays and Tuesdays which would still affect me the same way listed above. The last contract, the show was dark on Mondays and Tuesdays so I was wondering if they would go back to that schedule.

At about 4:30pm I heard that the show was going to go down to 4 days a week, it was pretty much confirmed, but they still were waiting to have the meeting.

At about 6:00pm I received a call from the casting department, officially notifying me that the show was indeed going down to 4 days and before I could ask about my guaranteed hours, it was communicated that there would be a new contract set up and it would begin in two weeks with those who were going to be offered their roles in the show...........

now, it's a complicated, shitty situation for everyone involved. There are many possibilities that I could think of concerning my position with this company, but after a while...I just had to force myself to let it go. My ego started to get the better of me and my insecurities started to creep in and feed my imagination, but when it comes down to it - life will happen and I'll be fine.

I started this blog when my journey began with Aladdin and I always wrote about the great times I had and how I have been busting my ass. It has taught me a lot about life and more importantly about myself. About 4 weeks ago I thought back to my callback and how I decided to dress in a vest and my baggy linen pants and I said to hell with what people would think. I laugh at it now, but at the time, I was going for broke because I figured that my callback could have been the last time I got to sing those songs for an audience...it worked out for me though. Well, hearing about how certain things were closing at the park, I thought back to my callback and told myself that I was going to treat every time on stage as if it were going to be my last, because I wasn't sure what the next day would bring. I gave it my all during the auditions all the way through rehearsals and I kept that fire going through my performances. I blogged about my experience with the show when I was sick and while I could have possibly called out, I fought through because I knew I could. I wanted that challenge and while I paid in full after, I conquered and wouldn't throw in the towel. I won't now. I take comfort in knowing I gave everything...everything for the moment that is...I grow everyday and look forward to finding new ways to change, challenge myself, challenge others and be creative with the show and grow within it and hopefully have it grow as a result. I hope I have the chance to continue on and I want to be a part of this show that is no doubt changing my life each day I take the stage. I want to continue to have a place at the Happiest Place on Earth. I want to come in each week and see the smiling faces and crazy people that I have grown close to. I hate the thought of having that taken away from me so soon, especially when I haven't had the chance to prank everyone (in fact they have gotten me a couple of times). I am pissed that I may not have a chance to have my family and friends see me in something that I am REALLY proud of...a living dream...

At least I can say:
I didn't phone anything in and tell myself that I would just fix it next time - If it wasn't working at the time, I changed it in the moment. I didn't hold back and fall into the trap of being a performer ONLY under lights, I worked hard every step of the way and challenged myself, accepted challenges from others and worked hard towards taking it to new levels. I know that no matter what I hear in my phone call tomorrow, I will be excited and looking forward to my next new challenge! I have calmed down to the point where I am happy and can go to sleep knowing that because I gave it my all - I will have no regrets of an adventure short lived.

One day at a time...

Shortly after hearing all of this today, I got called in for a great audition in the morning...

TiLL NeXt TiMe...

Ace