Who knew the
Smurfs would delay this until the next day? Talya's
father had a screening of The Smurfs" at 5pm he wanted
me to go to so we could talk... and I didn't get
home until after midnight. I think I performed
well. Heh. So did The Smurfs, I guess.
I pretended I had my kid next to me and I
figured they would've liked it however there is
nothing in it for adults. But the 3D was well
done.
Of course this was
after the big HBO meeting and here's the
video...
What, like
I was videotaping the lunch? LOL. And at the
fancy Wilshire in Santa Monica to boot. I remember
vividly someone visiting LA for the first time
seeing that street and proclaiming: "Wilshire!
That's Famous!" (pronouncing it Wil-Shire as opposed
to Wil-shure) It was very endearing. Always springs to
mind when I see the street...
I'm struggling
with how to explain how it went only because these
things rarely go badly. Well, Charlotte set one
up with the Director of Casting at Paramount that most
definitely did go badly (LOL
- had totally forgotten about this - a few paragraphs
down) OK so
other than that. You can't really screw up a
meeting. The act of them being willing to meet you and
then saying they'll watch the movie is the "win". But
you guys don't want THAT. Not after 12 years. You want
to know how this one moment will be a crossroads to
lead to THE BIG TIME. :-) I'm good at
playing that game.
I'm being
anonymous with her name because I'm trying to be
professional but I realize a sleuthy googler could
take parts of several entries and most likely figure
it all out. This is why doing "The Journey" is quite
difficult in this town. All the good shit has to be
vague until it's over. The truth is, that's how it
usually feels to me. HA. Constant vagueness and
suddenly, it's all over.
So Laura had
already given her a couple of videos including the
trailer and she was impressed. I tried to give an
overview of all the things that had happened in the
ten year period and she was first interested in my
representation. I mentioned Charlotte's name to the
familiar sight of pensive negative head shakes as no
one has ever heard of her, seriously in 11
years no one in the industry ever has. And of course
I do need a manager. It's too many talents with
too little direction. We talked about the career ups
and what brought them down. How Laura's sister was
involved at Paradigm, but that everything was
dependent on it getting picked up by Comedy Central.
You're struck with not wanting to say too much to ruin
the film, but you're sitting at lunch - ya gotta say
something.
I had the
seared albacore salad... yum.
I continued
to delve into the heart of the film and she does what
most people do when they hear the story - they want to
figure out how to make it all work! Fuck focusing on
the past - you just need this one piece! And you'll be
there! And to that I say: "Well fuck
yeah... let's go!" So we'd talk about that for a bit
and she seemed genuinely interested in who she could
talk to. Comedy development at HBO, etc. She just has
a big web. That's what these meetings are about. The
bigger webs talk to the bigger fish, etc. It's why
during Comedy Central, Paradigm was helping me speak
with 3 Arts and so on... they all play in big circles.
The lower rung circles rarely do. At the end of all
the scheming, I was left saying: Once you've seen
the movie? It will trigger everything...
...and that is
really at the crux of getting someone of her stature
to agree to watch it. Because once you do? You are
almost pushed to figure out what you can do to
balance rebalance the wrongs. Because in a sense?
That's what all of the work within The Journey is
without the proper spotlight: unbalanced. They are
nearly all a series of remarkably close calls that
unrelated fate swiped away. There is an appropriate
avenue for everything, we just can't see it today.
It's like Jon Stewart's career before The Daily Show.
I used to watch him in the 90s on MTV, SAST
(short attention span theater), he wasn't bad. He just
wasn't him. And then he caught his groove on The Daily
Show and now it's so clearly his niche, you can't
imagine him doing anything else. It's impossible to
have seen that avenue in the early 90s. It had to play
out and you look back now and go:
"Ahhhhh."
It is much the
same with me. Even with the successses. When I was
doing The Egos on CBS in '06 and '07 it seemed crazy
how I had gotten there Before that I could
have never imagined the path to get to that, but once
I was there? It made sense. That path may not
make sense now in '11. It's honestly the most
spiritual part of art - you don't control which angle
will lead you where. You simply do, your, art. Get it
into the hands of the people that sell art... and
hopefully you find a path.
Quick aside,
because for some reason when I explain my way -
people assume that means I think it's the only
right way. Couldn't be further from the truth,
especially in the field of "art". It's just what's
right for ME. Some people are very good at making
their art FIT the sellers. The have a keen sense of
what is being bought and can create that piece (be
it music/comedy/paintings). That is indeed a skill
and one that fortunately or unfortunately depending
on how you look at it? Doesn't move or interest me.
Now clearly because of my success I've nailed it a
few times, but it's only because I created so
much and picked out those parts that fit. As I've
explained before, I feel... and then I emote
through writing, songs, videos, comedy... because
I'm moved to. And with The Journey? I'm just
telling a story, trying to capture moments. If I'm
angry I capture it, not to entertain or to
sell it, but to be honest to the story. Every now
and then I think something that comes from that is
sellable and I scheme ways to get that seen or
work it into a pitch, etc. And now, as a whole?
I think the STORY of CREATING that art is
absolutely sellable. Maybe moreso than the pieces
within. Time will tell.
After the meeting
I do feel that her watching it will spur a
bunch of things. It's the first time I've ever
handed something to someone and not felt the need to
say: "BUT OH,
AND I DO THIS!". It's all there. We can
all rest easy knowing that someone with a giantic
reach in a big circle wants to help, and is holding
every possible avenue. I'm not sure which way it will
go, but I have the utmost faith that it's going
to.
By the end of the
lunch we were just talking about goofy things and ooh,
I spotted Larry Hagman at the table next to me.
Weird, 3rd time I've seen JR out and about. And since
I started the whole HBO thing a couple entries
back with a stupid grade school joke: (Do you have
HBO? -- Yes -- You have Human Body Odor?!?) this seems
a fitting time to end on another one.
