CBS. Television
City. If the pure audacity that these characters are
coming back to life at a Network Telvision Studio
doesn't just whallop you, time to read another blog.
For me it was one of those "too much to conceive"
moments. Making it even crazier was Charlotte was able
to stop by and watch what she, Jess and I did 5
years earlier. Quite often we would look at each other
just shaking our heads... but I'm getting ahead of
myself...
"Adam, I'm
sleeping. You lay shit on me, take my picture...
I want to sleep."
Got this package
on Thursday with the official offer, and of course my
handy dandy guidebook on how to act like a proper CBS
News employee. The majority of it is of course dealing
with ethics in reporting news, so very little applied
directly to me - but it was fun to read. It also
occured to me Katie Couric got one of these in her
mail and it made me all giggly for a bit. I wonder if
it occured to her to take a picture of it on her dog?
Probably
not.
Anyway, the reason
I bring all of this incidental shit up is that it
was this package cemented that Charlotte is indeed my
manager again. After 7 months of beating around the
bush, hemming and hawing about what could happen, what
may happen, what should happen - we now have a
reason to come back together. I needed someone
to represent me in regards to the contract, she is
more than capable of that, and there's a mutual
benefit. It's an actual working relationship
whereas before it was 100% faith on both sides with
absolutely no payoff. And it's literally like we
picked up where we left off before things got bad.
It's like we won Aspen, got this deal with CBS, and
the only irregularities are the months of Feruary 2002
through August 2006. You take those out, and it's
really like one congruent story. So surreal to both of
us. But also, honestly, really
heartwarming...
...as
was this entire
day.
I could act all cool and nonchalant
until I actually sat in that chair. Then
I got all giddy and took out my
camera. Hell I was just excited to
see my old friends after all this time!
First up, G!
The ease
to become G is extraordinary to me. It's
amazing how a goatee can look so completely
different. You move it down by shaving it in
half, and it elongates your face and just
instantly makes you look like a complete
badass. That's not always true with everyone,
there's something about the size of my eyes
and the shape of my eyebrows that can make me
look like a cariciture with very little work.
I think that's why G and Spencer work so
well. They seem to "pop" at you.
The
make-up guy, Tyson, was just amazing. Because
we have to do everything in one day, it
requires drawing in my full beard, and other
things like side-burns. He did such a good
job on my beard (the shot to the right, isn't
complete even) that I had to get out of
my chair and go up to the mirror to see the
make-up. He did Johnny Depp's make-up for
Pirates of the Caribbean and had me smiling
all day. It's very nice to have professionals
helpin'.
After we'd finish
the character the other make-up lady Jody pulled out
the CSI forensics camera...
...for a shot of
the finished character. As you can see, the cornrows
are a bit off. They're pretty much just braids, and
other than actually weaving cornrows into my actual
hair I'm not sure of any way around it. After the test
shoot next week, I'll look into what the cost would be
to pull that off. See if there's even anyone at CBS
that can do cornrows. For the time being I may
just have to wear the bandana I wore during Spencer's
set in T1...
...we'll just have
to see.
For Dewey
and Spence, hair color comes into play with
eyebrows, facial hair as well as actual hair.
Of course professionals have an airbrush with
water soluble color instead of dye which just
made me... well made me have the face you see
here. It's the face of someone who is
remembering years of pain, and dye, and
waxing. May I offer you Entry
#256 - To Wig or Dye in LA from
2003.
You
feel my pain with that video brothas and
sistas...
Dewey's
wig is currently a little too pretty. We're
gonna be pourin' on the greasy shit to make
him look a bit more surfer-ish. Getting a wig
to look "wet" is kinda tough. The thing is
though, we're comparing it to a version of
Dewey the public will never see. So I'm sure
they'll think it's fine. The eyebrows and
goatee however we finally got dead-on. Tyson
really can pull off some amazing things with
that brush. Had I any idea...
And then
there's Spencer's eyebrows. He tried this wax
stuff that would cover over part of the brow,
and then make-up would cover that... but to
no avail. So then he tried just completely
covering my entire brow with the rubber
stuff, and from the side it was OK, but
straight on it was really bad. The whole time
Charlotte and Jody were joking about how
I was gonna have to wax my brows
off.
And
honestly, I did that before each time. I
don't care if I look stupid if it makes
the character believeable. But it took
several months already to grow back - and
this wouldn't be over until MARCH. And on top
of that, would drawn in eyerows for G and the
other real men look alright? Looking
in the mirror after an hour of fucking with
my eybrows I just gave-in, picked up the
razor and started to shave. (sigh)
I thinned them out and then made 'em as
skinny as I had to not to look
completely ridiculous. Then, the wax over the
bottom half of the ends of the eyebrows
worked out fine, and we were also able to
draw them in just fine for "Live Adam" and
the rest of the boys.
So we're pretty
set to go for the test shoot next Friday. Now of
course I have to write the test show which
unfortunately won't be with real contestants, so
nothing can be used for Week 1. Ahh well, there'll be
an extra bonus show that most people will never see
('cept you guys). Very cool.
To end the day of
surrealism, picture Charlotte and I standing on the
CBS lot talking about ideas for the sitcom. It
really comes full circle. The thing that finally put
the final nail in the coffin nearly 5 years before is
now not only back up and going, but it's more feasible
than either of us can imagine. All you had to do was
look at the three letters on the building we were
standing next to and just shake your head. At one time
we both believed this scene was an absolute
certainty... and then it all vanished in an
instant.
