Extra Extra, Read All About It
I should say something here. It's been too long, and there is at least something to say.
For the most part things are the same. My office job is still an office job, even if they are currently threatening to relocate me into a cupboard. Romantically there is no news (if there was, you probably would have seen additional poetry by now. Especially if I'd met someone and broken up with them again. What else are diaries for, I suppose). But! There has been one development.
I'm still doing amateur comedy, although I haven't actually done so in awhile as there's a break over the summer. Being acknowledged as one of the stable of open mike night comedians (which is no accomplishment, you literally just have to show up enough for them to start recognising you) means I'm on an email list, and recently an email came through that asking for unpaid extras to work in a TV show. I was reluctant - it would involve giving up my Sunday - but eventually I figured it's exactly the sort of thing I should be doing (do more things, after all), so I signed on.
The show's a mockumentary, starring Murray the manager from Flight of the Conchords. In the show he plays a succession of characters, in this episode he was being an enthusiastic but incompetant UFO-ologist, who leads a support group in a public library, while everyone else shows up to laugh at him because what he's saying is so absurd they genuinely think it's a comedic performance (and he, in turn, believes their laughter is just their way of dealing with their own nervous enthusiasm, so he accepts it as normal).
I was in the crowd of laughing people and we did a take or two like that, until at one point the director leaned forward and said "actually, you" - pointing at the girl in front of me - "and you" - pointing at me - "you look like you'd be believers in all this, so why don't we have you two be here seriously rather than for laughs?" I'm not entirely sure how I look like someone deeply invested in UFOs, but I wasn't going to argue with them giving me something specific to work with, so I grabbed one of the handout fliers he had, flipped it over, and started obsessively taking notes on it until I'd filled up the entire page with crazy person rambling.
Long story short, they liked it. They deliberately played it up a few times - getting shots with me furiously taking notes while the guy next to me laughed uproariously - and then from there they kept coming up with more things for me to do. In one of the later scenes that day they had the whole group get kicked out of the library due to laughing too loud; they had me drag my feet to leave last and then even have a line or two on my way out. Finally they added in a direct to camera interview with me and the mockumentary maker (who also happens to be a minor hero of mine in the local media - he did irreverent reports on late night news that I learned to enjoy while going through university), all of which was just ad-libbed (I borrowed the phrase "preincarnation" from Terry Pratchett for a joke there, don't tell him).
That would have been it, but they put out a wide email for extras again twice more; the first time I was just some guy in the back of a large crowd scene, but for the second they recognised me and had me be that same UFO-fanatic character again, giving me a few more lines and specific interactions. Then, after that, they started coming to me specifically with requests to come back. In all I'm in 4 of the shows 8 episodes (5 if you count the time I'm just a face in the crowd), enough that they started referring to me as a sort of deliberate call back or Easter egg for the series. They did a bad painting of me for one episode where there was a scene of me receiving it as change for my payment at a toll booth, and then having it rammed unsubtly into my head through the car window to hurry me along (I had several lines in that bit, and considerable camera time). Finally for the last shoot they actually paid me to come along, both because they really wanted me but also because they wanted to recognise my contribution. Not bad for someone who literally started out as just a random, interchangeable extra.
Perhaps the coolest thing though is that they know me now. I've got photos of me and Murray the Manager/Rhys Darby, but more importantly, dude - he said I was cool. I had a decently long conversation with that minor media hero of mine, and I'm pretty sure he now knows who I am, and he also gave me a ton of praise for doing things well. It feels good. So yes, sorry for the lengthy post that's just bragging, but yeah, it's about the biggest thing happening for me right now. While they've said the direct-to-camera interview piece won't make it into the show (it's just too extraneous), they have edited it and said it turned out really well, and promised to give it to me when they're done to use for my reel. I will have a reel. The idea is still something I'm getting my head around.
That all said, when I was leaving the set on my last day there (and the last day of shooting, so there won't be anything more of that), Rhys turned to me as I went past and said "bye man! See you at the wrap party!" The correct response from me would have been "yeah, cool, I'd love to come - just let me know the details and I'll see you there!" Instead I responded with "whrghymlf?" and walked into the door. So yes, don't go thinking I've gotten this all entirely figured out.
Going to see if I can't do some creative writing tomorrow. I should do that more often, for here.
For the most part things are the same. My office job is still an office job, even if they are currently threatening to relocate me into a cupboard. Romantically there is no news (if there was, you probably would have seen additional poetry by now. Especially if I'd met someone and broken up with them again. What else are diaries for, I suppose). But! There has been one development.
I'm still doing amateur comedy, although I haven't actually done so in awhile as there's a break over the summer. Being acknowledged as one of the stable of open mike night comedians (which is no accomplishment, you literally just have to show up enough for them to start recognising you) means I'm on an email list, and recently an email came through that asking for unpaid extras to work in a TV show. I was reluctant - it would involve giving up my Sunday - but eventually I figured it's exactly the sort of thing I should be doing (do more things, after all), so I signed on.
The show's a mockumentary, starring Murray the manager from Flight of the Conchords. In the show he plays a succession of characters, in this episode he was being an enthusiastic but incompetant UFO-ologist, who leads a support group in a public library, while everyone else shows up to laugh at him because what he's saying is so absurd they genuinely think it's a comedic performance (and he, in turn, believes their laughter is just their way of dealing with their own nervous enthusiasm, so he accepts it as normal).
I was in the crowd of laughing people and we did a take or two like that, until at one point the director leaned forward and said "actually, you" - pointing at the girl in front of me - "and you" - pointing at me - "you look like you'd be believers in all this, so why don't we have you two be here seriously rather than for laughs?" I'm not entirely sure how I look like someone deeply invested in UFOs, but I wasn't going to argue with them giving me something specific to work with, so I grabbed one of the handout fliers he had, flipped it over, and started obsessively taking notes on it until I'd filled up the entire page with crazy person rambling.
Long story short, they liked it. They deliberately played it up a few times - getting shots with me furiously taking notes while the guy next to me laughed uproariously - and then from there they kept coming up with more things for me to do. In one of the later scenes that day they had the whole group get kicked out of the library due to laughing too loud; they had me drag my feet to leave last and then even have a line or two on my way out. Finally they added in a direct to camera interview with me and the mockumentary maker (who also happens to be a minor hero of mine in the local media - he did irreverent reports on late night news that I learned to enjoy while going through university), all of which was just ad-libbed (I borrowed the phrase "preincarnation" from Terry Pratchett for a joke there, don't tell him).
That would have been it, but they put out a wide email for extras again twice more; the first time I was just some guy in the back of a large crowd scene, but for the second they recognised me and had me be that same UFO-fanatic character again, giving me a few more lines and specific interactions. Then, after that, they started coming to me specifically with requests to come back. In all I'm in 4 of the shows 8 episodes (5 if you count the time I'm just a face in the crowd), enough that they started referring to me as a sort of deliberate call back or Easter egg for the series. They did a bad painting of me for one episode where there was a scene of me receiving it as change for my payment at a toll booth, and then having it rammed unsubtly into my head through the car window to hurry me along (I had several lines in that bit, and considerable camera time). Finally for the last shoot they actually paid me to come along, both because they really wanted me but also because they wanted to recognise my contribution. Not bad for someone who literally started out as just a random, interchangeable extra.
Perhaps the coolest thing though is that they know me now. I've got photos of me and Murray the Manager/Rhys Darby, but more importantly, dude - he said I was cool. I had a decently long conversation with that minor media hero of mine, and I'm pretty sure he now knows who I am, and he also gave me a ton of praise for doing things well. It feels good. So yes, sorry for the lengthy post that's just bragging, but yeah, it's about the biggest thing happening for me right now. While they've said the direct-to-camera interview piece won't make it into the show (it's just too extraneous), they have edited it and said it turned out really well, and promised to give it to me when they're done to use for my reel. I will have a reel. The idea is still something I'm getting my head around.
That all said, when I was leaving the set on my last day there (and the last day of shooting, so there won't be anything more of that), Rhys turned to me as I went past and said "bye man! See you at the wrap party!" The correct response from me would have been "yeah, cool, I'd love to come - just let me know the details and I'll see you there!" Instead I responded with "whrghymlf?" and walked into the door. So yes, don't go thinking I've gotten this all entirely figured out.
Going to see if I can't do some creative writing tomorrow. I should do that more often, for here.