November 2, 2000
Big guest star role. Goofy character. He's the ultra-nice-guy UPS delivery man that's dating one of the Three Sisters. This was a departure from my usual characters but within my grasp. So I made a choice.
There are people in the world who are laughers. They say something and then they laugh. usually they are not saying anything funny. They just laugh. "We've never met each other. [laugh, laugh]" "Please pass the salt. [laugh, laugh]" "I am being sued. [laugh, laugh]" And that's what KEVIN was today. He was my laugher. There was a lot of material, fifteen pages of sides, and I was able to sprinkle at least a dozen laughs throughout. These were not called for by the script, mind you. They were my own creation. I was going to go for it and live or die by the laugh.
The first two scenes went very well. They laughed at a lot of my bits, including, I believe, the laugh. It was going very well. Before I began the third and final scene, the casting director asked me to take out the laugh just to see how it sounded without it. I thought it still sounded good, but I had grown to love the laugh and missed it at a couple of specific places in the scene. Was the third scene as good as the first two? Maybe. Maybe not. The feeling after all three wasn't quite as wonderful as after the first two. I think I also got nervous that the laugh had hurt me and started to speed up in the third scene. That concerned me as it was wrapping up, but by then it was too late to get the pace under control.
The workday has ended and I have heard nothing. That's not a good sign. There was another guy there who had a very familiar face, and when I picture the best guy for this role, I picture his. So whenever this mid-season show finally gets on the air, keep an eye out for the non-laughing UPS guy.
(Feedback: "Reading as great. You were very funny. They went a
dfiferent way. The guy is about 7-8 years older than you. He's just a
different way to go than you are.")