Day 1 -- Wednesday January 14

The road to Day 1 could have been considered smooth, but the crazy workings of the insecure actor's mind led to anguish and strife over the last few days. Last Friday, the casting office called my agent and put me on hold for the Frasier episode until Tuesday. To me, this meant they liked me, but not enough to be sure about me. Maybe they were going to keep looking, or, my sister Mary's idea, they might be trying to get a "name" to do a cameo. Either way, I did not have the job.

When I spoke with Cathy Reinking from the casting office, however, she was very congratulatory. She felt that I pretty much had it locked up and that they were not still looking. The only danger would be that they would write the part out of the script and thus as great as I might have been as the Room Service Waiter, there would be no part for me to play. So now it became a waiting game, hoping that they would not think of a new clever direction to go with the second half of the script. Had to hope they wouldn't feel the Room Service Waiter was just a waste of time. My concerns were unfounded. My worries were in vain. For when I sat down at the big table in the conference room on Stage 25, I grabbed hold of the script and saw printed on the front the title for this episode of Frasier: "Room Service."

The crowd slowly filtered in for the table read of this week's episode. I met a couple of production people and then Jeff Greenberg introduced me to a couple of the regulars. They all then finally took their seats and I found myself surrounded by the cast. Frasier, Niles, Martin, Roz, Daphne, and Lilith, and then right in there with the big boys, the shy, little Room Service Waiter, sitting patiently, awaiting his moments with the masters. It was a bit awe-inspiring, to be sitting next to such a talented group of people who are all doing what I want to do day-in and day-out. They are six of the very few people who work regularly on a show they can be proud of and eager to put together every week. And there was me.

The director, David Lee, welcomed everyone and then officially welcomed me, including a round of applause from the gallery. Bebe Neuwirth was also welcomed with a similar ovation. She and I are the only two guests on the show this week. That is good in that I should receive some decent attention and I stand out as the new guy. Conversely, that could really work against me because there's no one on my "level" in the show. If co-stars hang out with co-stars, and leads hang out with leads, I'm going to have a very lonely week. Also, whatever shorthand may exist between the regulars on the show, cast and crew, will only serve to put me further away from the inner circle.

The read-thru was simply hilarious. The clever script, the talented actors. It looks to be a good one. My lines got some good responses from the gang in the room. I had been quite apprehensive about them up through the audition and callback and over the past few days while waiting and wondering about the part. And now I would have to show everybody what I had come up with. So it was a relief to get some nice chuckles out of the group. I have the revised script for tomorrow sitting here by my side and so far the Waiter hasn't lost any lines. Three more work days before we can breathe a sigh of relief that the Waiter is still intact.

And that was that. Day 1 done. I wrapped at 11:45am, only a short hour after arriving. Call time tomorrow morning at 9am. Then it's time to start rehearsing. Hey! Rehearsing! That's something I can do, right?

Go on to Day 2

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