May 12, 1997
Word came back through Traci and Winston that the people wanted more. More laughs. More scenes. More money. And so the great showcase machinery cranked itself back up once again and after an additional contribution to the arts, we secured a night at the Tiffany Theater to give the people what they wanted: another night of "Get Surreal!"
One of the arguments made for having the showcase again was that assistants had come see the first showcase, and they wanted to bring theie bosses, the agents and managers and casting directors out there, to see the show because they thought it was so damn good!
So I agreed and Rachel and I set about refreshing our minds of the scene. We met back at Louise's Trattoria and had our rehearsl lunch, running the scene a few times. We met with the whole group the night before the showcase, added a bit or two for hilarity sake, and we were ready.
The night arrived and I was able to draw a bit of a crowd this time. Kama came again with Crystal. Terry Ward and Nicole Sullivan were in attendance. Jim Wise showed up out of the blue. Cheryl Kloner came by to make me look good (getting someone from John Levey's office to the showcase). And casting director Doug Wright form Warner Brothers came by too.
While standing talking to Terry, a very familiar-looking man came up to me and said, "John Ducey." I turned and gave him a look of, "Who are you?" and he said, "Alan." And I said out loud, "Right, hi! Thanks for coming! It's good to see you!" And to myself I said, "What? Alan? Is that what you said? I don't know an Alan. Who are you?" And then it hit me. He was the producer for High School High, whom I hadn't seen in a year-and-a-half, but whom I have stayed in touch with over the phone. Of course, now I knew him. His actual name? Eric Wright. I don't know how I got Alan when he said his name. So I tried to make a point of saying his name so that he knew I knew who he was. Kama, this is Eric. Eric. Kama. Crystal. Eric. Eric. Crystal. Eric. Jim Wise. Jim Wise. Eric. Thanks for coming, Eric. And as he was leaving I gave a little shout... "Take care, Eric! Thanks again!"
His name is Jeff.
I decided to call him the next day to say that I was sorry I didn't recognize him at first and that I felt goofy. Imagine my level of goof when I looked his name up on my mailing list only to find Mr. Eric Wright's name is Jeff Wright. I had the right guy, just the wrong name. Or did I? Then the panic set in. Was it really Jeff Wright? He answered so politely to Eric, maybe it was Eric. A quick scan of the Erics on my mailing list made this seem very unlikely. It was Jeff.
I finally got a hold of him a few days later and he was fine with it all. He claimed to have gotten a chuckle from it and said not to worry about it. Of course, what else would he say? "You're a first-level moron and you'll never be in another one of MY pictures again." That would have been worse. He also brought with him two agents, Gary and Larry, from Contemporary Artists and I asked if I could contact them or not. He called me back a little later to say that would be fine.
And what about the leads from the first run of the showcase. I met with the theatrical agent at my commercial department two weeks ago. We still haven't discussed any next steps. A meeting is pseudo-scheduled for Wednesday, May 21, but with no actual time. She just said to call her on Wednesday to set up a time for me to come in and chat. That is still up in the air.
The big guns at the showcase belonged to Joan Green, the manager of some repute who I had pinned lots of hopes on to take me to the next level. Her two assistants Brittany and Amy were both so excited about me and the showcase that I thought winning over Joan would be a shoe-in. I just had to make sure she came. And she did!!
That's the end of the good news. We spoke briefly afterwards, and they were not moments filled with warmth and love. Joan Green was so cold to me I basically just thanked them for coming. And as Brittany hustled past me I said, "Should I call you or should I not call you?" And she said to definitely call. That call, however, was just the formal dissolution of our encounter together. It had been a fun couple of weeks, but no dice.
So, tangible results from the showcase(s)? As of this writing... none. But there are other factors. Just putting my name out there and making calls to casting directors got me a couple of auditions. It was good to see Doug Wright again. He let me know that when I auditioned for him (a while ago) that he wanted to use me and so did his boss, but the job went to the producer's nephew-in-law or something crazy. So I did not suck, after all, and he will call me back in.