Search Results: reality check

I was in L.A. last summer and met a guy at a sports bar on Hollywood Blvd. We got to talking, and it turns out he was a co-producer on that old boxing reality show The Contender. He was a real friendly guy, but I was skeptical because he volunteered that information pretty easily, as if he struck up conversation just to tell me, lol. (I did look him up when I got back home, and his story checks out. Also met a friend of his who has her own production company, and he was saying all this in front of her.) He asked me if I was trying to get in "the industry", I said "no, just visiting the city", and he was like "oh, man, you should really try!" I told him that it sounds great in theory, but at 33 I'm not about to quit my job and move to the other side of the country to try to "make it."

If I was 23, maybe I could roll the dice and live in L.A. a couple years and just have some fun, but at this point it'd be impractical. He kept at it though, and was telling me how it's all about who you know, citing that crew of guys that are always in Adam Sandler's movies. To have him tell it, all I gotta do is get in tight with someone famous and it takes care of itself. The guy who produced the Contender also produced Survivor, and apparently this guy met him and started partying and going to strip clubs with him, and that was his in. Good for you, bro, but how do you propose I become buddies with one if these guys?

And he's telling me I have the looks to be in front of the camera, meanwhile Mr. Perfect behind the bar is so good looking it made me angry, lol. But this guy's 100X better looking than me, looks like a movie star, and he's slinging gin and tonics to get by. On top of all this, I have no acting experience other than a class I took in college. "Excuse me, Mr. Spielberg? Hi, you don't know me, but I got an A in Intro to Acting at UMass. Why, yes, I'd LOVE to star in your next film!" But this guy kept insisting that a guy with my charisma could make it in Hollywood.

I think I've been watching too much Entourage and I'm getting the itch, lol. But that's crazy, right? What are the chances of getting a decent job on or off camera? Anyone have any experience with this?