After adequate performances in a couple school plays, I got involved with a touring musical pageant at the age of ten. I beat out a whopping forty auditioners for the part. For about six months, we went from Jamestown, NY to Albany performing the non-denominational Christian musical Kids Under Construction. My part included a solo performance piece titled I’m Getting Acquainted with Myself. I’m sure it was really cute and, despite the title, not at all about masturbation.
In highschool, I co-wrote and story-boarded a ridiculous movie with my friend Kevin, sang bass in the Jazz Choir and danced in The Nutcracker at the world renowned Eastman Theatre with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Arizona Ballet Company.
Other than a video I made with another friend, Brad, for his history class project, I wouldn’t do any more acting until late in highschool when I started TV and Radio production classes at Eastern Monroe Career Center. It was mandatory. Our projects had zero budget and mostly done during class hours.
Let me get back to Brad’s history class project for a second, because – besides the slapdash acting and set design – it was incredible. Using comedy skits to highlight mankind’s technical achievements between 1890-1920, it had a run-time of about twelve minutes and a soundtrack of around 25-30 songs. In 1989, with my camcorder, couple S-VHS decks and an Amiga 2000, we had three scenes that incorporated CGI, as well as a computer animated title card for each of five sections. It still boggles my mind.
After TV and Radio Production class, I performed in bands and wrote and published zines. Other than writing three episodes for a sketch show that was never made, I didn’t even try to act again until 2012.
My friends in the performance group The Bloody Noes were commissioned to do a short play about the Apocalypse, as part of a night of 2012 doomsday plays at MUCC theatre, (Rochester, NY), and were presenting a literal interpretation of the Book of Revelation. They had a budget of $100, a cast of twenty, and a schedule of two weeks from concept to performance. I played the Third Beast, and a couple songs I made in 1997 were used. It was a both a chaotic disaster and a hit with the audience. We had a repeat performance in 2013, but that time with a full band.
Almost a year later, in August of 2014, another friend of mine, Neeti Fidurko, was in a bind. The lead actor backed out a couple weeks before the scheduled shooting of her romantic comedy, Who Would Jesus Date? I watched a few acting tutorials on YouTube, auditioned, got the part, and until the pandemic, I had been averaging one project a month.