Quiet On The Set

Saturday September 19th, 2009 - Menomonee Falls, WI

I’m still feeling lower than a piss ant’s pecker. The hardest part of this whole time is not letting it show in public. Usually when I get like this I try to stay away from everybody so I don’t bring them down too but sometimes I have no choice. Today I had to suck it up.

I made a commitment to be in a movie filmed by the son of a guy I went to high school with named Bob Richards. Bob is a super nice guy and has always been a huge supporter through the years. He and his wife Judy used to come out and see me in Milwaukee years ago before I moved to Chicago. He found me on Facebook recently and I’m glad he did.

Bob’s son Kyle is a film maker and is finishing up his first feature length film. That’s a very impressive accomplishment for a 20 year old kid, even if technology makes it a more achievable thing than ever before. Bob and I joked that we grew up in the dark ages and it would have been nearly impossible to crank out a movie then but now it’s not hard at all.

What’s hard is actually DOING it and that’s what I respect about Kyle and his crew. It’s a lot of work but according to Bob they’ve been diligent about getting it done and they are nearly done with the shooting part and hope to have their premiere showing January 1st.

I was very flattered that Kyle found a place for me in his movie and I showed up for my scene this morning at Menomonee Falls High School. I play a teacher who has a few lines and it was a fun scene to shoot. Bob said “You’re a natural in front of the camera.” Well, I’ve been performing for an entire time so I should be. It really wasn’t all that difficult.

The real acting job was not letting anyone know I was in a nasty depression funk. It was nobody’s fault and I didn’t want to bring anyone else down so I sucked it up and tried my best to be pleasant and upbeat and easy to work with. It was nice to sit and visit with Bob and Judy as I haven’t seen them in a long time so that helped make things work out well.

The scene ended exactly at 11am which is exactly the time I had to be on the phone for this week’s edition of Jerry’s Kidders on WGN. I sure didn’t feel funny but again I had to force myself to put my own feelings aside and try to be part of the team. That’s not easy.

I couldn’t really tell how it went but nobody swore so I guess it’s ok. After that I drove to Leon’s Frozen Custard on 27th and Oklahoma in Milwaukee to try to find anything that would cheer me up even a little. If Leon’s doesn’t do it I know I need professional help.

Not only was the custard delicious as usual, I got an extra perk when the counter lady asked if I was a comedian. I said I was and she said “I saw you on the Jay Leno show and you were SOOO funny! I also saw you on the news and I remembered I’d seen you here.”

That lady has an amazing eye. Even though it was Craig Ferguson and not Jay Leno it’s still impressive she picked me out in a crowd. I thanked her and gave her a card and said she gets in free any time I‘m in town. She had no idea how good it felt, especially today.