First of all, happy new year to everyone reading this. May your year be filled with joy, good health, happiness, much love and wonderful adventures. Secondly, as I wrote in a previous blog, I was contacted by a terrific writer named Michael Toole who has written many articles for TCM.com. He wanted to interview me about my experiences playing Oliver Hardy and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. Well, we did the interview and now you can read it on www.TCM.com. Just click on the following link and it should take you right to the interview www.tcm.com/movienews/index/?cid=189165

Michael is a multi-talented writer, who besides his skills as an interviewer, has a short film he wrote playing the festivals right now. Although it was a couple of years ago now, I had a great experience playing Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle in Theatre 40’s world premier of Kathrine Bates’s ROAR OF THE CROWD. I studied his movies, had costumes made identical to his, and even had my hair dyed blonde. I loved every minute of it. Here are a couple of photos from my collection of me as Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle compared to the real deal. 

Well, the strike has certainly slowed work down as far as film and television goes, but thankfully, the commercial world just keeps on ticking. That’s it for now. I’m off to another audition.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy with auditions. But on a personal note, the best part about this week was that my birthday was on Tuesday, November 6th! I got fabulous cards, e-mails and phone calls throughout my big day. And hearing my 6 year old and my little 2 1/2 year old singing “Happy Birthday Papa!” warmed my heart to no end.
Besides some good commercial auditions recently, I had an audition for the wonderfully funny series UGLY BETTY. What a treat to be brought in for that show! The jury is still out on that one – and with the strike going on, who knows what is happening with all these shows. But I had a great time auditioning for it. Jeff Greenburg’s casting office could not have been friendlier and more helpful. It’s an office that really seem to like actors.
And here’s to the brave writers who are standing up for what they (and I) believe is fair and right. May the strike be successful and over sooner than later for everyone involved.
Michael Toole, a wonderful writer for Turner Classic Movies website, Las Vegas Weekly, along with some very successful short films, contacted me. He wants to write a piece about what it was like for me to play silent movie comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and half of the famous comedy team Laurel and Hardy – namely Oliver Hardy. We had our preliminary meeting today to discuss the piece and will follow it up with another meeting next week. Michael is a terrific guy who is truly a film lover with an encyclopedic knowledge of movies.
The article will appear on the TCM website in the next month or so, and might make its way into the NOW PLAYING monthly magazine from TCM. What an honor for me to be part of one of my favorite channels!! Thanks, Michael.
In preparing for the meeting today, I reviewed some material on Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. First of all, he was such a wonderfully talented comedian. Truly funny and amazingly agile on his feet. If you ever get a chance to watch any of his films on TCM or rent the DVDs, you won’t be disappointed. But his life took such a tragic turn in 1921 with the death of a young ’starlet’ at a party he was hosting. Many considered him guilty of her death (even though he was aquitted after a third trial) and false rumors still persist to this day. If you want to read more about Roscoe and his downfall, my favorite book on the subject is called “The Day The Laughter Stopped” by David Yallop.
More on this later…

This last week was a busy one! It started with getting in the Daily News for our appearance as Laurel and Hardy. Dennis McCarthy couldn’t have written a better article. It also gives a great plug to the Sons of the Desert – Way Out West Tent and then lists their website, which is www.wayoutwest.org for those who want to check it out. Thanks, Dennis for a fabulous article!

Then a callback for a Charter Communications spot – which I booked! We shoot on Monday. Yahoo! I also found out I’m first choice for a part in a pilot…but it’s not officially mine yet. So, I’m keeping my fingers crossed on that one. More later…

The Sons of the Desert is a world wide Laurel and Hardy fan club. This past weekend, the Way Out West tent (or chapter) of the fan club celebrated their 40th Anniversary and I was invited! The Grand Sheik of the Way Out West tent – Jimmy Wiley, Jr. – asked my friend Brian Mulligan and myself if we would appear as Laurel and Hardy on the two day ‘locations tour’. That is a tour of all the locations throughout Culver City and Los Angeles where Laurel and Hardy filmed their movies. A Laurel and Hardy lover’s dream! Over 120 people showed up for the event from as far away as Great Britain, Canada, Hawaii, and New York.

Brian and I had a great time performing as Laurel and Hardy and the people on the tour couldn’t have been nicer. We even got to spend some time in a fabulous Model A – loaned to us by Brian’s friend, Art Tostado.

Reacting to the Laurel and Hardy fans coming towards us – I think Brian’s coffee just kicked in!

Well, here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into!

Congratulations to the Way Out West Tent in Los Angeles on their 40th Anniversary! It was a blast to be part of their fabulous weekend.

A big thanks to photographer Henry Han for covering the event. He is a top notch photographer and it’s no surprise that he took fabulous pictures, a few of which I’ve featured above.

In other news….The Verizon campaign is about to begin in mid-August – I don’t think you’ll be able to miss that. And the feature I worked on called “Change Your Life” is about to be released. So, I’ll keep you posted on that, too.

And being The Orkin Man continues to keep me busy! Remember – if you have bugs, bug them at www.Orkin.com

More later…

Well, I’m in Atlanta shooting another spot for ORKIN. It’s hot here, but it’s such a beautiful city. When I was here less than a couple of weeks ago, I rented a car and drove to a small town called Harlem, Georgia – about two hours east of Atlanta. Harlem just happens to be the birthplace of Oliver Hardy – so I just had to go and check it out. There is a large water tower in the center of town on which is painted a very large picture of ‘Babe’. This town is ‘Ollie’ crazy. There is also a fun little museum in town called – you guessed it – The Laurel and Hardy Museum.

This trip will be strickly work and then home. Then it’s back to work on THE GREAT ADVENTURES OF WALTER FLUNN. There is a lot happening with the pilot, but again, I’m just not at liberty to talk about it other than to say it’s all very exciting.

My episode of THE GAME was on the other night, too. Phew! Life is good.