Vincent Lee : My Reelity

So before the end of the Year of the Ox, I managed to squeeze in two auditions.

The first one was to be part of a company of actors that will help act out scripts churned out by Tisch students. I actually went for an earlier casting call late last year but didn’t get it, so when they held another one, I thought it was for a different cohort of students.

I had prepared a different monologue from the last time and I saw some familiar faces amongst the students from the last time round. In the end, I didn’t manage to get in, but it got me thinking why they’d asked me to audition again if it wasn’t for a different cohort of students.

In their rejection email, they say they might have another round in Fall, but I don’t think I would bother with auditioning again.

The last audition was for an OKTO production and I must say I had fun with it as they put me through no less than 5 different improv situations. Man I really miss improvs. Now I’m hoping they don’t think I look too young for the role. This aspect of me is sometimes a blessing and sometimes a curse. For roles like this one its usually a curse. >.<

So that sums up the Year of the Ox for me. Here’s hoping the Tiger would be a roaring success for me!

RAWWRR!

I would like to wish all my readers a very Happy Chinese New Year.

May the Year of the Tiger be a roaring success for us all! Huat ah!

Had a couple of casting calls these past two weeks for tvcs. So I inquired about the rates.

One is a total buyout basis for S$800.

The other is S$700, loading for five years.

You gotta be kidding me.

I’ll be appearing in tomorrow’s double bill episode of The Lost Chapters, which is screening on Channel 5.

I think the series starts at 7pm and my episode will be on at 7.30pm.

In case, you are wondering, yes, its the Lim Boon Keng episode.

It might also be one of the last few times you’ll see me on telly, at least for a while.

About this time every year, I’ll give a full time report, and it will always have that as a title.

Not having that as a title this time round probably speaks volume (or is it volumes?). But don’t get me wrong, it’s still a full time report for 2009. Sorta anyway.

This year is, in all likelihood, worse than last year. The roles I’ve gotten were not only just as few, but they were far less meatier as well. Even the lead role didn’t feel like a lead role. So to call a spade a spade, this year kinda confirms the slide that began mid last year.

The year is not a total washout though. True, I still crash and burn in the romance department but I prolly had my best April evar. I still managed to “pop” a few “cherries”. I hit a financial milestone. I achieved my financial target.

I’ve always told myself that when it starts to slide, that’s when I have to consider Plan B. Thing is, I never really thought long and hard what Plan B should be. Heck my only other plan was, if I became too old to act, I’d start making films.

No shit.

I did start making inquiries during the year to see if I can get started somewhere. Not film-making though (cuz I foresee I’ll need capital for that and right now my capital is just a letter “c”) but more like a film buyer. Turns out this particularly part of the industry is not that easy to break into as well, and I wasn’t able to find any leads.

So as I was wondering where my next step should be, one of my clients offered me a position. It’s not the first time; I believe this is like the third time in five years he has offered me a position.

Imagine this : You are a waiter and the restaurant boss has been wanting to promote you for the past few years. The only catch is you have to do the job full time. And you have turned it down all this while because waitering gives you the flexibility to act.

So over the years, you’ve turned down a supervisor role and a manager role. But now the owner comes and asks you to help run the business together. He’s offering you to be part of the business. And the acting’s really been shitty and you’re feeling kinda disllusioned and jaded already. It’s almost a no-brainer what you should do right?

Granted that I wait on a totally different set of tables, this analogy is otherwise totally true for me. I did, however, delayed taking up this offer as long as I could; up to the end of the year in fact.

It is not easy, putting your dreams on hold. I can’t even bring myself to say that I’m really giving this up. I feel like a failure. I feel like a quitter. What do you call people who stop chasing their dreams?

It has been 10 years. At times its been a hell of a ride, but most of the time its been more like being stuck in a traffic jam. A very long traffic jam. I guess I’m getting out of the cab now.

Is this the end? I hope not. I hoped I’ve pressed “pause” instead.

Happy New Year guys. May it be a perfect 10 for all of you.