100 Lives I've Lived

In 2012 I began applying for an Acting MFA in NYC. My first time auditioning I did not get accepted (I did not even get a callback). But it began me on a year long training for the next year's audition. I studied weekly with Broadway and world renowned teachers and performers in NYC to get ready for the grad school auditions, and I learned more in that year of training than I had in the past 10 years of school. The auditions came and went, I did work I never thought I'd be capable of doing, and I got accepted to one of the most formidable programs in NYC, the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University. This episode is purely about the audition process and training that I underwent to get ready to apply for American MFA programs, I'll speak more in further episodes about grad school itself.

In college I worked at a Lululemon. Of course I did. And I really liked it. I liked the people, I liked the products, and corporate seemed to care about us and our goals both inside and outside of the organization. I sold a lot of stretchy pants and made everyone's butt look good. I still love their pants. Did you know that you can exchange your old worn out pants at their store, because they have a quality promise to their customers? Honestly, I think this company is great. This isn't an endorsement, I just truly like their stuff. I learned that some of my skills are that I like people, I like helping people, and I like wearing comfortable (and kinda futuristic) clothes.

However, I need to curb myself of the habit of trying to tell every employee I encounter there that I used to work there... twenty years ago. I cannot help myself, I say it every time, and each time I'm also quietly telling myself to shut up.

In 2012 I joined the producing team for a one-man show called Tenderpits that performed at Dixon Place, 59E59, and then The Underbelly in Edinburgh at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This was a pivotable experience for me. I learned so much throughout my time on the Tenderpits team, even if the lesson was ultimately that my talents were better suited elsewhere. But please, remember that the path to self-fulfillment is not going to be linear and that these hiccups are a part of the journey. There were moments I loved, and moments I couldn't forget soon enough. I talk about most of it here on this episode.

In my last year of university around 2007ish, I worked as a hostess and waitress at a cool restaurant in the heart of Toronto. It was busy, and the hours were late, and I'm pretty sure the whole place was run by the mafia. I'm deranged enough that I thought I could befriend the (mafia) owner of the restaurant, and also the rage-fueled chef. I can assure you neither of those things happened.

But I did learn how to lie to people about their wait time for their table to be ready, how to climb a ladder in to the basement which was a thing of nightmares, and how to appreciate that the person who is serving you (whether this is their profession or not) is worthy of respect and understanding because at the end of the day, we go to restaurant to enjoy in the ritual of eating delicious food with people we enjoy. And that is a beautiful thing we should remember to appreciate.

In the fall of 2011 I got my first stage play in NYC, in Misha Shulman's "Deathscape" at Theater For The New City. This was cool, this was avant-garde. Misha was an artist I admired and respected (and he had trained at the Crow's Theatre, so there was that Toronto-connection!). I loved going to the east village for rehearsals and finding new treats and artwork. It was such a beautiful corner of the city in 2011, and so full of life and vitality. We did this show for three weeks and were reviewed in NY Mag, Playbill.com, and Broadwayworld.com. During this project I met some cool puppeteers and performers, and ultimately my next collaborator.

In 2011 I walked into the Barnes and Noble in my neighborhood and asked to be the storytime reader. I thought, this is a great way to engage with an (appreciative - read: kids!) audience, and also work on some character voices since I liked doing character voicework. The head of the Children's Dept said no, but I could help. So I did. And I liked doing it so much I approached the South Street Seaport Museum to see if I could run a storytime program with a nautical theme for them each week. And they said yes! And thus, "Fishtales: Storytime at the South Street Seaport Museum" was born, created and run by yours truly. This was a ton of fun and small stepping stone for me and my confidence in my new home, New York, which was scary, noisy, and intimidating.

If you liked this story, and you want to contribute to my Patreon to support me making more episodes, click here! And thank you for letting me share this wonderful memory with you! Go and discover your favorite spots in the New York, and tell me about them.

In 2013 I recorded the lead voice in a videogame I booked off of Voice123.com, and it was a non union job. I had to record the audio, buy the editing software, learn how to edit the audio tracks and convert them, and as a result I asked for a little more money from the producer. It was surprising for me to look back on this memory, because (yay for me!) I was able to self advocate and negotiate a better rate on a fee that was not sufficient.

This episode will be most appreciated by other actors out there who need to hear that YOU CAN ask for more money, especially if you're being underpaid, and you don't have to take a job just because it's offered. Also, I'm a big advocate for actors joining the unions so that their pay rates are secured through mandatory minimum terms and residual guarantees.

If you enjoye this episode or want to support the pod, you can join my Patreon here.

And I had a jazz band with my best friend Claire Duncan. And we called ourselves Little Reds (I had red hair at the time, I forgot to mention that in the episode) and The Wolfson Brothers (aka Jeevan D'Souza and The Wolfson Brothers Band). This was a job that brought me so much joy: I got to make money with my best friend, doing what we loved, and we got to control what we sang, and how we dressed, and what gigs we did. As a bonus, I've included one of our recordings at the end of the episode.

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Thank you in advance, and hope you enjoy the episode.

In this episode I dive into the time I ended up in voiceover performing the lead role for a videogame (Dungeons and Dragons: Daggerdale), and then a motion comic (Lost Girl: the Motion Comic Series) with Bedlam Ink and my friend from university, Navid Khavari. This is beginning of a multi-part series about the voice overs I've done, where I trained, how I got my demos, and the gear I use as well as discussion about the projects themselves.

I got to don some old Hollywood garb and a transatlantic accent for my cameo role in the series Brotherhood of Leet: The 8 Bit Wars, created and produced by Davin Lengyel. In this series I played a starlet in the vein of Rita Hayworth alongside a Clark Gable style actor (played by Geoff Lapaire). It still shocks me that we got to film so much of both Pure Pwnage and this series in the rooms and residences of Massey College, at the University of Toronto. The place was a living antiquity and it felt very special to have even seen inside the place. These acting collaborations lead to musical collaborations with Geoff, and that started my interest in performing as a jazz singer. Also a reminder that actors book work and it might only last a day, so there's a lot of life in between gigs, which is why we truly have so many stories to tell: gotta do something when you're on-set or on contract!