Natamus,

"Meming - The Movie" - thoughts?

lol that's exactly how I feel sometimes. You'll never have friends like the ones you make when you're young and I let mine drift away.

Nat, have you found your relationships with friends not in "the business" deteriorating?

...maybe something with mysterious deaths foreshadowed by memes, like posters meme'd with a certain picture get eaten by sharks or something shortly afterwards. "Meming Sharks", "Attack of the Terror Meme" or "Evil Meming", if you get my drift.

Nat what Hollywood celebs could you get on board with this?

I'll be home in like 2 hours can't wait to address these questions and 2pairof2s is so dead on I wish I would of met him years ago. I'll get into more detail when I get back

great thread so far, loving the stories

bump4morestories

Nat I assume you're already pitching my Memeing-Movie idea?

Pressing F5 here; I want them Hollywood moneyz!

Having a feature film shut down DURING shooting is devastating. I've been fortunate enough to not have it happen to me personally, but then again I've yet to be hired to work on a project that large. I digress however, The loss of wages for the crew and lower level actors is something that rocks families and I'm sure puts great stresses on relationships with significant others. The money thrown away by the studio is an astounding number in the millions of dollars, but the tens of thousands of dollars or more that the crew and cast members were set to make and had budgeted their lives around once production started rolling - that is practically irreplaceable when you consider all of these people are basically contracted workers who have turned down other opportunities/jobs to take this job, you can't go back and get that work so you have to now find new work to replace all of this lost opportunity. The emotional toll of that happening alone I could see being very difficult to push through for many people.

EDIT: If I had to guess I would say that the studio put probably $10 MILLION into the project before a single frame was shot and they took a loss on an additional $10-15 million when they shut down production. I'd also be surprised if at least 2-3 people at the studio weren't fired as well as the director and the producers going on the studio head's **** list.

From the little bit you shared your resume far outweighs mine. If I looked at my "career" in Hollywood from an outside perspective I would say I didn't work hard enough or sacrifice enough personally to obtain the jobs and the success you did.

I did get in and do some stuff and maybe that's all I actually wanted for my life experience, was to spend my 20s wading through the tidepool of Hollywood; because I never really wanted fame but I did things like comedy and comedy writing that require being known and earning a level of celebrity/fame to earn a living. That's a curious bit of hypocrisy, you don't want to be famous but you want to pursue something that requires some level of fame in order to be successful?!?

THAT is the sacrifice that making TV and Film requires of the crew to make the content that we all so very much enjoy. From Big Bang Theory to Sharknado there isn't a person on that crew that isn't putting in 12 hours+ a day for MONTHS straight without a break. There are some union rules in place that say that you have to give crew and cast members at least 12 consecutive hours off between shifts. However, that doesn't mean they can't work you 12-16 hours a shift, at which point 12 hours off before going back to work feels like nothing. You can barely get any life errands or task done and rest for a few hours before you're getting up, showering and going back to the location or the studio to put in another shift.

They can do this to us because there are hundreds if not thousands of people coming out of school and interning/doing PA work waiting to take your job and be used and abused until you're road hard and put away wet. How can 2Pairof2s protest the stress and time consumption of his job when they just drop his ass and hire someone else to be the Location Manager or Line Producer or in my case just get any other hack of a writer to piss all over the script with his skunk piss?

You show gratitude for having the job and hope that one day you look out over your property in Beverly Hills or the Hollywood Hills or the Valley or Malibu or the South Bay and go, "Second Wife who I have 2 kids with that my first wife and kid despise because I was broke and struggling, over worked and had ZERO time for them so they divorced my ass (ya the kid did too) but now I have the money and the property and the time to spend with you and the new kids and it was all worth it."

Writing all that was really kind of a downer :/

Anyway 2Pair is also dead on about relationships. My close friends from HS and College I've mostly let drift away if we weren't already doing that naturally and my friendships started to become with co-workers or bosses. I've had a taste of what 2Pair has gone through both in relationships and with people wanting stuff from you that you don't want to give and wanting stuff from others that they don't want to give you but his career has been much longer so he's seen a larger spectrum of the effect that the industry has on your personal life.

There was a time period when I was doing stand up where I only met/dated girls who were also doing stand up or who were stand up groupies (perhaps the craziest and worse type of groupie) and that **** was Dysfunction City. A beautiful female "comic" (many of the younger ones are really not talented and are quite unfunny, but they get stage time because they are hot) is like possibly one of the most unstable types of women I've ever come across (or inside of). A few of them are cool people (Sarah Silverman is an awesome person and great person to hang out with, just a lot of fun and laughs) but you know there are exceptions to every rule.

Not that I can see, but I bet if I didn't get any sun and lost a bunch of vitamin D that I would pale up and perhaps they would be able to be seen everywhere!

I'm not quite sure how it works out visually in motion picture form: are actors acting out the memes? Do we animate it? Do the memes become living beings?

Third choice imo, and they're the chorus for the drama of a single internet addict and master troll, sort of a live action Inside Out (or Herman's Head if you're older and geeky enough to remember that).

I find as I'm getting older I hold fewer "friendships" in general. I have kept some friends I grew up with in close contact and I have a couple from college I keep in touch with and visit from time to time but mostly I have far fewer friends than I did a year or two out of college. Part of it is having business and friendship issues with people in the industry, I've been more cynical, less prone to trust and more prone to question. I think part of that is the insecurities and this business and the interactions and experiences you have within it cultivates.

I wouldn't say that I'm less friendly or that even many of my friends that have drifted away wouldn't pick right back up in friendships but a lot of my friends from growing up are townies who want to go out in our hometown a bunch and do that regular old 21-24 routine through their 30s and well into their 40s I'm sure. Many of my "friends" I made in L.A. aren't really friends they are workplace acquaintances or they were not really friendships just disguised as such. Or with a couple of crazy comedy chicks they were just bat **** crazy chicks and you can't keep hanging around all that drama.

I will say that I've been very fortunate to be in a loving relationship with my girl for a few years now and it looks to stay that way and having a strong relationship with your partner is huge in this town. They are going to be there when the **** hits the fan in your face again and again and if you can enjoy your time with them and be able to disconnect to some extent from your work life while with them it will do wonders for your health, stress levels, productivity and mental/social health. Not wasting time and money being out in the streets chasing companionship with the girls in the night clubs, comedy clubs and rock bars and having the drama that can come with it is a big plus.

That wasn't to say that if you are single you can't go to such places looking for someone you want to have a relationship with but being "single and ready to mingle" and then actually going out and taking the time to mingle in this town is a huge time suck. Because of this you'll probably end up banging someone you work with (even worse an intern or desk assistant) who you're not suppose to bang because she's a subordinate but you do anyway because you don't have time to go out chasing sex and companionship and she's horny and the copier room has a lock on the door handle.

...I think I forgot the question...

maybe it's like The Ring, once you see a Meme that Morph made he and Craggoo will come get you within 7 days through your computer screen.

Thanks Alobar! I listened to Metallica in my bathroom while flexing in the mirror while posting this reply

Now we're getting somewhere! Gary Busey as Craggoo?

No one's afraid of Craggoo though

We need Raven Jet Byrne in to be the magic Limey who dispenses wisdom and guides the hero's journey.

The World Famous Comedy Store

Back before my time, Mitzi Shore ran the Comedy Store on Sunset Blvd and it's two sister clubs (The "Basement" in Westwood which was a young comics workout room mostly and the La Jolla, CA Comedy Store) with an iron fist. She had the first and last say on all comics that were "passed" as paid regulars. If you wanted to get paid to perform at the Comedy Store and not just be an Open Micer and showcase act, you needed Mitzi to give you her blessing. Like a religious deity, when you finished your 5 minute test for her you would go to the back of the Original Room and she would tell you: Yes you're good to go, or sorry you're not there yet (or the worse one: you're not funny).

Because several excellent stand ups came through the Comedy Store system to TV fame in the 70s and 80s like Freddie Prinze, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Robin Williams and others, Mitzi had become the de facto Queen of Comedy - she had the single hand ability to make or break careers. One comic who was a nationally traveling paid act was very disliked by Mitzi for whatever reason. She just kept saying he wasn't funny no matter how many times he showcased for her. He had close friends who were trusted by Mitzi and had her ear vouch for him over and over and she would hear none of it. He wanted her approval to validate his career more than anything and hopefully get the paid spots at the Comedy Store that would lead to a TV deal. She stonewalled him until he jumped off the roof of the Hyatt House Hotel next door onto the parking lot below taking his own life. This is the type of power this women held over comics.

In the 80s "The Store" as it is affectionately known had the Original room in the front of the building facing the patio/bar, next to it is the much larger 450+ seat Main Room where Richard Pryor performed "Live on the Sunset Strip" and Louis CK did "Live at the Comedy Store." It's an amazing room and I've performed on the stage and spent many hours in the dressing rooms hanging out. This reminds me that The Store is all black, all the walls, decour, seating, stage, doors, EVERYTHING is black. It gives the place a spooky but really cool feel where the light that isn't absorbed by the black is focused on the performer on stage. Upstairs is the smaller Belly Room which was originally opened by Mitzi to give more stage time and spots for female performers, it was for a long time a female comic-only room. These days its the room for comics to put on shows who haven't been passed as paid regulars so that they can make a few bucks.

At The Store an "open micer" is considered higher than a showcase act. The open micers are performing on Sundays for the manager to try and get passed for a paid regular spot and for agents assistants and mail room types in the crowd. The showcase acts aren't allowed to perform in the Original room they can either perform for a comic putting on a show in the Belly Room or do a showcase in the Main Room. It took about a year for me to work my way up from a showcase act to an open mic act. Once I became an open mic act I was considered "a comic" by the others at The Store and by management which means I could come and go as I pleased without paying to see other acts and could use the back entrances and sit in the comics section with the headliners etc. etc. This allowed me to see some of the biggest acts ever work out jokes that they did on specials for HBO/Netflix (in Louis CK's case he self distributes) and saw the comeback to the stage of Chris Tucker and Chappelle after their hiatus'. I saw Seinfeld comeback to the Store to work out material after he did The Bee Movie and was just kind of taking a break from stand up post Seinfeld. Also like I said in the OP I would hang out in the dressing rooms and just chat up or smoke joints with other comics for hours bull****ting and just talking about the industry and performing and life.

I've told this little story and giving the background of the Comedy Store because I know many people like comedy and I thought knowing some background of my experience may spark some questions people have that go down that road.

I want PasswordGotHacked and MTT_9797 in the movie just so we can kill their characters in some horribly awesome way

While I'd love to work with Busey if for no other reason than to hear him talk nonsense (and sometimes some sense) on a variety of topics, I don't really have the sway, or closeness with any celebs with any weight that would get a project produced.

If i did, I would be doing a project right now with them

Brad Pitt as fidstar

I always thought of you as more of a Clooney

damn comedy store sounds intense af

"Um... it's OK, the mirror isn't broken!"

Many nights in 2010-2012 I spent hanging around the Comedy Store, even when I wasn't booked to perform. I would support friends, give feedback, tips or ideas for bits to peers and generally just try to be friendly and get along with the other comics. Like I mentioned earlier there is no stronger currency (other than $ of course) than being likable and well liked. I always figured that as long as I worked hard on my act and continued to improve at a decent pace that being well liked would get me farther than being the funniest or best young comic in the room. The older comics would be more supportive and willingly to hang out or give useful advice and the staff and management would look for ways to be nice or help you instead of overlooking you or favoring others.

I had found myself having a habit of quietly hanging around when management or big named comics were chatting it up or talking shop and going basically unnoticed while I eves dropped on a variety of interesting conversations. Perhaps I was noticed and no one cared or figured I was too unimportant to be worth telling to move on. Either way this story has to do with one of those situations.

One night I was hanging out in the dressing room area of the Belly Room because I had some friends performing in an all-black comedy show sort of like The Laugh Factories "Chocolate Sundae's" but smaller and/or less funny acts. I was sitting on a couch playing with my phone when I heard the manager Tommy talking to a big name black comic in the hall way between the dressing room and the stage room on the far side from where I was sitting. So I get up and get closer and kind of sit/lean on a table near the doorway and keep my phone in my hands, that way if anyone comes in I can pretend I'm just texting someone minding my own business.

I can hear that they are discussing a couple of comics the Comic had been mentoring and Tommy wanted to know if they were ready for their test to be passed as paid regulars. I know both of the guys they are discussing so this inside information is intriguing to me. The Comic endorses them both but Tommy is unsure about one of them, he thinks the kid starts out strong but has a weak ending to his act and isn't quite ready. As they continue to talk they come into the room, Tommy sees me but ignores me standing there and keeps talking as they pass through and stop at the base of a stairway that leads up to Tommy's office and other offices.

They keep talking about my friends and I get nervous and lean harder against the table. I don't realize that the table has a large antique mirror with a heavy wooden frame is sitting on the other side of the table leaning against the wall. My weight shifting the table caused the mirror to fall over behind me creating a loud ass SMACK sound that scared the **** out of me and the other two men. I jumped forward and turned around defensively as if some ghost was behind me ready to attack. I realize what I've done and look over at Tommy and the Comic who are just staring at me in silence. I look at the mirror, look at them and say

"Um.... it's OK! The Mirror isn't broken!"

Tommy looks at the mirror, looks at me, shrugs and says nothing. The Comic smirks and then goes back to finishing what he was saying. I give it a moment as to not be overly awkward and then slither out of the room to go find my friends and tell them what I had heard.