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Greg Arce Inner circle 6732 Posts |
John, I wish it were just once. I've got a few stories of going right when I should have gone left... but maybe I'll recount those at another time.
Greg
One of my favorite quotes: "A critic is a legless man who teaches running."
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arthur stead Inner circle When I played soccer, I hit 1773 Posts |
Great story Greg. And I feel your pain, Brother!
If I had a thousand dollars for every time I got screwed by scumbags ... (most of them being ex-friends, as in your example). It really is a cut-throat business. |
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Greg Arce Inner circle 6732 Posts |
They not only cut your throat, they collect the blood and sell it to a blood bank.
Greg
One of my favorite quotes: "A critic is a legless man who teaches running."
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Slide Special user 533 Posts |
Here is one.
I was a freshman at the University of Colorado back in the early 70's and I got invited to play a folk festival in Aspen. I had no car so I hitchhiked with my guitar from Boulder to Aspen and when I got there I was told the git wasn't happening after all and I had no place to sleep. I walked into the Jerome Hotel and sat at the bar, right next to Hunter Thompson! I turned to him and said, aren't you Hunter Thompson? and he mumbled something unintelligible back and then ordered another bloody mary. But that is not the story. I went out on the streets to d a little busking and all of sudden, Dan Fogelberg came up to me, said he really liked my playing and invited me back to his place to jam. When I got there, all the members of the Eagles were also crashed there. We played through the evening and Dan did You Get The Best of My Love. The song had not yet been released and I had never heard it. I said: who wrote that and Dan pointed to a very tired Don Henley who was trying to sleep on the couch. a few months later I heard the song on the radio. |
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landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
Wow!
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
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Greg Arce Inner circle 6732 Posts |
Slide, that is definitely multiple brushes with greatness.
Greg
One of my favorite quotes: "A critic is a legless man who teaches running."
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TomBoleware Inner circle Hattiesburg, Ms 3163 Posts |
Greg & Slide, great stories.
Tom
The Daycare Magician Book
https://www.vanishingincmagic.com/amazekids/the-daycare-magician/ My Blog - https://boleware.blogspot.com/ |
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Greg Arce Inner circle 6732 Posts |
Okay, you guys got me started... and I don't know if that's a good thing. So here goes with:
WHOOPIE FOR ME! It was just around ’89 when I started working for Prodigy software. Remember that item? I was hired as a kind of demonstrator/promoter. I ended up being one of their favorites and did a few tours around the country setting up displays and then demonstrating all day long what you could do with the new and wonderful software. I ended up back in Hollywood and was hired to go to many of the Software ETC and Egghead stores. Remember those? Part of my job was just to show customers in the store how easy it was to use and set up in their own homes. Ah, 2400 Baud modems and there noises… the memories. So, while passing the time in these stores, my other job was to get on their forums and join in the conversations. It was a way of showing new users that there was always someone there to talk to. My preference was talking on the writing, performing, sci-fi and mystery forums. One day I started talking to a young lady that was a writer and wanted to start writing comedy spec scripts. She told me that my sense of humor was working on her and wondered if I ever thought of teaming up with someone to write scripts. I told her I had never done that, but I was game for anything. Cut to several months later and this mystery girl had become a friend. We started writing together. We wrote three spec sitcoms based on shows already on the air and two original sitcoms. One of the sitcoms was based on my first full-length play I had written in Miami. It had been produced at my university and we got some good reviews. My new friend, Valerie, read the script and thought it would make a good sitcom. I didn’t see it at the time, but, as I said, I’m game for anything. So my play, which was called The Block, turned into a sitcom called GORDON. It actually read well. I was surprised it translated that well into that format and seemed to have the possibilities for many episodes. We decided to try and send that one out first to get an agent. Quick back story: Within my play there is kind of format that the main character is imagining everything we end up seeing as the audience. We decided to turn that idea into a special effect for the sitcom where the main characters talk via a split screen, but he sees the split screen and interacts with it. Later we were told that it had the feel of It’s The Garry Shandling Show which had just started making waves. That was a coincidence, but it kind of played in our favor. Back to the story: So I have no idea how Hollywood works. I didn’t realize you couldn’t just walk into agents’ offices and drop off your script. So I did. We made about 50 or so copies and I found that most of the agents at that time had offices off of Sunset Boulevard. Now I’m not talking about a short street. This was about five miles of walking. I loaded my Gremlin…. Yeah, you read that right… drove to the nearest office and parked my car. I would walk for a couple of miles with a large handful of scripts and just walk into offices. I would go right to the receptionist and say, “Script for…” (insert agent’s name there). I found that almost 90% of the time they just took it from me without question. At the end of the day I had a small handful left from the few that were not accepted. It seemed like a winner day. I get back home and tell my ex about the day and then call up Valerie and give her the rundown. So we all sat around to wait… and then it gets weird. Okay, this is going to sound like I’m making it up, but I’m not. It had to be one of the oddest things I’ve been told through the phone. So we get a lot of phone refusals saying, “Thanks. No thanks.” Or “We’re going to mail this back unopened because we don’t accept unsolicited material” and other things very similar. But then we got three calls with a strange exact type of wording. THREE!!! ALMOST THE SAME WORDING!!! READY? We got three calls from three major writing agencies that told us this: “We read your script. It’s really good. We think another agency will pick you up. We’re not taking anyone on now…. BUT if someone does pick you up then call us and we’ll steal you from them.” Read that again! I’m not kidding. That was what they said. They would steal us from another agency, but not pick us up now. WHAT!? So we’re left without an agent and some bizarre calls. And then it got weirder. A couple of weeks go by and we decide that it’s over. No one is interested anymore. Let’s just write some more and go on with our lives. And then another call came in. I can’t remember the name, but it was a big agent. He started by saying that he wasn’t taking anyone on at the time… Huh? What? Why are you calling? He says that he has a producer friend that just got a job on Whoopie Goldberg’s new sitcom called Bagdad Café. Does anyone remember that one? It was short lived… and so were we. Anyway, the agent says he’ll call up the producer and see if he can get us a meeting. A week passes. He calls back and says the producer is looking for writers, but wants us to submit some treatments of the kind of episodes we would write. He told us that on a Friday and we were supposed to hand over some by Monday. Oh, let me explain what he meant by treatments: It’s usually about a page or two showing the basic idea of one episode. You include the beginning, middle and end of the episode, any funny scenes or lines and any twists. It reads like a short story about that half hour episode. Well, we were off and running. I believe both the producer and the agent felt we would hand in about ten treatments. We handed over 25 TREATMENTS!!! Fully formed! Okay, so the agent takes them over on Monday. On Tuesday he calls us and basically says the producer loved the ideas. He said the producer saw that half of the treatments were things they were thinking about and the other half were great ideas for other episodes. We were going to have a meeting with the producer and agent on Thursday and get hired on a sitcom. YEAH!!! Pop the champagne!!! Buy an expensive car!!! WHOOPIE!!! Not so fast… you know where this is going. On Thursday we get the call. THE call. The agent tells us that Whoopie just had a fight with the producer and fired him. And she wants nothing to do with anyone associated with him or anyone hired by him. Yep. Just like that. Once again, we were out in the cold. And that ends another of one of many of my life adventures… uh, misadventures.
One of my favorite quotes: "A critic is a legless man who teaches running."
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slowkneenuh Regular user After 5,278+ posts, only credited with 133 Posts |
Greg, you're starting to make me feel a little better about my disappointments in life! I bet you have another tough luck story you could tell because "trouble comes in threes", although for your sake I hope you don't. Funny, I've never heard anybody say "good luck comes in threes". Thanks for your story.
John
John
"A poor workman always blames his tools" |
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Greg Arce Inner circle 6732 Posts |
Dude, I wish it came in threes... In my case it comes in three DOZENS.
Greg
One of my favorite quotes: "A critic is a legless man who teaches running."
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arthur stead Inner circle When I played soccer, I hit 1773 Posts |
Great story, Slide! I've got a tale about Glenn Frey I'll contribute later.
And Greg, thanks for sharing another of your misadventures. So near ... and yet so far! Life sure is a b*tch! Here's a different kind of story: During my army days, there was a distinct difference between draftees like me, and the full-time professional soldiers, who we referred to as "lifers." All our officers were lifers, and for the most part, they treated draftees like cr*p. So whenever the opportunity arose for us conscripts to "get one over" on the officers, it caused untold amounts of inner joy. My squadron leader was a totally inept captain. He was quite possibly insane, too. One day, my captain ordered me take over the boring job of supplies clerk in our base camp. (Hey, at least I wasn't digging ditches, or marching, or on maneuvers). Later that day I was in the supply hanger, sitting at a desk, doodling with a pen on a big pad of paper, when he walked in. He looked at my nonsensical drawings, and I could almost see the lightbulb going off in his head. "I want you to paint me a painting, to hang in my office," he said. "Whenever I look at it, I want it to make me mad!" (meaning angry). Then he gave me a weekend pass for my troubles! So that weekend I went home and painted an abstract oil painting. (I had taken art at school, so I had a bit of artistic talent and some brushes and paints). What my captain did not know, was that I subliminally inserted some really erotic, Dali-esque drawings. It was quite obscene: there were shapes of women's mouths wide open, receiving erect male you-know-whatsits, and so on. These images were well disguised, sort of inter-woven into and in-between other shapes. But if you knew what to look for, you would have seen what I had done. Only I was aware of this, and I told my closest army buddy, but no one else ever knew. So on the Monday morning, back in camp, I presented my captain with the painting. And he was thrilled! He immediately hung it up on the wall right opposite his desk. And I really believe he looked at it every day in order to "get mad." But my story doesn't end there. Because of my musical ability, I was sometimes ordered to perform for various officers events. I hated doing this ... would have preferred entertaining the enlisted men ... but an order is an order. So one time, shortly after creating this painting, I was ordered by our camp commandant to put a band together and perform for an officers dance. Our captain got wind of this, and told me and my army buddy (who was also artistic) to paint some colorful posters which they could hang on the walls all around the dance hall. (I told you this guy was a little nutty). A driver was assigned to take us into the nearest town, and we were given cash to buy supplies from an art store. My buddy and I bought big poster boards, brushes and dayglow paints (these were, after all, the hippie days), and we spent the rest of the day excused from duties so we could create the posters. We carefully filled those canvasses with X-rated images, subtly hiding them and weaving them in and out of other abstract shapes and colors. And that night, myself and three other musicians from our camp played song after song for the officers party, watching them drinking and dancing with their wives or girlfriends. Every so often, a couple would stop to admire our colorful artwork. The four of us (who were all in on the joke) couldn't help snickering while playing our instruments. I'm not a malicious person, but sometimes, a lot of inner joy can come from a good old chuckle at someone else's expense! |
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slowkneenuh Regular user After 5,278+ posts, only credited with 133 Posts |
Good story Arthur. I'm curious. Have you mellowed with age and when your stories get to the present time will we still chuckle over your antics?
John
"A poor workman always blames his tools" |
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landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
Arthur, I'm thinking you could make big bucks by offering your "special" posters free to political candidates--of course you would be paid by the opposition!
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
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arthur stead Inner circle When I played soccer, I hit 1773 Posts |
Quote:
On 2013-12-19 11:22, slowkneenuh wrote: Slowkneenuh, let's just put it this way: Things would probably be different if I was still single ... |
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arthur stead Inner circle When I played soccer, I hit 1773 Posts |
Quote:
On 2013-12-19 11:44, landmark wrote: Landmark, we've been warned not to post political or religious comments here. But to respond to your proposition (Note to mods: this is a joke) ... In regards to all the contenders leading up to the previous election: My dog would have made a better candidate! |
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Greg Arce Inner circle 6732 Posts |
Arthur, you should sell those pieces.
Greg
One of my favorite quotes: "A critic is a legless man who teaches running."
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arthur stead Inner circle When I played soccer, I hit 1773 Posts |
Greg, unfortunately the moment I handed them over, they became army property.
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Greg Arce Inner circle 6732 Posts |
Okay, you guys are making me dig up skeletons from the past. Here you go:
LIP STINK I was living in Miami – again – and sort of floundering for what to do. It was the very early 80s. My then wife and I were struggling with work and such. Both of us had come out of Florida International University as theater majors. At one point we got word that a new company had started and they were looking for actors to dub lines in cartoons and soap operas. We decided to give it a try and went in for an audition. The company was in the downtown area and part office building and part studio. We are led into the studio. They explain that they have gotten a bunch of clients that have soap operas and cartoons that they want dubbed in English. We are tested right then and there. My wife immediately becomes the star because she has an uncanny ability for doing voices and all types of accents. One particular cartoon she tries out for involves a family of owls that travel the world and meet other foreign owl families. Well, my wife was able to do not only the main family – all of them – but she was able to do all the other accents for the other families encountered. The production company fell in love with her. She was hired right then and there. Now I was tested. I found I had a talent I did not know about: I could easily sync up my voice to theirs in one or two takes. Also, because of my theater training, I was able to match the emotions. They liked what I could do in this one Spanish soap opera. I was able to match the main character’s pattern and one uncle’s and, I believe, a friend of the family. And, because my parents were Cubans, I could give the characters a slight Spanish accent if they wanted. We were set! They wanted both of us right on the spot. The pay was going to range from $15 t0 $20 an hour… which was big pay back then. We were told that next week they would have us sign the contracts and there would be work for months if not years. YIPPEE!!! And then everything went out of sync. My wife and I come back a week later to sign the contracts. We’ve told all of our friends and family about this new opportunity. It was a dream job. And, like a dream, we were about to be rudely awaken from it. As we got to the back of the studio, we noticed that the parking lot seemed kind of bare. Just two or three cars. That was strange. We tried opening the studio door, but it was locked. We knocked. We waited. We knocked louder. We waited. No one showed up so we decided that it might be best to try them at the front of the building where the office entrance was located. We go around and enter the front of the building. Our first clue that something was going on was seeing the lack of furniture by the front desk and a pile of scattered boxes. Weird. We walk in and there’s no one around. It looks like someone had quickly moved out. A noise comes from a back office. We call out, “Anyone here!?” A voice from the back shouts, “Can I help you?” We head towards the voice. In a back office, near a corner, there is a young lady that seems to be packing some papers in boxes. The office also looks like someone just moved in or moved out. I explain to her why we are there. She gives us the bad news. One of the main producers absconded with the company funds and left everyone high and dry. The company had quickly closed up shop. Many of the office employees were left without their weekly checks and the company was no more. So, if someone had been lip-syncing my voice at the time, they would just have to make sure to get the proper emotion when I shouted the two words that sounded like FUNK ME!!!
One of my favorite quotes: "A critic is a legless man who teaches running."
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slowkneenuh Regular user After 5,278+ posts, only credited with 133 Posts |
I'm thinking we got a tie between Greg and Arthur on who gets screwed the most, albeit different ways.
John
"A poor workman always blames his tools" |
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Greg Arce Inner circle 6732 Posts |
Give me some time and I'll give Arthur a run for his money. I've got too many stories that kind of end the same way, but I'm wondering if I want to put myself through the trauma of recalling them all. I guess it would be carthartic.
Greg
One of my favorite quotes: "A critic is a legless man who teaches running."
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