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Twitter Tweets - 2011 Coached a talented acting student, being filmed in a movie
and performing at the Bistro Romano today. I wish all days were like this.
25 Feb 2011
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Current of the
Creek - http://www.imdb.com/rg/s/1/video/wab/vi3907387929/ I am the man in the black hat...
24 Feb 2011
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Coached a new acting student today. Talent and potential.
That makes 5 weekly regulars.
22 Feb 2011
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Great gig. Told historical stories for four hours, received
applause all day, worked with the great staff at Lights of Liberty, get paid
21 Feb 2011
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Telling historical
stories at Lights of Liberty today and what did I see? A 4'x4' poster that includes my picture on the wall!
21 Feb 2011
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Telling stories about George Washington and Franklin at the former Lights of Liberty location across from Independence
Hall Monday afternoon
20 Feb 2011
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Found a web site
which features modeling photos taken by Marilyn Nieves, talented photographer: http://www.marilynnieves.com/blog/?cat=1620 Feb
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Auditioned today. I feel good about my delivery
of the monologue. Now it is up to the Casting Director if I fit a role or not.
19 Feb
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Great audience at the Bistro Romano tonight
18 Feb
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Today was my first
time to be cast as a grandfather. I bet there will be more of that.
18 Feb
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Coached a talented student
today, now being filmed as a grandfather in "Marigold", later the Priest in "Murder at the Irish Wake".
18 Feb
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Performing at the Bistro Romano as the Priest
tonight. Private show.
17 Feb
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Performing as the Priest at the Bistro Romano Friday and Saturday night.
Full houses.
11 Feb
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Coached two actors today. Discussion about acting and about character deelopment
leads to greater insight which creates more improvement.
10 Feb
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Taught Improv tonight to my Wednesday class. The students are improving so fast. Lots of laughter too.
9
Feb
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Guido showed up to run the game show last night. The audience was a hoot. Tonight I am the Priest.
What a turnaround.
5 Feb
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Coaching three acting students during the day today, and then performing
tonight as emcee of a game show. Could life be better?
4 Feb
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Terrific Improv class session last night at Church Street Studios in Philadelphia. The only thing missing was you.
1
Feb
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One of my students braved the snow to attend a coaching session today. Bravo!!! Now I'm off to the
Bistro Romano to perform tonight.
28 Jan
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Teaching
Improv comedy and drama tonight at Church Street Studios.
24 Jan
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Performing as a tough guy today in
a corporate scavenger hunt in Atlantic City.
24 Jan
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Special show tonight at the Bistro Romano. I am
tough guy Frankie
23 Jan
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Judging from audience reaction, last night's performance at the Bistro Romano
was the most successful and best received in history
22 Jan
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Performing as the Priest Friday and Saturday night at the Bistro Romano, and then as cousin Frankie at a Sunday special
show.
21 Jan
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Performing as a Game Show host at
a private corporate event this evening. Oh my, what I have in store for the contestants...
18 Jan
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Teaching Improv at Church Street Studios tonight, in Philadelphia
17 Jan
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Room for one more person to sign up for my Improv class that starts this Monday, January 17 in Philadelphia. 215-206-7462
14 Jan
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Full house at the Bistro Romano dinner theater tonight. I am playing the Priest, Father Pat tonight
14 Jan
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Great networking and read through event last night at Kalonda Bailey's KYB studio. Saw friends,
acting coaching students and met new friends
14 Jan
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Going to KYB Studios to see some scripts get read
13 Jan
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Being filmed in The comedy "Delivery"
in Lancaster, PA today. i'm the pizza shop owner.
10 Jan
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Traveling to Lancaster, PA for a filming
Monday
9 Jan
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Playing Father Pat the Priest at the Bistro Romano tonight. The private show (birthday
party) is about to start.
7 Jan
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Performing as the Priest at the Bistro Romano this weekend - 120 Lombard
St., Philadelphia
6 Jan
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THE iPHONE
(July 2009)
I only put my iPhone down for a moment. But it was just before I hurriedly left for my day at Valley Forge as a Storyteller.
I left it behind. I was more than half way to Valley Forge when I realized I didn't have my iPhone. If I went back home to
retrieve it, I would be late. I kept going to Valley Forge.
The Supervisor agreed with my decision. But it was a difficult
day. I kept worrying that I would get a phone call or an email requesting a quick response, in order to get a performance
date. Without the phone, I couldn't contact the Supervisor, if there were an emergency. My storytelling location is fairly
remote.
When I finally got home, I had missed only one phone call, which I immediately returned. There were emails
with possible performances, but none for me. I was relieved.
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MINDBENDERS AGAIN
(May 2009) I will
be performing with Mindbenders once again this year, starting late May.
I generally portray Tony Tuesday, a tough guy
with a storied past. Sometimes I play Boris, a Russian Spy, who has a secret.
Corporate team players who go on the
scavenger hunt have to find me. Then they have a tough time with me, getting clues to riddles they must solve. And why do
I tease every player that approaches me. Oh do I love Improv, and endowing them with traits they never knew existed.
They
always go away laughing - maybe because I let them stay alive.
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STORYTELLING AGAIN
(May 2009) I will
be a storyteller for Once Upon a Nation and Historic Philadelphia once again in 2009.
I am scheduled to be back at
George Washington's Headquarters Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from about 11 AM until 4 PM throughout the summer.
I
will begin the weekend of Memorial Day, and then continue from Mid Jun through Labor Day. After Labor Day, I will most likely
continue weekends through October.
Benstitute training begins May 8 for me and continues the second and third weeks
of May.
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ROBBING BANKS AGAIN
(May 2009) It looks as if I will be portraying Willie Sutton again this
year for Eastern State Penitentiary. The Escape program in which Willie will be seen occurs the first weekend of August.
I
have portrayed him for the last three years. Willie is considered the Babe Ruth of all bank robbers.
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11
PLAYS IN 2 HOURS
(March 2009) I did staged readings of 11 plays in about two hours at Perkiomen Valley Middle School.
First, I along with a couple of other actors read the students' plays, and gave them advice on how to make their plays
more reasonable for staging.
Then, I along with my fellow actors returned about a week later to perform the edited
plays, as staged readings.
I did this for two teachers at the school, so I performed in 22 plays in all.
My
favorite roles included a coffee-addicted and wired office worker, a clown who scared people, and a 4 year old mischievous
boy.
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PHILIP GETS KILLED
(January 2009) Philip played the part of Seth, a husband who is leaving
his wife for another woman. The name of the film is "Tupperware", directed by Ronnie Naples of Drexel University.
During
the filming, my character "accidentally" gets killed. My wife, played by Michelle Eugene, has to hide my body immediately
because her friends are coming over for a Tupperware party.
Hilarity ensues.
I had "blood" spattered all over
me during most of the second day of shooting. The heater in the house where the filing was done was turned off because it
was too noisy. I was dressed in a t-shirt, so you can imagine how cold I was during the shoot. I was shivering. Michelle took
pity on me and covered me in two blankets between shots.
In the cast are four people who have worked with me in the
past: April Woodall who directed me with The Philadelphia Revels, Margarita Ruiz who worked with me at Once Upon a Nation
and with Public Eye: Artists for Animals, Jan Hines and Lynda Simon.
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THE HBO PROMOTION
(January
2009) I was hired to help in an HBO promotion for a show called Big Love. Big Love is a series on HBO about a polygamist in
Utah. It also illustrates how everyone has something to hide.
In the promotion, each of about 25 people wore a harness
with a sign above their head. The signs depicted thoughts that people have, if they were confessing something about themselves.
Some of the signs were:
I’m pregnant, and the father isn’t my husband
I tell people this is fake fur
I’m
cheating on my wife and it’s with a man
It’s not cheating if you’re in another state
I lost all my money in Vegas
The
sign assigned to me was “I haven’t told my fiancée about the hair plugs.”
The back of the sign had an advertisement
for Big Love on HBO, with the time of the opening show listed.
The morning of the promotion, I picked up the harness
and sign at a hotel at 17th & Locust Streets and walked about 1 ½ miles where I would be doing the promotion, at 5th & Market
Streets.
At 8 AM, my site partner (Tony) and I helped each other into our harnesses, but Tony’s harness fell apart
immediately. We had to try fixing this complex contraption out in the 22 degree bone-chilling weather and it was not easy,
so we decided to go to the Bourse (an eating area). As we entered the Bourse, the guard stopped us and said we couldn’t go
in. We chatted with the guard for a minute, and he grudgingly allowed us to find a chair where we fixed Tony’s harness. On
the way out, we thanked the guard for letting us in.
Once out of the Bourse, we started to walk the streets of downtown
Philadelphia in these harnesses. The front of Tony’s sign said “I still tell people I’m 30”. Tony is a lot older than that,
and looks it. At first I led the two of us, with Tony at least 20 yards behind me, as requested by the managers. I walked
too fast for Tony, so he asked if he could lead. He led for the rest of the day.
Tony’s harness came apart twice more
in the morning. I had to help him fix it each time. Each time, we had to remove the harness, which was difficult, make the
fix, and then put the harness back on. It’s a two person operation, taking several minutes.
We walked on Market Street,
but we also ventured onto Chestnut Street. That is where we had our first major encounter. We sometimes handed out leaflets
about Big Love’s first new episode, coming up Sunday night at 9 PM. Independence Hall is on Chestnut Street at 5th Street
and as I turned the corner from Independence Hall, two Park Rangers stopped me and asked me what I was doing. They took down
my name and got Tony to join us. Apparently, we were on Federal territory and it is illegal to hand out leaflets and advertise
on Federal property.
I showed them the leaflets and explained the program. I called our manager on my cell phone and
let him talk to one of the rangers, so things could get straightened out, and I wouldn’t have to spend the night in a federal
penitentiary. The rangers told me where we could legally walk and where not to. The manager told us to move to an entirely
different location at 12th and Market Streets. We were on our way in no time, thankful that the rangers were understanding.
Once
we got to 12th & Market, the difference in demographics was obvious as the historic area where we had started our day, was
a place for tourists and business people. With all the tour guides and costumed characters that normally roam the historic
area, we were hardly noticed. When we got to the shoppers and those just hanging on the corner around 12th and Market, it
was different. Some of the men made comments belittling our manhood, others asked, incredulously, what kind of pay we would
be getting to do this.
Some people ignored our signs as if they were embarrassed for us and others laughed when they saw
the signs. Some took pictures of each of us, while others asked us how to get a job doing the same thing.
As the day
wore on, it got a little less cold.
When I went by one shop, I could see the people looking at the two of us. I crossed
the street, and went up to the door of the shop. They opened it, and I gave them the leaflet. They all but applauded, they
were so happy that I had stopped by.
When I went by a restaurant, I could see the buzz I had created going from table
to table. I stopped and looked in a window of the restaurant so they could easily see me. I could see everyone pointing and
getting other people’s attention to look at me. Then I turned around so they could see the Big Love portion of the sign, with
the advertising.
At the end of the day, Tony got a phone call telling us to go to 7th & Washington to turn in the
signs. I was not happy about that, since we were close to my train station, and now we would have to walk a mile away from
it. When we arrived at 7th and Washington, no one was there. Tony called and found out that they had been calling Tony to
tell him to go to 17th & Locust again. Tony never heard the phone ring. They never called me, but had they called me, I would
have heard the ring and taken the call. We would immediately have gone to the correct location and not wasted time. We had
not only walked a mile in these harnesses for nothing, but we were now over a cold, wind-blown mile away from the final destination,
and even further from the train station.
We were supposed to stop the promotion at 2 PM and it already was 2 PM when
we arrived at 7th & Washington. Now I was not only going into overtime, but I was faced with a mile plus walk to the hotel
at 17th & Locust. I called the manager to lodge a complaint with him, but he said he didn’t have a car and couldn’t come
get me. I said I should be paid an extra hour because it is now past 2 PM, and I have to walk over a mile in the cold with
the harness. Now I had no choice but to walk back to the hotel. As I walked along, a “save the earth” person approached me.
He asked if he could talk to me and I said he could, if he carried my sign for a mile. He agreed to it. He carried my sign
as we talked about energy conservation for about 25 minutes on the walk back to the hotel.
At the end, he gave me
literature, and I took back the sign.
As yet, it is unresolved about the extra pay. Do you think I should have let
it go, or do you think I should have stood up for my rights?
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PHILIP AS A CARTOON CHARACTER
(January
2009) In December, for the third national client, I was photographed by Animated storyboard to be used in a storyboard for
a future TV commercial.
Although you won't see me in the final commercial, Animated Storyboard used my likeness to
create a cartoon of the commercial for each of the three national clients.
Each of the three modeling sessions took
less than an hour!!
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