Malibu Robin

Week 83: Los Angeles, CA

Beach life. I know it well. I grew up in coastal Massachusetts, north of Boston, and our house was a short walk to the beach, which meant summer pretty much revolved around sun, sea and sand. My affection for beach life was something I adopted from my Mom, and I always feel a very special aliveness by the sea.
One of the most attractive things about LA living is the proximity to great beaches, and Malibu is essentially a long strip of beach divided into public or exclusive private beaches--with a community around it. I took myself to Malibu on Monday, making the winding, snaking drive west on Sunset, then joining Pacific Coast Highway. I settled on Topanga Canyon Beach, because the fish restaurant I wanted to dine at later in the day was directly across the street. It was a good choice: a small, quiet, sparsely peopled stretch of sand. The weather here is perfection and frankly, if I lived here I would probably end up looking like a crocodile handbag. I just love soaking up sun and I must say I have quite a tan! Thank goodness my Robin gear covers pretty much everything except my face. My beach day was great--mellow, relaxing.

I had an early supper at The Reel Inn, one of those great roadside shanty style fish restaurants, with picnic tables and a menu scrawled on a chalk board.
I love places like these, and you know you are getting the freshest possible seafood. I had grilled swordfish, fried calamari, hand cut fries and homemade slaw. Again, it just takes me back to my youth. When I was a kid, after a long day of romping on the beach, we would all go home, shower off the sand, put on something clean and cool, and, with our hair still wet and our faces glowing from a day in the sun, head off for a fresh seafood dinner. There were fancy places, but the favorite was always Woodman's Eat 'Em in the Rough, a little shanty style place very much like the Reel Inn. I mentioned Woodman's in a previous blog post--they invented the fried clam. Anyway, for me, no beach day is truly complete without a fresh fish dinner.

After three weeks here in LA, I have started the inevitable conversation with myself about whether or not I could live here. I think this is a conversation every actor eventually engages in, because the two centers of show business in America are New York and LA. If you really want to make a stab at a career as an actor, you have to consider one or the other city. I never really thought much about moving to Hollywood, mainly because my primary focus has been live performance and making it as a stage actor. And I still have big ambitions for my stage career, particularly eventually working on Broadway, so I have made being in New York a priority. But there is a much larger world of opportunities for an actor in film, TV, commercials, voiceovers--and almost all of it pays better than theatre! I had the opportunity to meet with a top agent here this week and it got me thinking about what it might be like to try my hand at the LA scene.
The lifestyle here is worlds away from the hectic life of Manhattan, with it's frenetic pace, overcrowded sidewalks and long winters. The LA lifestyle is about sunny summer weather every day, endless driving and parking and sitting in traffic, and a feeling that the city is not really a city but more a sprawling series of disconnected areas and neighborhoods. There is something comfortingly contained about New York City--I can almost walk everywhere I want to go there. While I recognize this time in LA as a chance for me to improve my skills as a driver, I am pretty much fed up already with the delays, the horrible driving of most of the people around here (no one seems to know how to operate a directional signal!), and the endless search for a place to park. This week for example, I was supposed to meet friends on Friday night for a drink at a popular bar, and after twenty minutes of driving around searching, and with a determination not to pay outrageous fees for parking, valet or otherwise, I went home--with frustrated steam coming out my ears.

And LA is, like New York, a great city to live in when you have money and are gainfully employed in your profession. When you are out of work and scrounging for opportunities, I bet it isn't quite the glamorous life. And not only are there exorbitant rents to pay, but a car to pay for and maintain and fuel up. I think if I were established and had work here, I might get used to the weirdnesses of it all and come to enjoy LA. I certainly would love having access to the beach, but wouldn't I come to miss the New York seasons? As dirty and crowded and stressful as Manhattan can be, wouldn't I miss the relative ease of getting around on my own two feet, and the culture, restaurants and ethnic neighborhoods all within easy reach? The answer is, I would go where the work is. As I get older and more open minded about what is possible for me in my life, I come to see the possibilities of doing more than just theatre, much as I love it. I would really enjoy trying my hand at performing in front of the camera or the microphone, and finding ways to diversify my career and make a good living at it. I have come to admire John O'Hurley very much--he is committed to doing good work in theatre, but also has a great job as host of "Family Feud," does voices for ten different cartoon series, and has done spokesman work and commercials. He is living every actor's dream, which is making a living as a performer. Fame and stardom and all that is attractive but for me, the ultimate would be knowing that I never again have to go back to a "day job;" that I can in fact, make my living as an actor. Doing this tour has gotten me very used to being a working actor, and I want to pursue any avenue that might further me in that direction. Whether that be in New York, which has been home for over 15 years, or LA, I know that I will go where I have a chance of doing the work that I love. And while times may have changed since Shirley MacLaine went on as an understudy on Broadway and was discovered by film mogul Hal Wallis, or Lana Turner was spotted by a talent scout while sipping a soda on a stool at Schraft's drug store in Hollywood, all it takes is one influential person or one "right place at the right time" moment to turn the tide in an actor's career. "Spamalot" has started me in a great direction, and my "right place and right time" are surely coming my way. Keep the thought!