The Bloody Climb

When I was first starting out, trying to make my mark and put Soiree Fair, Inc. on the map, I did all of my own schlepping through midtown and Chelsea, NYC. I delivered the majority of my breakdowns personally. What a chum bucket I was. From being an agent at Fifi’s, I learned that time is of the essence in getting submissions into the hands of casting directors. Thank goodness for the advent of electronic submissions! Going on—I had some adventures in messengering, though. I was working at Harper C. (my survival job at the time) in the east 50’s so it was a little out of the way from the majority of the casting offices. I would snake my way across town from Port Authority at 8:00am, hitting, Hughes-Moss, Elissa Myers and some lesser one-hit wonder casting directors along the way. But a couple of instances stand out that you’ll all get a kick out of. My office at the time was pretty close to Lynn Kressel’s “Law & Order” casting office. She was located on Park Avenue and I decided to sneak out one day and drop off the submission. Of course, I saw a busybody on the floor on my way out who asked where I was going and I told them I was on my way to the ladies room. I dashed to the elevator and out onto the street. On my way back, don’t you know, it began to rain. I got caught in a downpour and came back soaked. Remember, I wasn’t wearing a coat to the “ladies rooms”. I ran into the same idiot on my way back to my office and he insinuated through a foul exchange of words that I obviously fallen into the toilet in the ladies room. I had to keep my cool. I was building a business and it was only a matter of time until I could resign. Another time, wow, I dropped off a submission at Liz Lewis Casting on West 19th at the time. I had to hop a subway downtown in hopes of not getting stuck and not getting back to work semi-on time after lunch. I only had enough dough for a one way trip and would have to hoof it back 30+ blocks with a pretzel for lunch. The good news is I got there to Liz Lewis on the subway without a glitch. The bad news is, I presented my submission and in this case one single, solitary headshot. The receptionist saw the project written on the envelope and flipped it right into the trash saying it was too late without ever opening it. She didn’t know who I was and I didn’t know who she was. I was only the “messenger”. I had gone the extra mile (and them some) for that client and had failed. That one kicked me in the gut, but good. I swallowed hard and turned around to wait for the elevator. It was a long walk back and I had no appetite for my pretzel. But hey, it’s all good now. I bucked up and kept working and Liz Lewis Casting is now a great champion and friend to Soiree Fair, Inc. That was a valuable lesson in amping up my game. They’ve taken a chance on so many of our clients with tremendous success. Shout out to everybody at Liz Lewis Casting Partners—Thanks for making me strong and a contender!