Monday, May 20, 2013

Labor of Love

Well, I've reached my Saturn return (Yayy, me!)...



And another wonderful year of wedded bliss (Yayy, us!)...

 
And now it's time to prepare for the summer...
 
 
A month ago, I put into motion something wonderful.  A awesome labor of love known as Velma
 



Velma has been in the works for little over a year, and everytime I think about how awesome everyone is that helped me get to his point, I just get so elated and filled with joy. I would not have gotten here without the awesome people behind me.

A little background: Around the beginning of last year, there was word about the re-launch of In Living Color. Actors from all over, were uploading audition videos onto the interweb.  I saw an interesting video that someone posted on facebook, and I was like, "Sheeet, I can do that!" 

I came up with the character of Velma, who is the mixture of some interesting folk I've encountered here in Zoo York, wrote a sketch, and my awesome buddy, Bill Johnson, co-starred in it, and helped me shoot it.

As the Universe would have it, there were some hiccups in trying to get the sketch burned onto a DVD, then sent to the proper channels to be considered. Instead of freaking out, I meditated on what really was my motivation for putting this character out into the world. Did I want to just do this one audition, and be done with it, or did I want to explore, and really see where this character and her world could take me?

After doing more research on the progress of the reboot, I learned that the project had been cancelled.  I was glad that I didn't put all my hopes and dreams into one basket, and knew that the hiccups from before, was just the Universe's way of showing me that better things were coming.

I made sure to remain on the radar of the casting director, Amber Bickham, 'cause well, you never know...And I began work on what to do, and where to take Velma next.

One rainy afternoon, I met my friend, Guy Shahar, for coffee, who told me he wanted to do a project that was funny, crazy and inappropriate.  I showed him the video of the sketch, and the rest is history -- or history in the making, I should say... :-)

The pilot for the webseries is shot, we're now in pre-production, and I'm looking forward to the launch... :-)

About a week ago, I was (half) joking with a friend about how cool it would be if there was a VelmaCon in the near future, with folks dressed up as Velma and other characters from the show: A revelry of geekdom as far as the eye can see...

Ahh, my inner geeky child (I'm still a geeky adult lol) is smiling :-)