Thoughts on my First Samurai Musical

Naka-san & Taka-san (myself) and Suke-san and Kaku-san:
In the show, we were comedic pairs and represented a lot of the show's comic relief. 

Just wrapped on the Samurai theatre show I was doing, Tange Sazen. It took me to the final show to feel like I finally nailed all the dialog, dancing, blocking, timing and humor, but I got it. What a fantastic experience. No doubt it was hard... but anything worth doing always is. When I first got the call for this, I had thought I was simply going to be a masked background ninja or something. I was shocked the first time I was saw the script and saw how prominent of a character I was playing; but after I understood the nature of the show, I got it. A lot of the humor was slapstick, and what could be funnier than an American black dude playing a Japanese person from 200 years ago. It would be like if someone in the states decided to make a comedy version of Shaft and then cast a Japanese guy who didn't speak English to play a pimp from the hood named "Honey Dip" or something. It was a pretty risky move for the director/producer, but it seemed to work well, and people absolutely loved it; and truth be told, so did I. 

I found out that one of the people I was acting alongside of was Ryosuke Sakamoto; the original Japanese "Red One" power ranger. Super honored. 

As strange as it may seem, the thing that I’m the most thankful for is the fact that I wasn’t treated any differently than any other cast or crew member. Generally, as a foreigner working here in Japan, you get used to always having additional assistance. There is always someone translating for you, or going the extra mile to help you to understand. Since 99% of us are working with a language barrier, I do think that attitude is actually a good thing- because quite frankly you do miss a lot. At the same time however, in this case, it was really refreshing that the director and cast just generally took the attitude “Meh, Chuck is fine. He’ll figure it out.” For myself that shows a large degree of trust, and it made me determined not to disappoint.

Among other things like caring for my wig and Kimono costume pieces, another challenge was having to learn how to wear a fundoshi. (Traditional Japanese men's underwear). This was easily the hardest thing to ask for help with, haha. 

There were times were I had to ask for extra help; needed extra repetitions, or had extra explanations, but more often than not, I was left to just figure it out...and I usually did. 

I’m not sure if this kind of work will continue beyond this... but I hope so. As an actor, it was an intense experience, but also a massive opportunity for personal and professional growth. In addition to having to learn the script, I also had to learn how to wear all the costumes, (which seriously upped my Kimono game), learn a ton about Japanese history and also learn a lot about how theatre in Japan works. 

Beyond that, I honestly could not have asked for a more wonderful, honest and hardworking cast and crew to do this with. I feel like I made a lot of good friendships that will last a long time. My only regret of the whole thing is that there’s no video of any of it, so the only people who got to see it are those that took the time to come. This show happens yearly however, so hopefully this or other opportunities like it will come around. Even if film and television pay better, I have always believed that the actor’s truest training ground is theatre, and this show certainly was just that.

The entire cast of 45 wonderful, talented and super-hardworking people.
Didn't get to know everyone, but I will miss them all.  

5 Reasons Why I Still Do Extra Work

A shot of me on a Navy Vessel where I was playing an
extra for a TV drama. 

As an actor, one of the things I heard a lot is that once you are getting speaking roles, you shouldn't do anything less than that anymore, because you only want people to see you doing good things. After 7 years of experience though, (and having some pretty substantial roles in things) I still like doing extra work for a lot of different reasons, and I think I will continue to do it for at least a while to come. Here are the five reasons that I still love to do it from time to time.

1) Experience is Experience and Any Experience is a Good One.
The fact of the matter is, when you are doing extra work, you aren't going to get much in the way of acting experience or screen time. Quite frankly, you will be lucky if anyone sees you in the final cut. At the same time though, one thing you can get a lot of is set experience. You can see how different directors work, how different sets are staged and dressed, how certain special effects are achieved and how things generally work and flow on bigger productions. Extra work is also a great way to learn about the bizarrely particular culture that the entertainment industry has, and a great chance to continue honing your own particular code of conduct on set- all while still getting paid and doing so in a context were your position is virtually inconsequential. The last thing you wanna do is seriously screw up while you are on a major production- if so, it could be your last for a while.

2) A paycheck's a Paycheck
Speaking of getting paid, another reason to keep doing extra work is the fact that plainly and simply, it's a paycheck. Granted, it's a substantially lower paycheck than when you get a major or substantial part, but speaking frankly I don't know if I've ever met any non-A-list actor who works 7 days a week, and every little bit helps. Most actors that I know of all have other things that they do on the side to get by- even fairly successful ones- but the fact of the matter is, unless you are the company president, an uber-successful Youtuber or someone else, who can set their own hours, the regular commitment required from most regular jobs will always be putting you in a position where keeping that job and moving forward in your acting career will always be at odds with each other.

One regret I've always had is that I was invited to an audition for a TV commercial that I had to skip because of my regular job schedule at the time. The person who ended up getting the lead in it (An African American who was about my age, weight, build, look) ended up having an incredible career (that is still going) launch from it. Who knows, had I made that audition, that might have been my career instead of his. At any rate, the point that I am making is that in doing extra work instead of another regular job, you can keep your schedule totally open so that when that one big opportunity comes, you can be available for it. (And thankfully, since that fateful lesson, in keeping my schedule open, I have been able to nail my share of huge projects. (Last year I was in the one of Japan's biggest movies of the year, the most popular drama of the year, and the biggest video game of the year all at the same time).

3) Networking
Another reason that its good to do extra work is because believe it or not, you can do some amazing networking that way. Sure, a lot of. people who are working as extras are doing so as a way to work their way into the entertainment industry- but not all of them. If you talk to everyone who you meet that way, oftentimes you will come to find out that some of the people working as an extra on that day, are assistant directors, directors, indie producers, stunties, visual effects people and all kinds of other members of the entertainment industry who just happen to be free and are looking for something to do. Even if none of these people are casting agents themselves, the fact of the matter is, in this industry, work can come from anywhere. Sometimes if they are working on a project, and they only need one person, actor, voice, narrator, and you are experienced, they will call you directly for it, so they don't have to deal with the rigamarole of having to call a casting agent, deal with auditions, etc. At this point in my career at least 30% of the work I get is freelance direct calls, and a lot of these are from contacts I made doing extra work.

4) Locating Scouting
Another great reason for doing extra work is for location scouting. While the advantages of knowing and seeing more locations is obvious for people interested in working behind the camera (production assistance, assistant directors, directors, etc), there are also advantages to knowing locations for actors as well. The fact of the matter is, no actor makes it on their own without self promotion. Self promotion includes getting lots of great photos taken, making demo reels, and at times, producing shorts of your own so that you can show yourself acting in the kinds of characters that you really want to play. In order to make these kinds of promos however, knowing a range of beautiful, breathtaking, grimy, dangerous-looking, or sophisticated locations is key. The location plays a greater part in a story than you can ever imagine, and it's the "story" (whether photographic or cinematic) that sells you.

5) (Paid) Freetime to do Stuff
Aside from all the other reasons that it is good to do extra work, there is still one other reason that I really love to do extra work- FREETIME. The fact of the matter is, as an extra, more often than not, most of the time you spend on set is just sitting around. As such, if you have other things that you like to do, or need to get done, when working as an extra, you can take care of those things, while actually still getting paid to do something else. As an actor playing an important role in something, you still may have your downtime, but often that time is spent practicing for your scene. As an extra, if you have to act at all, it usually isn't anything that you really need to think about, practice for, or seriously concentrate to do... And as such, you are free to spend 90% of the time concentrating on something else. For myself, this includes things like studying languages, cleaning out unnecessary photos or memory zappers on my phone, or the writing of blogs (like this one). In doing so, I can earn income, eat for free, and get time consuming things done all at the same time. Gotta love it.

As your acting or entertainment career progresses, the temptation to turn your nose up at extra work may be strong. In fact, it might even seem to make sense, as you wouldn't want to seem as though you are still doing "bottom-of-the-barrel" work when you are starting to do well. At the same time however, there are a lot of distinct advantages to it as well. Beyond that, insomuch as Ive seen, no one ever remembers the extras anyway. For everyone from the casting agent to the director to the other main actors, their main concerns are all much bigger than who is there as an extra and who is not. By definition, extras are supposed to be the people who they have to worry the least about. Furthermore at least as far as my career has shown, doing extra work doesn't seem to have had any detrimental effects on my getting good work in the least. If anything, it's had the opposite effect, because my agents appreciate the fact that I am so flexible and easy-going and push for me to get more good work.

How to Become an Entertainer in Japan: 5 Important Things to Do

A shot of me from the Variety show, Joshi Ana No Batsu.

For anyone looking to become an entertainer, Japan can be an interesting place to start off. While the pay scale is not on the same level as that of the states, if you are good at what you do, and patient enough to become established, you can make a decent living here; particularly once you get into the larger projects where all the real money is. Beyond that, as it is a considerably smaller industry, and there isn't a SAG requirement for even the biggest projects, it is also much easier to get into those large scale projects as well.

If you are coming to Japan, or already living here, and are interesting in giving it a go in television, film or entertainment, here are five things you can do to set yourself apart from the pack.

1) Learn Japanese
I absolutely cannot stress enough how important this is. While there are a lot of people working as a actor in Japan who don't speak the language, you will do much better if you do. There are a myriad of reasons for this. 1) If you speak the language, you are much more likely to understand the culture, be patient with the way they do things and not get into cultural clashes on set. 2) If you speak well, then that means that your agent can send you on jobs without their having to go with you to translate. This makes their lives considerably easier and also opens up the doors for last-minute, short-notice jobs that come in when they have already planned for their staff to be elsewhere.

If you watch Japanese TV, all the most successful entertainers can speak or articulate themselves in the language. (Which isn't so different from the states- how often do you see people on American TV who can't speak English?) While learning Japanese in Tokyo can be quite costly, it also doesn't have to be. Each ward offers free Japanese classes for its residents , and these are a great place to start.

2) Don't be shy about your experience
One of the other mistakes that novices to the industry often make is that they are much too shy about their previous experience. If you have previous acting experience, that makes you a more valuable commodity to any agency than if you don't. Even if it was only on small scale projects. Keep in mind that most of the people who get into entertainment work in Japan do so purely because its an easy thing for westerners to do here. Kind if like how everybody does extra work on the side in LA. As such, if you have actually taken the time to learn and study acting, have done it before (in theatre or TV commercials, television) then your chances of actually getting the job you are sent to audition for is greater because to some degree, you already know what you are doing. This means more money for the agencies as well, so naturally that means they will send you to more or better auditions. If you haven't come to Japan yet, and are interested in getting into the industry here, it may pay to take an acting class or two before you come just to have it on your résumé.

3) Get good headshots
Nothing says "professional" like good headshots. In the case of mine, I paid about $150 to get them done right, and get a huge stack of them, and at this point, that is money that I have made back at least 50 times over. Not just in terms of getting casting directors to take me seriously at auditions, but in terms of getting agents to take me more seriously when I register as well. As with any other kind of career investment, you will often hear people say, "I don't wanna pay that." but these are generally not the people who get anywhere. (Mainly because they have to compete with the people like myself who are willing and committed enough to pay for it).

Like learning Japanese however, getting good headshots doesn't have to be expensive. The easiest and cheapest way to get some great pictures is simply to check Tokyo classifieds such as the Metropolis or Craigslist for up and coming photographers. They are trying to build their own portfolios as well, so they will oftentimes photography models in exchange for being able to use the prints in their portfolios. You'll get no money yourself, but you will however get the prints, and these are a great start. Beyond that, free fashion shows like Tokyo Fashionista are also a great way to get experience and also get some great pics out of it at the same time.

4) Make a portfolio or demo reel
Again, it's all about looking like you are a professional already. If you have any shots or pictures from previous work you've done, collect it together and put it into a book. My portfolio consists of modeling work, shots from commercials and posters from movies that I've done. This can work out very well because every so often the casting director will recognize something that you have done, and that's credibility. Even more so if they personally know the production company or the director of one of your works. In cases that that's happen, I've almost always gotten the job, simply because one they know we had a mutual associate, they knew they could "trust me".

If you have no previous experience to put into your book or demo reel, then your next best option is to simply create it. Again, get your shots from up and coming photographers, and/or see if you can get into non-paying film work to get some footage. (or create a film project yourself!) Even non-paying experience is still experience, and if it is well done, you can't tell it from the paying stuff anyway.

5) Don't give up
This, by far, is the hardest part about becoming a successful entertainer anywhere. Regardless of which big city you go to, there is always far more people that want to work in entertainment than the industry has room for, and as such, you are always in a position where you not only have to compete against throngs and throngs of others to gain any kind of a substantial position, but also to keep and maintain what you've got while continually pushing to move forward. The fact of the matter is, this process is exhausting. Calling in sick for a job can mean losing respect with an agency, and losing respect can mean being replaced. The good thing is however, the fact that it's so hard will also continually weed out the weak-hearted, and oftentimes you can find success not because you are the best or the most talented, but because you were the one who had the heart to hang in there while everyone else turned tail. In business, for every 100 people who start a company, 50 will quit, close their doors, or go bankrupt in the first 5 years. Then within the next 5 years, 50% of the first round survivors will do the same thing...and so on and so on until you get that rare company that has the honest right to brag about being able to celebrate their 30th or 50th anniversary. Such is the same with entertainers. As such, more so than anything else, if you can hold on through the slow or hard periods, then much like those rare companies you can develop the long term industry relationships, successful habits, and good sense that can carry you for a lifetime.