20 minutes of fame.

I just got home from watching my friend Karla make her Broadway debut in "Hot Feet", the new musical featuring the music of Earth, Wind and Fire. In a sentence...the show was dope as hell. The dancing blew my mind. Kind of makes me want to go to the studio this week and bust out some fresh 8 counts for b r e a t h e. And since it was opening night, it was obviously a red carpet event. There I am...looking like I came from school in some jeans and a sweater just walking up the red carpet that I have no business being on, walking past some NYC celebs. (I accidentally bumped into somebody in the lobby, thus spilling their drink...and then I realized I bumped into Ashford & Simpson...sorry na lang!)

The show just reminded me of how much I hustled to get into some auditions back in the day. If you graduated in 2001, you probably recognize my face because I was featured in The College Board publications for that year, you know, those kids pretending to read and have fun on campus in those brochures. You've probably seen me make an ass out of myself dancing on Wowowee on the Filipino Channel. Or way back when Popstars 2 came out, you saw my mug in a mere blip. Maybe you've seen me on a Motorola print ad (stock photography that I didn't know would be used to this day...but people say they've seen it and ask how much I got paid for it...FYI, it wasn't much.)

These days, I've slowed down. One, I've graduated from school so I don't have time like I did while I was in undergrad. Two, because it's not something I'm too passionate about. Three, because I have no real talent and I'm more engrossed in the advertising/marketing biz.

My last audition was for GMA Philippines newest telenovela, "I Love NY", where half of the series would be filmed here in NYC and the other half in Manila. Incidentally, I got the role of the American boyfriend of the female lead, whom the male lead would get insanely jealous of. Basically, I'm they token guy that comes in between the two main characters before they could have their happy ending. They day before they gave me my call time to be on set and said they would later let me know the location of the shoot. Cool. But as the hours passed, they call me back saying that the producers want to go in another direction with a Caucasian actor. F'd over by my own people. That particular rejection stung.

Sigh...it's time to put the dream to rest.