I was going to call the CSI:Miami office the next day. However, while I was taking the trash out, our little doggie got ahold of the certificate and ripped it to shreds. I managed to piece it back together, but since then it has resided in a yellow transparent folder, vaguely smelling of wet dog. My contact in the CSI:Miami was Matthew S. Partney, who's the assistant to producers Scott Shiffman and Don Tardino. Hmm, not an Extras Casting Director. Interesting. I called him and he asked what I looked like. I directed him to this site to see the webcam pic since my hair is a lot shorter than in my headshots. I pestered him for a while and it took him a little while to find something for me. Eventually on January 5th, 2005, after the Christmas Hiatus (December 18th- January 3rd), Matt called me on my cell and told me there were two possibilities. Either a one day dead body or a two day shoot in a hotel. I said whatever was going to be more fun. He told me that the two day shoot would be a little tedious and I said I sit on my tushie (yes I said tushie) for 8 hours a day so that was nothing. He went back to talk to the producer to get some more info.
Later that day Matt called me back and said it was a go. I was going to play a bartender at the hotel and it would be just for the day. He said to expect a call again from the extras office or Anya Adams later with specifics.

(AP) A boulder some 25 feet high blocks both lanes of the Topanga Caynon Road, Monday, Jan. 10, 2005, as...

Central Casting then called me on Friday while I was driving home in the rain from work and they told me that I was "requested" to play a bartender the next Tuesday the 11th. He didn't need a picture of me since I was "requested", but he did ask if I was registered with Central Casting. I said I couldn't remember. (You have to go in to register). Since I was driving in the rain he said he would call on Monday with more details.

It rained all that weekend and into Monday. Late Monday afternoon Matt, not Central Casting, told me that my part on Tuesday was moved to Thursday because of the heavy rains we'd been having in Los Angeles (right). No problem. I had to change my vacation request, but that was no big deal. On Tuesday, Central Casting called and said I was to report on Wednesday, not Thursday. I said Matt told me Thursday. They said they would check into it and get back. About 4:30 a note was left on my voice mail saying my call time was 7 a.m. on Wednesday. Okay, I am confused. I call Matt. Matt says he will look into it. FIVE MINUTES later (Man, things move fast in Hollywood when you are paying for it) He calls me back and says yes, I will be on the show on Wednesday. It will be a different bar scene, and I would be right beside David Caruso. Kewl, I get to find out if he is shorter than me. I was to be there at 7 a.m. on Wednesday January 12th, and my contact would be Natalie Van Doren, who used to be the Assistant Director on CSI:Miami, but left to do writing. She was back to help out while Anya Adams was in Florida.

Got up at five to be there. Normally it would take 30 minutes to get from Newhall to Westwood with no traffic. With traffic however, it took an hour and 15 minutes.

The location was the outdoor pool at the W Hotel in Westwood. In the show it would be the Dominick Hotel. It was one of those swanky hotels where they have waterfalls running between the steps as you go up the main entrance. I drive up as the trucks are getting there. Since no one told me where to park, I had the valet park me in the hotel parking. Hope I didn't have a $30 parking bill when I left.

I got there right at my call time, 7am. The first person I met was Jim, the First Assistant Director. He said I was way early; they were going to shoot my scene way later in the evening when they were losing light. He also said I looked like my picture except for the hair. He passed me off to Cody and Natalie, more ADs. There were something like 5 or 6 ADs there that day. I got to watch them move all the equipment up to the pool. I also met the Band-Aid girl Gina. She's the first aid person. Half of her cart was loaded with vitamins in addition to the regular first aid stuff.

It took them about an hour and a half but they dressed the set up. They even brought their own lounge seats in for the shoot. This was important because the plot involved pulling a large dead snake out of one of the seats.

At 7:45am they were rehearsing over on the side of the pool where they were going to pull out a huge python. After they finished shooting the scene with Adam Rodriguez and Rex Linn I went over and introduced myself and asked if I could get a picture.

Talked to Byron who works in props. He takes the pictures of props (dead snakes, dead bodies) that are used later in the show. This time he was taking pics of the snake. Talk about a small world, he told me he worked on Murphy Brown before and was actually working publicity on the Dick and Dottie show that I did. Some of the things we discussed were how they used cellophane in glassed instead of ice, and how when they are shooting ice cream they will actually dip it in Dry Ice to get it really chilled before they can take pictures. I was going to take a picture of the extras milling about but Byron said I should ask but I said it just the extras not the principals and he said Oh, go right ahead.

Do you see anything ridiculous about these pictures? We are shooting a scene that's set in Miami in Westwood California in the middle of January after the wettest 15 days in recorded history in Los Angeles. I talked to one of the girls in the bikinis. She told me she used to be in nursing school because her parents wanted her there but hated it and wanted to be an Actress so she dropped. Remains to be seen if that was a good idea or not. Just to check out my theory about how much silicon was on the set, I asked her if she had any work done. She said the only work was a tummy tuck she had because she lost 100 lbs after she had her cancerous thyroid removed and her boobs stayed large as a result.

Lunch was at 1pm. My ex was an editor and she told me how they had wonderful catering for lunch. They had the same here. They had ribs, chicken, mahi-mahi, and au gratin potatoes. I took a sample of everything. After lunch I got a ride back to the set with Byron, who came by to pick something up. It's funny, the set was just one block away, but they had shuttles back and forth between the camps. It was like that scene from LA Story, where Steve Martin gets in his car to go next door.

At 4:30pm Mark (another AD) took me over to Ester in Wardrobe. She got me everything from shirt tie, pants, belt, shoes and even socks.

7:45 started the scene I was in. The pictures were taken after we wrapped but you can see the general environment. I was behind the bar getting a drink for the villain. After the director Gloria rehearsed the scene with the stand-ins they announced the firsts were coming in. Everything was very quiet during this time. Jim took this moment to tell me Caruso is very .... focused and that anything that takes away from that focus "will destroy us". But don't be nervous, he says. We were going to do a napkin thing but we nixed it so as to not break Caruso's focus. I asked Jim if later after the shoot I could get a picture with him. Jim says Oh yeah he's great about that. Gonzalo Menendez introduced himself (very nice). He's from Miami. He's going to play Fidel Castro in The Lost City in 2005. They shot the scene about 8 times. I liked when they were shooting and Caruso suddenly said "Sorry, lost interest" and they had to do another take.

On the way out Jim got Caruso to snap a picture with me. I introduced myself, shook his hand, and Caruso said he thought I was the real thing. As you can see he's about an inch or two taller than me. Dangit. Thought he was shorter. Question: Do I look scared out of my wits or is it because I have been up since 5 am? One thing I can tell. I have to get my wife to stop feeding me so much pasta.

I was out at 8:30pm. I went back to the trailers. Turned in my clothes, signed the voucher (I am SAG so I did get paid for this), then went back to the hotel to get the car. Thank god I only do this once a year. Hmmm, KROQ is having an auction for the tsunami victims. I see there's a couple of walk on parts. Hmmmm. Here we go again...

Jim the First AD talks with Gloria the director	Jim the First AD	Cody, an AD	Jim the First AD is on the right. The woman is Natalie another AD	Mark another AD

The set all lit in broad daylight	The view right outside the hotel	Freezing their silicon off waiting for the cue	The extras sunning when the sun finally came out	Another view of them shooting

What I had to look at all morning	More of what I had to deal with

Filmography links courtesy of IMDb.