Santa Slayer

Last December, I performed a scene I wrote for the Actor's Key Holiday Showcase. It marked my first experience performing something I had written, and it was a pretty good time…you can take a trip down memory-blog-lane and revisit my post about it from last year HERE. My talented-actress-friend Jenny Robinson acted in the scene with me, and the amazing Carmen Aiello directed us. 'Twas an all-around success.

A year later comes another milestone - the first time I've put something I've written on tape, like, professionally. I met director Joab Carlos on set for a commercial early last year, and he told me about a production company he's launching called JJ Film & Photography. He was looking for content to shoot, and I had a lot of content without anyone to shoot it. So, the stars were aligned that day, or at the very least, Mercury wasn't in retrograde. We kept in touch all year, and the first result of our chance encounter is the scene from last year's showcase, on tape, right in time for Christmas. That's right: I'm gifting you with five minutes and nine seconds of holiday joy, right here, right now. You're welcome!

Thanks for watching that just now! I hope you liked it. Or, at least finished watching it so that we could garner some more views. We're ready to go viral.

All kidding aside, pulling this project together quickly and effectively was quite a feat and learning experience for me. I had never been in charge of so much on a shoot and I just want to give all of the producers I've ever met, especially ones on low/no-budget little passion/silly projects like this one, virtual snaps. You guys are amazing. I don't know how you do it (seriously though, I don't, as evidenced by how I kind of had no idea what I was doing while I was doing it yet still did it somehow). I was pretty floored by the generosity of the crew for showing up and working so hard, by the Actor's Key West for trusting me and renting us their space, by my parents who decorated our set using the childhood objects and artwork we picked out to use together and who of course provided craft service, by my synagogue's preschool for lending me little toddler chairs, and of course by Jenny and Joab and his wife Jessica for making this all possible! It's pretty insane how much work goes into even just a small, fun, little holiday sketch like this one.

Now that I've made my Oscar speech, check out some pictures from the shoot. Oh, and Happy Holidays!!!