“A Strange Turn of Events.” Parts 1-2*
For those of you who don’t know, I felt pretty good about myself at The Playhouse – in other words, “Hey I got talent!” So I was totally unprepared for the absolute indifference I received when I entered the acting world.
I was able to get agents but they never sent me out on anything. So I continued to work as a Bartender and do really crappy off-Broadway plays. Stuff that was just embarrassing. I did a Billy Joel video – Keeping the Faith and you can see me clearly at 38 seconds into the video. I was part of the jury. I did some walk-ons on “One Life to Live” and had a line as an under-five on “Another World.” The line was cut during editing as the Soap broke for a toothpaste commercial on TV when it was broadcast. So things definitely were not going the way I expected. It was during this time that I started to see a Therapist to help me with some of my issues. I also started to hang around Wiser’s Book store in NYC that catered to the spiritual sort. I was concerned about life, death, why we are here, where do we go when we die, etc. So I went through what I call my “Spiritual” phase. I joined a group that turned out to be a personality cult and had a falling out with the woman who was “The Teacher ” and Leader of “The Group.” The fall out had occurred because I had not followed some mumbo-jumbo instructions to the letter, given to me by some psychic healer that was visiting “The Group.” Since I had “Deliberately” put The Group’s integrity in peril – I was labeled a “Black Magician” by my Hysterical, Corpulent “Fearless Leader” and summarily exiled from any further Group meetings and activities. Oh well, they were a bunch of Tight-Asses – So Good Riddance! I was beginning to tire of feeling like some kind of fake, emasculated, New Age Friar of “The Temple of the Goddess” anyway.
Now here’s the funny thing about Religous and Spiritual Groups and Sex. They either have all these Taboos and Thou Shall Nots rendering the whole thing into an unbearable chore, a joyless sinful act – Or – they encourage their members to go at it like Horny Goats in Season. So, go figure? That’s why I am not interested in any organized Group or Religion. It’s nobody’s damn business what goes on in my bedroom! Especially not by some Fat Broad, on a power trip, who had Fundamentalist sexual hang-ups of her own.
Ironically, years later when I went back to New York in 1995 The Group was still going strong. Creepsville man.
So I had gotten bored and tired of the whole New York Scene. No one seemed that interested in my ahem…Talented Self and I really began really develop an antipathy/ambivalence towards the acting profession and actors in general. There were teachers who were more than eager to take my money, not to mention the cost of pictures and all the other expenses that come with pursuing an acting career. As far as that Spiritual stuff – Fuggedaboutit!
So with the fallout from the group and my acting career going nowhere. I ended up saying Adios to New York and my girlfriend and I moved back to California to live in chilly San Francisco.
Why we chose that foggy, cold, moldy city is beyond me? Tony Bennett would immortalize this Wonderful City in his iconic song – “I Left my Heart in San Francisco” but if I had written the song the title it would have been “I Froze My Ass in San Francisco” cause we practically froze to death living there!
Restaurant work seemed scarce even though I did a couple of waiter gigs. To pay our rent in SF I started temping in offices around the city. I was a lousy temp. Which brings me to an interesting side note. Before I moved back to California I saw a psychic in Brooklyn who informed me that I had a lot of “Healing Energy” around me and – had I thought of becoming a Chiropractor? What? Hell no! Being a Chiropractor? I might as well have flapped my arms and flown to the Moon. So there I was – barely surviving cold SF, being a lousy temp, no acting, no spiritual group and my future looks bleak. Till one day I was walking to a temp job in the City and a thought popped into my head “Hey maybe this Chiropractic thing might be the thing I need to do. I mean the Psychic said so!”
End of Part 1
Ok, after thinking about that little voice that was nudging me regarding Chiropractic I went to my office cubicle and made some phone calls.
I found out that if I completed the one year Science Program offered at Old College in San Francisco I could apply to Dewey Bilkem Chiropractic College. The science classes were offered on weekends so I could keep working during the week.
So, long story short that’s what I did and I was accepted into Dewey Bilkem as a fulltime student for the 1990 class slated to graduate in 1994. To say it was a slog is putting it mildly. We were on the quarter system so it seemed every time I turned around I had an exam. Not only did we have school exams, but we also had national and clinic exams on top of that.
My first quarter, I got this awful feeling that something wasn’t right. The teachers were mostly inept, or assholes, or bored or at the very best benign. The school was an old Junior High School that smelled old – sort of a combo of sweat, mildew, and urine. I found the classes mostly tedious. While the Male instructors had this underlying contempt for me that I didn’t quite understand.
We had these rallies on Friday morning that we had to attend. It all felt like I was trapped in a very bad Amway convention that wouldn’t end. All I heard from speakers who were former graduates was how many patients they were seeing and how much money we were all going to make and we were total fools and losers if we weren’t successful in this wonderful profession.
I graduated in 1994 thanks with the help of my girlfriend who I had married in 1988 who also attended school with me – she managed to kept me focused. The problem at that point was I wasn’t too keen on being a Chiropractor.
Back to New York!
It was during my last two years in school I got this bizarre notion that I was only really happy in New York and that California was boring. People on the West Coast were a bunch of self-involved, self-important group of Schmucks who just didn’t get how cool New York was. When you lived in New York City you felt alive man!
So with a little money from my inheritance- my Dad passed in 1991 – I dragged my first wife back to New York in 1994 to live in Brooklyn. The great experiment lasted about 10 months whereupon I realized my folly – Hey New York was too cold, it was too hot and definitely too dirty! As I would later confide to my friends “There is a vast difference between sleeping on a dirty futon on the floor, at age 20 and trying to do the same thing at age 40!”
So it was back to the West Coast in 1995.
Unbeknownst to me what awaited me in California was divorce, acting and an unexpected career in Massage Therapy.
End of Part 2
To be, or Not to be, continued…
*About this Story:
I had written this story months before I started to think about writing a blog. I did it as kind of goof-off exercise, just to try my hand at this writing thing. I liked it so much that I then sent it out to some of my Friends to read – just see what they thought and get some feedback, etc,. Their response was favorable, so I have included it here. So if you don’t like the story and want to grouse about it – I can provide you with a list of ‘THEIR NAMES” to contact. Just kidding!
- Parts 1-4 were originally posted when I started my blog site. However, I have retracted sections 3-4 due to typos, content and grammatical issues. Also, I thought it might be a better approach to post One Part of a story at a time. Thus, giving the reader, a little more time “to digest” and enjoy what they had just read.
- Once I am satisfied that I have made necessary corrections, I will continue to post this story again – starting with Part 3. Be assured that this 10 Part Story is done and will be posted. It just needed some more polishing and proofreading.
