Charlie Wilson's War and Curb Your Enthusiasm

Today we were suppose to be at rehearsal for Charlie Wilson's War. Last night I went out and filled the car with gas, bought snacks for my son in case he didn't want to eat the food served at the set, got our clothes all ready, got the map book and printed out maps from mapquest...then we got the call. Cancelled due to high winds! Damien is rescheduled for rehearsal on Monday.

My oldest brother is good friends with a guy on the crew of Charlie Wilson's War. So today, my brother calls to tell me that his friend mentioned how two of the tents blew down yesterday! That's some strong winds. Now we will call the hotline on Sunday night to get the time to be on set on Monday.

Nancy and Damien

This isn't the first cancellation of a job. About two weeks ago Damien's manager called with a job for Disney Wizards, a new TV show. We were both excited about this one because earlier in the day, Damien's friend Nancy had also been called for this job. This meant Damien and Nancy could work together and I could hang out with Nancy's Mom, Maggie. But later that night Damien's manager called back and asked what grade Damien was in. When I said 6th, they cancelled him. I called Maggie and found out Nancy had been cancelled too. At least with Charlie Wilson's War, it's not really a cancellation but a postponement.

Larry David - Curb Your Enthusiasm

About three weeks ago, Damien did a show called Curb Your Enthusiasm. He was just one of many boys playing on a soccer team. It took us much longer to get to basecamp than we expected. Apparently there was a car on fire by the side of the freeway that slowed things way down. We showed up right on time, along with quite a few others who had taken the same freeway. Basecamp was held in a park and school was in a half tent. I call it a half tent because it only had two sides and a cover. We checked in and filled out the paperwork, then Damien was off to school. The crew were especially nice on this set. They had muffins, cereal, donuts and more set out for the kids. Parents were allowed to be near there kids (some sets won't let the parents join the kids when they're schooling). One mom who homeschools, was allowed to teach her own child within the school. This set was just much more relaxed and friendlier than any we had been on before.

Damien in front of school tent at Basecamp

Then the boys were called over to a fitting. They were each given either a red or blue soccer uniform. The uniforms were too small for the boys! The shorts were so short that the tallest boy couldn't fit in the uniform and ended up standing on the sideline during filming, wearing his own clothes. Once the boys all changed, we were all taken by vans to the set. This was filming at a school in the field.

Walking from the van to the field

Never having seen the show, I was surprised at their set up. They had all of the cameras facing one way, but as the sun came up, they changed plans and moved the cameras around. They just seemed to have a "go with the flow" attitude. Later I would learn that everything done on this show is improvised. This means there is no script. Well, there must be a general script, but no specific lines. At one time, Larry David walked up to us parents (and I believe he was looking right at me) and said he was sorry for cussing in front of my son! lol I thought it was part of the script but I guess the cussing was improvised too!

They let the boys warm up by playing soccer and then put them in their positions. Damien was not placed on the field with the "teams" but put on a back field with about 4 other boys to practice shooting the ball in the net. Then the crew asked us parents to play "soccer parents". A few standing "parents" were actors, but some of us, mostly sitting were real parents. I happen to be standing. A crew member came along with tape and covered any logos we had on jackets or shirts.

This was the quickest shoot we'd ever been on. I would guess we were out on the field about an hour with filming only about half of that. By about noon we were on our way home! Even after checking out the crew asked if we'd like to stay for lunch! We didn't, in hopes of missing the evening traffic, but I wish we had. There are acting jobs posted online and I keep searching them in hopes that Damien and maybe even myself, would get cast for Curb Your Enthusiasm again.