A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Starring In My Own Movie

It’s never too late to do what you love. This advice is nothing new, cliche even. I’ve heard it my whole life, and I’ll bet you have too. Doing what I love meant making a feature film at age 50. And not just producing it but writing, directing, and financing it. Also, I’m the star of the movie. Yeah, I’m that kind of stupid.

This was not always the plan. After college, I began my career as an advertising copywriter, finding it a comfortable blend of art and commerce. Once I had my footing here, I made the leap to commercial directing and then wrote and directed a low-budget feature called Hickey. It met with mixed financial and critical success, and I knew I needed to improve, so I returned to my safe space and started writing again. Five features and three TV pilots later, I had finally created something worth spending my time and money on again. But then the pandemic hit. And the world shut down. But something unexpected happened—I woke up.

With everything on hold, the world granted me a system reboot and time to ponder the future, if there was even one. It was time to be honest with myself, which meant admitting that acting was my first love. And that I never had the stones to go for it because, well, failure. But now, with the earth off its metaphorical axis, the pandemic has shifted everyone’s expectations, and I had my opportunity.

And so I put pen to paper again and wrote a script I knew I could make even while the production world shut down. The more I wrote, the more I realized this might be the best and most personal script I’d ever written. And that the unlikely protagonist bore a strong resemblance to me. Shit. My damn subconscious had jumped the track over to the express train and created the role and opportunity I’d been waiting for.

But wanting to star in a movie and doing it are very different. I’ve directed enough people over the years to know the distinction and that acting takes a lot of work and dedication. So, I signed up with The Ruskin School and took intensive acting classes for almost half a year. Studying the Meisner method, I learned so much about acting and myself. Given the opportunity, I can and will bore just about anyone with these soulful discoveries.

The movie I set out to make, That’s Funny, follows the journey of a commercial director, much like myself, who believes returning to stand-up comedy is what he needs to be happy. So when he gets to perform on a popular late-night TV show, he drops everything and struggles to get together a brand-new set in less than a week. But something funny happens on the way to the Comedy Store — he learns the journey is the reward.

If he really wanted to be a comedian, he would have been out doing it, hustling, getting better, and not just waiting for some mythical big break. Because win or lose, that joy or despair only lasts a moment. But the time you put into getting there takes years. The character in the movie needed to learn this lesson to be happy. It just happened to be the same lesson I needed as well. And I guess that’s no coincidence. 

And what happens next? I have no idea. The movie released last week and currently sits at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Word of mouth is growing, winning awards at film festivals. The best part? Winning these awards feels good. But not nearly as good as the road I took to get here.