The Hungry Hungry Writer

Traffic in LA, crowded auditions, dinner with a star, you know, the everyday life of living in Los Angeles…

Jacob had an audition for a very popular company. [cough]Disney[/cough]. It was down in Santa Monica.

So we fought traffic for an hour to drive 25 or so miles to get there. We sat there waiting, and waiting, and waiting. They didn’t have a really good call plan. They just took the kids in based on who gave them their headshot first versus going down the call sheet and calling them in. So we, unfortunately, waited about an hour before Jacob got in and did his thing.

They asked him to sing a song and dance and act goofy, so he sang Yankee Doodle and danced. At least that’s what he said. He doesn’t talk much about his auditions. Dale tries to get things out of him but its such ‘not a big deal’ that he doesn’t have much to say. He just does them and we’re outta there. It’s like no big deal to him - which is good.

We had two choices – the 105 freeway to the 110 or the 405 freeway to the 101. Both are a b-i-t-c-h at 5:45 PM. Each had some serious issues according to the traffic report, so I chose the 405 with the goal to stop at Carney’s for dinner which is off the 101.

An hour later… we’re at Carney’s and my stomach is aching for a Carney Dog like you wouldn’t believe! And who walks in with his son?

Jay Mohr.

I guess it was his son from his first marriage. But I’m not sure. It was cool, I was there with my son, he was there with his. Maybe we could chat and eat together?

I made eye contact, we smiled and he looked at me like, ‘you look familiar’. Although he didn’t know me, that’s the look he gave me. I smiled back and nodded and sat down and ate.

I wanted to talk to him. I am a fan but I decided not to bother him. I had all these openings like, hey, I saw you and your wife at the Clipper game last week… or, I love your sports bits when you’re on the radio with Rome or Joe McDonell. Or, man, a big reason I watched Last Comic Standing was because you were hosting, or even, can I take a picture of you and my son?

Whatever.

I decided to let him eat in piece. I’m not Mr. Star Struck like some of my friends are, but I have come across some of my favorite actors and wanted to pick their brain or something. Like when I ran into John C. Reilly at Sports Chalet. I wanted to take him out for sushi at a local restaurant down the street but decided not to intrude in his personal shopping time.

Jay Mohr seemed very happy to be there with his son. Again, I’m assuming it’s his son Jackson from a previous marriage. It made me wonder how often he is with his son.

I like making trips to Carney’s special with Jacob (and Isabella when she comes). So I guess I understood. He had his son up on his shoulders when they walked in, had him on his lap for a while as he chatted with some friends he ran into there, then he sat at a table with his son. He was talking about shooting a pilot or something with the gentleman he met there. It’s so ‘Hollywood’ it was kinda cliché.

Anyway, the drive home wasn’t that much better. Only 10 miles but it took about 30 minutes.

So that was my Thursday night, out on the town, painting it as red as I could with my six year old son.

Next time… next time I’ll talk to Jay.

Or hell, Jay, call me! Let’s do lunch.