I Scream U Scream

“Ice Cream Ice Cream For Sale”

I don’t know about you, but when I was an idiot kid, my friends, and I, and my sisters used to flip over our bikes, crank the pedals, pretend to make ice cream, then sell invisible magical flavors of the junk to each other for imaginary cash…

I’m sorry was that only a North Western Moron New Jersey thing?

Anyway, this week I was hired to write some ad copy for a local ice cream joint in my hometown, by of all people my brother, who was too young to play invisible ice cream maker/salesman with my sisters and I… And whom I don’t know if he ever played invisible ice cream make/salesman with my other brother, his twin.

Did you get all that…? Basically, this week, I wrote ad copy for an ice cream joint. And I’m sure whatever we did had a name other than “invisible ice cream maker/salesman…” But of all the things I’ve forgotten, that was one of the first to go.

It’s sort of funny, writing copy for advertisements, and even more funny writing copy for something you’d think sells itself. I mean, we’re talking ice cream. It comes with it’s own song…  “I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice cream.”

Don’t even tell me you’ve never heard that before. I’ll stop writing right now… Don’t. Don’t. I’ll stop. I will.

So, writing for an ice cream shop that’s semi-legendary where I’m from was sort of a weird experience. First, I don’t really eat too much of the frozen creamy stuff these days… Waistline issues.
Second, I had to make ice cream sound fun… Again, I don’t get it… Ice cream isn’t anything if it isn’t fun… I mean sure we all have had those bad days where we’ve laid on the couch, opened a pint of ice cream, doused it with every sweet crappy bad for us thing we have at home, and mixed them up together in a big-azz bowl and have eaten till we’ve passed out from a sugar coma, right?

If you’re still not with me, I don’t know who the heck you are… Sugar comas from over eating a massive bowl of the richest, smoothest, creamiest, ice cream, covered with melted chocolate bars, expanded and puffed out microwaved marshmallows, peanuts, or boiled down caramel cubes or warmed maple syrup… I mean come on!

I don’t know when I became a writer, but a small gig like this, that reminds me a little of my childhood, that throws me a few smackers that I can treat myself to a nice dinner perhaps, that gives me more material to blog about… I mean how can I go wrong?

Anyway, this blog is supposed to be about the life of an actor… And I suppose this small gig, is one tiny aspect of my life. Piecing together a little here, a little there.

Today at my gym I talked to a guy I used to cater with years ago… Here and in New York City… Funny how many people I’ve met over the years doing that stuff, only to bump into those same people years later doing other things… 

Sorry for the tangent, what I was going to write was that I’ve been fortunate not to have a survival job, as many define a survival job to be, for several years now… But I wanted you all to know, that unless you’re on a series for a while or leading big azz movie after movie… Chances are, everything you do that brings in money, everything you do, is just that… A survival job… Helping you survive till you get the next one, and then the next one after that.

I think the difference is doing something you don’t mind doing, or that you love doing, versus something you hate doing… Cause man, I hated catering… And with the exception of a few clients I met, and some waiters and bartenders I worked with, I had a lot of difficultly appreciating anything about it, other than some really deep-seated anger and harsh thoughts that made for some interesting writing and journaling.

-- “I scream! You scream!  We all scream for Quiche cream!” ~ Tom Kiesche

Eww. Man, sometimes those word substitutions just sound so freaking wrong.

Comments

[JimTodd]

Wednesdays are Sundays at participating Carvel's. Fudgie the Whale, Cookie Puss, etc.

[tom kiesche]

Fudgie Puss.

[susan]

I'm a Salt Fiend, myself. And if you've never continued eating a bag of salt & vinegar chips long after the artificial vinegar and mounds of salt have burned off all your taste buds (and left your tongue sore for days)... then I don't know who YOU are ;)

[tom kiesche]

All that sodium and chloride...

[A Pinyan]

In Northeast NJ, I used a flipped Big Wheel to make my ice cream... Hee hee. Makes me laugh to know that others did it too...Thanks for the flashback.

But I absolutely relate to the idea of piecing together lots of little survival jobs. As a temp who usually works multi-month stints, I've been learning to let them know I'm interested in freelance when an assignment ends - and I've started picking up bits and pieces, which are almost substantial enough now to ditch the temping over all.

I think 99% of actors need to come to terms with the idea that we will never feel "secure" and survival will always be a source of stress - the best we can do is make hay while the sun shines, but always be prepared for the rainy day(s)...