Blog

One day late ’07 or early ’08, I was scrolling on MySpace. I came across this post that read ‘Looking for a Male Goth Actor” for a reality dating TV show. Something like that I suppose.

I thought to myself, I can do this. A few years earlier I was in a band with Dan Torres and his music had a bit of a goth vibe. I was also in a band called The Nocturnals in the late 90’s and we had a bit of a goth vibe too.

I’m not sure if I knew that I’d also be writing a song called “Vampires” around this time. 

I replyed to the post and I immediately got reply from the casting agent. She asked me if I could come in right away for an interview. I said yes.

I figured that I would dress up for the occasion. I think I still had my fake black leather pants, and I also had this great black velvet jacket that I loved. To take it one step further, I had my roommates daughter who happed to be at the house put make up on me. 

I showed up at the interview determined to get this part. Was I an actor, no, but in my mind I was Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson. Haha. I got along very well with the casting agent. The interview vent very well.

She told me that it will come down to me or one other person that she had in mind. It turned out that I knew who this other person was. I won’t divulge that info at this time. Sorry. 

Great news. I got the role. The TV show was called “Matched In Manhattan” and it aired on the Lifetime TV network. I believe they were in the second season of the show. The first season might’ve had a slightly different name. 

The premise of this episode was that there was a woman that was looking for a relationship but couldn’t find the right guy. She was only into Goth looking guys. 

Matchmaker and show host Matt Titus was going to find Shay a match. Matt was going to find out why she was only into looks and not so much the personality. Matts wife at the time Tamsen Fadel was his assistant. 

I knew that I would be the one that Shay would wind up with in the end because I was hired for that. They set up a speed dating night where there would be 6 different guys that she would meet. I was one of them but I was de-gothed. I acted opposite of the goth character that I turned out to be so that she wouldn’t recognize me later on. It worked. 

We filmed that segment at the famous Madame X on Housten St in New York City. It was all filmed in NYC by the way. During the speed dating segment I dressed up as a regular guy who was into classical music. Not to far from who I really am. Haha. We hit it off good but I tried to be the opposite of what she liked look wise and interest wise. 

I really enjoyed the filming aspects of this entire show. It was really cool to have all this professional TV equipment around. It was the real deal, we were filming a real or reality TV show. I can see how people, actors can get hooked on this kind of career. 

For the final meetup dinner reveal, we met at the Cloister Cafe. Shay was blow away that she didn’t recognize me from the speed dating night. We had an amazing dinner, and a great time. Shay was just great. 

I had a great time filming this. It was a great experience. I tried to pursue more things like this afterward but nothing came of it. I’m a musician. You have to focus on what you love. For me that’s music. There are enough actors in New York who are trying so hard to do what they love. I’m staying out of the way unless I stumble into the next Godfather. 

Check out the 3 video’s of the 3 segments of “Matched In Manhattan” here. It was originally aired on Valentines day ’08. Enjoy.

While you’re watching please subscribe to my Youtube channel. I release weekly videos helping guitar players improve their playing along with some performance video’s. I also go LIVE every Saturday at 1pm ET. Thank you.