News
01-30-2010 - I'm very proud of our work with kids with autism. Nice article about CSA, Carey Services and Grant County Co-op in the National Magazine of American Theatre. http://www.csa-marion.com/pdf/Autism%20CSA.pdf
09-15-2009 - Patrick Swayze was a true major league Hollywood Movie star who I had the great pleasure of working with, in the move I co-wrote Waking Up In Reno. Patrick, was a triple threat, which is what I encourage all of my students to become. Why? Because their chances of working in this very difficult business increase dramatically & and with odds so stacked against artists they need every advantage they can get. Patrick was a true student of his art! He was a great classically trained dancer, he sang and was a heck of an actor. In Reno he loved the part of Roy and wanted to do it, but my understanding is that they didnt let him read for it because he just wasnt right for the role. Objectively speaking, as the writers of the film we agreed. Brent and I thought Patrick was way too handsome, and too macho to play the role of an overlooked simpleton. But Patrick was a fighter and determined & he was assertive! That was impressive and so cool! Then Billy Bob Thornton, who we originally wanted for Roy, said he wanted to play Lonnie Earl and he wanted Patrick to do Roy. Let me be clear that as writers we had NO SAY & but as actors, and as people who trusted Billy Bob Thorntons artistry and judgment from working with him before, we adjusted our mindset. Patrick and Billy Bob didnt disappoint. Patrick is a sincere, sweet, humble man and that quality came honest to him in the role of Roy. He was very endearing and quite impressive. On the set, as a person, he was very kind, polite to everyone and very approachable. He had a scooter that he buzzed around the set on. He had a wicked sense of humor. He talked a lot about his passion about doing a movie for his wife Lisa, who was going to direct when they got the funding & it was about one of their true passions & dance! They succeeded. Patrick was gracious enough to do an improvised skit on video for Brent and I, for our beloved teacher Jim Miller from the University of Missouri. Patrick made it up and acted like they were once lovers & it was hysterical!!! What a fun gag for our teacher who got Brent and I convinced we needed to pursue the profession. I had the honor to be in a funny scene with Patrick and the entire cast in the cop scene. Its a treasure I will always hold dear to me. A few years after the movie I saw Patrick on the red carpet of an Academy Award party. He was so lovely and kind and picked me up like a catcher picking up his pitcher who just won a World Series! Flash bulbs went off that would light up the sky & as the paparazzi started taking a flood of pictures. Who is that guy that Patrick is hugging? &. When someone said about me hes a writer & the flashes immediately stopped and it was very funny and quite humbling. I was a major star for 5 seconds and then a nobody the next. :) William Shockley, an actor buddy of mine from Madison, who was also on the red carpet with me said, Hey at least you are on this side of the ropes. We laughed and went in and spent some time with Patrick & On another note, I spent most of that night with another legend who recently passed this year & Walter Cronkite. Yes Walter Cronkite was sitting at the bar with me and Fred Durst from Limp Biskit. What a threesome! What a night! Patrick saw the highest of highs in Hollywood and some low lows. But Patricks fight, talent, kindness, humility, resilience and his legendary work is what will be remembered and stand the test of time. Its hard saying goodbye to yet another major talent that I had the pleasure of working with. God Bless you and Lisa. Save a spot for me up there big man and I hope when I see you again you will embrace me like you did on the red carpet and the flash bulbs will go off because this time I do belong. :)
07-27-2009 - Yet another legend passes. Walter Cronkite. I spent a majority of a Miramax Academy Award party talking with Mr. Cronkite on one side of me and Fred Durst on the other. It was one of the most facinating and surreal evening's of my life. Both were so very nice to me ... and I am talking hours of conversation. It will be something I never forget.
CSA has a new home and it is awesome. See updates at www.csa-marion.com
I am working on making the Samaritan ... aka Bite me next April. Lot's of work to do to prep for that.
07-08-2009 - Burt Reynolds magazine article. He gives me a nice mention. Click here to download.
05-25-2009 - I am preparing for the biggest challenge of my life to date. I have tons to do to make my movie this fall ... BITE ME. :) I have been blessed to have worked with a ton of great people and have wonderful friends. This is the time I need the rally cry! It's a giant Mountain to climb ... but if we can pull it off the rewards are high. Whooooooooooo! The ultimate challenge is now staring me in the face!
05-24-2009 - CSA had a huge night of success at the 6th Annual Go-Art Go-Kart race! Largest crowd ever! 91 businesses helped provide racers to support the Arts. For neat articles of this event please check out CSA NEWS at:
http://www.csa-marion.com/News/2008-news.cfm
05-11-2009 - Last Friday I got to see the legendary Jerry Lewis perform. 84 years old and still rocking the house!! Pretty impressive. Then I got to go backstage with French Tap teacher Pascal Hulin ... and meet Mr. Lewis. I am honored!! Big thanks to Tod Minnich!
05-06-2009 - Growing up I was a big fan of Dom Deluise! I became a bigger fan after I had the pleasure of knowing him. Dom became my teacher, my director, my actor, and more importantly a dear family friend. When I was in school I use to watch this comic genius on television and on the big screen seemingly have more fun than anyone on the planet. I think Burt Reynolds and Dom created the outtakes that we all enjoy today from virtually every movie we see. If they didn't create it they are definitely the ones who made it famous! Professionally, Dom was loved and embraced by Hollywoods biggest stars!!!! He was Burt Reynold's sidekick in many huge movies! He was Dean Martin's right hand man. Mel Brooks put him in virtually everything he did. Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Johnny Carson ... you name it and Dom knew them and he was loved by all! You want to see GREAT ACTING??! Please watch the movie THE END . Doms performance was awesome! His range of emotions in the role he played was wildly unpredictable! He was "normal ", crazy, crying, angry, silly, friendly, dangerous and downright nuts! Dom's character was literally all over the place and yet it completely tracked!!! I've never seen anything like it. A comedic actor can often back off when its time to get emotional ... not Dom! He embraced it like no other! He was fearless!!!
In 1986, I had the great pleasure of having him as my teacher at Burt Reynolds theatre. Dom was terrific! He also directed Brighton Beach Memories with Norman Feld and Peter Deluise while I was there. I was Peter's understudy for the show and that was a lot of fun, but the highlight was sitting next to Dom every day watching him work. He was incredible. So funny! So smart! Dom was wonderful with props and would often build them right there while watching rehearsals. At times he would also be sitting watching great actors act and then literally begin falling asleep. I would watch him nod off, snore and then pop out of his chair as if it never happened and KNOW everything that just took place on stage with the actors and then gave brilliant notes. It was unbelievable! I would laugh hysterically!! Was this part of an act? How did he do that? There's no way he could actually be sleeping, snoring that loud and yet be that keen and aware to all the fine details that even a talented person on their A game couldn't discover. And yet Dom did it! It was one of the many gifts that Dom Deluise would posses! His mind was always working!
It was there at Burt's theatre where I had the pleasure of meeting his three sons and wife too. WOW! What a family! What class! Dom was a big star and brought his family to my little tiny apartment to eat pizza and invited me to their gorgeous place to enjoy him cook pasta! WOW! I was so honored! Watching him cook was a virtual comedy show! So funny! Now I was in Jupiter for a year and met a ton of high profile stars. We all exchanged numbers etc ... and I thought I had about 30 people I could call when I went to LA. Julie and I got married, drove across the country in a station wagon with no plan, no house, just 30 numbers to see if anyone could help me with my dream. For the most part 27 calls never got answered ... the 28th was John DAquino who made me feel like a prince. The 29th was Charles Nelson Reilly who made me feel like a queen. LOL! (Charles was great) My 30th call was to Dom Deluise who made me feel like a king for life. That was just who he was. Day 1 he immediately invited me to watch him loop for SPACE BALLS with Mel Brooks and taught me about looping and doing voice overs. Weeks later he had me and Julie over to his house for lunch and introduced me to Bernadette Peters, Mel Brooks, Ruth Buzzi, Carol Kane etc ... and had me do impressions for them and treated me like an equal. I couldnt believe it. With all the rejection in Hollywood he and his family accepted us. He invited us over all the time. Many weekends were spent with my adopted family the Delusie's. Dom would leave funny messages on my answering machine and I would leave them on there for 6 months sometimes to just remind myself that someone who has made it in this biz actually thought I had something to offer amidst all of the rejection. I mattered to someone. A simple phone message would be heard over and over to remind me to keep fighting and keep the faith for what I believe in. One time he was directing a movie and invited me to audition for the role ... I felt good about it and unlike so many in Hollywood he called me that night and was very excited about my audition. He talked me through every step of the movie. Even when I lost the part eventually he was very sensitive to me as a friend!! What a great place that town would be if there were more artists and people like Dom Delusie.
I really befriended his kids. Great guys! Wonderful guys!!! I also love his wife Carol. Carol and I were in an original musical together called JUMP ROPE. It was actually a very good story with fun music. It was a paid gig and we were opening in Lake Havasu ... but Carol, the cast and I had a big problem ... a first time director who was in way over his head. We had 10 minute blackouts as the sets were being changed. It was a disaster in the making. We tried to help the director, but there was no hope ... we needed a miracle! We needed a director. We got one! With 24 hours before we opened Dom Deluise flew in on a private plane and took over the show. He instantly fixed the blackouts and tightened the show! Like at Burt's theatre he would snore at times while we performed but then pop up and give us GREAT notes. He was determined to make the show wonderful as the clock ticked down closer to opening. He bought props, he made props he was calm and cool and kept us cool. What great things I learned from the master. The show worked like gang busters and it was all because of Dom Deluise. After the show Dom, Carol and I would go out and for no reason Dom would take a drink and throw it on me to make a scene. I took a drink and threw it on him. We laughed and had fun with everyone in the place. I felt like a mini-Burt Reynolds on Carson! I was so honored to be there and to learn so much! To have people who cared about my family and me.
In 1996, I was directing ITS ALL ABOUT YOU. I had a character based on my dad. My dad is a very sensitive loving man, but no matter what personal crisis I may be going through my dad would somehow incorporate a monologue about his hatred towards my mother and his ex-wives, which would trump in his mind any problem I would have. One day coming fresh off of a dad monologue, I wrote everything down verbatim and incorporated it in the movie. I asked Dom if he would be so kind to play my dad ... and sadly I had no money to offer any actors. Dom graciously accepted. Do you know how much that meant to me? Do you know what that did for my creditability? Do you know how high he raised the bar? What it did for me as an artist who had something to say? When I watched Dom get angry and sad and add all the levels, I saw my dad come to life. I laughed so hard and yet cried on the set!!! I couldnt believe what I was seeing. This legendary actor gave me his all (tears, laughs, reputation) to help my little movie. The movie won Best Comedy at the Beverly Hills Film Festival! When my dad saw it he was very flattered!! I also think by my dad seeing Dom play him, it may have helped slow down my dad's monologues about my mom and his past. Watching Dom play that role to a tee was very cathartic.
Dom wrote childrens books and signed them and gave them to my kids. He sent me a post card once in awhile with artwork that he created. Every year I looked forward to getting a Christmas card with a picture of the entire Deluise clan!
Dom was a great talent, friend, teacher, director, and actor but his greatest creations was his family! They all embraced the Fausers. They did a movie BETWEEN THE SHEETS and cast me in the film. They had the Fausers in their house all the time. Michael and Peter advised me soooo much on my movie and still continue to advise me on my new upcoming project. David is a big star on the Disney Channel Show Wizards of Waverly and is funny like his dad! Peter is best known for his role on 21 Jump Street with Johnny Depp, but on top of being a great actor he directs all the time! He is smart as a whip and a gem! Michael is as good as it gets. Wayne's World Star, NYPD BLUE, GREAT HUMAN BEING! I LOVE HIM SOOO MUCH! He is super talented, humble, kind and could own Marion Indiana after his two visits here. He is beloved by my family, friends and CSA. He was very close to his family and we often talked about how hard this day will be and I hope he and the family knows forever how much I love them. Finally, Carol is the matriarch. Class kind thoughtful talented giving and the glue that kept the family together.
I will forever be indebted to the Deluise family and already miss my teacher, director, actor, and friend. Dom, if I could only watch you act one more time, direct, snore, build a prop, cook, yell, watch you do accents, listen to your messages on my machine, throw a drink on me, and see one more Christmas card with you and your family on it ... it would be so nice. But as you taught me ... the show must go on! I promise you I will work hard to make you proud of your investment in my family and me. Love you always!!!! Your student!!!
03-19-2009 - I'm very sad about Natasha Richardson's passing and my heart goes out to her family and friends. I had the great pleasure of working with her and she was as classy as she seemed. As an actress she was stellar! Tony award winner! Versatile! Stage - Screen! Major talent! As a writer it is rare to see stuff that you had in your head and put to the page come out EXACTLY the way you envisioned it after it goes through all the processes. Natasha was representing my mother in law in Waking Up In Reno and 2 scenes stand out to me that not only hit the mark but surpassed it. A scene outside a hotel room between her and Billy Bob Thornton. It was funny, very touching and very sad!!! True pain ... her tears move me to tears because the pain of disconnect is real in many marriages and both actors hit it out of the park. The other scene that blows me away is the scene outside of the elevator between Natasha and Charlize Theron! Two superstars going toe toe! It's the wake up scene! Tremendous emotion! Surpassed the imagination! I will always thank her for helping that come to life and become etched in my mind forever. Some actors don't like to hear this, but I mean it in the most complimentary way. She is very attractive on screen but somehow she is even more attractive in person! Perhaps it's her classy, sweet personality that gets thrown in the mix but she was stunning. Finally, Natasha and the other stars did something very nice for Brent and I. One of the reasons Brent and I got into acting and the business was because of our fabulous college professor at the University of Missouri ... Jim Miller. The students and University had a reunion to honor our teacher. Natasha and the other stars talked about our teacher on video like they were the best of friends. What she did was very funny and very nice for someone we love! Natasha is a class act and she will be missed. I hope she saves a front row seat for me in heaven.
03-18-2009 - My thoughts and prayers are with Natasha Richardson! She was the star of Waking Up in Reno and a delight to work with.
