J David Moeller's "The Moellerizer" -An Actor's Life in Chicago.

The Five Questions

“Who the hell is J David Moeller?”

An actor learns early on there are five questions that will mark his career path.

As an unknown you will walk into the audition room, hand off the requisite picture and resume, hope the sweat stains under your arms don’t show too much and that you won’t say anything too doltish to blow it.

The first audition is, in your mind at least, the one and only audition of your career…the one that will launch you into the stratosphere of stardom, land you on the award program where you’ll forget to either thank your mother or spouse or the director and will firmly inscribe your name in the annals of entertainment history forever.

Never mind it’s for a used car dealership in North Zulch, Texas.

You give it you all; and, if you’re lucky or have perky breasts or don’t pose a threat to the client’s manhood, or, believe it or not, actually good, you just might get the job and a few bucks and free lube job for your troubles.

But…you’re on your way.

I remember my first “talent fee” commercial. I was a staff announcer at KIXL-AM/FM in Dallas: my first radio gig (starting at a top ten market station is rumored to be the epitome of “talent”, grantedly debatable).

As part of my job I regularly voiced commercials for the station’s clients that aired only on our station. One afternoon a client liked my work so much he gave me a check for twenty-five dollars!

I was so excited I phoned my wife to tell her but my fingers shook so while trying to dial the phone I must have spoken with half of Dallas before I hit the right numbers and got through to my wife. “That’s nice”, she said.

“Get me J David Moeller!”

Suddenly, in many instances overnight (after years of dues-paying), an actor becomes known: sought after. In the commercial world, copy writers might have a particular performer in mind when they create their characters and they’re hired.

I received a call at 8pm one night when I was in Austin, Tex. and Bob Beckel, the man who ran Walter Mondale’s Presidential campaign, called. Could I come down to the studio to record some spots for Carole McClellan, the Candidate for Mayor?

He said, “I asked them for the best and they mentioned you!”

I told him I’d be there in half an hour.

I was being optimistic. I didn’t have a car and would have to hitchhike. Fortunately, Austin in the 70s was a thumb-friendly town and I arrived in plenty of time.

McClellan won, too.


“Get me a J David Moeller type!”

The now well known and respected actor has arrived. He’s so good, so hot, so perfect…but, well…not exactly on the nose for this particular project…but close. Real close.

In Houston I was working with some of the finest commercial talents in the state. When Houston opened its intercontinental airport in 1969 it paved the way for producers from the west coast to bypass Dallas completely. Before, they’d have to transfer their equipment and sundries to make it to Houston and the Austin-San Antonia area for their projects. Now they could fly direct.

As a result of this new interest in the area the talent pool got more and more work giving them the chance to fine tune their skills.

One such talent was the exceptional Kirk Sisco.

One day the usual suspects were called in for a commercial audition. I was there. Kirk was there. Maybe ten or fifteen other men and women crowded the lobby with pictures and resumes in hand, all going over the sides for the commercial.

Copied at the top of the men’s side was written, as an afterthought, “Kirk Sisco type”.

Now we have Kirk Sisco auditioning for a commercial calling for a “Kirk Sisco type”.

I never learned who got the part. But there was smiling and joking going on that afternoon in that lobby.

“Get me a young J David Moeller!”

The bane of all actors: age. We ain’t pretty anymore. Lines and sags and bulges, Oh My!

Today, that can be handled with varying degrees of surgical and aesthetic success, depending on the viewer, and the recipient’s ego’s point of view.

Silicone made the burlesque/stripping world take notice.

Bored housewives discovered renewed spousal interest and improvements were made both at home and in the method and substance of implantations.

Credit cards made similar work available to the eager acting community as well.

Someone discovered the injection of botox, a botulism-like chemical, made improvements in the face’s structure…never mind the signpost of the human condition, would never again exhibit meaningful emotion.

The trick at this point in the career is to accept nature’s little follies and become an old character actor, or try to fool no one but one’s self and succumb to the knife and needle trade.

“Who the hell is J David Moeller?”

It is at this point I find now myself. After 50 or so years of trying with varying degrees of success to “make it big”, I find that few, if any, are even asking the question at all.

I have a habit of glancing over my shoulder from time to time, only to reaffirm what I already know: they’re not lining up around the block to book me for even a used car dealer’s commercial in North Zulch.

I, thus, write words in a blog no one read clinging nonetheless to the hope they might.

I load memorabilia into web pages as “proof” of my having had my foot in the door at least a few times.

I highlight the good parts of my reviews interspersed amongst the photographs to remind myself I really was “critically acclaimed”.

And, even I myself, often wonder, “Who the hell is J David Moeller?”

J David Moeller -"The Moellerizer" An Actor's Life in Chicago
J David Moeller -"Wisdom"

J David Moeller -"The Wail"

-My pledge-

"The Wail"/My Pledge

"Waiting For Godot" -A Review

“Waiting For Godot” Chicago -A Review-
J David Moeller’s The Moellerizer

Redtwist Theatre, Chicago, IL

Four Molars!

“Waiting For Godot”
-The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly-

The Good:

Redtwist Theatre, formerly the Actor’s Workshop, presented Samuel Beckett’s enigmatic classic “Waiting For Godot” (now modernly pronounced "God-o") last night to a predominantly wizened full house of Jefferson Committee members, a reviewer or two, and friends of the existentialist’s dissertation on Hope.

Two souls: Estragon –the forgetful, and Vladimir –the historian; together for at least half a century, meet daily at an obscure point in their world to pass the time attempting amusement while they attend the arrival of the titular entity.

As we watch, the hopelessness of their assigned duty, their lives, and plight grows more and more evident. Their momentary fruitless attempts to occupy themselves only strengthen and encourage their angst.

Enter Pozzo and Lucky, slaver and acquiescent carrier, yards long hemp leash around his neck. Perhaps Hope has arrived? Or just passing through?

(l-r: Mike Nowak, Bob Wilson)
Mike Nowak, as Vladimir, plays the vacuous know-it-all of the two abiders, and his characterization lures the audience into his guise with deceptive ease. We accept him; and, willingly, believe he knows whereof he speaks, a thoroughly generous credit to his style and ability. His presence commands admirably. He gives us a brilliantly and touchingly played soliloquy in Act Two in a moment of enlightenment. Or is it nostalgia?

On the other hand, Bob Wilson’s Estragon appears to know and understand more than he will admit even to himself. His gentle subtlety and acquiescence works beautifully in sync with Nowak's bewildered savant. Wilson knows his character’s inner workings and, with delicacy and immaculate timing, reveals it to us.

Noah Simon as the slaver, Pozzo (“PPPpppppOTzo!”) is a joy to watch –as is his mole. Here he has created the quintessential grandiloquent buffoon. Too, his mastery over Lucky, the hapless be-roped mule, is here beautifully played in his calculated and precise allowance of the age-old delicate balance of dominant/submissive to flow back and forth between the two, seamlessly.

(l-r: Noah Simon, Bob Wilson, Andrew Jessop)

And then there’s Lucky, this writer’s favorite character (a love affair first set ablaze 46 years ago after reading the play in Switzerland). Who is Lucky (so named also in the original French) and what about his one line in the play?

Jack MacGowran, who worked closely with Beckett on his embodiment of the character, stated the famous speech deals with “…the consistency of the Divine…shrinkage of humanity…petrification of the earth…”

It is said the speech, all 700+ words of it written in a stream-of-consciousness word salad, perhaps exemplifies the thoughts at the abyss of the ultimate corporeal departure, and the character, Lucky, personifies humanity’s grace.

Andrew Jessop slides onto the stage, panting “like a grumpus”, laden with suitcase, picnic basket, his master’s greatcoat and stool. He sleeps whenever and wherever he falls, which is often, or sags –still encumbered- into slumber .

One immediately is taken by Jessop’s obeisance. He gracefully pulls us to him and we suffer his consignment, his lot. Jessop came to the role late in the rehearsal process and his assumption of Lucky is perfect. While he is subdued, he still proffers strength; and when he ignites it is surprisingly unexpected and brilliantly alive.

(l-r: Mike Nowak, Bob Wilson, Andrew Jessop)

Toward the ends of the acts Boy appears. Boy is not a wait-er, he tends goats for Godot, and relays his messages to those who do. It is always the same. It is always expected. It is always.

Proof there are indeed no small parts, Adam Shalzi’s Boy is spot on…the enigma of it was subtly poignant.

(l-r: Bob Wilson, Adam Shalzi, Mike Nowak)

Here his eyes, ever watchful, almost pleading, almost over-wise, almost pitiable are magnetic. His brief moments solidify his facility of craft.

Critically acclaimed Director Jimmy McDermott, the former artistic director of Glencoe’s estimable Writer’s Theatre, has mounted a magnificent production and fleshed it out with superb performers worthy of Beckett’s pen.

This is a deceptively difficult play. Its dialog meanders, often incoherently, through the minds of the men we see. On the page, it reads with a modicum of sense. In preparation and performance it is revealed as much deeper and invested with intricacies far more distressing and affecting.

McDermott, for the most part, and with much thanks to the intelligence and acuity of his wards, draws out the pure gold in this fertile mine.

His experience with the métier is apparent.

The Bad:

Like Dickens’ Tiny Tim’s gushing, “God bless us…every one!” Lucky’s is the “money” speech, the one that people will pay to hear.

It is considered one of the greatest speeches in modern theater. No one fully understands it, it is continually analyzed; but it is written to be heard, so the attempt at gleaning some insight can once again be experienced.

Here, McDermott not only fails the playwright, but his actor. The maddening drudgery of committing those nonsensical words is almost Sisyphusian labor in the least. To have rolled the stone to the acme after his late start is monumental.

McDermott has directed his others to mount a rising cacophonic din commencing midway through the dissertation which, unrelentingly, builds to such a level and furor that Jessop is barely audible; never mind the toll on his mental acuity, his focus –his maintenance of which is Herculean.

The audience and the actor are denied.

The Ugly:

The wigs. They are the only veritable deal breakers here.
-------------------------
“Waiting For Godot” plays Thursdays through Sundays (no performance 8/6) at Redtwist Theatre, 1044 W. Bryn Mawr, Chicago. Times and Tickets: 773-728-7529. Closing August 23.

J David Moeller's "The Moellerizer"

Snapshots From "Betty Anne Waters"

Starring Hillary Swank

and with (don't blink)

J David Moeller

as

J David Moeller Grandpa

J David Moeller with
Andrew Sugarman, Producer of "Betty Anne Waters"

J David Moeller with
Tony Goldwyn, Director

J David Moeller with
Bailey Madison as Young Betty Anne, my granddaughter.

J David Moeller with

Karen Young Plays my Daughter, Elizabeth -Betty Anne's Mother

Grandpa and Stunt Grandpa, Tobiasz Daszkiewicz

An unused wardrobe shirt.

It was a chilly windy -which made it even chillier- day in May in Ann Arbor when we shot the final scenes of the film. The film wrapped in March, but the last few scenes with the children were postponed due to school and the weather. It was called "The Spring Shoot".

The film tells the true story of a young woman whose brother is convicted of murder and who puts herself through Law school, passes the bar and fights to have him released. In our story there are only two children of the mother...but in real life the mother had 9 children with 7 men and who'd bring them home to stay with her father and look after the children while she went out clubbing and drinking and whatever. She evidently liked whatever.

The film's due to be released toward the end of the year and there was talk on the set of an Oscar contention.

J David Moeller's "The Moellerizer"

J David Moeller in "Detour Home"

"Detour Home"

a Columbia college

Practicum Film

Each year, Columbia College –the largest arts and communications school in the country and one of the finest- picks 5 of its top undergraduate film students to write, produce and direct a short film, a highly prestigious honor. These films then go on to film festivals around the world, even into competition for coveted Student Academy Awards (The Oscars!), as one of last years films has done.

I submitted my picture and resume for consideration as an actor and was brought in to audition for director Justin Stowell's “Detour Home” –screenplay by Charice N. Long.

The first audition was comfortably relaxed and pleasant. Many actors hate to audition; but, personally, I don’t mind at all. It gives me a chance to create a new character, meet new people in the business; and, ultimately, make an investment in being hired in the future.

Often we actors don’t get the parts we audition for. But, by auditioning, we’re imprinted in the minds of the casting directors and other professionals and just might come to mind for future projects they’ll be working on.


Once the audition was finished I wished all there good luck on the project, said I’d love to do the part and went away prepared to play “Hurry up and Wait!” –the bane of all auditioners.


Will I get a call-back? What did I do right? Wrong? Did I over/under play it? All these thoughts run through the mind, including -in some- the firm belief "I'll never work again". Fortunately, we do.


We’re admonished: Do the audition and forget about it. Yeah. Like we're going to forget.


I love the processes that go on. Hate them too, but from each audition I learn something.


Then, I got called back to read with another actor in the scene.


Amy J. Carle, a highly talented Chicago actress, was my scene partner.


We both were cast. Amy playing a woman on her way home from work who picks up a stranded motorist (played by another fine Chicago actress, Rebekah Ward-Hays).


Along the way they stop at a service station (mine) and I intuitively feel Amy's character needs support and try to provide it, subtly. It’s a short, but beautiful scene on many levels from an actor’s perspective.


My character went through three total changes, script wise. The finale re-write was “dead on” in my mind, and further indication of the level of talent behind-the-scenes on this production.


My part was shot the second night of a three night shoot.


When I arrived on the set at my 2am call time, it was evident the production team was tired…but I have never seen a more professionally oriented cast and crew on any shoot.


The enthusiasm, teamwork, energy and craft made for an electrically charged atmosphere any actor would be comfortable working in. I felt right at home.


Watch for “Detour Home” at a film festival near you…and at the Student Academy Awards!


And remember Justin Stowell’s name. He’s going to be a biggie. His ease of direction and comfort working with his actors is inspiring. He knows how to communicate his ideas and does so with facility.


His crew was dedicated and in total control of their areas of expertise. The atmosphere on the set was relaxed and friendly, everyone was focused on creating a work of craft and art. "Detour Home" will do well for all involved.

Amy J. Carle (L) as Diane, J David and Dir. Justin Stowell discuss script and action for the upcoming scene.
2 Photos: Amanda Bose w/permission of James Babiarz, Producer

"I've met a few (Doctors) in my day" J David, as Roscoe, tells Diane.

Director Justin Stowell (L) and J David Moeller

Kit does the coif!

That’s a wrap!

"Betty Anne Waters" -Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow!

J David Moeller

"I lost 22 inches and was never hungry!"

A character actor goes through personality changes faster than the infamous "Sybil" ever did, in relation to his career. A lead actor can make an entire career out of playing "himself" but the character actor rarely gets to "be at home" in his own skin from one role to the next.

The sacrifices made can be quite extreem ranging from gaining and losing extraordinary amounts of weight, ala Robert DiNiro in "Raging Bull", to this writer's shedding of 22 inches of lovingly grown and maintained hair.


It wasn't the first time for a haircut for a role. That came in 1978 for the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol".

Then, in 2008, Johnny Depp came through Chicago filming "Public Enemies". I audtioned for the role of the prison warden in a scene where Depp, playing John Dillinger, grabs and threatens him in an attempt to break out.


I was offered the role, contingent on my cutting my hair, now falling to the small of my back after 15 years growth. I was under contract to WildClaw Theatre to keep my hair and beard intact for the role I was playing in "The Great God Pan" where I played a hundred year old blind man being interrogated by a Nazi intelligence operative...and had to turn down the coveted role.

Now, two years later, Hillary Swank comes to the Midwest with her production of "Betty Anne Waters", the story of a young woman who enters law school later in life to get her degree and fight to get her brother released from prison for allegedly murdering a neighbor -a true story.

Again I was offered the role -as "Grandpa". I would be working in a flashback to when she was eight years old. As before, the producers wanted the hair cut. This time I was under no obligation to keep the length, and accepted the part.

However, I did feel that 15 years was worth something in terms of compensation and my agent -Gray Talent Group- successfully negotiated an equally amenable fee for the trimming.

The film was being shot in Ann Arbor, Michigan; and, at the end of February, I took the train to the set to get the haircut by their hairstylist. They needed me in town for a photo shoot for pictures to display around my casket in a funeral scene. The rest of my work takes place mid-May.

I traveled 500 miles round trip to get that haircut and got paid quite handsomely for it.

It doesn't take long to reverse Mother Nature