#ActorLife

30 Day Commitment: Do not look for or accept bartending work. Focus solely on the acting career.

Two weeks ago I closed down Chelsea Grill.

Chelsea Grill had been a staple of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood for 12 years and my home for 5.

At about the same time that my boss delivered the news, I booked a Co-Star role on the first episode of a new network series.

Two days later I was on set filming The Breaks, a new VH1 series premiering in 2017. The synchronicity of these two events gave me the courage to say, "Hey, maybe it's my time."

I've been balancing bar/restaurant jobs with acting work for 12 years now, and over the last year or two it has gotten increasingly difficult as the number of auditions I get weekly has increased seven-fold (best guess).

As long as I've been in New York, my standard response to, "What do you do?" has been, "I'm an actor and a bartender." Nothing wrong with that.

For at least the next 30 days, I can honestly say,

I am an actor.

I floated the 30 day idea out to friends, mentors and my financial advisor, and what came back was a resounding “YES.”

I have paychecks coming in from multiple acting jobs, and I am not currently employed by a bar or restaurant.

I am an actor.

No addendums, no qualifications.

Now I have 30-40 more hours every week to work on all those projects I've been meaning to work on but haven't had time to, and it's terrifying.

What if I don't have the self-discipline? What if I'm right back in a bar at the end of the 30 days (if I'm lucky enough to get a good bar job)? What if I don't have any friends now that I'm not serving hundreds of friends alcohol every week? What if my life changes forever and I never have to go back to a "survival job" ever again?

So here we are. Thanks for taking this first step of the journey with me. You've just helped me complete item one on my No-Bartending-So-Get-On-It list.

"Write more."