Blowhole Bob

Back in January I shot a commercial for new Chocolate Dipped Altoids. Anytime an actor books work it's a good thing, but this was an especially sweet gig because, well here's the thing... I got to have a blowhole.

You know, just like Flipper or Shamu.

I felt good about it from the moment I read the breakdown: "bitchy effeminate male receptionist with a blowhole" --Oh how many times have I longed to play that part! When I walked out of the callback, my gut told me that this gig was mine. Then again, my gut very incorrectly said this after 780 auditions previous. So when my agent called to say my gut was finally right about something, my tummy felt vindicated. Then he told me I would be going to Stan Winston Studio to have my head glopped in silicone and plaster. Cool!

The studio and the artists working there were beyond cool. You must understand that Stan Winston is a bigtime Hollywood special effects house. The main conference room is packed with original pieces of cinematic history such as Jurassic Park Dinosaurs and the Terminator. There were amazing sites at every turn like the pig from Charlotte's Web and a case full of nothing but monster eyeballs. My son really had to see this. They kindly offered to give him a limited tour.
When I returned with eleven-year-old in tow, my new best friend Paul very graciously gave up his lunch hour to show my boy the inner workings of animatronic pigs and velociraptors. Then out of nowhere a project manager came in with breaking news that needed to shave my head and make a new mold. Nathan was overjoyed to watch his old man go under the glop.

I won't give away anymore behind the scenes secrets. Suffice to say a lot of work went into making me cetaceous. The shoot was a lot of fun and I had about 240 sips of coffee while doing it so I was pretty fired up on my way home. Then nothing. I didn't hear a peep about it for months. Finally, a few days ago I started Googling around and discovered it's making rounds on various video websites. Apparently it's been "leaked" to a few million advertising types who take great pleasure in saying how they would have done it better. However reviews seem to be good. Heck, if you can even get people talking about a commercial it's a good sign. This spot (and the other three done at the same time) are certainly weird and funny enough to get a buzz going. Let me know what you think.


Check out the other three spots in the campaign: "Australian Double Back, "Banana Hands, and "Half Deer Edwards