tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58496241864658564892011-11-27T15:24:48.698-08:00No one forgets her name for two reason. "Sex in the City" and her work as a performer in the alternative performance scene in NYC. An actress. a comedian, and a director- the real Samantha Jones lives the real life of an artist in NYC and this is where it all ends up.Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.comBlogger321100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-59389288551432037822010-05-24T11:18:00.000-07:002010-05-24T11:37:08.549-07:00

When you work hard at something you don't love, things get messy. There's no avoiding it. For example, you have periods of time where you just don't work out and you eat horribly. You're clothing gets tight but you can't afford new clothes so you just wear clothes that are too tight. So what? You hate this job anyway. Who cares if your stomach hangs over your belt buckle? Everyone,

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-45870076351616428882009-12-02T15:36:00.000-08:002009-12-02T16:11:29.624-08:00

I was in Cape Cod last week and found myself of Facebook. Poking around. Mark, a very old friend I hadn't seen in about ten years, was online so we began to chat. Mark is one of the nicest people in the world. The first time we hung out was in Chicago. He was rooming with my boyfriend at the time and volunteered to take me out the first night I'd arrived to visit. My boyfriend was busy....

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-61605484728475138932009-09-28T05:36:00.000-07:002009-09-28T05:55:20.233-07:00

Max the dog woofed. Then he woofed again. He often wakes me up this way at six a.m. His black eyes stare at me through his white dog bangs and when my eyes open he wags his tail like its Christmas. Its the little things that matter to Max. I learn from him.I creaked my eyes open after a long night at Odessa's and suddenly found myself smiling. My sister and I played at Grudge Match with a list

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-42782355532808221572009-08-22T19:18:00.000-07:002009-08-23T14:18:11.731-07:00

I don't "review" often. I'm extremely picky when it comes to books. The books I am most fond of are written by Jennifer Belle, whom I now know personally. I take book writing pretty seriously. I think it's because I am so damn picky. I think it's because when I find a book I actually want to read I enjoy it so damn much I am willing to go out of my way to meet the author and buy a bazillions

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-86508416433086816612009-08-10T15:25:00.000-07:002009-08-10T16:05:56.533-07:00

It's been awhile since I've written to you all. The past few months included me moving, adjusting, bringing my dog up, him adjusting, and launching and building my new business. My absence in "the scene" is due to my after show commute almost tripling as well as my dog requiring 6am walks. No excuse for the wicked, I know. But sometimes adjustment is necessary.So I am back living in Washington

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-459992094936201752009-04-29T15:50:00.000-07:002009-04-30T07:46:21.916-07:00

Last night I finally made it back to Penny's. I'm living back up in Washington Heights and truth be told, it's a far hike down to the Lower East Side on a weekday. Even longer back home after midnight when the train goes local. Another truth, I'm not 20. Makes a difference. And when the clock strikes 9pm I'm thrilled if I'm home in my pajamas. I've quit wheat. I've quit caffeine. I'm working

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-68476854142752930422009-04-01T20:45:00.000-07:002009-04-01T21:34:40.320-07:00

I'm no critic. I'm a sponge for provocative performances. I love solo shows. Probably because I've found the format to be the perfect canvass for the inner workings of my creativity. Not every performer wants to do a solo show. Theres a band of us and most of us feel like we walk alone in life. Some of us are able to blend in on some level, but most of us are slaves to our deep understanding

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-63481743740434706062009-01-21T00:01:00.000-08:002009-03-18T20:57:41.668-07:00

Life. It can overwhelm you. One minute, you do what you do. Float along. You're one of the good ones. The next minute everything takes a 180. Confusion. Disillusionment. You immediately regret a flip choice and want to go back ten steps. But you can't. What's done is done. You move on as a person who did whatever that was. The world sees you differently, but still have the same old face

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-7787103463847950792009-01-13T22:20:00.000-08:002009-01-17T14:30:55.340-08:00

The energy sizzled at Penny's Open Mic tonight. We all felt it. We were over excited. I hadn't been there in over a month and I was thrilled to be back home. There comes a responsibility with art. Artistic pursuit requires nurturing or you lose it. It's like being given a baby and not feeding it. Eventually child services shows up and says you're unfit. When I don't perform for more than a

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-41537561789390328142009-01-10T13:48:00.000-08:002009-01-10T14:19:40.859-08:00

You have one life and then suddenly it's all different. Break ups. I sit here watching this incredible snow storm and am overwhelmed with how little is in all of our control. It's particularly obvious when relationships break up. People promise this and that to each other and sometimes it all works out that way. But isn't it weird when it doesn't? I mean, seriously. We should be able to say I

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-61533816519293161532009-01-05T19:09:00.000-08:002009-01-07T06:59:10.110-08:00

The message has been said over and over again. Visualize it. Just visualize it and it will happen. See it and it will manifest itself before your eyes. The older I get the more of my friends say, "Yeah right" with a twisted up mouth and take another drag of their cigarette. How can people still smoke? Really. It amazes me. But seriously...it does look cool. My coolest characters smoke. But

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-5728301627971296002008-12-15T19:49:00.000-08:002008-12-16T19:53:47.485-08:00

I see people. Deeply. It gets me in trouble. I can sit in the subway and stare at a person while my face magically morphs into theirs. My sister hates it. I don't even realize I'm doing it. It's out of worship...not imitation.When people talk to me I very often become too interested in what they're saying, or rather the look in their eyes, and want to dig deeper. Figure them out. Hook in.

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-48572688713817930182008-12-01T18:35:00.001-08:002008-12-02T04:59:32.295-08:00

Nine stories down the sidewalk squeals with a twenty something woman and some goofy guy she clearly has a crush on. I got an unexpected call last night from someone who wants another chance...or maybe the first official opportunity he has to take a chance with me. Funny. I just finished a song about him but was only able to write it once I thought that chance had passed. Maybe it was just

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-77609188716095778622008-10-31T20:56:00.000-07:002008-10-31T21:15:58.593-07:00

My life requires me to sleep more. It's terribly square and restricting. I can remember a similar feeling when I was too young to go out and do what grown up kids do. The difference now is the thing I wish I could do every night is perform. I want to roam the Lower East Side with my band of pulsing artists. I want to sit in awe at their work and then step up to the plate myself and perform as a

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-9275233604352429242008-10-15T21:19:00.000-07:002008-10-20T15:02:04.264-07:00

A man and a woman stand on the Brooklyn bridge at 6am having not yet slept. They watch and wait for the threatening sunrise as they marvel at the miraculous knowing of each other. Waiting for the ball to drop, when they will no longer be allowed to conspire. To plot their destruction of all that threatens to hold us back and instead infuse inspiration to the point of shock waves though man kind

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-76938616880638711932008-09-27T12:53:00.000-07:002008-09-28T09:15:29.388-07:00

We all have moments of uncertainty. I haven't written in awhile for a reason. I met a publisher and started thinking about publishing my blog as a book. As soon as I started thinking about that I started censoring what I wanted to write here. I sat down to write twice and stopped almost immediately because I thought about who would be reading this.I dropped outside of myself and started

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-33321208720883658012008-09-11T20:53:00.001-07:002008-09-11T21:19:54.206-07:00

Square. It's a term I suddenly brought back into my life like a vengeance from a GIDGET episode. It really says it all, doesn't it. "What a square!" It's like the lowest. I love it. It makes me laugh. Right now I feel like a square. I'm sitting on my bed wrapped in a pink robe with a plastic sheath wrapped around my head like a swami. I'm soaking my head in henna and drinking a light beer.

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-4713033593729653162008-09-07T19:03:00.000-07:002008-09-07T19:50:14.228-07:00

I want to go live is Paris for awhile. I had my first kiss in Paris. I was 16. He was from Sicily. I was sitting is a youth hostel with two of my equally inexperienced friends from back home in NYC. Each one of us had one Sicilian boy to ourselves, but all six of us sat together in a tiny room with two skinny beds. The conversation was limited to us teaching each other swear words in either

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-80316508381611455302008-09-01T12:46:00.000-07:002008-09-10T19:35:52.715-07:00

So when I started stand up in the early 90's I did it not because I liked it. I did it because it scared me to death. Eventually I moved into doing solo shows because I LOVED It ...and it scared me to death. After several years of doing both and teaching others to scare themselves to death I realized I had forgotten to jump off a cliff lately. To take a risk. To force myself to dig deeper into

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-19977876315678251692008-08-27T06:45:00.001-07:002008-08-29T11:13:13.555-07:00

It feels like Fall today in August and I'm wearing a sweater. It's been a jittery few days back in he city as once again I am faced with change. Shifts. A friend said yesterday that Fall is her "New Year" and I couldn't agree more. For me this time feels like a cosmic shift of tremendous proportions. Not sure why. I was back at Penny's Open Mic last night. What a night. That's an

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-1529170810001227422008-08-23T16:18:00.000-07:002008-08-23T16:51:09.570-07:00

On my way back from glorious Provincetown I jammed out in the car to the soundtrack of "Pretty in Pink". I was going home from Carnival Day in good ol' P-Town where I was privileged enough to view the spectacular parade from one of the few terraces on Commercial street. I've always dreamed of knowing someone who would invite me to their apartment on Central Park West so I could watch the

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-21503759390985733652008-08-10T07:21:00.000-07:002008-08-10T07:54:13.181-07:00

Tuning in to a new phase of creativity can be a challenge. It's clearing all the pathways of mass media muck and disciplining yourself to be quiet for more than 10 minutes at a time. The rat prattle of the world comes in and barrages you in a way that stops you from listening. It's our challenge in life to remain clear to our ultimate purpose. What are we here? Once that question is answered

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-82082825053556753662008-08-06T08:38:00.000-07:002008-08-07T23:02:08.184-07:00

I'm standing backstage at the Under St. Marks theatre snapping on my handcuffs...a total shocker for Paul even though he's seen this piece before. I'm not really the "handcuffs type". It's 12:30am and my name will be called any minute. Penny's on the reserve list now so we only get 5 minutes each. As a result I cut my opener to this piece which includes me actually dressing on stage using the

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-79629282112928058252008-08-01T09:16:00.000-07:002008-08-01T11:05:55.179-07:00

I've mentioned my new entrance into a certain "underground performance scene" in NYC. It began with Pennie's Open Mic on the Lower East Side. It's been 3 weeks now. I've regularly attended each week. I've performed twice. My students have attended at my request. I wish I'd known this world when I began as a solo performer. Penny herself said to me how much she loves this "magical train wreck

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-84150712627442692502008-07-16T09:13:00.000-07:002010-05-28T11:58:41.974-07:00

Sometimes in life something sweeps me under my feet and knocks me back onto my baby artist butt. Sure, I've had four solo shows produced here in NYC. I've won awards for my comedy and acting. In fact, I could say I am pretty well established as a solo performer in the giant city. But to keep it that way and to be able to charge forward and keep being good at what I do I have to keep seeing and

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-27105569987489879232008-07-14T05:12:00.000-07:002008-07-15T07:41:49.016-07:00

Dating is a struggle for most every woman I know. Most of my gal pals are driven career women. Many in show biz. Many are loud and funny and full of life. They are a far cry from the sweet and demure and tend to put it all out there right out of the gate. Well I've learned something about dating and I must share it.Right now one of my stand-up comedy students is working on a bit about the

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-373458448851211312008-06-28T10:16:00.000-07:002008-06-28T11:03:35.077-07:00

I teach Improvisation. Sounds simple. Sounds like half a gazillion other classes in New York. Which makes me mad. My classes are so different. I'm almost embarrassed to say they're improv. I should say it's "reclaiming your kid self", or "learning how to play again", or "friggin lighten up"! One of those.Improv became VERY hot in NYC when a certain "improv school who shall remain nameless"

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-15134084800707574012008-06-18T20:49:00.000-07:002008-06-28T11:02:52.519-07:00

I was at a meeting this morning and found myself two blocks from a dear friend who just had a baby. Let it be known I am officially "aunt sam" with this person. This being my first "aunt sam" experience I thought it fitting I make an appearance on this rainy day. It was illuminating. Here's why.I always invisioned being a mother. A kick-ass mother. The mother who has all her teen aged kids

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-37434193307482817592008-05-12T08:22:00.000-07:002008-05-20T20:29:38.397-07:00

Networking. What a word! It's taken me years to know how to do this. In the beginning you are very often just standing there with a drink in your hand with a goofy smile on your face. You're standing there sort of like a display case waiting for someone to comment on your dress so you can pounce on them. It's weird and unnatural. There's a way to do it and I'm going to try to explain that

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-6808774813314147142008-05-07T19:14:00.000-07:002008-05-09T11:32:16.325-07:00

We all say "I can't". All the time. Out loud or just in our heads. I actually think society programs this. Maybe to make us dependent on drugs and food and sex and all of those wonderful things we sometimes use to distract ourselves from what we're thinking. It's tragic really.I've said "can't" to myself. It's usually when I feel afraid. Like I'm suddenly face to face with some huge challenge

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-81412581264760221932008-05-06T04:58:00.000-07:002008-05-07T13:17:54.132-07:00

If I were to run my own acting school every student would leave knowing how to produce a play and a film. Since my college graduation when most of my formal acting training was completed, I have spoken to many actors who went to school but haven't done any real acting-or rather anything they're proud of in years!Acting schools can handicap actors. That's right. I said it. I went to many many

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849624186465856489.post-75504205125496484102008-05-04T15:33:00.000-07:002008-06-23T15:28:38.036-07:00

I'm an actress- first and foremost. It is my best skill. It is what I am here to do. I know this. I am also a comedian, a teacher, and a film/theatre producer. I also sell real estate. I've had to navigate my way through jobs until I found my way. This is where I will share my experiences and discoveries as I travel a path as a gal in showbiz.Sadly, when most actors say they are actors most

Actor/ Directorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12383819155843273467noreply@blogger.com0