Taking Chances
Actor/Comedian Arthur Holcomb has appeared in a number of commercials that has been shown throughout the country. From promoting car insurance, low fat foods, to hardware stores, chances are you’ve seen him once or twice while watching the boob tube. Though, like for most of us, success didn’t just come to Arthur handed in a silver platter. “I thought that I was gonna go crazy looking for other jobs so that I’ll have enough money to buy food!” says Arthur when recalling his not so distant past.
A little over a year ago, Arthur had regular and sometimes not so regular gigs at comedy bars throughout San Diego. “I was working for almost nothing,” said Arthur. His days, or should we say nights, consisted of him rushing to one place after another trying desperately to catch a certain call time. On most days, he would have two gigs at two different bars, each at the opposite end of the city and would only have a few minutes in between each. “I was just as busy during the day time. Of course I constantly had to come up with new material!”
How exactly did you get into doing commercials?
That’s actually a good story. I had a friend who I always used to make fun of because he was an avid subscriber to Hollywood Opportunities. I always said that he was a hopeless case for actually spending money on that stuff. He was a theater actor, or I guess thespian would be the politically correct term. He told me that he found regular gigs online because of it. We were out drinking, on one of the few nights when I wasn’t working, when I took a bet with him. He knew my financial situation then, so he suggested that I sign up and become a member. Fat chance, I told him! The only way that I was going to spend money, which I couldn’t afford, on a website was when monkeys would tear another hole on my behind. So he made a bet with me. He was going to pay for my membership, and if I didn’t get a chance to earn a little extra in a month then he would watch each and every one of my stand ups until I retired. But that wasn’t the entire bet.
What’s the rest of it?
If he wins, and I do get a chance to earn more money, then he’ll have the benefit of seeing me swallow my pride. Not only that, but he also said that he didn’t even have to ask for his money back, because he knew that I would end up owing him a favor.
Sounds complicated.
Well, all thespians are I guess, or at least some of them try to be! (laughs).
So who won in the bet?
Well, I guess it’s pretty clear that he did! (laughs some more). I stuck it out doing my regular gigs, and after a couple of weeks I got a phone call from a casting agent who wanted me for a screen test before shooting a commercial. I seriously thought it was my friend pulling a fast one on me. I decided to play along for a minute, acting interested. The guy on the phone was giving the address and the time, which I wasn’t writing down. I was about to hang up, to think of another way to get back at him, but, thankfully, right before I was going to tell the “casting agent” to take a hike someone knocked on my door. I found my friend, the thespian, at my front door. I panicked! Luckily, I was able to get the casting agent, who turned out to be real, to repeat what he told me before. I told my friend what had just happened after I hung up the phone. I told him I could almost kiss him for showing up just in time.
It seems like you ended up owing him two favors then.
I did, but he’s a pretty reasonable guy. All he wanted was a free round of drinks each time we’d go out. I told him that I’d be more than happy to buy him a keg every night, since it was because of him that I can now afford more than a six pack.
So how is everything going so far?
Everything’s going great! I have a couple of more projects lined up. And what’s really amazing is even if I’m doing more stuff now, I have more free time than I did when I was just doing comedy. It’s kind of weird that way, but I guess it only goes to show that sometimes you just have to take a chance.
