1970's: Grew up in La Habra, California. Mom was a school teacher and single parent with three kids and no child support. Attended Our Lady of Guadalupe school for eight years. St. Francis High School in Mountain View for one year and La Habra High School for three years. Scooped ice cream at 31 Flavors, boxed groceries at Fazios, then got into music, drama and musical theatre and all bets were off. Also worked as a traveling children’s musician for the Recreation Dept. and a movie usher at the fourplex - a great job because I could watch movies on my breaks. Drafted to attend Whittier College as Theatre Major. Flunked Intro to Theatre class as a freshman because I was so focused on rehearsing with the choir, the madrigal group and starring in three out of four plays. Ended up majoring in oversleeping and cutting class. Left school after one year to go into TV commercials, Theatre and Rock and Roll. Spent the next three years paying off my loan for one year of college. Worked maintenance on sailing yachts in San Pedro, Marina del Rey and Santa Barbara. My feet were tan year round. Worked as a waiter and bartender at fine dining places in Rosemead, Marina del Rey, West Los Angeles. At the La Mirada Civic Theater, produced two live musicals for Whittier La Mirada Civic Light Opera.
1980's: Joined Screen Actors Guild and appeared in commercials for McDonald's, King Cola, AC-Delco and Ramada Inn. Produced more theatre, lost money doing it, and played guitar and keyboards in rock clubs like The Troubadour and Club 88. Had a film script optioned by Francis Ford Coppolla’s Zoetrope. Because I was a fast typist, I got a job as a temp at MCA Records. Because I was organized, I got hired as an exec assistant at MCA Records permanently in Artist Development. Our label went from worst to first in the industry with artists like Tom Petty, Glenn Frey, Boston, Tiffany, Bobby Brown, Jody Watley, George Strait and Vince Gill. Still an exec assistant (but now better-paid), moved over to MCA Music Entertainment Group where we expanded into MCA Concerts, Music Publishing, Radio Network, Winterland Merchandising and began buying labels such as Motown and Geffen Records. Wrote annual shareholder's report for our division of MCA Inc. for several years along with originating, editing and disseminating corporate communications. Produced multi-media MCA Music worldwide convention and a comedy album "Stand-Up 101" featuring unknown (at the time) comics such as David Spade, Mark Brazill, Judd Apatow. To this day, the album remains unreleased...!
1990’s: Left MCA to produce Noel Coward’s “Present Laughter” at the Melrose Theatre. It was directed by Richard Kline (Larry in “Three’s Company’). It was a huge hit. Won LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Production. Was notified of this in the presence of my two old theatre professors while attending a show at Whittier College. We all had a good laugh after I thanked them for “teaching me everything I know.” My old boss from MCA looked me up and asked me to help him start a joint venture with Ticketmaster. It was (and still is) called Scoop Marketing. At the time, our marketing, promotion and publicity clients included Motown, Sinatra, Eagles, Island Visual Arts, Soundscan, and, of course, Ticketmaster. I worked there part-time so I could study Broadway voice with Lee and Sally Sweetland. Left Scoop. Well, got fired over a project compensation dispute, got compensated anyway and was much happier for it. But decided at that point to only do what truly interested me; which was music and theatre. Ended the decade performing, writing, singing and producing - and delivering a children's album to BMG called "Musical Beans, Animal Songs For Children" - which sold incredibly well for their special markets division.
2000's: Became a dad. Began my music studio. Taught voice and continued to produce and record. Had a pretty busy client list of singers. Watched business disappear overnight when 9/11 arrived. Nearly every civic light opera (the place for young pro talent to develop) closed in the LA Basin. Broadway investment was devastated. Created Music In Action - a program for elementary school children to sight read and play rhythmic notation - which was sold into Burbank Unified and Las Virgenes school districts. Results showed immediately in improved reading and math scores. Music does that. Sang in churches and conducted church choirs. Became president of the Lake Balboa Neighborhood Council. Moved into environmental activism and air quality issues with the Sierra Club. Was named state chair for Sierra Club California Air Quality Committee and never lost a priority bill. Garry Marshall produced a musical his daughters and I had written called "Snow Queen." It was a hit for his theatre, enjoying a double extended run and starring a young guy named Ben Platt.
2010's: If you're still awake, my 2010's were pretty much like yours. Interesting, challenging, rough around the edges, but survivable.
