I Was Asked to Be On a TV Show, Part 1

I was reading about Morgan Spurlock's new documentary where he goes in search of Osama Bin Laden (do not click the link unless you want the ending spoiled), and remembered I have a good Spurlock tale of my own to share.

First, some backstory: I have a gay cousin. Let's call him José.

While we were growing up, José always behaved a bit...off. I'm not talking about "lighting fires in the garage and melting plastic army men" off (like me); I'm talking about "young boy pretending to be Barbara Eden with magical powers" off. The kind of off where an uncle at a family party would look at him, take an extra long swig of scotch, and silently thank Jebus his own son never tried to blink himself into a plastic genie bottle.

I didn't mind being around José because we had a lot in common. Our mutual love of movies was a big one. During the summer of '94, while I was between relationships, I spent a lot of time with José. We frequented the coolest arthouse movie theatre Chicago has to offer and saw a ton of independent films together, usually with a few of his gay friends.

By this time José had been out for years and was embracing who he was.

Turns out, who he was was sort of a dick.

I won't get into personal attacks here, but suffice it to say my cousin had a lifelong history of acting inappropriate without learning the healing magic of a simple apology. After some heated exchanges about how being proud and gay didn't have to equal acting like a jerk, he and I severed communication. Like most troubled souls, José ventured to Los Angeles to pursue his fledgling acting career. (He now has a page and resume on The Internet Movie Database.)

Cut to February, 2005. I had recently seen a movie called Super Size Me, and was interested in director Morgan Spurlock's next project. He was creating a six-episode TV series called 30 Days. The premise was similar to his movie about eating nothing but McDonald's for one month: individuals were placed in situations that went against their beliefs and/or comfort levels for 30 days.

As far as reality TV went, from a sociological standpoint it sounded more interesting and worthwhile than most shows. Four months before the series aired, I was onboard.

Then one day my phone rang with a California number, and a voice said, "My name is Chad and I'm a producer for the upcoming television show 30 Days. You were referred to me by your cousin."

To be continued...