Why I'm so damn HAPPY! Reason #1

I thought today I'd give a little insight to why I end all of my blogs with "Keep living, Keep breathing. Breath in the negative, live out the positive."

Now I'm not one to stuff my beliefs down everyone's throats, BUT it is my blog and my blog consists of MY thoughts. Ha! I have believed for quite some time that the energy you put out, comes right back to you. Each religion believes this in some way, they just word it differently. Take "The Golden Rule" : Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you." Karma. It's all the same. I also believe in acting "as if". If you put positive energy out there towards something and you act as if life is already that way, there will only be positive energy coming back to you.

Being in the performance business, this way of life keeps me sane. With the job comes a lot of rejection. You audition countless times, nail a few, and then book the odd one. If I didn't soak up as much positive energy as I do, and if I didn't know that everything happens for a reason, I could be up shit creek without a paddle. Fortunately, I DO know this, and it keeps me the way I am...HAPPY!.

So folks, no matter how you are feeling today, I am sending you positive vibes. I hope you are receiving them with open arms and that you are paying it forward and putting more of those vibes out there yourself.

PEACE OUT!

Keep living, Keep breathing. Breath in the negative, live out the positive. And everything will be.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Last night might have been the best night of my life thus far.

It was our invited dress rehearsal. If you read my last entry, you know all about what that is.

So we go on stage, and from the second the music started the crowd went INSANE. Lighters in the air, beer in the aisles, screams emerging from throats left right and centre. It was awesome. In the first number "Just Like Paradise", I write in a little notepad. Well last night all it was was shaky scribbles; it's all I could muster up with the adrenaline and excitement I was feeling.

Getting those laughs from the audience was the best thing we could have all asked for. They really tell you when you're doing a great job! The audience last night was super kick-ass, and I can't wait for it to get even better.

I've got to give a huge shout-out to the NYC SUPER FANS! 40 of these folks drove up on the Rock of Ages bus from NY to Toronto to see the final dress and they filled the first few rows...leading the entire theatre in claps, dancing, lighters in the air, and every other possible thing they could have. We couldn't have asked for better leaders, and they've paved a great path for our own Toronto Superfans who will start to come as of tonight!

Oh right....today's also MY BIRTHDAY!!! So basically what I'm saying is I get to perform Rock of Ages for the first paying audience on MY BIRTHDAY. I could not ask for anything better. I came into my dressing room to a huge candy basket (an homage to Franz) from my dear friend and cast-mate Tony LePage and his wife Natalie. Tony and I have worked in this exact theatre before together, and getting that gift was the perfect start to my day.

And one more shout out... Big ups to Derek St. Pierre. He just began playing Franz on Broadway a month ago and has been getting some great reviews! We hear the NYC company is all very excited for us, as are we for all of them!

Anyways, I've got to get back to the best birthday ever!

Keep living, Keep breathing. Breath in the negative, live out the positive. And everything will be.

Invited Dress Rehearsal

Tonight is the Invited Dress Rehearsal for Rock of Ages Toronto!

The invited dress rehearsal is the last dress rehearsal we have before a paying audience comes in. In attendance, we have some of our family & friends, our extended Mirvish family and some contest winners. What's cool about tonight's performance is that we also have a bus of 40 Rock of Ages SuperFans from NYC coming out to support!

We have worked our asses off for 5 weeks getting this show ready for everybody and tonight we finally get to hear some reactions! Tonight is the first night where we will find out exactly what works and exactly what doesn't and we will continue to polish all through previews. The unique thing about Rock of Ages compared to other shows is that the audience is a crucial crucial part of the process, and the show itself. We break the fourth wall a lot in the show and if the audience (our final cast member) doesn't get what's happening or doesn't feel included...we're not doing our job.

The whole cast is super excited about tonight, tomorrow night (first preview) and every show up until and following opening night! (May 11th)

Keep living, Keep breathing. Breath in the negative, live out the positive. And everything will be.

Blondes DO have more fun!

8:15 a.m: Alarm goes off

9:30 a.m: Arrive at the TAZ Salon

9:45 a.m: Kiss my brown locks goodbye.

This morning I arrived at the TAZ salon to meet Susan. What can I say about Susan? Susan is a goddess. A brilliant, brilliant goddess. I sat down, showed her the colour we have picked for dear Franz and she went to work. First, we stripped the colour out of it (see below) and after an hour of sitting with a bag on my head my hair was wah-ha-hite!!!

In goes the toner, out goes the toner....welcome Cody Scott Blondie Lancaster!

At first I really didn't know how I was going to feel about the Blonde (I have dyed my hair many-a-colour in my day but it has been YEARS since I was a Blondie) but when I saw Kristin Hanggi's face and how sure she was about it...I knew I had to trust her. And thank God I did! Like I said in my last post, Franz is from Germany, and this blonde hair was the perfect touch for his Germanic self.

Seeing as I'll be blonde for at least a year, I think I might take up some sort of beach activity this summer; if blondes have more fun, then fun I will have!

Rock of Ages begins performances at The Royal Alexandra theatre on April 20. For more information, visit www.rockofagestoronto.com and for tickets visit www.ticketking.com

Keep living, Keep breathing. Breath in the negative, live out the positive. And everything will be.

Surf's Up

In Rock of Ages, I play Franz. Franz is a young flamboyant German boy who will do anything to please his father, including lending his hand to the destruction of the Sunset Strip. Deep down, we all know Franz has a heart, he just has to let it shine all by himself.

Now...through the process of finding the character of Franz, many things happened. We added man-purses, we added glitter, and tomorrow...we are adding hair. The 80's was full of hair, but you must remember: Franz is foreign to the sunset strip...so I don't mean tomorrow we are adding BIG hair, I mean tomorrow we are adding BLONDE hair.

That's right folks... 10 a.m at the Taz Hair Salon, Cody will be going a bit lighter atop his head. For at least one year, I will be a few shades lighter, and a tad bit more Aryan.

I will keep you updated on the transformation, but for now, I leave you with a picture of my hair on it's last brown day for a while...

Keep living, Keep breathing. Breath in the negative, live out the positive. And everything will be.

The Equity Cot

So...in Equity (Canadian Actor's Equity Association-our union), there's a little rule that says each theatre must have an Equity Cot. That's right...a fold out bed, for the cast to rest when needed.

Here in the Royal Alexandra theatre, I live on the 4th floor. The 4th floor family consists of Myself (Franz), Josephine Rose Roberts (Regina), Eric Coles (Joey Primo), Melvin Tunstall (Ja'Keith), Jennifer Mote (Waitress #1), Tessa Alves (Angel), and Emily Williams (Constance). The 4th floor family also has....the Equity Cot!

Now, the equity cot hasn't quite been used for the reason it should:napping. Instead, it's been used by the 4th floor family to pile on together, watch YouTube videos and laugh our asses off.

How do i describe these people? There are no words.

So I'll leave you with a pic...

Keep living, Keep breathing. Breath in the negative, live out the positive. And everything will be.

A quick SHOUT-OUT and THANK YOU!

I just have to say...before I forget:

THANK YOU! To Mr. Daniel James for designing this amazing Blog. He worked tirelessly and didn't stop until it was perfect.

Thank you Dan!!!

-You can check Dan singing at the popular Curtains Down With Jenni B most Monday nights, and I will definitely be keeping y'all updated on his future projects!

Keep living, Keep breathing. Breath in the negative, live out the positive. And everything will be.

I Have Readers?

So the other day, our beautiful director Kristin Hanggi brings to my attention that she has heard about my blog.

Say what?

I was quite caught off-guard by this and immediately went to my laptop to see if my entries needed editing. This is when I started to think about what a blog truly is. First that brought me to the dictionary which told me this:

blog

1998, short for weblog(which is attested from 1994, though not in the sense 'online journal'), from(World Wide) Web + log. Joe Bloggs (c.1969) was British slang for "any hypothetical person" (cf. U.S. equivalentJoe Blow); earlier it meant "a servant boy" in one of the college houses (c.1860, see Partridge, who describes this use as a "perversion of bloke"), and, as a verb, "to defeat" in schoolboy slang. TheBlogger online publishing service was launched in 1999.

So now that I know what a blog is, I started to think about different "Logs" that are out there...

-Captain's Log

-

...ok, so I could only think of Captain's Log, but it still gave me the information I needed. The captain's thoughts, uncensored, telling the reader exactly what has happened or what he thinks might happen. A log of important events in the management, operation and navigation of a ship.

This blog will be just that, a log of important (and not-so important) events in the management, operation and navigation of my personal ship: LIFE!

So delete I DID NOT, I left those previous entries up because they were logs of my thoughts. Now, of course... the knowledge of people reading these blogs will equal out to more blogs, but they will stay the same: uncensored, personal, and straight from the ol' noodle.

Stay tuned folks!

Keep living, Keep breathing. Breath in the negative, live out the positive. And everything will be.

What the Tech?!

It's done folks. Act 1 is tech'd.

You know when you're all:

"It feels like we've been here for hours"

or you're all

"I feel like i've known you for years!"

Well...Tech is that period. You start rehearsal, beginning from Scene 1 and then 4 hours later, you are starting Scene 2. The only difference with Tech is that instead of being all:

"It feels like we've been here forever",

you're all:

"Wow! We've ACTUALLY been here forever!"

But a good forever. The times that you can let your genitalia hang out (not literally of course...well it's Rock of Ages, so sometimes literally), laugh, and bond with your new family. We're here for a long time, so it seems appropriate to start re-writing each and every song to our likings. Of course, we will not USE these new lyrics, nor will I even give you a glimpse of what they are. See, we may be a crude bunch but we are not a brag-ee bunch (hmm... The Bragy Bunch... I might have something here).

With Act 1 finished, and waking up to this beautiful Sunday with it's sun, clear skies, and nice temperatures...it seems fitting that i am sitting half naked on my couch watching Fire in the Sky on the History Channel.

Wait.... let's try to make a rap with that:

It seems FITTING

that I'm SITTING

Half Naked on my COUCH

watching Fire in the Sky

Instead of venturing OUT!

We was gonna do Brunch

but alas, no DICE.

The Froot Loops in my cupboard

will be TWICE as NICE!

That's all you're gettin' folks, one day these rhymes I be spittin' are gonna make me some strong amounts of dough.

Until then...."DAY OFF! It's-a day, it's-a day, it's-a day-ay-ay-off. Day off come and me want to go home!"