oooh, publicity

Check it out:

http://pinkomag.com/2009/02/23/one-unlikely-male-fantasy-at-a-time/

Yay.

Also, will the owner of the black Honda Civic parked out front go turn their lights off? The car battery is gonna die. *



* this actually has nothing to do with my blog, my web-series, or anything, for that matter, but the blog post looked a little empty and I wanted to fill it up with some sort of informative and/or controversial statement that would get people thinking and hopefully remember my post. In retrospect it's just completely random and doesn't make a lot of sense, nor does it follow the form and function of what my blogs usually portray. But I also feel that it does serve to highlight the existential and ironic examination of life that I like my blogs to reflect, so I'm gonna leave it in.

who says threesomes are awkward?!

Point in fact, when you get to have one with a good friend, they can be downright hysterical. Or at least that's my take on how filming the "Threesome" episode of Hell Froze Over went.

This was one of the first episodes we shot on the East Coast, which just so happens to be where my friend Kristin lives (hi Kristin!!) and it also just so happened that when I read this script, heard we were shooting in New York, and knew that a really hot, absolutely hilarious actress was needed for the threesome, well...Kristin came to mind. After you watch the episode, I'm sure you'll agree she was perfect for the job.

At any rate, shooting this episode with Ben, that lucky guy, and Kristin, I had an absolute blast. Especially when we busted out the fan (you'll see what I mean). What's a threesome without a little magic wind?

So drop by the Hell Froze Over website this Monday (or visit us on YouTube on the Hell Froze Over channel) and enjoy. :)

ALSO -- for you behind-the-scenes junkies, there's a lovely vignette in the Extras section of the Hell Froze Over website named "Mustache: Story Behind the Story". and it does in-character interviews with Bruce, aka Mustache, and Jody pre-date for the "Mustache" episode. It's nothing if not completely random and good for a laugh.

And of course Jody is still blogging away about her dates -- go here to read her take on why she had a black eye in the pilot episode, and stay tuned as she'll start to blog about the dates you've been watching in each episode. Should be fun :)

Thanks, everyone, for watching Hell Froze Over so far. We have some great, wonderful, delightfully odd episodes coming up in the next few weeks, and I hope you are all having as much fun with this as I am.

Second episode of Hell Froze Over up...

and it's a good one, one of my favorites so far to shoot. Check it out at hellfrozeover.tv, click on the episode titled "Mustache" and let me know what you think. After you're done laughing in horror.

Also? I get to say perhaps the best come-on line of all time. Can life get any better than that?!

conversation*

Me: So, Mom, what did you think about the pilot episode of Hell Froze Over?

Mom: I loved it! I thought it was really great.

Me: Yeah? I'm so glad to hear that.

Mom: Yeah. It was really funny.

Me: Awesome. I'm just relieved that you weren't offended or anything.

Mom: Well...

Me: Uh-oh. Well?

Mom: I just...

Me: You just...what?

Mom: Nothing.

Me: No, really. You can tell me.

Mom: It's just...that when you showed your panties to the guy...

Me: Oh, Mom! I told you there would be sexual stuff, but they didn't actually show anything. It's not like I was naked.

Mom: Oh, no, I'm not upset that you showed your panties.

Me: Then what are you upset about?

Mom: I just don't understand why you would show your panties to THAT guy. I mean, he's so clearly the WRONG GUY for you!





*this conversation actually happened. This? This is why I love my mother so much.

Whiskey...and then some

It all started a little over a year ago. I was at a sushi party, meaning that I was in the middle of learning just how hard it is to make a Philadelphia Roll, (word to the wise: when you think you have enough cream cheese, add another tub and then you’re close) when a girl of much adorableness that I would come to know and love and call Alli approached me and asked if I’d be willing to audition for a web-series called Hell Froze Over.

Skeptical, but already hooked by the title, I agreed, expecting that not much would come of it but at the very least I’d get some more audition experience. Little did I know.

Soon enough, I was auditioning in front of a video recorder in Alli’s living room (not as dirty as it sounds) and trying not to laugh at how hilarious the script was. And the writer/director was telling me that “the guys in New York” had to see the tape before anything else was decided. I nodded, trying to look like I had any idea what that meant, and kept reading and giggling between lines.

Several weeks later, I was offered the part, and several weeks after that, I found myself freezing on a crisp Friday morning, wearing a halter top and jeans eight sizes too big and having a gun pointed at me, having the time of my life as we shot the very first episode, Whiskey.

Welcome to Hell Froze Over.

The people I met that day, and have gotten the chance to work with since, have utterly spoiled me. I feel very sorry for you if, in my future acting career, I am acting opposite you and you are not hilarious and hot and a pretty darn nifty human being to boot, because that’s what I’ve worked with on pretty much every episode. At some point I started to wonder if there was some secret factory cranking out awesome people, and Misplaced Planet, the motley crew of writers, directors, actors, and film-makers that was putting on this crazy show, had an employee working there or knew a secret password that granted them access to borrow these wonderfully awesome people for a weekend of shooting.

At this point, you might be rolling your eyes, thinking, “suck-up” and feeling fairly confident that surely I met someone, ANYONE, while shooting the first season of this web-series that annoyed me to no end, that made the shoot difficult, that I would have preferred not to work with. Just one person, maybe?

Nope. Sorry to say. I have yet to meet one person yet that I haven’t just absolutely flipped out about and wanted to take home to my mom and introduce them as my new best friend forever. I’m telling you, I think it’s just as weird as you do. I keep waiting for the punch line, or the social experiment to end. It’s just…weird.

But in the end, I will take what I can get, and what I got was ten episodes of hilarity and memories that I will hold on to for a very long time.

I tell you this, not because I want to explain the episodes in depth, (they don’t really need an explanation) but because I want you to know how much I love what I’m doing when I work with these people, every chance that I get. And I hope that love comes across on the screen, whether it’s with that fantastic girl playing my roommate Brooke or the many, many wonderful guys (and girls) that I get to hit on, flirt with, aim guns at, make out with, or wrestle during threesomes, and as I’m covered in their blood, peeing in their closets, or slapping them with meat, I’m having the time of my life.

So. With a small little introduction, I give you the pilot, "Whiskey", which airs today on HellFrozeOver.tv, and "Mustache", which airs on Monday.

I don’t think I ever stopped laughing, from the very first shot to the very last, on the set of "Whiskey." I got to carry around hot dogs for half a day, and if you pay close attention to the few opening lines of the episode, the actress playing Brooke (the wonderfully talented and extremely hot Diana) and I improvised those lines based off Diana mishearing me while I was defending having a black eye.

I don’t want to give too much away, but I also spent a good couple hours, um…in a car. Yeah. Let’s just say that.

So enjoy "Whiskey", and when you’re done, have a good weekend, come back on Monday, and watch the hilarity unfold of…"Mustache."

"Mustache" is, quite honestly, one of my favorite episodes. Oh sure, they are all hilarious in very different ways, but the irony of the date, the body-issues lesson that we don’t After-School-Special beat over your head, and the one-liner that you will be quoting for perhaps the next ten years of your life all combined to make the episode, in my humble opinion, quite a kick ass one.

I also can’t tell you how many times during the shoot Garrett, the actor playing my date in the episode, cracked me up to the point of tears. I had no idea a mustache, or an actor, could be that funny. Apparently, I was wrong.

Everyone, enjoy. And don’t forget to check in with Jody’s blog on a weekly basis to get her take on the dates. Should be a good time, had by all.

fruition

It's always good to see hard work and effort pay off, when something I've been working on and planning for, for quite a while, finally gets its chance to shine. This is how I feel about a couple projects in particular right now, projects that have been in the making for quite a while and are finally getting ready to launch in the next few days.

I should also take the time to mention now, before I forget, that these projects which have taken up so much of my time and dedication and effort and planning, all of them came to exist because of a myriad of other people, people who worked even harder than I at making sure everything came into being the way it did. I owe them all chocolate. And possibly my firstborn. (Wait, how is THAT going to work?! Can you split a child 12 ways?)

I know I'm being all vague, so I'll get right down to specifics. I'm super excited about a lot going in my career right now, but these three things in particular are going up this week and I'm psyched to tell you all about them.

1) The web-series HELL FROZE OVER

Here we finally are, days away from the debut of what represents about a year's worth of dedication, talent, energy, and hard work from a fantastic bunch of people. I'm just giddy they return my emails.

Right, so, Hell Froze Over. Yes, I know, you've been hearing a lot about it, but what IS it, exactly? What exactly IS Hell Froze Over?

So glad you asked.

Under the production of Misplaced Planet, a web-series idea was born, about a girl named Jody, played by me. Jody decides that the best way to change her bad taste in the people she currently dates is to go back and date every person she's ever rejected, hoping that perhaps her luck will change, or that maybe it really wasn't all her being a bad judge of character. And if nothing else, it will shut up her best friend and roommate, Brooke, who's there every step of the way to give Jody advice, support, passive-aggressive looks, and clean clothes. In every episode, you, the viewer, get to watch my character plow through yet another date with someone she once turned down. Let the awkwardness (and hilarity) ensue.

And being the romantics that they are, the good folks over at Misplaced Planet decided that the launch date should be the day before Valentine's Day. As in, Friday the 13th. Look at everything coming together so wonderfully. :)

So on Friday, February 13th, tune in to the official Hell Froze Over website, HellFrozeOver.tv, and enjoy the first episode, "Whiskey." The following nine episodes of the first season air every following Monday, so make sure to stay tuned as Jody gets herself into deeper trouble, better (or worse) situations, and learns some important things about herself along the way.

No, wait, scratch that last part. We might have to face the fact that Jody will always just be Jody.

At any rate, another reason you should stay up to date on the Hell Froze Over website is all the extra goodies. There has been the threat of behind-the-scenes footage and bloopers being aired (which probably consist, no doubt, of me laughing by myself in a room while everyone else just waits around patiently, I SWEAR there was a gas leak somewhere), and every Friday you can head back here to this blog for some minor spoilers and my personal take on next Monday's episode. In other words, on Fridays I will blog about how awesome Monday's upcoming episode is going to be, and you get to wait all weekend to see if it really is that good.

There's one other extra, one that I'm having so much ridiculous fun doing that I might just continue it long after the series is done being aired. Which conveniently leads me to:

2) Jody's Blog

If I had known how therapeutic it is to be in Jody's head, and how much fun I'd have blogging as my character, I would have started about fifteen years ago. As it is, I'm doing it now, having a blast, and several characters from Jody's past have popped up on her blog to say hi, leave comments, and contribute to the spreading of chaos and confusion. I invite you to take a look, become a follower, leave comments and play along, and enjoy reading about Jody's other dates from hell. To find Jody's blog, you can go to one of two places: the Hell Froze Over website, or the blog in its original form, on Blogspot, found here.

Either way. I'm having such a good time, I figured, why not share it with everyone else? :)

And finally, after quite a while of reconstruction and re-design, my website is ready to be re-launched. Which just so happens to be:

3) tracyclifton.com

I cannot tell you how excited I am to have a shiny new website up, and at this point I have to mention a name because I'm just so full of gratitude for all the hard work that was put into it. Jason, thank you. A million times, thank you.

Go take a look around, (go here) and enjoy all the stuff I had on the website from before, and all the new stuff I put up in the last couple weeks. I've added more head shots (all of which can now be found on Flickr) as well as including another Flickr link for my original photography. Under the main page, in addition to a short biography, a link to this blog, and a resume available for viewing and downloading as a pdf, you will find a page set aside specifically for the contact information for all of my representation, including management, theatrical, commercial, and print. And of course, my reel has always been available for viewing.


So that's it. I know that's a lot to process about my website and my web-series, and I'll blog again this Friday just to give you my take on the pilot episode of Hell Froze Over and to remind everyone that it is available at the website for your viewing pleasure, and help get you ready for Monday's episode as well with a few random tidbits thrown your way.

I hope you have as much fun watching this series as I did working on it. And if you need a cheat sheet, by all means:

1) HellFrozeOver.tv
2) Jody's blog
3) tracyclifton.com

BAM. Enjoy :)

You know you're at a Metallica concert in Jersey when...

James Hetfield(!), in a rare moment of warm and fuzzy, introduces the next song in the lineup as, "This is a song about Metallica," and half the crowd within ten feet of me, instead of freaking out in utter happiness that James(!) is in the same fifteen mile radius as them, replies, "No shit."

Is that New Jersey for you, or what?! I freakin' love these people.

For those curious/wanting to seethe in jealousy, I'm posting the setlist (including only one encore, due to strict curfew regulations in Newark) for the concert. And yes, I had an incredible time. And yes, James(!) is still hot. And yes, you'll notice that there weren't any songs played from Load, ReLoad, or St. Anger. Hmm...wonder if that was on purpose...

Favorite moment of the concert: James(!) crouched down on the floor of the stage, barely lit, playing the last chords of "Nothing Else Matters"... and then going straight into "Enter Sandman." Even the hard-core Jersey cynics lost their cool.

Lastly, for those Machine Head fans: I don't know their setlist (sorry, don't know their stuff well enough, don't throw your lighter at me) but they DID cover Iron Maiden's "Hallowed Be Thy Name." Which was just lovely, in a Machine Head kind of way.

SET LIST
That Was Just Your Life
The End of the Line
Ride the Lightning
For Whom the Bell Tolls
One
Broken, Beat & Scarred
Cyanide
Sad But True
And Justice For All
All Nightmare Long
The Day That Never Comes
Master of Puppets
Battery
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman

ENCORE
Suicide and Redemption (partial)
Blitzkrieg
Hit the Lights
Seek and Destroy