Whether is was Oannes or Dionysus, St. Genesius or St. Vitus, somebody’s been looking out for Matt.

They say that it’s no good to keep banging your head against a brick wall. It’s certainly a bloody metaphor isn’t it? I mean that would hurt. While, I’ve not been beating my head against anything, I’ve reached a point in my career where I need to accomplish some new things to move forward. So does that mean I’m punching the wall? I better get something to wrap my hand with.

Though it’s hard to believe, we’re almost halfway through 2009. Fortunately, I’ve been in some production or another since the beginning of the year. My acting has also been improving significantly since about November. I walk out of auditions and hear people say “wow, he was good” from outside the door. These things say to me, “Matthew (I don’t always go by Matt), you’re ready to crank things up a notch. You need an agent.”

Without delay, I bought some envelopes, wrote some letters to 30 different agencies that sounded promising and enclosed my resume and… oh no! It was like somebody slapped me in the face. I needed new headshots. A number of people have started to say that it doesn’t look like me. This won’t help me get roles. I’ll get called in and ruled out. I also think I have a more marketable or castable look at the moment. So, I sent out my packages and jotted down a note that I needed to get new headshots.

New headshots! Ha. They aren’t cheap and though I’m not surviving on Thanksgiving turkey at present, I’ve not got $400 bucks sitting around either. So I wrote it down. If there’s anything I’ve found in this business, it’s that you must take things one step at a time. Usuallly, just setting my mind to something produces results and this would be no exception.

I was sitting in Starbucks last Monday working on my friend Kohl’s website — yes, web design keeps me eating, check me out — when a man came up to me and asked if he could take my picture. At first I thought he’d confused me for someone, or maybe he hadn’t, did he see my show? I was very confused. Then he explained that the light was interesting from overhead and with my laptop illuminating my face. Enter David Keenan, he was here to study with one of the world’s most renowned photographers — don’t ask me, I know nothing about famous photographers. He showed me his website and I was really impressed. So I consented to the photograph (the black and white portion of the photo for this article) and after we chatted for a good while about New York, Austin, and life in general. At some point, he mentioned that he’d be willing to help me out with headshots. He’d not done them and thought it would be fun and possibly profitable to figure them out. I’m sure my face must have been bright enough to light up the whole Starbucks.

After a brief primer, that included looking at headshots and explaining what casting folks and agents need we set out to take photos. David’s eye was amazing and though I’ve yet to see them, I’m sure we’ve got some good ones. Again, the forces that seem to provide for driven actors, deemed me worthy. It was so kind of David to help me.

So I’ve contacted the agencies and sent my information, it only makes sense that I should send them another headshot, resume and letter once I get the new shots. Or perhaps I postcard. That certainly can’t hurt. Anyway, considering how quickly I got headshots, I don’t doubt that in a short while I’ll have a really great new agent.