The Persuit to Success

So... First time to blog. My name is Jeff Riberdy and I am an aspiring actor/model. I've been in New York City for a year now as of January 7th. I can't believe its been a year already. I now know what it means when people talk about a New York minute. Last year I drove from my home in Texas to New Jersey to live in a model house for Silver Models. Man, was that interesting. Nothing but crazy jacked up guys that took up all the fridge space. But I got along and it didn't take me long to befriend them all. One of them even invited me to his birthday celebration down in his home town in PA. Well, either an invitation or he was just in need of a ride down, because we took my car - a 2006 GT Mustang. We get down there, party at a couple bars, and leave pretty drunk with a couple extra people in the car. Well I was rather tossed so for some reason I let him drive.. big mistake. He starts hot roding in my car and ends up ramping over a curb at 40 mph. The damage to the car was "the worst I'd ever seen the underneath of a car in all my time of work," said the mechanic who was the one to tell me the car was totaled. I was crushed. That car was my baby, I even named it Blue Steel because it was blue and I love the movie Zoolander. Sorry for the drawn out story about that, you can imagine how upset I was. So anyway... I came here to pursue modeling and am still doing so, I'm not signed with Wilhelmina Models, but after taking my first ever acting class I fell in love. I had never done acting before and realized how amazing it was. They say once you get in to acting you catch the bug, well it's true. After finishing the class I get in to contact with Wayne Gasser, a personal talent manager. He brought me under his wing and has been a huge influence on my career. He began sending me out on auditions and before I knew I booked my first gig. It was a play for the annual Fringe Festival in NYC. The play is called "Devil Boys From Beyond." Wayne said if I got the role in this play it'd be something big, man was he right. The play ended up breaking box office records for the Fringe, was invited back to the encore presentation, received 5 stars in NY Timeout Magazine, and won Most Outstanding Play for the fest that held 255 different plays. The play was to be picked up off-broadway but there were complications with the revenue owner and having the proper funds to even put the play on. It still may be picked up in the spring but without funds I'm not sure it will happen. I just pray something can become of it. That was at the end of September and since then it's been rather slow for me. I worked at Tommy Hilfiger on 5 ave for a little bit, but they wouldn't let me take off for the holidays so I quit. I work catering gigs to make money but now that the holidays are over the jobs will be few and far between. May go back to Abercrombie where I worked for a week when I first moved to the city. It's difficult for me to have a scheduled job though because I need the freedom to go to castings or auditions. I'm excited for the New Year though, I feel it will bring me some prosperity. Just hope I'm right.. with my acting I need to constantly be taking classes and seeing instructors but it's crazy expensive. I was told by an acting agent, whom I hoped would represent me, that my resume would be tossed out by casting directors due to the lack of training. So now what am I supposed to do? If I can't pay for the training then I can't be an actor?.. Such bull shit and I'm not buying. I've truly developed a passion for acting and will do whatever it takes to reach success. I tell people all the time that I'm looking forward to the future and now 2010 is here and let me tell you, I've never been more excited for a year. It should be the most pivatal year of my life and I intend to make it the best. I will have a focus like no other and will do what needs to be done. If you have read all this, I thank you. This was just a year in review for me and all my posts won't be this long but just wanted to give you all the prequal to the saga of my life and career. Please keep up with me as I plan to write most every night. Happy new year and let's all make it one to remember.