We went to the Galleria today to buy school clothes for Jake. We were checking out at the Gap when a tall, pretty lady approached us with a microphone and camera man. She asked if she could talk to Jake about 'back to school shopping on tax free weekend' for CW33 News. He agreed. He was a little shy at first, but then he eased right into the interview. I don't think she had any experience with pre-tween boys. The questions she asked were ridiculous! Here's the jest of it..
Journalist: "What do you like best about shopping?"
Jake: "I don't like shopping. It's boring but ya gotta do it sometimes."
Journalist: "So, what do you think about it being tax free weekend? You get to shop til you drop?"
Jake: "Well, I guess. I don't know much about finances. My Papa and my mom buy the stuff."
Journalist: "Why did you pick The Gap to shop today?"
Jake: "Well, I don't like Old Navy that much. (looks directly into the camera)..No offense, Old Navy. So, I came over here."
We were all cracking up.. he was funny. We were done shopping, but Jake insisted we just stroll around the mall a bit longer for the heck of it. About 10 minutes or so later, a woman stopped us. She was a talent agent who works with one of the actors on "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody" on Disney. He was casting a show in Dallas. She thought Jake had a real quality about him and gave us her card for something she wanted him to audition for this show. He was all pumped and decided he wanted to do it. We all know this is out of character for him, but I went with it.
She said we could do it today or tomorrow. Pretty spontaneous for me, but we decided to just go get it done today. We drove to the studio, signed in and they handed Jake a sheet of lines. He had to pick one or two lines to recite. We filled out paperwork and handed over the most recent pic I had on me.. his 4th grade school photo. A few of the other kids there had these ginormous head shots. He had been pretty stoked to do it coming off the TV interview, but his stamina fell flat when he realized it was something he would have to do in front of his peers. A few grown ups would have been fine, but hey, he's almost 11.. and it was too much of a risk for him.
So, that was it. They did want to keep his stuff in case another project came up. But he said he just wants to stick to being a military history professor. He didn't "feel any compassion for any of the lines he had to choose from" and would like to act only if he could write his own dialogue. It wasn't meaningful enough for him. He said, "why can't someone come up and ask me to be a host on the History or Miltary channel? Something good!"
So, Jake's no sell out, that's for sure. Which is good because I already had myself retired, drinking umbrella drinks on the beach.
